Social Studies


“The passengers of the First and Second Class are requested not to throw money or eatables to the steerage passengers, thereby creating disturbance and annoyance.” — Shipboard Notice, circa 1860

Lesson Plans

Students will compare the story of John Berry Meachum who setting up a Steamboat classroom in the Mississippi River to circumvent an unjust law to the Civil Rights Movement’s strategy of civil disobedience. 
(Grades 5 – 8, 9 – 12)

Students will learn about the role of lighthouses in maritime navigation and communication and how and why women held this federal position in the nineteenth century by examining RI’s Ida Lewis.
(Grades 4, 5 – 8, 9 -12)

Learn about racial tensions in early 1940s Detroit, the fight to desegregate the SS Columbia, and the role of Thurgood Marshall.
(Grades 9-12)

Learn about Italian immigration to Providence, RI on the Fabre Line.
(Grades 9-12)

Learn the ways in which steamboats facilitated the enslavement of people and the ways in which they allowed for freedom of movement and, for some, escape to the Northern states.
(Grades 9 -12)

Students will about class differences of passengers and complete short answer questions.
(Grades 6 – 8, 9 – 12)

Learn the difference between primary and secondary sources through the first black owned and operated steamship company, the Black Star Line.
(Grades 6 – 8, 9 – 12, college-level)

Teach students the history of immigration and disease in the late 19th c & early 20th c. and create an interactive information source.
(Grades 9-12)

Students will learn about the history of black sailors in America and can be assessed using short answer questions provided.
(Grades 6 – 8, 9 – 12)

Have your students learn with primary sources and oral history in this lesson on immigration. Compare and contrast differing immigration stories from 1920 and 1956 on steamships with immigration today.
(Grades 3 – 5, 5 – 8)

Other Topics to Explore

Learn about Charles Dickens’ experiences traveling to America on a steamship.

View photographs documenting immigration to Ellis Island.


Secondary Sources

Click here to download the pdf of Lorraine Coons and Alexander Varias, Tourist Third Cabin: Steamship Travel in the Interwar Years, “‘The Soul of a Ship’: Experience and Life of ‘Below-Deck’ Personnel” (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003).

Click here to download the pdf of Coons and Varias, Tourist Third Class, “‘Traveling Palace’ or ‘Floating Sweatshop’: The Experiences of Women Seafarers”


Additional Resources on Social Studies

Rhode Tour Teaching – “The Dorr Rebellion” and “Industrial Heritage Along the Woonasquatucket.” The GSEs for Social Studies are approved by the Rhode Island Department of Education and are broken down into four categories: Civics and Government, Historical Perspectives, Geography, and Economics.

View the Rhode Island Historical Society’s lesson plans.

Sunday on the River (1961) by Gordon Hitchens and Ken Resnick. 30 min. Photographed in part on the Alexander Hamilton showing charted outings by Harlem church congregations.  Click here to view Part I and Part II of the film.

Byron S. Miller, Sail, Steam, and Splendour: A Picture History of Life Aboard the Transatlantic Liners (New York: Times Books, 1977).