|
Summary and Objective
After exploring barter systems, wampum, coins and paper money using the American Centuries digital collection and other websites, students will understand that commerce in the colonies was conducted using a variety of methods of payment.
Teaching Plan
Step 1.
Lead a discussion about money used in the United States in this century. What is money used for? Why do we use money to buy things? Could we use something else? Do you ever want a game card that your friend has, but you do not have the money to buy it? How else might you get the card from your friend? (If possible display a collection of current coins and some paper money used in the United States along with money from other countries. Have students indicate which coins and bills are used in the United States today. Could we use coins from other countries in a store in the United States?)
Step 2.
Tell students that early settlers in the colonies did not have very much money to purchase items. View online or download and print a copy of the July 14th 1703 Prices of Goods Broadside, available at www.americancenturies.mass.edu/classroom/curriculum_5th/lesson1/resources/1703_broadside. Discuss how beaver pelts were assigned values and were used instead of money.
Step 3.
Go to ‘The Coins of Colonial and Early America’ website listed below. Click on Money Substitutes. Then click on Wampum. View Wampum image and read about use of Wampum in the colonies as a coin substitute.
Step 4.
View images of other coinage, such as the New England coinage from 1652, the Pine Tree coinage from 1667-1682 and the Silver Coinage of John Chalmers, at the
website listed in Step 3.
Step 5.
Examine the chart on page 33 in ‘Bancroft’s Agricultural Almanack’ from 1826, which converts the values of gold coins of Great Britain, France and Spain to US dollars and cents. Explain that these coins from other countries were used as payment for goods and services in the colonies.
Step 6.
Examine the ‘Continental Currency in various amounts’ on the American Centuries website and read the description below. Examine the ‘Soldier notes’ on the ‘Coins of Colonial and Early America' website, under Massachusetts Currency. Explain that states printed their own paper money in the colonies and that a variety of paper money was legal tender for many years after the American Revolution. However, money from each colony was not universally accepted in the other colonies. For instance, money from Massachusetts might not be able to be used in Virginia.
Step 7.
To follow up the class could make a time line of types of barter systems, coinage and currency used in the 17th and 18th centuries. Images could be printed from the ‘Coins of Colonial and Early America’ website and displayed on the timeline under the dates minted.
Step 8.
To expand on the topic of money, read aloud possibilities include: Money Through the Ages, by Jason Cooper, American Coins and Bills, by Jason Cooper and The Story of Money, by Betsy Maestro.
|
