Overview
TeachRock is proud to present The Music that Shaped America, a lesson collection that draws on the rich archive of Alan Lomax’s Association for Cultural Equity, enlivening American history of the 18th through early 20th centuries with the sounds of regional folk musics and the personal stories of its performers.
A musicologist, writer, producer, singer, and talent scout, Alan Lomax was above all else an advocate for working class people. Feeling that it is “the voiceless people of the planet who really have in their memories the 90,000 years of human life and wisdom,” Lomax dedicated his life to recording, preserving, and broadcasting traditional musicians from around the world, giving voice to those that the commercial music industry had long ignored.
The Music that Shaped America is standards-aligned and compatible with AP History and other curriculums. Students will explore U.S. social history and events through the words and music of ex-slaves, Appalachian mine workers, Cajun farmers, Mississippi sharecroppers and more.
Lessons
lesson:
Mining and Union Songs in the Early 20th Century
How do Nimrod Workman’s songs and stories about his life as a coal miner illustrate the struggles of working class people during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era?
lesson:
The Banjo, Slavery, and the Abolition Debate
What is the relationship between the banjo and slavery, and how did music making by enslaved people influence the abolition debate during the 18th and early 19th century?
lesson:
Singing Democracy During the Second Great Awakening
What was the Second Great Awakening, how did it change American society, and how does Sacred Harp singing exemplify its ideals?
lesson:
Almost Emancipated: The Civil War and the Port Royal Experiment
How does the Union occupation of Port Royal highlight the complex issues behind the Civil War?
lesson:
Almost Emancipated: Reconstruction
What is the significance of Reconstruction and what does it reveal about the freedom that the post-Civil War constitutional amendments secured for African Americans?
lesson:
The Reclamation of the American Cowboy
How has the image and history of the American cowboy been reclaimed in the 21st Century?
lesson:
The Myth of the American Cowboy
How did Westward Expansion and the idea of Manifest Destiny inform the image of the cowboy in American culture?