Inquiry Unlimited - Fish Processing at a Colonial Fishing Stage

UNIT ONE: Big Question: From a business person's point of view, defend whether it was a sound investment to put up money for fishing stations and fishing ships. What goods and products would increase your wealth?

Unit 1 Focus of:Why Colonize In North America?

1: How did the natural resource of cod fish paired with the desire of English West Country investors to explore the business of fishing stages lay the foundation for future successful New England economic investments?

2. How did the trade in North Atlantic cod fish parallel and support the development of the African slave trade and the Caribbean plantation system?

Content: Fishing Stations [Newfoundland, Marblehead, Maine]

Student Background Content Information - "The Mariner's Digest"

Student Activity 1 – Complete the web with evidential content [Notetaking – Analysis]

Student Activity 2 – Evidential phrases to complete a chart [Notetaking –Analysis]

Student Activity 3 – Written or Oral Debate [ Point of View – Synthesis]

Issue 1: Merchants involved with commercial fishing supported the slave trade in the Caribbean. Why?
Issue 2: Merchants involved with commercial fishing supported the slave trade in Africa. Why?

Student Activity 4 - Written reflection from the point of view of a merchant

Based on what you have discovered, predict how English emigration might help the New England economy in future years from the 1600s.

Student Activity 5: Prediction based on the 1647 quotation - "Men are so intent upon planting sugar that they had rather buy foode at very deare rates than produce it by labour, so infinite is the profitt of sugar workes after once accomplished." (Carse, p. 81)

Student Background Content: Acquiring and interpreting data from an illustration [Analysis]
( Additional Optional print 1 in Maine or print 2 in Marblehead or print 3 New Foundland )

Student Activity 1: Analyze a knowledge print.

Student Activity 2: Written Product for Fishing Station Illustration

Student Activity 3: Follow-up reflections for Activity 2 Fishing Station Illustration

Student Activity 4: Group Follow-up Activity for Fishing Stages Print - "You Are There Dramatics" Tableau

Student Activity 5: Follow-up tasks for student written prompts for Fishing Stages Content

Persuasive letter to a business partner (Synthesis)
"Letter to the Editor" (Synthesis)
Speech of an English West Country investor (Synthesis)
Investors Club advertisement (Synthesis)

Student Activity 6 : Follow-up Student Oral Activity Products for Fishing Stages Content

Create an individual role of a fictitious English West Country investor (Synthesis)
Text for an interview of an English West Country investor (Synthesis)

Supportive resource for Activity 5/6 - Organizational Template for Persuasive letter or argument ( * )

Supportive resource for Activity 5/6 - Assessment Rubric for a Persuasive Essay or Persuasive Letter ( * )

Supportive resource for the teacher: Customize a rubric to assess student-targeted oral or written skills

Additional primary source quotes to support the fishing trade investments

References and Resources

Adams, James Truslow. The Founding of New England. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1921.
Andrews, Charles M. The Colonial Period of American History. New Haven, CT. Yale University Press, 1964.
Bailyn, Bernard. The New England Merchant in the Seventeenth Century. NY: Harper, 1955.
Carse, Robert. Ports of Call. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1967.
Kurlansky, Mark. Cod, A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. NY: Walker and Company, 1997.
Phillips, James Duncan. Salem in the Seventeenth Century. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1933.

Internet Sources:

The English Migratory Fishery and Trade in the 17thc: Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage *
The English Fishery and Trade in the 18th Century: Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage *
"More Than A Fishery, Less Than A Colony": Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage *

Picture credits:

Carse, Robert. Ports of Call. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1967.

As of December 4, 2003, you are visitor

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Last modified: January 10, 2009.