Mississippi's American History Scholars Program

Amy Love Jody Paola Tracy Winton Ebony Hayes Marsha Lamb George Levy Gabe McPhearson

Lesson Plans

Summer Institute I - "Slavery, The Civil War, and Reconstruction"

Amy Love
Gautier Middle School
Gautier, Mississippi

UNIT IN WHICH THE LESSON WILL BE INCLUDED:
The Civil War, "Life During the War"
__________________________________________________________________
MISSISSIPPI CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK COMPETENCY:
3. Evaluate the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the United States
3a. Identify the causes and effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
4g. Analyze information using social studies tools (e.g., graphs, maps, charts, tables, political cartoons, etc.).
__________________________________________________________________
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1. How did the Civil War affect the diverse population on the home front in the South?
2. What did the war look like through the eyes of a child?

__________________________________________________________________
HISTORICAL CONTENT OF LESSON

People: white soldiers, white wives, white children, slaves, and slave children

Events: Civil War

Places: home front in the South, specifically Atlanta, GA

Key terms, dates, etc.: 1860s, plantations, home front

__________________________________________________________________
HISTORICAL CONCEPTS AND THEMES:

1. values, beliefs, political ideas, and institutions
2. conflict and cooperation
3. patterns of social and political interaction

HISTORICAL SKILLS/PROCESS:

1. analyzing primary sources
2. developing empathy for people in the past
3. relating past to present
4. analyzing visual sources such as photographs and artwork
5. evaluating primary sources from Internet sources

__________________________________________________________________
TEACHER RESOURCES

Web sites:

The American Civil War Homepage
http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/warweb.html

Civil War Women, On-line Archival Collections, Special Collections Library, Duke University
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/collections/civil-war-women.html

The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
University of Virginia
http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/

Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days, By Annie L. Burton
University of North Carolina
http://docsouth.unc.edu/burton/burton.html

Carrie Berry Diary, August 1, 1864-January 4, 1865
http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/manswar/pages/berrie_diary.html

__________________________________________________________________
Books/Periodicals:

Faust, Drew Gilpin. Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.
McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Potter, David M. The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1976.
Thomas, William G. and Alice E. Carter. The Civil War on the Web: A Guide to the Very Best Sites. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 2001.
Waters, Andrew, ed. Prayin' to Be Set Free, Winston-Salem: John F. Blair Publisher, 2002.
Werner, Emmy E. Reluctant Witnesses: Children's Voices from the Civil War. Westview Press, 1999.

Books/periodicals used for this lesson:

Gandy, Joan and Thomas Gandy. Natchez Victorian Children Photographic Portraits, 1865-1915. Natchez: Myrtle Bank Press, 1981.
(pp. 29, 60, 61, 95, 105, and 180)
_____________________________________________________________
Other (primary sources):

Dobson, George, Camp Phillips, to Jane Dobson, 9 December 1861. Transcript in the hand of Humphreys, David Colin (Box 1). Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi.

Dobson, George, Camp Phillips, to Annie Dobson, 9 January 1862. Transcript in the hand of Humphreys, David Colin (Box 1). Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi.

Dubuisson, Charles L. and Family, "Dubisson (Charles L.) and Family Papers, 1862-1866, WPA/Slaves Former." Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi.
_____________________________________________________________

STUDENT RESOURCES:
_____________________________________________________________
Web sites:

Some suggestions:

The Library of Congress Learning Page
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/index.html

KIDS Report Magazine-The Civil War
http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/tnl/detectives/kids/KIDS-990216.html

Pocantico Hills School-The Civil War for Kids
http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/civilwar/cwar.htm

Social Studies for Kids-Civil War
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/civilwar.htm

U.S. Mint Kid's Site:Time Machine
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/timemachine/pickera.html

National History Day (click on "Educators" and then "Links" for museums, archives, universities, and countless other sources for primary sources)
http://nationalhistoryday.org
_____________________________________________________________
Books/Periodicals:
Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils. Berkley Publisher Group, 1987.
_____________________________________________________________

INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

This lesson is based on a 95-minute block class for 8th grade American History.

1. Warm-up: The students will answer the following questions in paragraph form on their own paper: How did you feel on September 11, 2001? Do you remember what you did the days following the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon? If so, please describe. Do you think that day's events changed your home life? Please explain your answer. (15 minutes)
(Assessment: Teacher assessment of students' writing skills-
sentence structure, sentence pattern variation, vocabulary and
grammar usage, punctuation, and spelling.)

2. Students will share their paragraphs with the class. (10 minutes)

3. Students and Teacher will orally review where the American Civil War was taking place and who was involved in this war. (Students should recall the terms North and South and/or Union and Confederacy, governments, soldiers, and political leaders.) The teacher will ask the students if they think that those left at home during the war were worried about the war and/or affected by the war, and for the students to explain their thoughts (why/why not). The teacher will state that today they are going to look at how the Civil War affected wives, children, and slaves left at home in the South, as well as soldiers' concerns about their families at home in the midst of war. (10 minutes)

4. Teacher and students will discuss the assignment: To analyze and describe primary sources related to people who lived during and after the Civil War in order to better understand what life was like on the home front during the War (and possibly to get an idea of how life changed for former slaves after the War). The Teacher will assign students to five groups. Students will have 25 minutes to analyze and describe their primary sources. Groups will complete one group sheet with the answers on it and present their primary sources to the class.

Group 1 will be given pictures of white children and women during
and after the Civil War (Natchez Victorian Children Photographic Portraits, 1865-1915, pp. 29, 60, 61, and 95) and the following questions on a worksheet:

1) What are the captions of each of your pictures? 2) Who is/are the
subject(s) of your pictures? 3) What role do you think the subjects of the pictures played at home? 4) Describe any distinguishing elements in the picture that help to display the emotions of the subject(s). 5) Describe any elements in the pictures taken during the Civil War that illustrate that there is a war going on. 6) Describe any elements in the pictures taken after the Civil War that illustrate that there is peace.

Group 2 will be given pictures of black children during and after the Civil War (Natchez Victorian Children Photographic Portraits, 1865-1915, p. 105 and 180, and "Dubisson (Charles L.) and Family Papers, 1862-1866.") and the following questions on a worksheet:

Group 3 will be given excerpts from Carrie Berry's Diary and the following questions on a worksheet:

1) What is the title of your document? 2) Who is the author of your
document? 3) Who is the author writing to? 4) How was your author involved in the Civil War? 5) Where and when was this document written? 6) Pick one brief section or quotation from your document that best illustrates the author's life/emotions during the War. 7) Write a brief description about your document.

Group 4 will be given excerpts from Annie L. Burton's Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days and the following questions on a worksheet:

1) What is the title of your document? 2) Who is the author of your
document? 3) Who is the author writing to? 4) How was your author involved in the Civil War? 5) Where and when was this document written? 6) Pick one brief section or quotation from your document that best illustrates the author's life/emotions during the War. 7) Write a brief description about your document.

Group 5 will be given letters from George Dobson to his wife and daughter and the following questions on a worksheet:

5. Each group will present their primary source descriptions to the class. (20 minutes)
(Assessment of Group Activity: teacher observation during group
work time, assessment of oral presentation [are the questions answered adequately?] and oral questioning strategies.)

6. Wrap-up: (Students will go back to their individual seats to complete this activity.)
The students will pick one person different from the ones they studied in their group to explain how the Civil War affected that person's home life. The students may either write or draw a picture in response to the following questions written on the board: How did the person you chose cope with the Civil War? Describe how it affected their every day lives. Note: You must write a one-sentence caption if you choose to draw a picture. (15 minutes)

The students will turn this activity into the teacher.
(Assessment: Teacher assessment of writing/picture for student
comprehension of the effects of the Civil War on the home life of civilians or how soldiers coped with family issues in the midst of war.)