The Industrial Revolution spanned two continents encompassing Great Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, and the United States. However, this 8th grade Humanities unit focuses on the American Industrial Revolution and related immigration.
Because this period of American history is multifaceted, the teachers
- will emphasize the patterns of immigration and how they affected the proliferation of sweatshops and the resulting labor movement;
- will have the students read the Stephen Crane's short story "In the Depths of a Coal Mine" written in 1894;
- will engage the students to think how the child labor issues that existed in sweatshops then still exist today;
- will have students read about the innovators and their inventions/ideas that spurred America from an agrarian farming society to a manufacturing society;
- will have students write a eulogy on one of the innovators in this Industrial Revolution LibGuide.
