The Charlotte Museum of History, a 501(c)(3) organization, educates a broad public audience about the founding story of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, in the context of national history. Our mission is to provide quality educational programming at the Hezekiah Alexander Home Site and to preserve the site for the education of present and future generations. The museum building is the location of three continuing exhibitions: Rock House Mysteries, Keeping Watch on Water, and Charlotte Neighborhoods. Hezekiah Alexander played a leadership role in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County during the years North Carolina was a British colony. He was elected by his peers to lead during the critical years of 1774 to 1776 when Committees of Safety served as the de facto government following the end of royal government. He was then elected to serve as a member of the North Carolina Fifth Provincial Congress that wrote North Carolina’s first constitution and bill of rights. Hezekiah Alexander is remembered as a signer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and the Mecklenburg Resolves. Our student orientation and tours of the historic home site discuss the three cultures that were present in colonial Charlotte/Mecklenburg County: the Catawba Indian Nation, European Immigrants, and African Americans. We discuss how these groups would have lived and interacted.
info@charlottemuseum.org
http://charlottemuseum.org/
https://www.facebook.com/charlottemuseumofhistory/
https://twitter.com/CLThistory
3500 Shamrock Drive
Mecklenburg
704-568-1774
The city of Charlotte was founded 250 years ago and since then millions have called the Queen City home. But what was it like to live here in Mecklenburg County when Charlotte was just a small village surrounded by farmland and wild woods? Join the Charlotte Museum of History to travel back to Colonial Charlotte and see the spaces, touch the objects, and hear the sounds of the past. Over the course of this two-hour program, students tour the historic Hezekiah Alexander Home Site while learning about the people who lived here over 250 years ago. Participants will see how life during the Colonial period was different from how we live today, make connections between the past and present, practice critical colonial skills like bartering, and discover the important role Hezekiah Alexander played in the founding of our state. Bring history to life for your students through this vibrant educational experience that immerses them in Colonial Mecklenburg County!
This program is designed to meet the needs of a third grade audience, but may be adjusted to fit the needs of other elementary, middle, or high school-aged students upon request.
Lauren Wallace; Education Specialist
704-568-1774
lauren@charlottemuseum.org
Tuesday-Saturday
9:00AM-3:00PM; Tuesday – Friday
The Charlotte Museum of History
$6.00 per student and $5.00 per adult
RI.3.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
Tour guides for Colonial Charlotte help students understand the root causes of immigration to the Carolina Backcountry, the American Revolution, and technological development in the 18th century. Students learn the importance of cause and effect when describing historical experience, particularly how experiences build on one another over time.
SL.3.2 Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
Colonial Charlotte uses historical objects and reproductions, along with discussion, to help students understand the foundations of Charlotte, local culture, and trade. Students are asked to consider the function and cultural importance of objects such as sugar, gourds, revolutionary documents, colonial currency, and more.
SL.3.3 Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.
Questions and responses are encouraged during the tour and activities of Colonial Charlotte. Students are asked to consider connections between 18th-century lifestyles and their own lives today.
3.H.1 Understand how events, individuals, and ideas have influenced the history of local and regional governments.
Colonial Charlotte helps students make connections between broad historical narratives (the settling of the American Colonies, cultural exchange between Native Americans and settlers, the American Revolution) and the people and concepts that shaped them. This program emphasizes differences and commonalities between the culture groups of the Carolina Backcountry and how each utilized the environment to provide for themselves.
3.E.1 Understand how the location of regions affects activity in a market economy.
In Colonial Charlotte, Students are asked to consider the trade economy of the Colonial Era, a time when cities were few and far between. An interactive discussion focuses on consumer goods, trade and bartering, exchange over geographical distance, and colonial currency.
3.G.1.3 Exemplify how people adapt to, change and protect the environment to meet their needs.
Students tour multiple buildings from the 18th century and learn up-close how early settlers altered their environment to maximize comfort, resource availability, and security. Students are prompted to consider the different approaches to resource and environment use used by Native Americans and colonists.
$100 cancellation fee.
72 hours in advance.