Fort Hancock: A Bastion of America's Eastern Seaboard (Teaching with Historic Places)

This lesson is part of the National Park Service’s Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) program.

When Samuel J. Tilden surveyed America's most important harbor, he saw danger. "A million of soldiers," wrote New York's senior senator in 1885, "with the best equipments on the heights surrounding the harbor of New York in our present state of preparation, or rather in our total want of preparation, would be powerless to resist a small squadron of [foreign] war steamers." Nor was the threat confined to America's commercial capital: harbors from Portland, Maine, to San Francisco stood defenseless against any navy that chose to attack. Such an attack, Tilden argued, "...would inflict upon the property and business of the country an injury which can neither be foreseen nor measured."

Many late 19th-century Americans, however, believed such dangers were remote. Europeans would never attack the U.S., they argued, and therefore money spent on stronger forts and new high-powered guns would be wasted. Existing defenses and the Atlantic Ocean provided more than adequate protection, and keeping expenditures low would both limit taxes and prevent the creation of the type of standing army Americans had traditionally feared.

This lesson uses Fort Hancock in New Jersey—one of the sites Senator Tilden hoped would defend New York—as a base for examining a debate that has run throughout American history. Today Fort Hancock stands silent, part of Gateway National Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park System. Although the fort is no longer part of the nation's military, its history illustrates many important issues involving American defense policy. (Click image for full lesson plan.)

Essential Question

Is national defense a priority?

Objective

1. To trace the development of the U.S. coastal defense system and its connection to the country's foreign policy;
2. To understand the arguments favoring and opposing a large program building up coastal defenses;
3. To learn how the evolution of military technology affected this system of defense;
4. To recognize how military expenditures have affected their own community.

Background

Time Period: Late 19th and early 20th centuries
opics: This lesson could be used in U.S. history, social studies, and geography courses in units on American foreign policy around the turn of the 20th century or in courses on military history and technology.

Grade level

Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Subject

Literacy and Language Arts, Social Studies

Lesson Duration

90 Minutes

Common Core Standards

6-8.RH.2, 6-8.RH.3, 6-8.RH.4, 6-8.RH.5, 6-8.RH.6, 6-8.RH.7, 6-8.RH.8, 6-8.RH.9, 6-8.RH.10, 9-10.RH.1, 9-10.RH.2, 9-10.RH.3, 9-10.RH.4, 9-10.RH.5, 9-10.RH.6, 9-10.RH.7, 9-10.RH.8, 9-10.RH.9, 9-10.RH.10

Full Lesson Plan