Using the American Memory Timeline to Learn about Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877

By The Learning Page staff
Published on 01/10/2009

The American Memory Timeline consists of sets of documents selected to be of particular use to precollegiate teachers and students. The sets are arranged by chronological period. Each document included (many are excerpted) is linked to the complete primary source in American Memory from which it has been drawn. The excerpts are thus also intended to help students and teachers delve more deeply into the primary sources provided online by the Library of Congress.

This article provides one model for how the American Memory Timeline can be used in U.S. history classes. In the lesson, students use the sets of documents on the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877 to learn more about that critical period in U.S. history and to develop their ability to analyze primary source documents.

If possible, the class should spend the first period online. If this is not possible, the teacher will need to make packets for the seven small groups. Each packet should contain copies of the handout provided with this article, the American Memory "Analysis of Primary Sources" handout, plus the documents related to one of the topics in the American Memory Timeline for the Civil War and Reconstruction period. These topics are:

An interesting excerpt from one of the documents can serve as a "grabber" for the lesson. For example, the teacher might read the following excerpt aloud to students, explaining that it is from a report written in February 1865 and asking them to listen and try to figure out what the writer is talking about in this excerpt.

Cabins, sheds, unused houses, were appropriated, roughly repaired, fitted with a cheap stove for the winter, a window or two for light and air, a teacher sent to the locality, the neighboring children gathered in, and the school started. . . .

. . . it frequently occurs, that in a desirable locality for a school, it is impossible to obtain boarding for the teachers. In such cases, a weather-proof shelter of some kind--very poor at best--is obtained, some simple furniture provided, and a teacher sent who is willing to undergo the privations--often hardships-of boarding herself, in addition to the fatigues of her school.

Compelled to live on the coarsest diet of corn bread and bacon; often no tea, coffee, butter, eggs, or flour; separated by miles of bad roads from the nearest provision store; refused credit because she is a negro teacher, unable to pay cash because the Government is unavoidably in arrears; subjected to the jeers and hatred of her neighbors; cut off from society, with unfrequent and irregular mails; swamped in mud--the school shed a drip, and her quarters little better; raided occasionally by rebels, her school broken up and herself insulted, banished, or run off to rebeldom; under all this, it is really surprising how some of these brave women manage to live, much more how they are able to render the service they do as teachers.

Despite all the efforts of our agents, the assistance of the Provost Marshals, and the devotion of the teachers, many of these schools would have to be abandoned but for the freedmen themselves. These, fully alive to all that is being done for them, gratefully aid the teachers from their small store, and mount guard against the enemy of the schools, whether he be a rebel, a guerilla, or a pro-slavery professed unionist skulking behind the oath.


Excerpted from "Startling revelations from the Department of South Carolina, and expose of the so called National Freedmen's Relief Association," from the collection, African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907.

Students should be given time to speculate on what kind of schools the writer is discussing before being told that they were schools for freed slaves in the South. This excerpt is from one of the many primary sources students will be grappling with in this lesson. If necessary, the teacher may wish to remind students that primary sources are actual records that have survived from the past, such as letters, photographs, articles of clothing, reports, and so on. Secondary sources are accounts of the past created by people writing about events sometime after they happened. Students might then be asked to give examples of primary and secondary sources about the time period under study, the Civil War and Reconstruction period. The teacher can then introduce the idea that many primary sources about this and other periods of our history are available online from the Library of Congress, often called "America's Library." Students will be working with sets of these documents to practice their skill in analyzing primary sources and learn more about the Civil War and Reconstruction. If feasible, the teacher may provide students with a brief overview of the American Memory web site.

With students, the teacher should review the handout on "Analysis of Primary Sources" from the Learning Page, either online or in print. Students will be using the "Questions for Analyzing Primary Sources" as they analyze a series of documents on the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Students should then be organized into seven small groups, with each group assigned one topic in the "Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877" section of the American Memory Timeline. Students can work with the documents online or in paper copy. The handout provided with this article gives instructions for group work.

After groups have presented their reports, a general discussion could focus on the following questions:

  • Was any document completely believable? Completely unbelievable? Why or why not?

  • Did some types of primary sources seem less believable than others? Why?

  • If you found contradictory information in the sources, which sources did you tend to believe? Why?

  • How were the generalizations that the various groups made alike and different? What do you think accounts for the differences?


As a follow-up, students could explore the remainder of the "American Memory Timeline" or some of other the American Memory collections relevant to the period. Some relevant collections include:

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