TEACHER RESOURCE LESSON PLAN THE GREAT FIRE OF 1805 MI GLCES – GRADE THREE SOCIAL STUDIES H3 – History of Michigan Through Statehood • 3-H3.0.1 – Identify questions historians ask in examining the past in Michigan. • 3-H.3.0.7 - Use a variety of primary and secondary sources to construct a historical narrative about daily life in the early settlements of Michigan. • 3-H3.0.8 – Use case studies or stories to describe how the ideas or actions of individuals affected the history of Michigan. COMMON CORE ANCHOR STANDARDS - ELA INTRODUCTION Reading This lesson helps third grade students understand • 1 - Read closely to determine what the text says the life and culture in Detroit after the Americans explicitly and to make logical inferences from took control of the settlement in 1796, through its it; cite specific textual evidence when writing involvement in the War of 1812. The lesson includes or speaking to support conclusions drawn from a comprehensive background essay, a list of the text. additional resources, and copies of worksheets and • 9 - Analyze how two or more texts address primary sources. similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS authors take. What can we learn about the Great Fire of 1805 Speaking and Listening through a structured study of primary sources? • 1 - Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with LEARNING OBJECTIVES diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. Students will: • 2 - Integrate and evaluate information presented • Learn the definition of a primary source. in diverse media and formats, including visually, • Use observation skills to study and learn from quantitatively, and orally. primary sources. • Develop research questions and search for answers about the Great Fire of 1805. LESSON PLAN: THE GREAT FIRE OF 1805 BACKGROUND ESSAY The Great Fire of 1805 rebuild the city. The community of traders, farmers, tradesmen, One of the Governor’s officials, Judge Augustus and families at the edge of the Detroit River grew Woodward, argued that the old city was badly to almost 500 people during the 1700s. In 1802, planned, and should not be rebuilt again. He had Territorial Governor St. Clair incorporated Detroit as just come from Washington, D.C., a city with a street a town with five Trustees to make laws, levy taxes, plan based on Paris, France. He offered to create a and keep order. John Askin, a successful fur trader new city design based on the hexagon with diagonal who owned a vast shipping fleet, was one of the roads radiating out from the city’s center. He first trustees. Detroit was scheduled to become the promised property to the townspeople if they agreed capital city of the newly formed Michigan Territory on to wait for a survey to design the new plan. They July 1, 1805. agreed to the plan. Among these citizens were the Just as Detroit’s future looked promising, a first African American property owners in the city. terrible disaster occurred – the Great Fire of 1805. As the new city was constructed, the complete A baker was in hexagonal design his stable and he of Woodward’s knocked ashes from survey became too his pipe. It was a complex. The City hot, windy day at was still designed the river’s edge, and around three main the wind blew the diagonal spokes - hot ashes into a pile Gratiot, Michigan of hay and fanned and Grand River the flames until both Avenue - which the barn and the remain major bakery were ablaze. thoroughfares The alarm sounded of Detroit today. and Detroit’s only Grand Circus fire engine arrived. Park, in downtown Townspeople Detroit, is formed bucket another piece of brigades, but they could not stop the brisk wind from Woodward’s plan. spreading the fire. In just 14 years, the population of Detroit doubled Many citizens frantically gathered their animals, and the city was rebuilt, with broader streets and loaded up their most prized possessions, and fled more brink buildings. New industries – fishing, through the gates of the town. In just six hours lumber, textiles, gristmills, and breweries began to nothing was left where the houses once stood do business.Steamboats transported passengers all but a blanket of ashes, with black chimneys rising over the Great Lakes. The new City of Detroit would up through the smoke. Only Fort Lernoult, on the become very important to the history of Michigan. hill above the city, and one warehouse at the river was spared. A century of community growth was destroyed. Some people moved across the river to Sandwich (Windsor), Ontario or to other nearby towns. But almost two thirds stayed nearby. In just three weeks William Hull, the new Michigan Territorial governor, planned to arrive. Many townspeople decided to wait for his advice and make plans to LESSON PLAN: THE GREAT FIRE OF 1805 MATERIALS USED: think somebody made this? What do you think was happening when this was made? Who do Data Elements you think was the audience for this item? What • Painting: 1805 Detroit Fire tool was used to create this? Why do you think • Newspaper Account of the 1805 Fire this item is important? If someone made this • Letter: General William Hull today, what would be different? What can you learn from examining this? • Detroit Street Plan, 1807 6. Have students write down questions that they Worksheet can’t find answers to by looking at their primary • Learning from Primary Sources source in the QUESTION box. Encourage them Pencils and paper to use the 5 Ws and an H to form their questions. For example: What do you wonder about... who? what? when? where? why? how? LESSON SEQUENCE 7. Have the student pairs trade primary sources 1. Explain to the students that they will be using with other groups to see if they can find answers primary sources to learn about the Great Fire of to their questions in a different document. 1805. A primary source is a document or image Explain that historians have to look at many that was created during the time that an event different primary sources to understand an event occurred. Examples of primary sources include in the past. newspapers, photographs, paintings, letters and 8. If time and resources permit, have the students diaries. look for more answers in secondary sources, like 2. Tell the students that today they will be textbooks and library books. studying primary sources about the Great Fire of 1805. Give an overview of the fire and its consequences. You can read or summarize the background essay on the fire. 3. Divide the class into pairs, and give each pair one of the primary source Data Elements and a copy of Learning from Primary Sources worksheet. (NOTE: the newspaper account and the letter include difficult vocabulary words and unconventional sentence structure. Students with these documents may require additional help.) 4. Ask students to closely observe each primary source and write down their observations in the OBSERVE box of the worksheet. Ask them leading questions to help them see key details: What do you notice first? Find something small but interesting. What do you notice that you didn’t expect? What do you notice that you can’t explain? What do you notice now that you didn’t earlier? 5. Encourage students to think about the source and write down their ideas to the following questions in the REFLECT box of the worksheet: Where do you think this came from? Why do you LESSON PLAN: THE GREAT FIRE OF 1805 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES History Detroit, 1701-2001. 22 November 2011. http://www.historydetroit.com/ Bald, F. Clever. Detroit’s First American Decade: 1796 to 1805. Ann Arbor: University of “I Arrived at Detroit...” Clarke Historical Library. Michigan Press, 1983. Central Michigan University. 22 November 2011. http://clarke.cmich.edu/resource_tab/ Bald, F. Clever. The Great Fire of 1805. Detroit: information_and_exhibits/i_arrived_at_detroit/i_ Wayne University Press, 1951. arrived_at_detroit_index.html Brill, Marlene Targ. Michigan. New York: Marshall Michigan History: The Detroit News. 22 November Cavendish Benchmark, 2007. 2011. http://detnews.com/history/ Burton, Clarence Monroe, William Stocking, and Gordon K. Miller. The City of Detroit Michigan 1701-1922. Volume 1. Charleston, SC: Nabu Press, 2010. Gavrilovich, Peter, and Bill McGraw. The Detroit For more information about the Almanac: 300 Years of Life in the Motor City. Detroit Historical Society, Detroit, Mich: Detroit Free Press, 2000. or to schedule a field trip to the Gilpin, Alec R. The Territory of Michigan, 1805- Detroit Historical Museum or 1837. East Lansing: Michigan State University Dossin Great Lakes Museum, Press, 1970. Grimm, Joe. Michigan Voices: Our State’s History in visit detroithistorical.org the Words of the People Who Lived It. Detroit, Mich: Detroit Free Press, 1987. Henrickson, Wilma Wood. Detroit Perspectives: Crossroads and Turning Points. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991. Hull, William. Memoirs of the Campaign of the North Western Army of the United States, A.D. 1812, in a Series of Letters Addressed to the Citizens of the United States, with an Appendix Containing a Brief Sketch of the Revolutionary Services of the Author. Boston: True & Greene, 1824. Ketenbaum, Justin L., ed. The Making of Michigan, 1820 – 186o: A Pioneer Anthology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990. Woodford, Arthur M. This Is Detroit, 1701-2001. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001. LINKS 1802 Map of Michigan. May-Journal Website. 22 November 2011. http://bay-journal.com/ maps/1802-mi.html LEARNING FROM PRIMARY SOURCES LEARNING FROMPRIMARY B S E R V O E N R E O F I L T E Primary Source Analysis Tool S C E T U Q OBSERVE REFLECT QUESTION FURTHER INVESTIGATION LOC.gov/teachers PAINTING: 1805 DETROIT FIRE NEWSPAPER ACCOUNT OF THE 1805 FIRE Baltimore Intelligencer of September 6, 1805 “THE CONFLAGRATION OF DETROIT” This event happened on the 11th of at present the troops at this station are a time as was allowed them; great June last.