1. Examine the role of Quakers in helping African Americans escape slavery.

2. How did whaling change as a lucrative business over the course of its history?

What events prompted these changes?

What ended whaling?

3. People of the era made a choice to continue with the hardships of whaling or to travel the rough roads out west in search of gold during the Gold Rush.

Which opportunity would you pursue and why?

4. What characteristics did the women whalers have? Why were they known as the captain's "best mate?"

5. The well-paid business of whaling for oil and ivory lost its fascination when other forms of energy arose: crude oil and electricity. Do you foresee a time when electricity and crude oil will become unprofitable because of a better form of energy? Argue your case.

6. Whalers left home for years at a time. If your family experienced this...