Case
Teaching Notes
Supplementary Resources
Abstract
This is a case about the history of road building and maintenance in 19th-century United States. Through the use of primary sources, it introduces students to some practical lessons of historical methods and encourages them to think about comparative economic systems. Road work documents from Rockingham County in the 1830s are provided as sources that students can use to build their understanding of a 19th-century county road network.
This case was prepared for inclusion in SAGE Business Cases primarily as a basis for classroom discussion or self-study, and is not meant to illustrate either effective or ineffective management styles. Nothing herein shall be deemed to be an endorsement of any kind. This case is for scholarly, educational, or personal use only within your university, and cannot be forwarded outside the university or used for other commercial purposes.
2023 Sage Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Resources
Click the links below to download the figures.
Figure 1: Handwritten receipt for $1.50 for supervising a half day of work on a country road in Rockingham County, VA, in 1834.
Figure 2: A Rockingham County court order for Jared Powell to work on a road in 1835.
Figure 3: An 1834 county court order from Rockingham. Wear and tear is apparent. The cotton-based paper has been creased and folded. Some water damage has occurred.
Figure 4: An 1832 county court order. Orders to work on roads could be very precise and draw on local knowledge. In this order, John Landis is to work on “The Stage Road” beginning at “10 feet North of the mouth of the lane between [Kyser?] and Smith plantations where [survey precinct] No. 2 ends and ends at the run about a quarter of a mile south of George Clein’s house (where Sr. Clein formerly lived.”
Figure 5: An 1827 document recording road labor in Rockingham County. The laborers signed only with an “X”, likely because they were not literate. Literacy kept powerful people in power, and literate scribes were essential for the organizing system to function properly.
Figure 6: An 1827 document recording road labor in Rockingham County. German handwritten in the signatures indicates the foreign birth of many Rockingham County residents in the early nineteenth century.
This case was prepared for inclusion in SAGE Business Cases primarily as a basis for classroom discussion or self-study, and is not meant to illustrate either effective or ineffective management styles. Nothing herein shall be deemed to be an endorsement of any kind. This case is for scholarly, educational, or personal use only within your university, and cannot be forwarded outside the university or used for other commercial purposes.
2023 Sage Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
