Tobacco Simulation....

This is one of my favorite simulations that we do throughout the year.  I originally got the idea from http://kenmore.org/education/lesson_plans/economy/tobacco-and-slavery.html.  But, like anything...I have tweaked it a bit....

Everyday Life in Colonial Virginia

Day 3

Objective:  The Virginia Colony relieved on agriculture as the primary source of wealth.  In order to make more money, African men, women and children were brought as slaves to the plantations to work. VS4a

Procedure:

Students will take part in a role play simulating different types of farms in Colonial Virginia and how slaves increased productivity on Plantations.  This lesson is NOT about if slavery was good or bad (we all know it was awful) - but it shows the economic reasons the Virginian Plantation owners had for slavery.  It increased their profit.

Step 1:  Background information on a PowerPoint - FREE for you to download.(http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Tobacco-and-Slavery-in-Virginia)

Step 2: Students will choose a colored cube from the bag.  This cube will determine their group.  Once they get their color, they will need to take a pair of scissors and a brown crayon and join their group.

Step 3:  Read what each color group symbolizes – small farm to large plantation.  Your farm is going to work on harvesting tobacco, drying it and packing a barrel.

            You have ten minutes to

            1.  Pick the tobacco – (cut the leaves off the picture of the tobacco plant).

            2.  Dry the tobacco = (color the tobacco brown)

            3. Pack the barrel – each barrel holds five plants.

Step 4: After 10 minutes is up…answer the questions on the half sheet as a group. 

Tobacco and Slavery – Economics Lesson

1. How many barrels of tobacco was your "plantation" able to pack? _________

2. Which teams were able to pack the most barrels? _________________________________________

3. Why were those teams able to pack more? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Why would owning slaves be helpful to a tobacco farmer? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Why would owning slaves be better than using indentured servants?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  

Step 5: Share information as a group and discuss it from a purely economical angle – does slavery help plantations earn money???

Hope you will see the benefit of this economic lesson - it is certainly eyeopening.