WHAT DID WE SET OUT TO DO???

Our group of four people set out to find information on the South Hadley canal. We especially wanted to imagine local people's reaction to its construction. Was it popular, or disliked? After finding some information, we created a skit to act out in front of an audience. The skit is supposed to be a conversation/debate over the canal, showing all opinions and sides. We wanted to include at least one pro-canal character and another who was against its construction. Our skit is therefore an imaginary dialogue between different people who might have existed back in 1795.

In fact, we created a skit with four characters. Our characters are a Farmer, Business man, a Northhamptoner, and a Vermonter. The Vermonter and the person from Northampton dislike the canal for their own reasons. This is the same case with the businessman and the Farmer, except that they love the canal. We made our play consist of three short skits that are all connected. Of course we did make some inferences using the primary and secondary sources that we read from this time period, but overall, we are confident that our skits represent what might have really taken place. For example, we viewed many advertisements from the time period which came from the Hampshire Gazatte.

This visual shows an article that says it was cheaper to ship goods from London to Boston than from Westfield to Worcester before the creation of the canal (please see our "Works Cited" page for more information).

Another piece of information we found in our research was that some people in Northampton sued the Proprietors of the South Hadley Locks and Canals. They claimed that the South Hadley Canal led to an increased Malaria rate by stopping the water flow. We learned this through a secondary source, rather than a primary source. The source we used was an article written by Lori Stabile who writes for The Springfield Republican. This article states that malaria was increased around Northhampton and that the canal was most active in the 1830s.

This visual shows a classified page from the Hampshire Gazette and some of the many things traded such as medicines and breads. These goods must have been traded in South Hadley at the time.