The 1810 Program

Age Population:  Grades K- 12

Introduction:

What was the life of African Americans like on Long Island in 1810?   On Long Island in this time period, African Americans were comprised of free blacks, indentured servants and slaves.  This 2 hour program is designed to show participants that there were certain agricultural job functions which had to be performed by most African Americans regardless of social status or regular job function.  As you will see in detail below, this program combines history, math, and the fun of hands-on activities.

Background

Until 1850, approximately 87% of the African American population in the South remained enslaved, accounting for half of the southern populace.*   Prior to 1827, when the institution of slavery was outlawed in New York State, northern advocacy against slavery and oppression offered employment opportunities that were scarce to African Americans in most southern states.  In 1810, there were 3252 free persons of color on Long Island, and 1124 slaves. 

This workshop illustrates several examples of the livelihoods that were held by African Americans during 1810, and provides examples of day-to-day activities. 

*http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lincolns/nation/map_agind_text.html 

The economic role of African Americans during the 19th century was strongly influenced by region, natural resources and social class. Work for African Americans included indentured agricultural labor, tenant farming and domestic employment.   In the northern shipping industry, African Americans worked as coopers, net weavers, blacksmiths, sailors, whalers, pilots and captains of their own boats.  From the earliest days of settlement, African-Americans were also active in the US Military and supported the American cause. 

Trainers, jockeys and coachmen were also common occupations for African American men, while cooking, sewing, midwifery and nursing were positions that African American women held1. 

Although the cotton industry was not a northern trade, the economic influence on the nation and the connection to the slave trade was vast.  With the invention of the cotton gin, the commercial and social construction of the south was altered permanently. In the year 1810, America produced less than 200,000 bales of cotton. By 1850 yearly production had grown more than tenfold, to 2.5 million-plus bales. As the South's dependence on cotton increased, so did its dependence on slavery as the demand for cotton grew widespread, including textile mills in the north and the cultivation of cotton in the southwest*. 

*http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lincolns/nation/map_agind_text.html 

Long Island grew over 100 different crops. These crops included fruits (strawberries, apples and grapes) and vegetables (potatoes and sweet corn).   Dairy products (milk, butter and eggs) were also a staple of the agricultural industry. The cultivation of a crop was a very demanding activity, and the future of both slaves and owners depended on the success with which they were carried out. 

In addition to exploring the broad history and contributions of African-Americans, particularly in New York State, this workshop is integrated into a math and history lesson that can be adjusted to accommodate grades K-12.  Some of the presentation will be provided in a question and answer format that is appropriate for each age group.    

http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us_commodities.html 

Objectives:    

1. To teach participants about occupations held by free African Americans during the early 19th century.

2. To integrate math and history instruction into hands-on activities for grades K-12.

3. To provide participants with a historical overview about the economic and agricultural conditions of northern states, and how these conditions influenced the social and economic circumstances of free blacks, slaves, and indentured servants during the 19th century.

Methodology: 

This is both a mathematical and history learning activity that will allow participants to utilize addition and subtraction skills. 

• The math component involves determining the time needed to plant potatoes, seed cotton, and make butter in a day in 1810.  The calculations will be based on time requirements of participants in our workshop, who will perform similar activities.

• The historical component is the information given about the nature and importance of the daily work performed in 1810 for each activity listed below.  What would it be like to pick cotton, work at a port, be a soldier in the military or a laborer on a farm?

• Participants are placed into three groups. Individuals will be given a badge identifying them as a slave, indentured servant or slave master. The badges are randomly chosen and distributed at the beginning of the workshop.

• A docent will lead each group to a separate workstation. The group will then choose a team name. At every station, participants will be given a task to execute in a given amount of time. These tasks include planting, seeding cotton, churning butter, transporting barrels as cargo, or performing military drills.

• At the end of each activity, each group will rotate to a new station, the docent overseeing the activity will record the amount of work accomplished by each group.

• When each group has completed all the activities, the scores from each workstation will be tabulated and the winning group will be decided. The program leader will also review what was learned from each activity.

Planting and Butter Churning Activities 

An emancipation law passed in New York in 1799 stated that all children born to slaves after that date were free, but had to work for their parent’s masters until the age of 25 (if female) and 28 (if male). Since educational and economic opportunities were limited, and Long Island was largely an agricultural community, free and indentured African Americans often worked on farms.  

Planting 

Potatoes were the dominant crop of Long Island.  New York State figures show that in 1866, the New York potato crop covered 275,000 acres, perhaps half of which was on Long Island. 

Activity: A grid will be placed on the floor denoting rows for sowing. The participants will be given a cloth bag attached to a stick.  The bag will contain square placards and straws.  Straws or dowels must be placed into the placards with one hand to emulate planting. 

http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/fqpa/crop-profiles/potato.html 

http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history 

Butter Churning 

As communities expanded and populations became more congested, many families who would normally provide their own milk were forced to procure their supplies from farms in their area.  As cities sprang up, butter making on farms became more important. The

farm production of butter seems to have originated in New York State around 1790 in Orange County for the New York City Market. 

Activity:  Mason jars 1/4 filled with cream will be given to the participants.  The jars will be agitated and passed among the group members until solidified into butter (approx. 10 minutes) replicating the process of churning. 

http://webexhibits.org/butter/history-into.html 

http://www.historicpensacola.org/pdf/kidstown.pdf 

Seeding Cotton 

Cotton mills, the production of cotton, and the sale of cotton cloth were banned in England and in the American colonies.  The wool industry didn’t want the competition.  The law was repealed in 1736.  Exports of cotton mill machinery and technology exports were still banned.  An English mill worker immigrated to America and built the first cotton mill from memory.  The cotton industry began to grow. 

Eli Whitney saw the need for a faster way of removing lint (cotton fibers).  In 1793, he built the cotton gin.  Now the fibers could be separated and seed removed by a machine instead of by hand.  Production increased from one person who could produce one pound a day to the machine that could produce 50.  Eli Whitney is often credited with having two major accomplishments that caused the Civil War.  First, the cotton gin enabled King Cotton and the use of slaves to produce more cotton.  Second, the use of machines and interchangeable parts would industrialize the North and divide it from the South*. 

Activity:  pieces of cotton will be distributed to participants and seeded by hand.  The quality, quantity and speed in which the cotton is seeded will be measured. 

*http://www.ksagclassroon.org/lessons/crops/5-6/cotton Production and Milling.pdf 

Military Drills 

African Americans have served in every war throughout the history of our nation, going as far back as colonial days.  Starting with the Revolutionary War, thousands of slaves were afforded the opportunity to gain their freedom through military enrollment. On Long Island, from 1776 to 1783, the British occupation forced the African American population to choose sides.  They could either join the British or spy for them2.  In New York in 1781, a law was passed promising freedom to any male slave in return for three years service in the American army.  Slave owners were offered 300 acres of public land as compensation for every slave who enlisted. 

Activity:   The group will be provided with mock rifles and instructed to perform army drills and exercises as if in basic training. 

http://www.geocities.com/mclane65/black-heroes.html?200519 

Cargo Transport 

After 200 years of African American Life in mainland North America, few slaves grew cotton or lived in the Deep South.  The shipping industry found many African Americans who were skilled artisans working in port cities*.   By 1859, more than half the 25,000 seamen in the United States were African American, including 2,900 employed in American whale fishery.  A high percentage came from Long Island sailing out of Sag Harbor, Cold Spring Harbor, Jamesport and Greenport³. 

Activity:  full-sized wooden barrels will be rolled along a starting and return course as quickly and as many times possible; demonstrating the work completed at a shipping dock within a day.

(Day, Lynda R. Making a Way to Freedom: A History of African Americans on Long Island, Empire State Books, New York 1997)  (pgs.74-80) ^{1, 3}, (pgs. 98-105) ²

*(Berlin, Ira. Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America, Harvard UP, Cambridge 1998) 

(Bolster, Jeffrey W. Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail, Harvard UP, Cambridge 1997) 

Fee Structure 

The cost of each program is as follows:

Educational group program I for 20 participants or fewer - $25.

Educational group program II for 30 participants - $35.

Educational group program III for over 30 participants, but fewer than 60 - $45.