December 3, 1867: Third Annual Message to Congress | Miller Center
Eric Foner called this annual message of Andrew Johnson "perhaps the most blatantly racist pronouncement ever to appear on an official state document"
08: Reconstruction
Special Message | The American Presidency Project
Grant's message to Congress on the anniversary of the 15th Amendment
Letter from John Mosby - Encyclopedia Virginia
The Americans: Reconstruction to the 21st Century
Confederate Veteran Magazine
Advertised as the official organ first of the United Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the Confederate Southern Memorial Society, this magazine sold thousands of copies in the late 18th, early 19th century. This collection of copies can be used and searched as a "free range" primary doc exercise exploring the "Lost Cause"
Songs of the Confederacy and Plantation Melodies - Google Books
Published by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in early 1900s, this is musical support for the lost cause. Students can search through lyrics for examples of the lost cause
Abraham Lincoln - Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
Civil War and Reconstruction | Stanford History Education Group
In the Civil War and Reconstruction unit, students engage in contentious historiographic debates about the period--Was Lincoln a racist? Was Reconstruction a success or failure? Was John Brown a "misguided fanatic"? Did Lincoln free the slaves, or did the slaves free themselves? The unit includes two Structured Academic Controversy lessons, an Opening Up the Textbook lesson on sharecropping, and a look at Thomas Nast's political cartoons.
CSI: Dixie - Coronors' Inquests from South Carolina between 1800 and 1900
Collecting extant coroners' inquests for the state of South Carolina between 1800 and 1900, "CSI: Dixie" provides rare glimpses into Victorian-era suicide, homicide, infanticide, abortion, child abuse, spousal abuse, master-slave murder, and slave on slave violence. Coroners’ inquests are some of the richest records we have of life and death in the nineteenth century South. As mortals, we all die, but we do not die equally. Race, place, gender, profession, behavior, and good and bad luck play large roles in determining how we go out of the world.
The Forgotten: The Contraband of America and the Road to Freedom | National Trust for Historic Preservation
Article for teachers to learn about something they were never taught, but perhaps should be included in their lesson sequence of Civil War or Reconstruction unit lessons
Trial Record in the Case of United States vs Susan B. Anthony (1873)
Susan B Anthony was arrested, tried and convicted for voting. Perhaps the manner in which women's rights is analyzed determines the nature of students' understanding. It is one thing to say that women did not have the right to vote, it is altogether another to say they were arrested for it. This could also be used in a discussion about democracy. If students agree the the founding fathers created a democracy, then how do they explain people going to jail for voting?
Reconstruction, political and economic, 1865-1877 : Dunning, William Archibald, 1857-1922 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
This 1907 history of Reconstruction argued that giving the right to vote to African Americans was a mistake, so efforts to take their vote away in the 20th century were thoroughly justified. This is a great example of the effort to rewrite this history of the south
The Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden---1902 : Thomas Dixon
This novel is a revision of Reconstruction which portrays black voters as tyrants who are out to take wealth from white landowners and give it to themselves. This is one of the many books that portray Reconstruction as a failure, not in the sense that it did not do enough for blacks after the Civil War, but because it took power away from white people.
1900: Speech in the Senate - Benjamin Tillman
Here the former Governor of South Carolina, a Senator from that state at the time, proclaims clearly that his state disenfranchised black voters. There were schools and there are halls at Clemson University named after Tillman. There is a statue of him at the capitol of South Carolina
The Tragic Era The Revolution After Lincoln : Bowers G. Claude
The two page preface of this book can be put in front of students when teacher gets to the Reconstruction unit. Teachers could just give it to them at the beginning of the Unit as their introduction to the Era and see if any of them notice how it is written. IN this version of history, the white people of the south were the victims of Reconstruction. Would students even notice this, or just take it from the teacher as any other assignment and not even think about it
General Robert E. Lee's Parole and Citizenship
Robert E Lee's formal rights of citizenship were never restored to him while he was alive but were restored to him posthumously in 1975. Perhaps Gerald Ford's comments when he signed the special congressional resolution could be used as a prompt in a lesson or even a "do now" activity at the start of a Reconstruction lesson.
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)
The Racial Dot Map: One Dot Per Person
A great resource for teachers teaching Reconstruction, "white flight" or the Civil Rights movement because it shows the persistence of segregation down to the individual person. Is this de facto or de jure? Is the north more segregated than the south? Why? How does this map play into the different perspectives of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X? Does this explain why Montgomery saw a boycott and Watts saw riots?
Legislation Impossible - BackStory with the American History Guys
One of the segments of this program is a seven minute focus on the history of segregation. This could be applicable to a Reconstruction, Progressive Era or Civil Rights era lesson or homework assignment. Take a look at the transcript to get a quick idea of what the program addresses.
The Racial Dot Map: One Dot Per Person for the Entire U.S.
This map is a "must-see" for every student exploring issues related to Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Era or the race issue in US History; particularly students who live in New Jersey. Having this up on the screen and letting students look through it is the perfect compliment to whole-class discussion or online forum homework assignment that seeks to find explanations and understanding regarding segregation.
NJ Department of State - Historical Commission - Juneteenth 2021
Do you teach that NJ was the last northern state to end the legal protection of a system of slavery?
32 Chilling Images of the Ku Klux Klan and Their Children
Students seeing children initiated into the Ku Klux Klan might change their understanding of the Klan. It also teaches a lesson about "Framing". WHen an understanding of the KKK is framed through the stories of older white men, it traps it in that understanding. By showing children, women and families in the Klan, students have a more broad and authentic understanding.
AHA Statement on Confederate Monuments | Perspectives on History | AHA
Reconstruction, political and Economic by William Dunning
Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution by Eric Foner
Post-revisionist history of Reconstruction arguing that it did not go far enough. 4"40 acres and a mule" inerpretation.
Black Reconstruction in America by WEB Du Bois
First African-American account of Reconstruction. - Also at Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/blackreconstruct0000dubo_r6o0
Transcript of Wade-Davis Bill (1864) (print-friendly version)
Soldiers of Light and Love: Northern Teachers and Georgia Blacks
The Civil Rights Act of 1866
An Act to protect all Persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and furnish the Means of their Vindication.
The Southern "Black Codes" of 1865-66
Concise article describing codes from the Civil Rights foundation