Evaluating the Impact of Reconstruction
Course: U.S. History
Theme: 4. Slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction
Culminating Assignment:
Focus/Big Idea(s):
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Imaginative writing in which students evaluate the
successes and failures of Reconstruction from the
perspective of a member of a particular segment of U.S.
society.
Reconstruction
Equal protection under the law
Citizenship
States Rights
Culminating Assessment:
 Critical Response
 DBQ
 Essay
 Imaginative Writing
 Project
Essential Question(s):
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What were the goals of Reconstruction and were they met?
Is the success or failure of the Civil War correlated to the success of failure of Reconstruction?
What were the boundaries of freedom for African Americans in the post Civil War Era and why did these boundaries exist? If
boundaries were removed, explain why?
How was the nation’s commitment to its founding ideals tested during Reconstruction?
PPS Standards:
Academic Vocabulary: (Content to Know)
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Skills to learn:
The phases of Reconstruction (Presidential, Congressional)
Post Civil War amendments (13,14, 15)
Freedmen’s Bureau
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Black Codes
Jim Crow Laws
Freedmen, Scalawags, and Carpetbaggers
Share cropping and tenant farming
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Cultural literacy, highlight texts,
summarizing
Clarify of key terms
Access primary sources
Analysis of primary sources
Observation of patterns and trends
Recognize relevant information
Techniques for successful discussion such
as communication of findings, the support
and modification of thesis
Time Frame: (in Hours)
Instructional Design: Outline of lessons, in step-by-step progression. Attach additional pages.
1. Read secondary sources for background on Reconstruction. Assign History Alive:Pursuing American Ideals, chapter
11, excerpts from Who Built America,Volume 2 by the American Social History Project, excerpts from
Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner, and excerpts from The Promise of the
New South: Life After Reconstruction by Edward Ayers.
a. Students should use these sources for at least 2 objectives:
b. Gain a basic understanding of the academic vocabulary through written responses and/or class discussion.
c. Critical response to the perspectives of the historians regarding one or both of the following: reaction to
Reconstruction from different sectors of U.S. society, overall assessment of the successes and failures of
Reconstruction.
d. Share findings in large group or small group discussions. Students should record information and
perspectives they had not previously noted in their assignments.
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Evaluating the Impact of Reconstruction
2. Students will begin the process of enhancing their understanding through the use of primary sources. The lesson is
called “Doing History” developed by Frederick Drake of Indiana State University. The general focus of these lessons
is to continue to evaluate the successes or failures of Reconstruction, however the particular question will be the
following: What were the boundaries of freedom for African Americans in the post Civil War era? Why did these
boundaries exist and in areas where there were no boundaries, why was that the case?
The process is as follows:
a. Selection of First-Order Document – The document selected is the 14th amendment. The rationale for this
document is that it is one of the clearest outcomes of the Civil War to address the injustice of slavery and
denial of basic political and civil freedoms. It can be seen as both the culmination of the abolitionist
movement and the fount from which further social justice change.
Before discussion students will use a the “Primary Source Analysis Guide to Historical Thinking: Print Documents”
to assist them in their understanding of the text and its meaning.
b. Selection of 3-5 Second-Order Document – The following documents have been chosen as Second-Order
Documents:
“Free the Slaves and Then Leave Them Alone,” Address to the Emancipation League, Frederick
Douglass, 1862 – This document has been selected in order to put the 14th amendment in the context of
the demands of one of the most ardent abolitionists. This speech will allow students to judge whether or
not they believe Frederick Douglass’ demands and philosophical beliefs are reflected in the law.
“Unbound Miscellaneous Papers,” Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Georgia,
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1869, National Archives Publication M798
Roll 36 – This document has been selected in order to determine one of the functions of the Freedmen’s
Bureau, an agency established during the first phase of Reconstruction. It contains general conditions of
a contract and names of male and female laborers as well as children living on the plantation.
Cartoon entitled, “The Union As It Was” – This document has been selected to show a white, Southern
reaction to the reforms and changes of the Reconstruction period. The focus is on two white supremacist
groups, the KKK and the White League. Students should use the “Primary Source Analysis Guide to
Historical Thinking: Photograph/Image.”
“An Act to Confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, and for other Purposes” (Mississippi Black Codes) - This
document has been chose to represent a Southern white perspective by examining a legislative action to
respond to any advancements made by freed slaves shortly after the end of the Civil War. Students
should use the appropriate “Primary Source Analysis Guide to Historical Thinking.”
Discussion of the Second-Order Documents will focus on how each relates to the First-Order Document.
More specifically, how does each document reinforce or challenge the students’ interpretation of the 14th
Amendment. For example, with some historical context, the students will know that the Black Codes
were rescinded partially as a result of the passage of the 14th amendment. The discussion could focus on
how the 14th amendment would lead to the nullification of these codes.
c. Student discovery of the Third-Order Documents – Students will now find a primary document that relates to
the First-Order Document. This serves the same purpose as the Second-Order documents except the students are
practicing their research skills and their ability to locate a primary source that, in this case, relates to the 14th
amendment. Documents that students might find statistics on the number of elected Black, Southern legislators,
cartoons, Jim Crow laws, memoirs or letters from Southern blacks and whites reacting to Reconstruction, views
of W.E. B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington, interviews on the PBS website, “Reconstruction: The Second
Civil War.”
Students will have to analyze this document and include a rationale for their choice.
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3. Socratic Seminar focusing on the following question: What were the boundaries of freedom for African Americans
in the post Civil War era? Why did these boundaries exist and in areas where there were no boundaries, why was that
the case?
Students will need a “ticket” to participate. This means that they will have to have an analysis of all of the First-Order
Document, all of the Second-Order Document, and their own Third-Order Document as well as all previous assignments
related to the secondary sources.
4. Students will develop a writing with imagination as the culminating assessment. The purpose of the writing will be
to examine the successes and failures of Reconstruction from a particular perspective. Students will be encouraged to
take on one specific persona. Options include: newly freed slave, Southern plantation owner, white supremacist,
abolitionist, black legislator, Democratic politician from the South, Republican politician from the North, Booker T.
Washington, W.E. B Dubois, Frederick Douglass, Andrew Johnson, and U.S. Grant.
Resources and materials: (Text, links, videos, speakers, etc. Please note if
available district-wide)
 History Alive:Pursuing American Ideals
 Who Built America,Volume 2 by the American
Social History
Project
 Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric
Foner,
 The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction by Edward
Ayers.
 “Free the Slaves and then Leave them Alone,” Address to the
Emancipation League in Boston, 1862
 “Mississippi Black
Codes”http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blmississippi_blackcodes
.htm
 Freedmen’s Bureau, “Unbound Miscellaneous Papers,”
http://www.freedmensbureau.com/georgia/contracts/georgiacontract.ht
m
 “The Union As It Was,” (cartoon) http://history.grand-forks.k12.nd.us/
 14th amendment
 “Reconstruction: The Second Civil War,” video
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/
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http://www.archives.gov/
Susan Snyder, 3/2/2016
Additional supports and extensions: (TAG, SPED,
ESL, etc.)
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