Monica Grabin

The Wabanaki of Maine, their lifestyles and beliefs; stories from Wabanaki tradition, such as Gluskap and the Birch Tree and The Gifts of Gluskap; Wabanaki songs; the coming of Europeans. A few of the songs: Tuhtuwas, Ancient Peoples, Sacred Lands, The Birchbark Canoe, Oh, Great Forest, as well as Gluskap stories.

The lumbering industry from colonial Broad Arrow Pines to the height of white pine logging in the 1800's, how the men lived and what they did, log drives, dangers. Cod fishing before 1620, the importance of the cod, shipbuilding, sailors' lives and the work on ships, sea shanties that accompanied the work, the triangle trades, ice trade, clipper ships and more. A few of the songs: The Lumberman's Alphabet, The Jam on Gerry's Rock, The Frozen Logger, Canada-i-o, The Good Old State of Maine, Cape Cod Girls, I'ze the B'ye, Haul Away Joe.

Life in colonial times, men's and women's work, farming, the kinds of music they listened to, children's work, the Revolution and the stresses it placed on families, propaganda on both sides, the battle of Yorktown, British surrender, and the mystery of Yankee Doodle revealed. Some of the songs: Old Man in the Woods, The Farmer's Curst Wife, the Golden Vanity, Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me?, The Dying Redcoat, Yankee Doodle.

Women's lives and work from colonial times to the Civil Rights Movement. Tracing the role of women, how their work changed during the Industrial Revolution, women in slavery, Harriet Tubman, the Civil Rights movement and Rosa Parks. This program has been very successful with both girls and boys, and stresses that all men, women and children are affected by, and influence, history. A few of the songs: The Single Girl, Wagoner's Lad, Cotton Mill Girls, Bread and Roses, Union Maid, I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier.

The Near West, life in isolated communities, the Erie canal, the groups who built the railroads, the Gold Rush, the government policy on Indians, the Cherokee and the Trail of Tears, and the near extinction of the buffalo to facilitate Indian removal. A few of the songs: Common Bill, Sweet Betsy from Pike, Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill, John Henry, Now that the Buffalo's Gone, Texas Rangers.

The realities of slavery, daily life, cotton, the Underground Railroad and other types of slave resistance, the Civil War's causes and the emotions of each side as they are amply reflected in the songs of the conflict, Emancipation and Reconstruction. A few of the songs: Dixie, Go Down Moses, Lincoln and Liberty, Shiloh Hill, Tenting Tonight, Many Thousands Gone, The Battle Cry of Freedom.

The beginnings in England, the first American mills in New England, how they worked, the workforce of teenage girls, life in the factories, the cotton that fueled the wealth of New England and the slavery that produced it, immigration, early labor unrest and strikes, the mills moving south. The railroads and who built them, and the mines which produced the coal the railroads used for fuel. A few of the songs: Cotton Mill Girls, the Lewiston Factory Girl, No Irish Need Apply, Pick a Bale of Cotton, 16 Tons, Poor Man, Rich Man.

The Gay Nineties, the images of women and the realities, the beginnings of modern popular music and culture, the movement for women's suffrage, the war and its terrible realities. A few of the songs: After the Ball, Daisy Bell, I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier, Down on Penney's Farm, Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire, Over There.

Farmers, white and black, in the twenties, jazz, the Harlem Renaissance, the boom of Wall street, the crash, the Depression, the Dust Bowl, Hoover, FDR and the New Deal. A few of the songs: The Farmer is the Man, Down and Out, Brother, Can You Spare a Dime, Got the Jitters, Hallelujah I'm a Bum, the Worker's Appeal, Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries.