What was life like for enslaved and free black people before the American Civil War? Explore the building tension between states and the freedom of individuals with a thorough social studies lesson. Learners of all ages explore primary and secondary source documents that depict the lives and rights of various people from the 1800's before engaging in discussion about their observations.

Concepts

slavery, secondary source analysis, primary source analysis, the united states civil war

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Use during a focus on the Civil War or when working on primary source analysis
• Send the link home for learners to explore the historical background and materials on their own before engaging in the class lesson

Classroom Considerations

• Lesson plans delineate tasks between elementary, middle school, and high school class levels
• Though the lesson explores the history of Virginia, it is applicable to any state's study of slavery and the Civil War
• The first lesson in a six-part unit

Pros

• Navigation between lessons and auxiliary materials is simple and straightforward, making planning easy
• Encourages open-ended questions and primary and secondary source analysis
• Includes parallel curriculum suggestions

Cons

• None

Common Core

RH.6-8.1 RH.6-8.2 RH.6-8.9 RH.9-10.1 RH.9-10.2 RH.9-10.9 RH.11-12.1 RH.11-12.2 RH.11-12.9