Lesson Plan

African American Life After the Civil War - Sharecropping

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This African American Life After the Civil War - Sharecropping lesson plan also includes:

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 contracts and then craft a five-sentence paragraph that describes sharecropping and explains how the system affected the life of African Americans in the South.

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CCSS: Adaptable
Instructional Ideas
  • Access and show the sharecroppers video (listed in step 3) to provide an context for the lesson
Classroom Considerations
  • The lesson presumes class members have experience reading and analyzing primary source documents
  • The lesson is designed to follow a study of the post-Civil War period and the economic challenges the South faced during the Reconstruction Era
Pros
  • The five-page resource includes background information for instructors and a step-by-step plan
Cons
  • Instructors must provide their own transcriptions for the primary source documents
  • Groups are not provided with any focus or discussion questions to help them analyze the primary source documents