Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Create a Magic Lantern Show; Freed People in the Reconstruction South

For Teachers 8th - 11th
Engage your scholars by having them create "magic lantern shows" inspired by the film Dr. Toer's Amazing Magic Lantern Show: A Different View of Emancipation. As they study the South's Reconstruction through primary...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

African Americans in the Civil War

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine the contributions of African American soldiers during the Civil War. In pairs, they complete Civil War timeline worksheets. They use character cards to assume the identities of African Americans and determine whether or...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Civil War Research Project

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Give your WWI study collaborative energy using a group research project. Groups are assigned one of the six main themes (included). Each group has an outline to guide research but will need an assignment guide. Consider supplementing the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The age of majority: How old is old enough?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students research on the Web and in books the "age of majority" in general and how it applies in their particular states. Explore, too, "emancipation" and whether this is another way for teens to earn additional rights. Students write a...
PPT
Curated OER

The Brief American Pageant: The Furnace of the Civil War

For Teachers 8th - 11th
The eyes of an American History teacher (or Civil War buff) will open wide with this series of maps, which detail the campaigns and battles of the Civil War. Meant to supplement chapter 21 of The American Pageant, this presentation would...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Afro-Caribbean Americans and the Sugar Economy

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars read the narrative, Caribbean Immigration and examine how sugar production and migration of people of African origin have been intertwined for centuries. Working in three groups, they present oral reports on the three eras...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Black Americans in Delaware from 1639 to the Present: An Overview

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students complete matching activities and write an essay about Black Americans in Delaware from 1639.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Identity, Making of African American Identity: V. 2, 1865 1917

For Students 9th - 10th
Sixteen primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, visual images, audio, and video material-that explore how African Americans created group and individual identities in the late-nineteenth century.
Unit Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: African Immigration: Africans in America: Life in a Slave Society

For Students 9th - 10th
An excellent overview of the African American experience in America beginning with West Africa during the slave trade, through emancipation and reconstruction, to "New beginnings."
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Neh: Edsit Ement: The Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom's First Steps

For Teachers 9th - 10th
By reading and studying a variety of written resources--the Emancipation Proclamation and newspaper archives--high school learners explore the steps Lincoln took towards emancipating the slaves and freed slaves' reaction to the...
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: Learning Page: The Freedmen

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource provides information about the Freedmen, who were free after the Emancipation of Slaves.
eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: 1863: The Changing Nature of the War

For Students 11th - 12th
Students will learn about the term "total war" and be able to provide examples. They will also be able to describe mobilization efforts in the North and the South and explain why 1863 was a pivotal year in the war.
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: African American Odyssey: Reconstruction and Its Aftermath

For Students 9th - 10th
Part of a virtual exhibit by the Library of Congress, this site details the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the newly freed slaves. It contains photographs of artwork and a map from the period.
Website
Cornell University

Cornell University: Library: I Will Be Heard: The Emancipation Proclamation

For Students 9th - 10th
The Emancipation Proclamation changed the focus of the Civil War. Read about its importance, but also its inability to free a single slave in the South. Find a link to Abraham Lincoln which explains his change of thinking about the only...
Handout
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Mutual Benefit, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Four documents establishing black mutual assistance and self-help organizations from the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. A link to each document is provided.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Citizenship, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Public addresses, letters, and narratives about the absence of and the need for citizenship rights for African Americans. Links to resources used to lobby for equal rights are provided at the top of the page.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Emancipation, 1864 1865

For Students 9th - 10th
Letters and narratives of slaves freed at the end of the Civil War. An interesting look at the confusion and eagerness which confronted these newly freed Americans.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Buying Freedom, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Narratives from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries depicting the struggle by blacks to purchase their own freedom and the impediments they faced.
Handout
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.

New Georgia Encyclopedia: Emancipation

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about emancipation in the state of Georgia, the struggle for a new social order and all that it entailed in this article from the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
Activity
Cynthia J. O'Hora

Mrs. O's House: Emancipation Proclamations

For Students 9th - 10th
Students will review, compare and contrast the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 with the District of Columbia Emancipation Act.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs: Culture Shock: Huck Finn in Context

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This site features information on themes from Huck Finn. You will find activities and discussion questions to accompany the different sections.
Primary
Sam Houston State University

Modern European History: Declaration of Alexander Ii Emancipating the Serfs

For Students 9th - 10th
This site contains the official document of the emancipation of the serfs by Alexander II in 1861. From the book, Readings in Modern European History, edited by James Robinson and Charles Beard, printed in 1908.
Handout
National Women's Hall of Fame

National Women's Hall of Fame: Sojourner Truth

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Women's Hall of Fame provides a brief biography of the famous abolitionist and former slave, Sojourner Truth.
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: Free (?) African Americans

For Students 5th - 8th
Not all African-Americans were slaves in the South. Some were freed by their owners, others escaped, but none had the same rights as free whites. Read about their restrictions that were put into law. Find out about the church...