Kansas History Standards
(Middle and High School):
KH8B3I2 explain why territorial government was
affected by slavery conflict
KH8B3I6 analyze how the slave debate affect Kansas
statehood
KH11B3I1 describe the development of territorial
towns in relation to the slavery issue
Others:
See lesson plan.
Objectives
Knowledge:
Understand the elements of town development
and how it was affected by the conflict over the
extension of slavery into the territory
Skills:
Using primary sources (letters, advertisements,
government documents)
Focus
Questions
Assessment
Tools
Why would town development be important in a
new territory?
How were towns created in the 1850s?
Why was the slave issue
connected to town
development?
Groups of students work together to create and
“sell” their towns.
Activities
Map key locations and geographical features of northeast
Kansas during the territorial period.
Learn the vocabulary
terms preemption, speculation, share, and quitclaim from
reading primary source
documents.
Apply knowledge about town settlement through role-playing
as a town surveyor, promoter, city clerk, and
town commissioner.
Groups of students create fictitious
towns and sell town shares to other students. The towns
selling the
most shares win.
Through a random drawing, two towns are
determined to be slave towns. The populations of these
towns
will determine if Kansas is free or slave. Discuss the
ramifications.
The current URL is http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=lesson_plans_town_development.