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8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 7 of 8

Maine and the Nation

From statehood to Reconstruction

What your child practices

Maine in United States history from 1820 to Reconstruction: statehood and the Missouri Compromise, the Aroostook War, the Maine Law and reform, Mainers in the fight over slavery (Stowe, Russwurm, Lovejoy, Hamlin), the 20th Maine and the Civil War, and the Reconstruction amendments.

Maine Learning Results learning standard: History 1; History 2; Civics & Government 3 · turning points, events and people in the history of Maine and the United States, and issues of unity and diversity

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Maine was part of Massachusetts until it became a state in 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise.
  2. People from Maine fought slavery: Elijah Parish Lovejoy was killed defending his press in 1837, and John Brown Russwurm co-founded Freedom’s Journal.
  3. In the Civil War, Maine’s shipyards built ships for the navy and trade, and many Mainers served in the Union army.

Example: Why did Maine’s shipyards matter to the Union? Maine had a long coast and many forests. It had skilled shipbuilders. They built ships for the navy and for trade. Answer: They built ships for the navy and for trade.

Maine and the Nation in Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 7 of 8 in 8th grade Social Studies, after Sources & Evidence and before From Independence to Reconstruction.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Maine Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which Mainer was Abraham Lincoln's first vice president?

    • Hannibal Hamlin
    • Andrew Johnson
    • Daniel Webster

  2. Question 2

    Maine entered the Union as a free state paired with Missouri as a slave state under the…

    • Kansas-Nebraska Act
    • Compromise of 1850
    • Missouri Compromise

  3. Question 3

    Elijah Parish Lovejoy, born in Albion, Maine, was an abolitionist newspaper editor who…

    • became president
    • was killed defending his press in Illinois in 1837
    • wrote the Constitution

  4. Question 4

    John Brown Russwurm, a Bowdoin graduate of 1826, co-founded…

    • Freedom's Journal, the first African American–owned newspaper
    • the Underground Railroad
    • the Republican Party

  5. Question 5

    The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, promised…

    • a national religion
    • citizenship and equal protection of the laws
    • an end to all taxes

  6. Question 6

    How did the Maine Law reflect a wider movement of the 1800s?

    • it was part of the temperance and reform movement
    • it was part of the Gold Rush
    • it began the Industrial Revolution

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