Lesson Plan Template based on Understanding by Design · PDF fileSOLs addressed USII.3 The student will demonstrate knowledge of how life changed after the Civil War by a) identifying

Teacher Name: Lynn Dille School: Hammond Middle School Subject Area: US History – 1877 to the Present Grade/level: 7th

Lesson Plan Template based on Understanding by Design by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins

Title of Lesson

Exodusters: A New Beginning for Former Slaves

Unit Topic Westward Expansion after the Civil War

Exact title and link to an image from the LOC to be used in the web publication of your lesson plan

"Negro Exodusters en route to Kansas, fleeing from the yellow fever. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam009.html

Enduring Understanding

As a result of this lesson, students will understand: Freedom brought problems as well as opportunities for ex-slaves after the Civil War.

Content Knowledge

As a result of this lesson, students will know: Following the Civil War and the end of slavery, many ex-slaves moved to western territories to make a new beginning. They moved there because, in the west they could obtain land and it was an opportunity for a new beginning. They moved because farming was the skill most ex-slaves already knew. They were called “Exodusters” The communities they established were largely in Kansas.

Skills

As a result of this lesson, students will be able to: Draw conclusions from a primary source photograph or document. Compare several documents and connect their content to prior historical knowledge to develop a hypothesis as to meaning.

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SOLs addressed

USII.3 The student will demonstrate knowledge of how life changed after the Civil War by a) identifying the reasons for westward expansion;

Length of Lesson

One 70 Minute Period

Overview of lesson The students will examine pictures from the “Exoduster” movement to discover what it was, when it took place, why it took place and how successful it was. Students will take notes on a graphic organizer and write a letter as an Exoduster to demonstrate their understanding.

Prior Knowledge

It would be helpful if students have reviewed Reconstruction and the Rise of Jim Crow, the KKK, and a segregated South after the Civil War. It would also be useful if students have studied the opening of the Great Plains to settlement by The Homestead Act, the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad and other new technologies and adaptations such as dry farming, the windmill, the steel plow and barbed wire. This lesson fits well with studying who moved west in the years following the Civil War, why these people moved west, where they moved and why they moved. Students have worked with analyzing primary source prints and photos before and are familiar with what to look for.

Resources needed

All the images below were found at the following URL: Western Migration and Homesteading: The African-American Mosaic (Library of Congress Exhibition); http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam009.html

1.

The "Exoduster" Movement. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/images/pap.jpg

2.

Emigrants Traveling to Kansas. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/images/boat.jpg

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3.

"Negro Exodusters en route to Kansas, fleeing from the yellow fever. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam009.html

4.

Benjamin Singleton, and S.A. McClure, Leaders of the Exodus, leaving Nashville, Tennessee. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/images/leaders.jpg

5.

"Ho For Kansas!". http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/images/hofokan.jpg

Other resources: Kansas State Historical Society/. http://www.kshs.org/cool3/exoduster.htm National Park Service: Nicodemus National Historic Park. http://www.nps.gov/features/nicodemus/intro.htm Merriam Webster Thesaurus: Definition of "ex"

Process of lesson

Warm-up: Put a list of words such as: exit, ex-husband, ex-wife, extemporary, exhibit, excel, extra, and exodus on the board. Ask the students what all these words have in common. When they observe that all the words start with “EX” ask them what they think the prefix “EX” means. (From or Without) Tell the students they will be studying 1 group of western settlers today who were known as “Exodusters” after the section of the Bible in which the Jews fled Egypt. This book of the bible is known as “Exodus.” Activities:

1) Display Placard 4 (Nego Exodusters) on the overhead. Review photo analysis skills by having students form a tableau of the scene from the placard. (Take volunteers or assign students to assume the attitude and position of the people in the woodcut in front of the projection.) Draw attention to detail and emotion by asking them questions (For example: Teacher: Who are you? Student: I am about 9 years old and am a little boy) where they are, what they are feeling

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etc. 2) Divide your students into small groups of 4 or 5. Give each

group a set of the Exoduster Placards: Placard 1, Placard 2, Placard 3, Placard 4, Placard 5 and a copy the analysis worksheet, African Americans and the West. (Laminate or put placards inside report covers. Using an overhead marker, students can circle areas and features as they examine each photo to draw attention to its importance in interpreting the photo.) Tell them they are to fill in as much information on the worksheet as they can, JUST by looking at the front of the placards. Give students about 10 minutes to examine the placards and make guesses as to what they are looking at.

3) Discuss the student’s findings as a class. Then ask them to read the information on the back of the placards and discuss how the extra information changes what they had originally thought.

4) Discuss what the students read and how it changes their ideas as a class.

5) Have students use their class atlases or a US map to locate Kansas and trace the probable route of the Exodusters from the South by water.

6) Have the students write notes using a new copy of the worksheet, African Americans and the West and complete it as a class, emphasizing the lesson content. (The suggested key is: African Americans and the West Key.)

Wrap-up: Put Placard 5 (Exoduster Leaders) on the overhead. Have the students again form a tableau. Have students ask the members of the tableaux questions again. Who are they? Where are they going? Why are they going? How do they feel about the journey? What problems are they having? What do they hope to do when they get there?

Evaluation

Students will write a letter to a friend telling them they are going to join an Exoduster group. They should say what they are doing, why they are going, and what they will find on their journey. A student letter worksheet and instruction rubric may found at Exoduster Homework. It may be evaluated according to following rubric: Exoduster Evaluation Teacher Guide

Extension Activities

Have students research what happened to the towns that were established in the movement. Have students write a poem, a song, or a letter telling what life in Nicodemus is like. Have the students draw a map of a fictional exoduster town, labeling

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the major buildings and farms. They should create a name for the town and a census list for the year 1880. Have the students create a short play in which they act out the roles of several of the people in placard 5.

Possibilities for Differentiation

Students may be put in mixed ability groups. Dysgraphic students may want to copy just the words that are in bold on the key or may highlight a copy of the key as you help the students fill in their notes on the overhead. Students with learning difficulty will really benefit from being members of the tableaux.

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Placard 1

Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809-1892), a former slave born in Nashville, Tennessee, became the leader of the "Exoduster Movement" of 1879, and in later years he was accorded the title "Father of the Exodus." In the late 1860s, Singleton and his associates urged blacks to acquire farmland in Tennessee, but whites would not sell productive land to them. As an alternative Singleton began scouting land in Kansas in the early 1870s. Soon several black families migrated from Nashville. By 1874, Singleton and his associates had formed the Edgefield Real Estate and Homestead Association in Tennessee, which steered more than 20,000 black migrants to Kansas between 1877 and 1879. In 1880 Singleton claimed to be "the whole cause of the Kansas immigration," in testimony before a U.S. committee on the "exodus to Kansas."

Nell Irvin Painter Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas After the Reconstruction, p. 100 New York: Knopf, 1977

Placard 2

Blacks had obtained information about Kansas by several means: letters from migrants, who settled in Nicodemus and other locations; circulars; and mass meetings. Benjamin Singleton printed handbills in an attempt to attract blacks to visit or settle in Kansas. One such flier was headed: "Ho For Kansas!"

"Ho For Kansas!" Copyprint of handbill. Historic American Building Survey Field Records, HABS FN-6, #KS-49-14 Prints and Photographs Division (109)

Placard 3

Emigrants Traveling to Kansas

In February of 1880, more than 900 black families from Mississippi reached St. Louis, en route to Kansas. Some black migrants sought "conductors" to make travel arrangements for them. These conductors would often ask for money in advance and not show up at the appointed departure time, leaving migrants stranded at docks and train stations.

Refugees on Levee, 1897. Carroll's Art Gallery. Photomural from gelatin-silver print Prints and Photographs Division (105) Prints and Photographs Division (105)

Placard 4

"Negro Exodusters en route to Kansas, fleeing from the yellow fever, " Photomural from engraving. Harpers Weekly, 1870. Historic American Building Survey Field Records, HABS FN-6, #KS -49-11

Placard 5

Exoduster Leaders

In 1874 Benjamin Singleton and his associates formed the Edgefield Real Estate and Homestead Association in Tennessee. This association sought out the best locations for black settlements. Singleton tried to establish a well-planned and organized movement to Kansas, but by 1879, the unruly, mass Exodus had overwhelmed his efforts.

Benjamin Singleton, and S.A. McClure, Leaders of the Exodus, leaving Nashville, Tennessee. Photomural from montage. Historic American Building Survey Field Records, HABS FN-6, #KS-49-12

African Americans and the West

Placard Examine and describe: Who? What? When? Where?

Analyze. Use your historical knowledge.

Why did they go?

Imagine. What problems did they have getting

there?

What did they do when they got there?

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African Americans and the West

Placard Examine and describe: Who? What? When? Where?

Analyze. Use your historical knowledge.

Why did they go?

Imagine. What problems did they have getting

there?

What did they do when they got there?

Cheap or free land was available in the west. (Homestead Act)

Dishonest guides They established communities such as Nicodemus.

Segregation, Jim Crow Laws, lynchings, poverty, and the KKK in the South meant there was little opportunity for former slaves in the South.

Refusals to sell them land

Farmed

They want equality and freedom.

Hunger, disease, exhaustion

Built churches, homes, businesses

. Farming was something the ex-slaves already knew well and could succeed at

Bad weather, heat, cold, rain, floods

THEY WANT OPPORTUNITY AND A NEW BEGINNING

THEY HAD A NEW BEGINNING

Exoduster Homework

You are to write a letter to a friend telling them you have decided to join an Exoduster group and go to Kansas. The letter is to tell your friend 1) What you are going to do 2) Why you are going and 3) What you think you will find on your journey. Be creative. Use your imagination. You may use the other side of this paper for your letter if you wish. You will be graded as follows: Content (10 points each up to 80 points) What Leaving for Kansas Traveling up the Mississippi/Missouri Rivers Leaving from Mississippi, Alabama, or some other southern state Why No opportunity here/opportunity there/a new beginning Jim Crow Laws, KKK, Segregation Know how to farm Cheap land Will find: Long, hard journey, sickness, bad weather, dishonest guides Good farmland Equality and more freedom, my rights Opportunity and a new beginning _____________ Total for content: Mechanics and language control (5 points each up to 20 points) Paragraph indent, beginning capitals, ending punctuation Complete sentences Elaboration (must have for an A) Dialogue and use of dialect Character development _____________ Total for mechanics: Student Grade: Contents: ________ plus mechanics _________ = ___________

Yours in hope and faith,

Dear:

Exoduster Letter Evaluation Teacher’s Guide

Beginning 60

Developing 75

Accomplished 90

Exemplary 100

Content (80%)

Letter clearly from an African American on a journey. Makes an attempt to tell what the journey means to him or her and why s/he is going. Demonstrates little knowledge of time period. Several factual errors.

Describes some details of the journey. Clearly shows knowledge of where Exodusters went, when they went, who they were and why they went. No factual errors.

Historically accurate. Describes the journey with vividness and some detail. Describes specific problems (yellow fever, dishonest agents, hunger). No errors in knowledge of the movement.

Historically accurate. Vivid and imaginative letter. Develops a character and incorporates it into a story about the journey. Uses inference and context to relay important information about hopes, problems, and goals of the character

Mechanics (20%)

Very short, some fragments, many spelling errors, some ending punctuation missing, some beginning capitalization errors, no paragraphing

Longer but still only 1 paragraph. Few spelling errors. Some sentence syntax errors. Basic punctuation and capitalization correct.

Several paragraphs long. Few errors in mechanics and syntax.

A page or more long with few errors. Language and vocabulary used is appropriate to the period and the education of the exo-duster. May be written so as to look like an artifact from the period.