Era 4: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850–1877)

Summary: Students will consider and explain why many New Jerseyans did not support President Lincoln in the 1860 and 1864 presidential elections, identify how New Jersey supported the Union in the Civil War, explain the views of “Copperheads” and the Copperhead press, and analyze the arguments made by the New Jersey press in the 1864 presidential election and take a position about their strength.

Overarching Questions:

CIVICS: Have individuals and groups influenced public policy during this time...

Summary: The Proclamation was, in the words of Frederick Douglass, "the first step on the part of the nation in its departure from the thralldom of the ages." Through examination of the original document, related writings of Lincoln, as well as little known first person accounts of African Americans during the war, students can return to this "first step" and explore the obstacles and alternatives we faced in making the journey toward freedom, equality, and "a more perfect Union."

Overarching...

Summary: Faced with Confederate sympathizers in the state of Maryland, surrounding Washington, D.C., President Lincoln ordered the suspension the writ of habeas corpus. One of the first to be arrested and imprisoned was John Merryman. The lesson utilizes a moot court to decide if Merryman’s case was correctly decided. It will look at the decision of Chief Justice Roger Taney and arguments from President Lincoln.

Overarching Question:

CIVICS: How well does the government balance individual...

Summary: This multi-day, five-lesson unit on President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address enables students to understand, summarize, and analyze primary and secondary source material of historical significance. Lessons 1-3 invite students to “read like a detective”, draw logical inferences, and write succinct summaries of a portion of the Gettysburg Address. Lessons 4 and 5 invite students to synthesize their work in lessons 1-3 as they engage in larger contextual discussions and write an...

Summary: In this interactive lesson, students will learn about the Homestead Act. Through an analysis of photographs, maps, videos, and graphs, they discover how the act and recently introduced technologies, helped different communities establish a new life on the Great Plains. Students will also explore the obstacles that homesteaders faced while living on the Great Plains and how they survived. At the end of the lesson, students will answer the essential question: What obstacles did...

Summary: There are two excellent approaches offered to explore this issue. In both, students will learn about the debate that occurred within the women’s rights movement over the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. In the lesson by Facing History, students will do a close reading of a speech from Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an African American woman and leading activist in the fight for Black freedom and women’s rights. Students will appreciate that progress in making a...

Coming soon.

Summary: Students will use primary and secondary sources to build their understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment, “take a stand” on a line continuum regarding the degree to which the Fourteenth Amendment has changed American society over time.

Overarching questions:

CIVICS: Have the concepts of liberty, justice and/or equality changed during the time period? If so, how and what has been the impact? CIVICS: How well does the government balance individual rights and the common good, including the...

Summary: In this lesson, students will explore the consequences of the laws passed as part of Radical Reconstruction, and reflect on how those laws affected the strength of American democracy. Students will analyze the definitions of democratic citizenship, how opportunities to participate in civic life are granted and protected, and how citizens choose to participate in its civic life. Students will also assess democracy as an aspiration that nations may strive toward and whether nations can...

Summary: In this lesson, students will confront a decisive period of violence that spread across the South between 1873 and 1876. Students will reflect on the factors that led to the success of this violence in precipitating the defeat of Republican governments in the former Confederacy, and they will consider the choices available to individual citizens and government officials who did not support this campaign of violence and intimidation. Students will also understand that violence and...