After 148 years, Mississippi finally ratifies 13th Amendment, which banned slavery - CBS News
Not only did the state of Mississippi wait until 1995 to ratify the 13th amendment, the state didn't even bother to send it to the federal register
08: Reconstruction
New Jersey revokes its approval of the 14th Amendment in 1868, revocation to rescinded until 2003
These primary source documents show the NJ state Assembly and Senate's revocation of the state's approval of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. These bills were both passed over the governor's veto and not rescinded themselves until 2003
Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) on Twitter: "After the Civil War, heroic individuals rebuild their lives and rededicated the nation. At the same time, angry and desperate men warped our politics in ways that still echo. Let's take a look at Reconstruction,
This twitter thread could easily replace any basic textbook reading about Reconstruction. Teachers should consider this as an alternative way to start student's contextual base before launching focused lessons in the era.
Episode 20: Reconstruction | 15 Minute History
Historian H.W. Brands from UT’s Department of History reflects on this issues and how he has dealt with them in his thirty years of experience in teaching about Reconstruction: “It’s one of the hardest parts of American history to teach, in part because I think it’s the hardest to just understand.”
Marriage Certificate of John and Emily Pointer, Kentucky, October 20, 1866 | U.S. Capitol Visitor Center
This couple was together for more than twenty years, and had eight children, but were not married in the eyes of the law until The Freedman's Bureau certified their marriage with this certificate. Teachers can have students look at this as part of a lesson intro or "do now" to launch a Reconstruction lesson.
Report on the Condition of the South - Carl Schurtz (1865)
Schurtz toured the south in the summer of 1865 and reported information back to the Johnson Administration. This can easily be mined for DBQ quotes, or a primary document exercise. It can also be used to teach "Ctrl-F" by having students search word like "murder". Teachers could also pull out the individual reports and letters collected by Schurtz that are included in this report
MOOC | The Burden of History | The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1865-1890 | 3.9.8 - YouTube
Teachers wanting to deeping their understanding of the era can use any of the 80 lectures in this playlist
Ku Klux Klan: A History of Racism | Southern Poverty Law Center
How Southern socialites rewrote Civil War history - YouTube
This 7 minute video speaks directly to the past and how it is remembered.
WHHS Home - Wade Hampton High School
This high school is named after one of the richest families of the old south - owning more than 3,000 slaves. Wade Hampton III was active in Reconstruction, suppressing voting and terrorizing Black people. This is a letter to an editor of a local paper asking to change the name in 2017, wonder if it went anywhere. https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/opinion/2017/05/25/leave-wade-hampton-history-books/102096444/
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow | PBS
Europe in 1989, America in 2020, and the Death of the Lost Cause | The New Yorker
Required reading for every US History teacher
ACR270
This concurrent resolution of the Assembly of the state of New Jersey lists the wrongs of slavery in New Jersey and the United States. Included in it are several statements that should be included in US History materials used by teachers of students in New Jersey. It was adopted in 2007. Note the admission that New Jersey originally rejected the 13th Amendment
Who Was Jim Crow? - Jim Crow Museum - Ferris State University
The name American students know associated with the laws of segregation was actually a minstrel show character created by white actor Thomas Rice
Alabama History: Re-examined Part 4
Four minute local news story about Reconstruction in Alabama. This is just one of a four part series in which WFSA in Montgomery, Alabama is teaching the public about the past. How much do schools teach history? How much history is learning public media like this? This also balances the narrative of 21st century resistance to confronting the past
Week 1- Race and Voting Rights on Vimeo
Lecture from GLI Teacher of the Year Alyssa Butler
![[December 25, 1868.- Granting full pardon and amnesty to all persons engaged in the late rebellion.] By the President of the United States of America. A proclamation ... Done at the City of Washington, the twenty-fifth day of December, in the ye | Library](https://rdl.ink/render/http%3A%2F%2Ftile.loc.gov%2Fstorage-services%2Fservice%2Frbc%2Frbpe%2Frbpe23%2Frbpe236%2F23602600%2F001dr.jpg?width=92&height=&ar=&mode=&format=avif&dpr=2)
[December 25, 1868.- Granting full pardon and amnesty to all persons engaged in the late rebellion.] By the President of the United States of America. A proclamation ... Done at the City of Washington, the twenty-fifth day of December, in the ye | Library
Students in school after January 6, 2021 might view this proclamation differently. Thousands of confederates waged war against the United States of America - and this proclamation of Andrew Johnson granted them all a "full pardon and amnesty". This is the ultimate presidential pardon
Welcome · Civil War and Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi · Civil War and Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi
The Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi Project (CWRGM) is digitizing, transcribing, and annotating these valuable records from Mississippi’s governors’ offices and making them freely available online
Joshua Benton on Twitter: "There are two approved Louisiana history textbooks for the state's 8th graders. This is how one of them introduces the Civil War: as tough times for a poor young white woman whose family owned 120 slaves. https://t.co/oR617iSkFO
Thread of discussion regarding the way a Louisiana textbook describes slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction. Worthwhile for teachers, but yet may also be a source of a lesson. screenshots from the text and snippets from the comments could be considered by students. The whole books can be found here http://www.eguastella.com/louisiana-our-history-our-home.html There is a media literacy lesson here as well. This is a book written by a Louisiana State University professor, it was approved by the state of Louisiana and purchased by many districts across the state. Yet it tells a twisted tale of the past.
Lost Friends Exhibition - The Historic New Orleans Collection
The Southwestern Christian Advocate, a newspaper published in New Orleans by the Methodist Book Concern and distributed to nearly 500 preachers, 800 post offices, and more than 4,000 subscribers in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Lost Friends notices, which ran well into the first decade of the 20th century, featured messages from individuals searching for loved ones lost in slavery. This database provides access to more than 2,500 advertisements that appeared in the Advocate between November 1879 and December 1900.
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Report on the Condition of the South, by Carl Schurz
"Treason does, under existing circumstances, not appear odious in the south. The people are not impressed with any sense of its criminality. And, secondly, there is, as yet, among the southern people an utter absence of national feeling. "
"Memorial Day Order" - National Cemetery Administration
General John Logan's Order Number 11 is commonly thought of as the first "Memorial Day " declaration (called "Decoration Day) could be shared with students to show how he stresses "rebellion" and "Free and undivided republic" - how has this meaning of Memorial Day changed?
Senate Concurrent Resolution Number 547
Show this document to students - then see how long it take them to figure it out. Look at it yourself first, notice the dates, what seems strange about it to you? This could be a decent class introduction activity
Lawrence Glickman on Twitter: "Critics of Reconstruction and Civil Rights made claims very similar to George F, Will’s argument about the need to weigh the rule of law against other values, such as “comity” and “domestic tranquility.” /1 https://t.co/fs92
This thread demonstrates the power we have to find documents and evidence of the past to use in today's conversations. This was not possible before - but, we can't assume what the effect this will have on society and public discourse. The question is - how has this changed teaching? How should it change teaching?
Black people dressed as enslaved show up at Civil War Enactment event -
Short TikTok video could start an interesting class discussion on public memory and how different people understand the past. Pair this up with "My Old Kentucky Home" and plantation reenactments of the 1890s
"Originalism Is Intellectually Indefensible": A Conversation With Eric Foner
Teachers should take a peek at this to see how vital the past is to the present. The trick to teaching is to make students see this as well
Speech about Ratification of 15th Amendment by Tennessee in 1997
This speech in the US Congress concerns Tennessee's ratification of the 15th Amendment, a fact which could easily surprise anyone. Read through the first paragraphs and not the details as to why - more importantly, look at dates of the other state's ratification listed here
Confederate Monument Interpretation Guide | Atlanta History Center
This is a helpful addition to anything students do with monumnets
Report of the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States
This is a 13-volume collection of reports and testimonies from a Congressional committee that investigated the Ku Klux Klan and other insurrectionary movements in the former Confederacy after the close of the Civil War. The committee made their report in 1872. The report proper is in the first volume; the other volumes contain testimonies and miscellaneous documents.
W. E. B. Du Bois Reflects on the Purpose of History | Facing History & Ourselves
This short excerpt includes an audio version making it easy to plug into a Reconstruction lesson. This excerpt, from a chapter titled “The Propaganda of History,” questions the ways in which Reconstruction was being studied and taught at the time.