United States History Student Edition

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Complete Your Inquiry EVALUATE SOURCES AND USE EVIDENCE Refer back to the Compelling Question and the Supporting Questions you developed at the beginning of the lesson. 1. Identifying What do the sources reveal about American culture at the time? What sentiments about the United States are addressed? What issues affecting the country are noted? Explain. 2. Evaluating What do the first three sources suggest about humans’ relationship to the natural world? 3. Gathering Sources Which sources helped you answer the Supporting Questions and the Compelling Question? Which sources, if any, challenged what you thought you knew when you first created your Supporting Questions? What information do you still need in order to answer your questions? What other viewpoints would you like to investigate? Where would you find that information? 4. Evaluating Sources Identify the sources that helped answer your Supporting Questions. How reliable is each source? How would you verify the reliability of each source? COMMUNICATE CONCLUSIONS 5. Collaborating Work with a partner to discuss how authors and artists depicted American culture and society of the mid-1800s. How do these sources reflect the issues and concerns of the country during this period? Use the graphic organizer that you created at the beginning of the lesson to help you. Share your conclusions with the class. TAKE INFORMED ACTION Creating an Inspirational Poem Poets and other artists of the mid-1800s created work that expressed the mood and concerns of the era. Work with a partner to write a poem that might reflect an event or issue in society today and the change that could help resolve the issue. Or you might describe something that makes you feel proud, such as your community or school. Research the event or issue with your partner. Then create a short poem about it. After completing your poem, share it with others by, for example, creating a web page to publish it online or reading it aloud to an audience.

Mill Boys Racing Artist David Hunter Strother was born in 1816 in an area that is part of West Virginia today. He performed many jobs during his lifetime, including soldier, politician, journalist, author, and painter. Although he was born in Virginia, Strother was against secession and served in the Northern army during the Civil War. This painting by Strother of two African American boys from around 1850 is entitled Mill Boys Racing .

PRIMARY SOURCE: PAINTING

EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Explaining Describe the painting. How does Strother depict the boys in this painting? 2. Speculating Why might the artist have chosen this subject matter?

World Archive/Alamy Stock Photo

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