11/11 Lowell

One machine



Lots of machines

 We went to Lowell, Mass. This is one places that the Industrial Revolution started.
At first Lowell was a small agricultural area, when people first invented the power loom in England the Americans didn’t what to be lower than them. So, Mr. Lowell went over to England to steal the plans for the power loom. He remembered the plans and he created a blueprint of the power loom, but with a few adjustments. Then Mr. Lowell looked for the right place to build his mill. Unfortunately he died, but his partners found the Merrimack River. The Pawtucket Falls was the perfect place for the mill because of the water power. His friends planned out the city. They planned out the main canals and proved that their concept worked. Then his friends hired workers to make the canals. 500 Irish workers worked and dug the canals. When the gates were open to the workers, they hired Yankee farm girls and women for working the mills.

Factory and power canal

The first wave of the workers were the Yankee farm girls. The people who worked the mills were called “mill girls” There were different types of jobs in the mill at the bottom were the people who work the looms and at the top the owners. The Yankee farm girls came for opportunity and work, but as they worked their wages went down. Then they went on strike. They didn’t get there wish. So they left, but the immigrants were coming in from every where looking for work and found work in the mills. The immigrants would work for little pay and they hired boys to carry the cotton from floor to floor. The workers went on strike for so long that the managers finally agreed to the higher wages, but the business finally moved onto the south, because there were less taxes and the owners didn’t have to pay as much as they did in the north. Also the machines were old.

We went on a canal ride. The canal was a way providing power to the mills. The mills made power by moving the turbines with water.

10/10 Boston

We went to Boston and Charlestown Massachusetts. Boston has a lot of Historic Areas. Boston is home to many historic sites. Charleston is the site of Bunker Hill.

Bunker Hill Monument

Charlestown is the home to the famous Bunker Hill. The reason there is a historic site is that Joseph Warren, a famous doctor in Boston was killed during the Battle of Bunker, but all the Americans and some British officers objected it. There is a big monument to him. The battle happened during the Siege of Boston. The Americans Surrounded the British in the Siege of Boston. Then the American learned of the plans of the British to do a three pronged attack on the Americans. The Americans decided to build a fort on Bunker Hill they thought that this would make the British have to attack the Americans so at 4 in the morning the Americans started to build a fort. When the British saw the fort the had to attack the fort or Boston would be in danger of being hit by canons, which the Americans did not have with them, but the British did not know that. So the British had to get on boats and there was not enough room to move all the British all at once. They moved the British in three waves to Charlestown then the British Regulars had to cross a swamp. Then they planned on walking along the beach. Then they saw the Americans digging a trench in the ground and they had brought the 6-pounder cannons, but had 12-pound ammunition. So, they charged the Americans they shot the British down. By the end there were 50 of the 350 were still able to fight. Then the American Stark of New Hampshire came to the fort with his men and saw the river was open and then he took his troops and made walls of the all the way into the nearby river. Then 500 British came to attack Starks men. So, they did and attack by three first the one 1/3 shot then another 1/3 then the last. There was someone always firing. Until there were no more. The Starks crew went back to the fort and the British lobed cannonballs at the fort and the men were scared so one of the officers stood up on the wall and said “they can’t hit anything”. Then the British attack the fort and the Americans retreated. The Americans eventually retreated but they had 1/3 of the losses and achieved three things they wanted to they were they could stand up to the British, they improved there moral and they protected Cambridge.

We also saw the Constitution. This is the oldest commissioned warship afloat. The Constitution was finished after 3 years of make was finished in 1777. The ship got its name in its last battle “Old Ironsides” because the cannonballs bounced off and stuck to the boat because of the live oak, which is 3 times denser than regular oak. The ships time of battles were from 1812 to 1815. The ship got into 33 and lost 0 times. To run the ship the crew size was 400-500 men on the ship. There were up to 60 guns on the ship.

We saw so other important places in the Revolutionary War. First we saw the North Church. This is the place the lanterns were hung in the church. The caretaker of the church lit them only for a minute thought. The saying was “1 if by land and 2 if by sea”. Second we saw the sight of the Boston Massacre in 1770 on March 5^th. This was a riot against taxes and was one of the reasons the war started.

10/9 Minuteman National Park

We went to Minute Men National Park, Massachusetts. The Minute Men were a group of young soldiers who said that they could be summoned in a minute. There are Minute Men all over Massachusetts.

The British were told that the colonists were storing munitions at Concord. The British also knew that these munitions could support a army of 15,000, but the Americans also knew that the British were coming to Concord Paul Revere told the people of Concord 5 days earlier than the British came to Concord. That set up a alarm around the Massachusetts. When the British came two riders were sent out to warn the others of the coming British army. These riders were Paul Revere and William Dawes. They took separate route but both arrived in Lexington to warn Adams and Hancock. Then they continued on. They met up with Samuel Prescott and they all rode together to Concord but they were stopped and only Prescott made it to Concord and warned the colonists to hide the guns.

In Lexington 80 Minute Men stood up to the General Gages British army but were unable to hold them. They retreated to Concord right in front of the British and waited across the North Bridge on to the nearby hill. The American forces grew to 400 over the time of the battle. The British searched the whole town of Concord for munitions but most of them were not found some of the British went to search Barrett’s Farm and had to cross the North Bridge where the Americans were waiting. The British split their troops in to two half went to search Barrett’s Farm. The others guarded the North Bridge. From the hill the Americans saw smoke rising above the town. Then one of the officers said to there men “Your not going let them burn down the town”. The soldiers all ready for battle so they went to the North Bridge and stood there in front of the British and someone fired this was the place the “shot heard round the world“. No one knows who fired the shot, but this was the first time the Americans fired at the British army, killing two. The British retreated from Concord to Boston on the way home the Americans numbers grew to 4,000 while they harassed the British a lot and by the end of the Battle Road. Within a week the Americans had 20,000 men. General Gage was replaced by Howe. The Siege of Boston started.

North Bridge

10/8 Salem Wharfs and Witches

We are in Salem, Mass. Yesterday we saw the wharfs and the Salem which’s. Salem means shalom which means peace. Salem was the capital of the Massachusetts colony at one time

Salem was a busy port in the its time. In 1804 there were 200 registered international sail ships in Salem. In Salem there were the first millionaires and they where all privateers . First was Elias Hasket Derby he own a million dollar estate. He was the first shipowner to sail past the Cape of Good Hope. Then was William Gray he was worth 3 million dollars. He owned 181 ships in his lifetime. The last was Simon Forester. He was worth 1.5 million dollars. He came to Salem when he was 19 as a Irish sailor. Most sailor started around the time you were 13 years of age. The ships carried 18-20 people at a time. The wage of a sailor was about the same as a officer but officers got privileges. People could make a fortune by being a sailor. We also saw one of the ships named Friendship. It is a reproduction of a old trade ship and is a working ship.

Salem also had a dark history. During the Witch Trials 19 people were hanged and 1 man pressed to death. The reason the Witch Trials started is that on snowy days they were told story by Tituba, a black cook, in Rev. Paris kitchen. Most of the accused were put in jail and died there. One of the first was Rebecca Nurse a old lady who was partly deaf, so she could not hear the questions, so she was put into jail and hanged. Ann Putnam, one people who started the whole thing, confessed 16 years later in front of Rebecca Nurse’s children. When people in Boston heard of this they put a end to it but the people in jail stayed there for more years than they should have.

10/3-10/6 New Hampshire

We went to Franconia Notch, New Hampshire. There we went to the Flume

The Flume is a crack in a rock that is craved out by water and it means river in French. The reason why it is called the flume is the people who had mill made Flumes to transports water to their mills to make power for them when people saw the Flume they thought that it look like a Flume. So, they named the Flume. The Flume happened because the schist cracked during a uplift of some sort. Then the crack was filled in with lava during a lava flow. The rocks name is Basalt. When the glacier came thought and craved the Basalt out because there was high pressured water under the glacier.

We also when to the COG Railway. This is the first railway to climb up a mountain. The COG Railway goes up Mount Washington. Mount Washington is the place with the highest wind speed in the world recorded by a man. It is also the highest mountain in the Northeast. The reason the Cog Railway is called that is because on each of the trains and cars there are cogs, the cogs are like gears but with one really long cog that goes up the mountains.

For the past couple days we have not had Internet Connection, but have been doning alot. First we were in a flood making it hard to do anything, but we did go to the first Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Shop we took a tour of the Factory. It's really cool how they make Ice Cream. We also got to try the new flavor. It's name was Milk and Cookies, which was really yummy.  The next day we went to Sugerbush Maple Farm. We tried all different kinds of Maple Surup. Their were 4 differnet kinds of surup. They are Vermont Fancy,which is the lightest kind of surup. Then there is the Grade A Medium Amber, it is the second lightest. Then the Grade A Dark Amber, which is the second darkest type of surup. My favorite one was the Grade B, which is harvested latest in the season and is the darkest kind of surup. We left the place we were staying and went and saw The Mountain School. It was really cool. People in 11th grade go here for one semester. They tap Maple Trees, they have a rather large garden, with Squash, Vegatables, and Spices and many animals such as, cows, sheep and chickens. We were given a tour of the school by Molly, who is person from Prep.

9/30 We are going to Vermont

We are currently in the Adirondack Mountains. The leaves are beautiful and it's raining a lot.  We might not have Internet connection for a while because we are in a remote area of Vermont.