A-Working on the Railroad: Westward Expansion in the United States
Download PDF Version of this Lesson Plan Here.
Introduction
Railroads were the primary mode of transportation from 1830 until the invention of the automobile. The first rail corporation, the Baltimore and Ohio, opened fourteen miles of track in 1830. By 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed, enabling freight and passengers to cross the country in days, rather than months, and at a fraction of the cost.
Songs and folklore developed in tandem with the advent of railroads. “A-Working on the Railroad” was sung both by railroad workers on land and by sailors at sea. It reflects the work of thousands of Irish immigrants to the United States who built railways between the 1830s and the 1860s. This variant was collected in Utah, the state in which the Transcontinental Railroad was completed.
Activity
- • What is this song about, and what decade does it refer to?
Project score and listen to recording: https://kodalycollection.org/song.cfm?id=1128
- • Who is the singer, and where is he from? (See informant information at top of score)
- • What happened in Utah in 1869?
- • When was this song collected? (Students can also notice the collector, Alan Lomax.) Could the singer have been alive when the transcontinental railroad was finished?
- • The song is in verse-chorus form; what are the words of the chorus? Do they provide a hint as to which group of immigrants that worked on building railroads might have created this folk song? (Irish - The Irish potato famine began in 1845, with nearly two million Irish migrating to the U.S., almost a quarter of the population; the song takes some liberty with dating, starting with 1841.)
Listen to recording again, with students joining in on the chorus (or more if they choose).
- • In this lithograph from 1868 (a year before the transcontinental railroad was finished), what other modes of transportation is the train overtaking? https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.03213/
- • What do you think the title “Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way” refers to?
The 19th century, especially from the 1840 onward, was an expansionist time. In 1840, only 3,000 miles of track existed in the United States. The gold rush in California in 1849 created a group of wealthy men with the means to finance the western portion of the transcontinental railroad. By 1900, there were 259,000 miles of track.
- • What other main immigrant group contributed to building the western railroads? (Chinese)
Student project
Students write their own lyrics for this song, starting with 2021, or another historical event with which they are familiar and creating 5 (or more) verses.
Process: Students listen to the song to discover the pattern of the lyrics (ABBC DDDC).
Line A states the year and line D, in the chorus, can stay the same. For verse one, students need to complete the B motive and the C motives. (Students will want to create their C line first, since it relates to what happened each year.) For subsequent verses, only the B motive changes (to rhyme with the number) because C is a refrain that stays the same throughout. A few students can share their creations, singing the parts they have devised while everyone joins in on the rest of the song.
Two - thousand and twenty-one,
That’s the year
That’s the year
A –
Air-y, air-y aye-ry-o (3x)
A–
Another folk song
“Way Out in Idaho” was also recorded in 1938 by Alan Lomax and describes the life of a railroad worker. It mentions Kilpatrick (of Scottish/Irish descent), who hired “man-catchers” to lure workers for the backbreaking work. An article about this song, and photos of the Kilpatrick brothers, is available at:
Additional resources
For more information on the beginnings of American railroads, visit:
Folklore and Folksong of Trains is a blog by Stephanie Hall, a Reference Specialist at the American Folklife Center which includes links to other Library of Congress resources: https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2015/07/folklore-of-trains-in-usa-part-one/
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2015/08/folklore-of-trains-in-usa-part-two/
