Loi-Natalie Laing
11th Grade U.S. History
Florida
African Americans in the Civil War Lesson Plan
Standards
SS.912.A.2.1: Review the causes and consequences of the Civil War.
SS.912.A.1.2: Utilize a variety of primary and secondary sources to identify author, historical
significance, audience, and authenticity to understand a historical period.
SS.912.A.1.4: Analyze how images, symbols, objects, cartoons, graphs, charts, maps, and artwork may be
used to interpret the significance of time periods and events from the past.
Materials
SmartBoard, Laptop Cart, Civil War Photographs from Valley of the Shadow Website, Wordle
Goal
Students will learn how to utilize primary sources to study people involved in a historic event.
Objective
1. Students will utilize words to visually represent the historical thoughts and ideas presented in the
Civil War photographs of African Americans.
2. Students will be able to explain why photographs are a primary source.
3. Students will be able to list at least one piece of information about the Civil War using a photograph.
Vocabulary
Union, Confederate, Contraband of War, fortification,
Plan of Instruction
1. Introduce Lesson: Have you ever looked at photographs from when you, or anyone in your family was
younger? What can old photographs tell us about events that happened in the past? Remember when
we did the lesson on “Sourcing”? What kind of source is a photograph?
2. Have students create a Vocabulary Thinking Map for “Primary Source”.
3. Explain to students that the Civil War was the first war in which photography was used to document
the events that transpired. Discuss what kind of things historians could learn about the role of African
Americans in the Civil War by looking at photographs.
4. In pairs assign students two photographs from the Valley of the Shadow website and have them
analyze using the Photograph Analysis Worksheet from the National Archives
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/photo.html
Photographs
Wilson Chinn, a branded slave from Louisiana, also exhibiting instruments of torture used to punish slaves
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/Images/afam108p5590a.html?q=db:images%20AND%20image_name:afam108p
5590a.GIF
African Americans Among White Revelers
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/Images/afam18p895a.html?q=db:images%20AND%20image_name:afam18p895
a.GIF
African American Attendant with Union Officers
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/Images/afam18p895b.html?q=db:images%20AND%20image_name:afam18p895
b.GIF
Officers of 4th US Colored Infantry, Fort Slocum
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/Images/afam35p1741.html?q=db:images%20AND%20image_name:afam35p174
1.GIF
Company E, 4th US Colored Infantry, Fort Lincoln
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/Images/afam35p1742.html?q=db:images%20AND%20image_name:afam35p174
2.GIF
African-American man tending cooking pots
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/Images/afam51p2523.html?q=db:images%20AND%20image_name:afam51p252
3.GIF
Major Martin R. Delany of the 104th USCT
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/Images/afam74L3659.html?q=db:images%20AND%20image_name:afam74L3659
.GIF
Field and Staff [Officers] of 39th US Colored Infantry in front of Petersburg
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/Images/afam35p1743.html?q=db:images%20AND%20image_name:afam35p174
3.GIF
6. Have student pairs create a Wordle using the list of people, objects, and activities they discovered
when analyzing the photographs.
7. Students share Wordles with the class during the whole class discussion and compare the similarities
that they notice in the visual patterns.
Ask students what similarities they predict they will see in their classmates Wordles? What themes can
be identified? How do the word clouds fit in with the historical context of the photographs?
8. Whole Class Discussion
Why do some people standby during times of injustice while others try to stop or prevent injustice?
Why do citizens choose to help their government in times of war?
What effect did the Civil War have on race relations in the United States?
Was the Civil War the beginning of the civil rights movement for African Americans?
9. Exit Ticket: Students respond in writing to the questions: Why are primary sources important for
studying history? How can photographs tell us about people and historical events in the past?