VS.8a

Identifying the effects of Reconstruction on life in Virginia.

READY RESOURCES

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• In this lesson, students will learn what Virginia was like during Reconstruction and how life in Virginia was affected during this period following the Civil War.
  
  
• Explain that following the war, Virginia and other former Confederate states had to rebuild.
  
  
• Guide students to understand that Virginians faced serious problems in rebuilding the state after the war.
  
  
• Introduce the term Reconstruction. Explain that Reconstruction refers to the period following the Civil War in which Congress passed laws designed to rebuild the country and bring the southern states back into the Union.
  
  
• Identify the following problems faced by Virginians during Reconstruction: millions of freed slaves needed housing, clothing, food, and jobs; Virginia’s economy was in ruins because money had no value and banks were closed; and railroads, bridges, plantations, and crops were destroyed.
  
  
• Tell students that during the Civil War, Virginia used Confederate bills as money. Now that the war was over, this money had no value. If available, share examples of Confederate money with students. (Examples can be found in Virginia: The History and Culture of a Commonwealth from The Library of Virginia.) Ask students what would happen to the banks of Virginia today if money no longer had any value. Help them conclude that banks in the former Confederate states had to close.
  
  
• Explain that Virginia and other former Confederate states had many problems that needed to be solved. Congress passed laws designed to rebuild the country and bring the southern states back into the Union. Congress set up a government agency called the Freedmen’s Bureau, which would provide food, schools, and medical care for freed slaves in Virginia and in other states in the south.
  
  
• Identify the following measures taken to resolve problems. The Freedmen’s Bureau was a government agency that provided food, schools, and medical care for freed slaves and others in Virginia. In the rest of the south and Virginia, sharecropping was a common system after the war in which freedmen and poor white farmers rented land from a landowner by promising to pay the owner with a share of the crop.
  
  
• Use the following Web sites for additional resources on the Freedmen’s Bureau:
  “Freedman’s Bureau Records: An Overview” at http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue
  “Brief Overview” at http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/HIUS403/freedmen
  
  
• Have students recall who did the labor on the plantations in Virginia. Lead them to understand that without labor to assist with raising the crops and refurbishing farmland, plantations of white farmers were likely to fail. Ask, “How could the freed African Americans, poor white farmers, and the landowners of large farms help each other?” Lead discussion to sharecropping, in which land was rented from a landowner with a promise to pay with a share of the crop. Sharecropping was a common system in Virginia.
  
  
• Use the following resources for student research:
  "Reconstruction and Its Aftermath” at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit
  “Reconstruction: the Second Civil War” at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction
  “A Visual Timeline of Reconstruction” at http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/reconstruction/timeline.html
  “Virginia Center for Digital History on Reconstruction” at http://www.teacherlink.org/content/social/
  “Becoming New Southerners” at http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/new_southerners.htm
  
  
• Have student groups research information about Reconstruction in Virginia from this student oriented Web site.
  http://www.mcps.org/ss/5thgrade/postrecon.html
  
  
• Share with students the information from the exhibition, The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship, which showcases the incomparable African American collections of the Library of Congress including Reconstruction and its aftermath.
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart5.html
  
  
• Collect additional information from the University of Virginia's Web site "Digital History and the American Civil War" about the Freedman's Bureau.
  http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/freedmen1.html
  
  
• This site offers classroom group activities that may assist the students in understanding sharecropping in Virginia.
  http://www.mcps.org/ss/5thgrade/ShareCropTN.pdf

TEACHER BACKGROUND RESOURCES

WEB SITES

• http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/new_southerners.htm
  This site gives insight into the social and economic events of Reconstruction and beyond.
  
  
• http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/HIUS403/freedmen/overview.html
  This site supplies a brief history of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands during Reconstruction. It outlines four areas of contribution to the life of emancipated slaves.
  
  
• http://www.lva.lib.va.us
  This site provides access to multiple databases, digital images of text, photographs, and maps.
  
  
• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart5.html
  This two-part site explores the life of former slaves during Reconstruction, including efforts for education and economic equality.
  
  
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/states/fr.html
  This site offers an extensive list of electronic and printed resources on Reconstruction.
  
  
• http://www.vahistorical.org/storyofvirginia.htm
  This site consists of ten concise, easy-to-read chapters on Virginia history from prehistoric times to the present.
  
  
• http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/reconstruction/timeline.html
  This chronological presentation identifies and describes the major events of 1865-1877.
  
  
• http://chumby.dlib.vt.edu/melissa/posters/vastudiesposter.html
  Users can click on “The Civil War Era” for posters on people and events of the Civil War.