Unit 2: Colonial New Hampshire
1700 to 1763
New Hampshire experienced gradual colonial autonomy beginning in 1679 when King Charles II issued a charter stating it to be a royal colony separate from Massachusetts, but it did not achieve full control of its own government until 1741. A colonial society, economy, and culture developed during this time and local governing continued to oversee the day to day in growing Seacoast communities as well as further inland. Portsmouth served as a proxy of Boston for much of the first half of the 18th century, and its sea-based prosperity made it the obvious choice for a capital when New Hampshire began acting on its own.
The Wentworth family held a political dynasty during the colonial period, beginning with John, who served as Lt. Governor of New Hampshire while it was still under Massachusetts’ s jurisdiction. His son, Benning, was appointed New Hampshire’s first Royal Governor and served from 1741 to 1767, overseeing a period of incredible expansion for the colony. As “Surveyor of the King’s Woods,” Governor Wentworth was responsible for managing the lucrative timber industry that spanned from the Seacoast to Lake Champlain. The society that grew and developed with this economy began to turn away from the mother country in favor of their own towns, regions and overall colony.
Inquiry 2.1: What influenced the development of colonial society and culture?
Inquiry 2.2: What made New Hampshire a prosperous colony?
Class 1: Introduction to Unit 2
1) Go over Unit 1 Test
2) Organize class into theme groups
3) Introduce unit guide and inquiry questions
4) Vocabulary sort activity to build Terms and People to Know database
5) Set up Homework 2 and discuss predictions
Helpful secondary sources to introduce the unit:
Timeline of New Hampshire History, NH Historical Society
Class 2: Use Secondary Sources to learn Terms and People to Know and develop a response to the inquiry, What influenced the development of colonial society and culture?
A standard lesson plan for this class follows this sequence:
1) Evaluate a secondary source as a class (20 minutes)
2) Assign groups to evaluate another secondary source together (15 minutes)
3) Assign individuals to evaluate a third secondary source on their own (15 minutes)
4) Students report out to groups (5 minutes), groups report out to the rest of the class (15-20 minutes)
The secondary source column of the database/bibliography should be updated by the end of the class (5 minutes)
Helpful web secondary sources for class 2:
Website The Portsmouth Treaty of 1713
Timeline of New Hampshire History, NH Historical Society
New Hampshire’s Historical Highway Markers
NH PBS’s Granite State History Minute
Website Historic Houses section of Strawbery Banke Museum’s Website
Short Videos Our New Hampshire: “Inland Settlements” and “Work in Colonial Times”
Class 3: Use Primary Sources to learn Terms and People to Know and develop a response to the inquiry, What influenced the development of colonial society and culture?
A standard lesson plan for this class follows this sequence:
1) Evaluate a primary source as a class (20 minutes)
Suggested: The 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth Proceedings Signers
2) Assign groups to evaluate another primary source together (15 minutes)
3) Assign individuals to evaluate a third primary source on their own (15 minutes)
4) Students report out to groups (5 minutes), groups report out to the rest of the class (15-20 minutes)
The primary source column of the database/bibliography should be updated by the end of the class (5 minutes)
Students should turn to the primary sources they wrote down on their SSE forms during class 2, but also look to this link for more.
NH Historical Society Collections Catalogue
New Hampshire’s Historical Highway Markers
While these markers are secondary sources about this time period, there are many components to a PSA form included with each sign. Most of them are placed on or near sites where events took place and many include valuable information about actions and events that were reflections of the years 1701-1763.
Class 4: Demonstrate competency with homework and a quiz; Begin addressing second inquiry, What made New Hampshire a prosperous colony?
A standard lesson plan for this class:
1) Students take their choice of quiz on reverse side of HW 2.1, and turn paper into teacher for grading (20 minutes)
2) Prepare HW 2.2 and set aside (5 minutes)
3) Watch documentary or listen to audio clips; take notes on a SSE form
Suggested documentary: Ray Mears: Extreme Survival Season 3 Episode 5: “Rogers Rangers” (2002, BBC)
Or
Recommended audio clips from NHPR:
“1763: A Landmark Year In New Hampshire History” from March 2013
Any of the thirteen, 6-minute long episodes that are part of NHPR’s “250 Years in the Making” town profiles from 2013.
4) Students report out to groups (5 minutes), groups report out to the rest of the class (5-10 minutes)
The secondary source column of the database/bibliography should be updated with the video/audio citation by the end of the class (5 minutes)
Class 5: Use Secondary Sources to learn Terms and People to Know and develop a response to the inquiry, What made New Hampshire a prosperous colony?
1) Turn back and go over quizzes from last class (20 minutes)
2) Suggested secondary source to read, complete SSE form for, and discuss as a class:
“Benning Wentworth: Brief life of a colonial grandee: 1696-1770” by Castle Freeman Harvard Magazine Nov-Dec 2004
3) Assign students to listen to audio clips from the “250 Years in the Making” NHPR series. Complete SSE forms as usual, and document on the database.
Other secondary sources for class 5:
Timeline of New Hampshire History, NH Historical Society
Class 6: Use Primary Sources to learn Terms and People to Know and develop a response to the inquiry, What made New Hampshire a prosperous colony?
As a class, analyze the portrait of Benning Wentworth, painted by Joseph Blackburn, as a primary source.
Each group should use the answers on the left side of the PSA form to make claims regarding their theme area, and be prepared to share as a class.
(25 minutes)
The next activity relies on using secondary sources to analyze towns as primary sources:
1) Regardless of when it was founded, locate the website of your town (or the town closest to you if you live in a city). Use the “About” or “History” section to complete as much as you can on the left side of the PSA form. Unlike the Benning Wentworth painting, the right side of the form should be used to determine “What does this tell you about NH’s prosperity.” (20 minutes)
2) In groups, students should analyze an additional town, especially if it was established in or around 1763. Be sure that none are repeated. As part of the analysis, the class should be able to locate the town on a map of NH. (25 minutes)
3) To synthesize, ask students to drawn connections between what they have learned about Benning Wentworth and the establishment of the towns that were researched.
Class 7: Summative Assessment Day I: Graded Discussion and Project Design
1) Facilitate a graded discussion using student-made questions (30-40 minutes)
2) Assign group/class project. Give the students the remainder of the class period to work on it.
3) Students will turn in HW 2.2 at the end of class or have it checked while working on the project.
Class 8: Summative Assessment Day II: Project Presentation and Unit Test
1) Allow class members to put finishing touches on project(s)(15 minutes).
2) Share results (10 minutes)
3) Administer Unit Test (remainder of class)
The following links connect to secondary sources and primary source repositories created and maintained by other educators, historians, and institutions. I do not claim ownership of these materials. Instead, I share them as recommendations based on what has proven meaningful and effective in my own classroom experience. Teachers are invited to explore and adapt these resources to best meet their students’ needs, and encouraged to align with district expectations and protocols for using outside resources.
Website Timeline of New Hampshire History, NH Historical Society
Exploring this timeline is a great activity for classes 1, 2, and 5. Each entry has an easy-to-navigate list of facts regarding the entry, and many lead to primary sources.Website NH Historical Society Collections Catalogue
Staying with the NHHS site, this part of it can find usage on primary source investigation days. The advanced search feature helps keep results in the time frame you wish to stay in, and you can adjust the settings of what kinds of catalogue entries you want to see.
Website New Hampshire’s Historical Highway Markers
Similar to the Timeline found on the NHHS page, this easy-to-use site can help start the unit. Students can explore the signs by list or by map, recognizing different terms and names as well as recognizing where things took place and when.
Website The Portsmouth Treaty of 1713
Though the easier-to-read transcript of the 1713 treaty has left the site, the page still has lots to offer by way of contextualization and explanation of the proceedings and the document itself.
Primary Sources Nearly every town, and certainly every city in the state has a web presence, and on these sites a brief history can normally be found. The explanations of who, when, where, and what can be used to complete a Primary Source Analysis for that town or city. Most towns in New Hampshire were founded in the 18th Century, with many of them established during Benning Wentworth’s time as Royal Governor.
Short Audio NHPR “1763: A Landmark Year In New Hampshire History” from March 2013
This short explanation of how Benning Wentworth aggressively settled and populated the western frontier of New Hampshire to Lake Champlain is great to use in the second half of the unit.
Essay “Benning Wentworth: Brief life of a colonial grandee: 1696-1770” by Castle Freeman Harvard Magazine Nov-Dec 2004
An excellent overview of Wentworth’s life with a focus on his extensive career as Royal Governor of New Hampshire, this essay works very well during the second secondary source day in the unit.
Primary Source Benning Wentworth 1760 painting by Joseph Blackburn
This painting communicates so much about Wentworth, colonial politics, economics, culture, and geography and students will be sure to discover even more when dissecting the portrait themselves.
Educational Program Ray Mears: Extreme Survival Season 3 Episode 5: “Rogers Rangers” (2002, BBC)
Ray Mears is a British reality show host who demonstrates ways to overcome the world’s most treacherous conditions in the wild. His personal hero is New Hampshire’s own Major Robert Rogers and in this episode Mears follows the exact path of Rogers’s Rangers 1759 raid on St. Francis. This film can be found on a few different subscription and paid sites.
Feature Film: Northwest Passage (1940)
This movie starring Spencer Tracy as Robert Rogers is a historically-loose version of the St. Francis raid, and could be used in this unit purely as a way to illustrate the time period. The story starts in Portsmouth and shows the Boston to Portsmouth Stage and locations such as Stoodley’s Tavern. But the lack of accuracy makes this better suited as a primary source for unit 5, which is about the 20th century.
Website Historic Houses section of Strawbery Banke Museum’s Website
Each house at Strawbery Banke is correct to a different time period in the neighborhood’s past.