Civil War: Matthew Brady Photos

What was it like to know the Civil War was coming? Using a graphic timeline activity and excerpts of speeches from Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, learners consider the early days of the conflict. The resource includes prompts for...

Raise the curtain to a class play that depicts the Civil War through both factual information and literary devices. The performance showcases the Battle of Antietam (Battle of Sharpsburg) and brings attention to women's roles, as well as...

Can we learn a thing or two about history by looking at pictures from the past? As young historians view 2-D and 3-D primary source photographs, they respond to a series of worksheets that guides them toward unveiling clues about the past. 

Explore how the Civil War impacted the Civil Rights Movement. Class members complete a series of projects for a unit that uses a layered curriculum approach to learning. 

The American Civil War is the theme of this packet of materials prepared for Black History Month. Class members learn about the roles that African Americans played during the Civil War and examine the African-American experience after...

Students take an in depth look at different aspects of the Civil War. Using primary source documents, they discover that people who lived during the war are not so different from them. They read about the experience of a Confederate...

What is the sharecropping system? What role did it play in the post-Civil War economy of the South? Who were the sharecroppers? Who employed them? How were they paid? To answer these questions, kids examine a series of sharecropper...

Encourage class members to add expression and put themselves back in time during the Civil War with a reader's theater activity. The scripts include dialogue on what it was like for the Union and Confederate sides during this time.

Here is a summary of the factors that led to the Civil War. You can also link to pages with photos on battles, forts, communication, hospitals, and more.

Students view photographs of the Civil War. In this photojournalism lesson plan, students look at Mathew Brady's photographs of the Civil War. They discover the evolution of photographic equipment and analyze Civil War photographs.