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Teach PA History
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Gather the Stones!
Equipment & Supplies
  • Loaf of bread or other food product made with flour Transparencies (and projector) or pictures of gristmills Chalkboard/chalk
Procedures

Brainstorm with the class about what is necessary to produce a loaf of bread. Ideally bread baked in loaf pan would be an excellent prop. List the students" answers on the chalkboard.

Ask the students to think back in time to the American Revolution and ask, "What, if any, different actions had to happen to make a loaf of bread in colonial times?"

Ask students if they know how we get flour? Ask if anyone would want to eat bread made with the hard kernels and husk of the wheat. (Note: a picture or a handful of wheat would be a good teaching aid, if available.)

If the students did not identify bread as an important staple of life for the early settlers, make sure it is explicitly pointed out.

Write the word "gristmill" on the board and ask the students to define the term. Briefly discuss their answers and describe the function of a gristmill.

Distribute copies of the workings of a mill, Student Handout 1: Basic mill diagram, or place on a transparency on an overhead projector and explain to the students the process including the grinding action to make flour. Describe the importance of the water wheel and why it was necessary to power the grinding action.

Share information with the students on the millstone, Student Handout 2: Picture and information on millstone.

Show the class photographs of a gristmill in Pennsylvania, Primary Source 1: Laughlin Mill.

The Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Economics define "specialization" as "a form of division of labor in which each
individual or firm concentrates its productive efforts on a single or limited number of activities." Explain to students that gristmills played a vital role in the early development of rural communities. Explain that mills helped determine in many instances where a settlement would begin. Roads were needed to get to the mill. The mill site also made a natural site for a market for goods. Mention that mills were so important that William Penn was accompanied by miller Caleb Pusey with the framework for a mill on board his ship, the Welcome, when Penn arrived in Pennsylvania.

Summarize the lesson by explaining that bread was a staple of the colonial diet and Pennsylvania was the breadbasket of America during the American Revolution. Review the role of the mill in helping to organize the society. Introduce the idea that mills could be an advantage to soldiers during the Revolutionary War and that an advantage to one side would be a disadvantage to the other.

Place a transparency showing marker Primary Source 2: The Writings of George Washington–the directive from Head Quarters, October 31, 1777 and the signature of George Washington. Then read the transcribed order and summarize for the students.
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