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The National Road: All Roads Led to Baltimore
Teacher Guide
Written by Pat Robeson
Edited by Lisa Kissinger
Objectives:
After working with this lesson, students will be able to:
Explain how building roads helped connect Western Maryland to Baltimore.
Explain how Baltimore's location made it a good center of production.
Explain why the National Road was built through Maryland.
Construct a timeline showing the history of the National Road.
Explain why towns were built in the western part of Maryland.
Describe the relationship between natural resources and the production of goods and services in Maryland.
Compare travel on Maryland's early roads with travel today.
Maryland Learning Outcomes:
Social Studies Skills
Students will demonstrate an understanding of historical and current events using chronological and spatial thinking, develop historical interpretations, and frame questions that include collecting and evaluating information from primary and secondary sources.
- Apply the concept of change over time by organizing turning point events in chronological order and applying chronological terms correctly, including decade, century, and generation
- Find, interpret, and organize primary and secondary sources of information including pictures, graphics, maps, atlases, artifacts, timelines, political cartoons, videotapes, journals, and government documents.
Geography
Students will use geographic concepts and processes to examine the role of culture, technology, and the environment in the location and distribution of human activities and spatial connections throughout time.
- Construct and interpret maps using map elements including a title, cardinal and intermediate directions, compass rose, border, longitude and latitude, legend/key, author, date, and scale.
- Identify and locate physical and human-made characteristics of places and explain how those characteristics have affected people living there.
- Describe the relationship between physical characteristics of a place and the location of human activities.
- Explain how people in Maryland and the United States are linked by transportation and communication.
Economics
Students will develop economic reasoning to understand the historical development and current status of economic principles, institutions, and processes needed to be effective citizens, consumers, and workers participating in local communities, the nation, and the world.
- Explain how producers combine resources to provide goods and services to satisfy economic wants.
- Explain how changes in technology (factories, machinery, transportation, communication, new technology) impact Maryland's economy.
- Explain how specialized work results in interdependence, trade, and economic growth.
Student Worksheets used in this lesson:
Other materials needed:
- Map of Maryland
- Sheets of construction paper for the flipbook
An on-line source of an excellent outline map of Maryland is the
National Geographic
Xpeditions Atlas. A
printable map of Maryland is available in several formats.
Key web sites referenced in this lesson:
Teacher background:
Before students begin this lesson, it would be helpful to do the following:
- Identify and locate the regions of Maryland on a map.
- Review characteristics of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau, and the Appalachian Mountain regions of Maryland.
- Review geographic and economic terms which are listed in the activities.
- Become familiar with the key web site used in the lesson.
- make a transparency of a current Maritime Report from The Baltimore Sun.
Lesson Introduction and Motivation:
Tell students that during the Colonial period of American history,
farmers in other colonies heard that Maryland had good land for raising
wheat, and that Baltimore merchants were ready to buy wheat and flour.
Many of these farmers now began coming to Maryland to buy land and raise
wheat. New farms were settled and new mills were built. By 1775, a great
change had come to Maryland shipping, for wheat, not corn, came next in
importance to tobacco. Baltimore had become one of the busiest ports on
the Atlantic coast. Locate Baltimore on a Maryland map and ask students
to describe its location.
Tell students that about a 100 years after the first settlers came,
people began to settle in the western part of the state. Rough wagon
roads were the only roads over which crops could be transported to
Baltimore. Have students look at the map of Maryland and explain why
there were no ports of entry near Frederick, Hagerstown or Cumberland.
(The Potomac River was the only river and it was not navigable because
of the mountains. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal would not help
Baltimore merchants because it did not come to Baltimore.) Ask students
how more of the western trade could be brought to Baltimore?
Show students a transparency of the Maritime Report. Discuss the legend
at the bottom of the report with the students. Tell them that even today
many ships come in and out of the Port of Baltimore and transportation
routes continue to link Maryland with other states and countries.
Tell students that this lesson is about technologies that were new in
the 19th century. These technologies made it easier to travel in
Maryland and other parts of the country.
Lesson Development:
Students will use their prior knowledge, web pages and pictures to
complete a worksheet containing nine activities. Information about the
activities is listed below. The numbers relate to the number on the
worksheet.
- All Roads Led to Baltimore map activity identifies the regions of
Maryland.
- In this activity, students identify from a picture and a
description on the web site the goods, as well as natural, capital, and
human resources that a farm family might buy, sell, or trade in
Baltimore
good - something people want that you can hold or touch
natural resources - the many things nature provides that we use to
satisfy our wants
capital resources - goods that are used over and over to make other
goods or to provide services
human resources - people doing mental or physical work
- In this activity, students identify and explain how technologies
have made travel by land easier.
- This activity focuses on toll rates
- In this activity, students explain how people modified the
environment to build the National Road using a National Road web site
- In this activity, students, use a historic map to follow the
National Road from Baltimore to St. Louis. They answer questions about
why the Road was built in Maryland.
- In this activity, student put ten events related to the National
Road in chronological order. You may wish to have students cut out the
fact boxes and arrange them on a timeline.
- In this activity, students show their understanding of
production by drawing pictures of natural, capital and human resources
and the product produced.
- In this activity, students identify factors that helped Baltimore
grow into a busy seaport.
Thoughtful Application:
Tell students that they will now make a Transportation Flipbook. Make sure
each student has a copy of the Making A Flipbook Worksheet. Give
students a sheet of 8 1/2" X 11" paper or a sheet of 12" X 18"
construction paper. You may want to make a flipbook as an example, or
make the book step-by-step with the students.
Directions for Making a Transportation Flip Book:
- On the cover, identify four different ways people of Maryland are
linked by transportation and communication systems today on the cover of
the book
- Under each of the four flaps, draw a pictures that illustrate each of
the ways you have identified on the cover.
- On the back of the flipbook, explain and give examples for each of
your choices. Share your book with your teacher and classmates.
Scoring Tool:
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Students will receive
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| 4 Points |
- Four different pictures have been drawn, explained, and examples are
given for each of the choices.
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| 3 Points |
- Three different pictures have been drawn, explained, and examples are
given for each of the choices.
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| 2 Point |
- Two different pictures have been drawn, explained, and examples are
given for each of the choices.
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| 1 Point |
- One picture has been drawn, explained, and examples are given for the
choice.
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Lesson Extension:
Have students look beyond Maryland at a second National Road Web site:
Students should examine the History Section of the site to see how the
National Road eventually became Route 40, one of the first and most
historic transcontinental routs across America.
Other Resources:
Wheeler Leaflets on Maryland History, Maryland Historical Society, 201
W. Monument St., Baltimore, MD - Leaflet 12c and 12b
My Maryland by Beta Kaessmann, Harold Randall Manakee, and Joseph
Wheeler, (Maryland Historical Society, 1955)
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