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Connections to High School: Economics and history complement one another to teach an important aspect of the post-Civil War African American experience. Ohio has increased the amount of economics required for high school students. This lesson uses diversity to help teach across disciplines.
Goal: Students will develop a better understanding of what life was like for an African American coal miner during the period 1880-1900. Students will see the unique challenges and solutions African American miners experienced in the economic crisis of the 1890s.
Objective: Students will research the lives of African American miners in the 1880s- 1890s through reading and historic photos.
National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) Standards
* Account for employment in different regions of the country as affected by gender, race, ethnicity, and skill.
* Analyze how working conditions changed and how the workers responded to new industrial conditions.
* Explain the cause and effect of depressions of 1 87379 and 1893-97 and the ways in which government, business, labor, and farmers responded.
Culture and Cultural Diversity
* Assist learners in understanding the unique cultural aspects of coal mining.
* Enable learners to appreciate the socioeconomic realities of life during the 1890s.
Warm-Up Activity:
Ask students to describe, or journal, what life might have been like as an African American coal miner in the 1880s and 1890s.
Activity:
A) Provide reading: "Digging Coal in Rendville, Ohio: A Lesson in Race and Recession" (previous article) for students to read.
B) After the reading, show students historic photos.
1.) Note to teachers on photos: The three historic Rendville photos are from the author's collection. Photos #1 and #2 are labeled Mine #268 on the photos. Mine #268 was the successor mine to...