Students will be able to describe the impact of new freedoms during Reconstruction on African-American families.
Students will be able to describe how white backlash to African Americans' new freedoms threatened black families. Â
Students will analyze primary sources to determine the changes and continuities in African-American life during Reconstruction. Â
The slave family was very vulnerable to the whims of masters: family members could be sold away at any time; masters, not parents, told children what to do; punishment was meted out by the master, not the parent. Slave marriages were not legally recognized. The first priority for many freedmen during Reconstruction was to reconstruct their families and exercise the new social freedoms that came with Reconstruction. Â
These new liberties during Reconstruction led quickly to a backlash in the South at the state and local level of government and society. The backlash of the Black Codes set up new challenges to freedmen that instituted a pattern of governance regarding marriage and family law which rolled back the more egalitarian ideals of Reconstruction.
This set of lessons could connect to a larger unit about freedmen’s new social, political and economic freedoms that were challenged during Reconstruction. The unit would culminate in a five-paragraph long document-based essay asking students to consider the social, economic and political changes and impacts of Reconstruction. The purpose of this lesson, as tied to that larger unit goal, is to expose students to the relevant outside information about social freedoms and challenges that these documents depict. Students will leave this lesson having practiced writing one of the three body paragraphs of this larger assessment.
Step 1: Ask students to describe the family unit of a slave on a southern plantation. Â Write the students' responses on the board in a T-chart to refer back to later (one side labeled "Families Under Slavery" and one side labeled "Families During Reconstruction.") Â You may prompt students to focus on:Â
Living arrangements
Personal relationships within the family: men and women, parents and children, fathers and mothers
Who is in charge of: the household, the children, resources/money, farming, and where family members live?Â
Step 2: Group jigsaw on new social freedoms gained and exercised by Freedmen during ReconstructionÂ
Materials needed (see New Liberties and New Threats worksheet):Â
Marriage of a Colored soldier at Vicksburg by Chaplain Warren of the Freedmen’s Bureau [low-skill level]
Louis Hughes document on finding his mother and sister-in-law [mid-skill level]
Anna Maria Coffee interview for the Works Progress Administration Ex-Slaves Narrative project [mid-skill level]
A Freedman seeks to reunite his family [high-skill level]
Organize students into groups of four, grouped heterogeneously by skill level. Â Assign each student in the group a document according to his skill level. Â Tell students that each student in the group will be responsible for reading and viewing that document, answering comprehension questions about it, and sharing the learned information and ideas in the document with his fellow group members. Â Allow students time to complete their worksheets. Â
Step 3:Â Once students complete their group work, return to the T-chart and fill in a few points about how families during Reconstruction changed. Â Then ask the entire class to predict
How might these new social freedoms threaten the social order of the pre-Civil War South?Â
Why might these new social freedoms have been perceived as so threatening?Â
Who might have considered them threatening?Â
You may prompt students to focus on:Â
Farmer who owns land can no longer divide families of freedmen who work land: how does that change his labor force?Â
If families can stick together, how does that make the freedmen less vulnerable to the farmers’ terms of employment?Â
How does a marriage license have power as a written document? What other legal documents previously defined African Americans? What is different between a marriage license and a bill of sale?Â
Step 4: Tell class that now they will look at the ways these new social freedoms were challenged. Â Project "A Republican Scarecrow Fails to Staunch Southern Violence." Â Ask students as whole class discussion:Â
Describe the image: list everything you see including people, objects, words, shades, clothing, buildings, etc.
Where are the Freedmen in this image? How do you know? Use evidence from the image to support your answer.
Are they being challenged in any way? By whom? How do you know? Use evidence to support your answer.
Why do you think this family is being attacked? Explain. Use evidence from the image to support your answer.
Based on this image: How were new social freedoms for freed African Americans challenged during Reconstruction?
Step 5: Document-Based Questions about challenges to Freedmen’s new social freedomsÂ
Materials needed:Â
Black Codes Restrict Newly Won Freedoms: Labor and Contracts: GA/NC [low-skill level]
Black Codes Restrict Newly Won Freedoms: Interracial Marriage [mid-skill level]
Black Codes Restrict Newly Won Freedoms: Labor and Contracts: AL [mid-skill level]
A South Carolina Landowner Attempts to Re-enslave a Free Child [high-skill level]
Students stay in their groups of four, grouped heterogeneously by skill level. Â Give each student in the group all four documents and tell them they will be responsible for reading and viewing those documents and answering the scaffolding question about each one. Â Students may work collaboratively or in a jig-saw to break-down and analyze the documents, but each must answer the scaffolding question on his own handout.Â
Step 6:Â Instruct students to write a paragraph-length analysis with specific document evidence and outside information answering the question: How were new social freedoms for freed African Americans challenged during Reconstruction?
Students stay in their groups of four, grouped heterogeneously by skill level.
Students should use the scaffolding question answers from Step 5 to construct a paragraph together which answers the question: How were new social freedoms for freed African Americans challenged during Reconstruction?Â
Paragraphs shouldÂ
Cite three of the five documents from Steps 4 and/or 5 that explain how new social freedoms were challenged. Â
Include outside information from Step 2 explaining new social freedoms exercised.
Remind students to refer to the writing guidelines on their worksheet Summary.
Step 7: (Optional) Have students write their paragraphs on transparencies and present [read] them to the class. Students receive feedback from the classmates who are called upon by the teacher to tell one strength, one weakness and one suggestion for improvement about the written paragraph each group writes.
Students will analyze different primary sources to discover what different groups expected from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Students will compare the traditional narrative of the March on Washington with the picture that emerges from the document(s) they analyze in the activity. Â Â
The 1963 March on Washington was followed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (outlawing segregation) and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Â The traditional narrative of the 1963 March on Washington focuses on the role of significant national figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy in planning and leading the march, and its placement in the timeline of key civil rights events in the 1960s. Â This narrative, repeated in textbooks and films and national celebrations of the civil rights movement, leave out or lose sight of the significant role of ordinary people, students, women, and local organizers to organize the march (and other events of the movement).
Usually these narratives include only one aspect of the marchers' demands, too: civil rights. In fact, the 1963 march was the culmination of a decades-long process of bringing both the political and economic needs of the black community to the attention of Washington lawmakers. This process started during World War II, when labor groups, led by A. Philip Randolph, threatened to march on Washington if black workers were not hired and paid equally to white workers in defense industries. Â Â
Some marchers in 1963 wanted even greater changes than the leaders of the march would dare broach. Women wanted full gender and racial equality.  Randolph and labor leaders continued to ask for greater economic equality, as they had been since the 1940s.  More radical students wanted bigger structural transformations in society, and were not afraid to stridently critique the government they saw impeding progress.  All of these voices were present at the 1963 March, leading some scholars to suggest that the 1963 March was really "many marches" converged in one place at one time. Â
Â
Step 1: (Optional) Ask students to picture the civil rights movement: what people, places, and events do they see? Â If it does not come up, suggest the 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Â Tell students that while the 1963 March on Washington and MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech is one of the most iconic events of the civil rights movement, most textbooks and films just focus on the role of a few key leaders. Â Today they will look at some images and read some primary sources to get a sense of the "bigger picture" of the many people who made the march successful. Â
Step 2: Divide students into small groups. Pass out the "Adding to the Picture" worksheet and the photograph of the march's leaders. Â Lead the students in an analysis of the photograph to complete the first row on the worksheet.Â
Note: Students can be grouped homogeneously by literacy level, and assigned appropriate documents or grouped heterogeneously and perform the activity as a jig-saw.  Each student in the group works on a document matched to his skill level, then shares what he has learned with his peers. Â
Step 3: Pass out the "I Have a Dream" excerpt. Â Depending on the level of the students, the teacher may want to read the document out loud. Have students work with their groups to complete the second row on the worksheet. Before moving on to the next step, go over students' responses. Â
Step 4: Â Pass out one document to each group. Â
Black Workers Call for a March on Washington (pamphlet only): low literacy
Women Protestors Rally at the March on Washington: low literacy
"What We Demand": high literacy
Bayard Rustin Reflects on the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: low/medium literacy
John Lewis Tells America to "Wake Up": high literacy
A Female Civil Rights Activist Condemns "Jane Crow": high literacy
Step 5: Students work independently to answer the question at the bottom of the sheet, explaining how their document "adds to the picture" of the 1963 March on Washington.
Step 6: (Optional) Each group presents its document to the whole class. The class votes on the one or two documents that BEST "add to the picture" based on which group made their case most convincingly. Â
Students will be able to describe different contemporary perspectives, reformer and resident, on life in Five Points during the 1850s.
Students will choose evidence from different primary and secondary sources to support their interpretation of reformer and resident roles. Â
This activity supports the following Common Core Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies:
RHSS.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
Note: Students will be working in groups to assemble the facts to develop their characters for the role play. The teacher may choose to put students in their character groups before or after the film.Â
Step 1: Tell students that they will be writing and performing a script of a scene between reformers and residents in the Five Points neighborhood. To gather evidence to build their characters, they will first watch a film, then read some primary and secondary documents. Divide students into three groups and assign each group an identity: Reverend Pease, Catherine, or Mary Mulvahill. Distribute the worksheet "Reformers versus Residents in Five Points" and go over the scene and cast of characters.Â
Step 2: View Chapter 1 (Rev. Louis Pease: Reforming the Five Points), Chapter 2 (Mary Mulvahill: Surviving in a New Land), and Chapter 5 (Matthew Mulvahill: Boyhood in the Streets) of the Five Points DVD. Â As students watch, they should think about the events described from the perspective of their character in the role play. Â
Step 3: Allow students to gather in their groups to read through the various primary and secondary sources. Students should read the documents and use the Character Research Sheet to develop their character's talking points for the scene. Â
Step 4: Now make groups of three, with one student from each character group, to work together to create a script of the encounter between Reverend Pease, Catherine, and Mary Mulvahill. The scene should begin with Rev. Pease's arrival at Mary Mulvahill's house, where the meeting will occur. Each script should incorporate the characters' talking points and address the "Questions to Consider" on the worksheet. Â
Step 5: Students perform scenes. (Optional: Pass out the Scene Assessment Rubric to all students. As students perform, the other students should use the rubric to assess how well each script uses evidence. Use student evaluations for follow-up discussion.)
Step 6: Lead students in a discussion of the different perspectives of Catherine, Mary Mulvahill, and Reverend Pease:
How did they see the issues surrounding child adoption (class, religion, family, etc.) differently, and why?
How did different characters interpret the historical evidence? Â
Were the arguments presented in the scripts grounded in the historical evidence and context provided? Â
Students will analyze the poem "The White Man's Burden" and poems written in response to it.
Students will be able to describe different arguments, for and against, United States imperialism.
Students will weigh the strengths and weaknesses of several poems as works of art, political commentary and historical evidence.
Debate over U.S. imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century occurred not only in newspapers and political speeches, but in poetry as well. In 1899 the British novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling wrote the poem "The White Man's Burden," which urged the U.S. to take up the "burden" of empire, as had Britain and other European nations. Theodore Roosevelt, soon to become vice-president and then president, copied the poem and sent it to his hand, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, commenting that it was "rather poor poetry, but good sense from the expansion point of view." Other authors, by contrast, wrote parodies and critiques of Kipling's poem and the imperial ideology it espoused. John White's "The Black Man's Burden," Henry Lebouchère's "The Brown Man's Burden," and Howard S. Taylor's "The Poor Man's Burden" were three such parodies.
Step 1: Pass out copies of the worksheet and Kipling's "The White Man's Burden" to each student. Students should individually read the poem and answer the questions in Part I of the worksheet. Then lead the students in a discussion of "The White Man's Burden," going over students' responses in Part I.
Step 2: Divide students into small groups of 2 or 3 students. Pass out the essay "'The White Man's Burden' and Its Critics" and (optional) pages 8-9 of the Savage Acts viewing guide. Ask students to read the information in their groups and discuss how it enhances their understanding of the poem. The group should compose a response in Part II of the worksheet.
Step 3: Explain to students that Kipling's contemporaries wrote dozens of parodies and critiques of "The White Man's Burden" and the imperial ideology it espoused. Four of those poems are listed in Part III of the worksheet. Each group should choose one of the three poems from the list to investigate further. Make sure that at least one group analyzes each poem. Pass out the poems to the groups and give students time to read and answer the questions.
Step 4: Reconvene the whole class. Ask a representative from each group to read a brief excerpt (1-4 lines) from the poem they read and share some of their findings with the whole class. Possible wrap-up discussion can include a discussion of how well the poems work as art, political commentary and/or historical commentary
Students will formulate conclusions about life and residents of the Five Points based on evidence in the 1855 New York State census. Â
Students will be able to navigate the Five Points census database and manipulate the data in order to test hypotheses. Â
This activity supports the following Common Core Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies:
RHSS.9-10.7. Integrate quantitative or technical analysis with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.
Antebellum New York City had several neighborhoods that struggled with poverty and crime, but the Five Points district was something new in urban America: a slum that lay in the very center of a city. Crowded tenements, street gangs and prostitutes shocked middle-class observers, but also aroused public curiosity about the predominantly Irish neighborhood that Charles Dickens called a "nest of vipers."Â
Irish Americans saw Five Points differently. Poverty was a fact of life, as were alcoholism and violence. but to immigrants who had escaped the Great Famine and English rule, Five Points offered a new home and opportunities for work, political participation and upward mobility. Five Points also provided a bustling street life where residents socialized, listened to music and talked politics in the local saloon.Â
Because working people seldom leave behind the kinds of records that the middle and upper-classes generate (speeches, sermons and memoirs, for example), their stories must sometimes be told through other kinds of sources. Careful use of quantitative information, such as census records, can frequently allow us to reconstruct the lives of those whose voices might not otherwise be heard.
Step 1: Pass out or display "New York State Census Page of the Five Points, 1855" and the "Explanation of 1855 Census Categories" handout. With students, create a list of observations based on the following questions:
Who lived in Five Points? (Irish, German, US-born, boarders, children; most residents had been in New York City for at least a decade; families)
Who worked in Five Points and what did they do? Â (men and women; the work that women did, such as keeping boarders, was not always recognized as an occupation; very few landowners)
Who were naturalized voters? Who were alien voters? (See "Explanation of 1855 Census Categories.") Â
Step 2: Divide the students into groups of 2 or 3. Â Pass out the "Understanding the 1855 Census Database" worksheet. Â Each group should select 3 hypotheses about residents in the Five Points to test using the census database. Â
Step 3: Have students go to the Five Points Census database (http://www.ashp.cuny.edu/fivepoints). Â Allow students time to figure out how the census database works (performing searches, refining results) by using it to answer a few simple questions. (Tip: click a column title to sort entries by that category; you can only sort by one category at a time.)
How many residents were included in this census (1333)
How many Irish-born landowners were included in this census (9)
What percentage of residents over the age of 12 were literate and/or could read? Â (51%)
Step 4: Now let students test their hypotheses from the worksheet. Students should record what search they performed, the results of their queries and their conclusions (was the hypothesis proved or disproved?). Â
Step 5: Ask students to share their results with the whole class. Then, lead a discussion of the broader conclusions they can draw about life and residents in Five Points. Conclusions might include:
Five Points was a working-class neighborhood Â
Most residents were Irish or the children of Irish immigrants, though there were many residents who had emigrated from other European countries; there were very few African Americans
The residents were politically active; many men were naturalized, though fewer women were naturalized
It was common for men to have unskilled jobs; very few landowners
Many women worked, though the number of working women was often undercounted by census takers and other authorities who did not recognize some occupations, such as housing boarders in private homes, as jobs
Ask students what other questions they have about the database, such as why were so few women naturalized, how undercounting the number of women workers changes our perceptions of the neighborhood, and why were there so few African-American residents?
Students will be able to describe different aspects of immigrant life Antebellum America, including labor, family, and politics. Â Â
Students will determine the accuracy of 19th century stereotypes about Irish immigrants by analyzing census data and primary sources. Â
Students will analyze different types of primary sources, including newspaper reports, letters, and quantitative data.
Students will differentiate among the types of evidence offered by various primary sources and be able to describe the potential biases in the sources. Â
Antebellum New York City had several neighborhoods that struggled with poverty and crime, but the Five Points district was something new in urban America: a slum that lay in the very center of a city. And so the community readily attracted attention, much of it unfavorable. By the early 1830s, the city's papers vied with each other to portray the district in sensational tones. The New York Mirror, for example, called the neighborhood a "loathsome den of murders, thieves, abandoned women, ruined children, filth, misery, drunkenness and broils" (May 18, 1833). Likewise, another reporter attributed the "vice and crime" he perceived in the neighborhood to the residents' inherited "wickedness" (Sunday, May 29, 1834).Â
The lives and history of those at the bottom of American society, such as the mostly immigrant residents of the Five Points, are rarely told. And when historians or journalists do address the poor, the discussions have too often reflected the views of those at the top of society. But to understand America and how it has grown and changed, we need to see our society from all points of view. Because working people seldom leave behind the kinds of records that the wealthy generate (speeches, sermons and memoirs, for example), their stories must sometimes be told through other kinds of sources. Careful use of quantitative information, such as the census, can frequently allow us to reconstruct the lives of those whose voices might otherwise not be heard.Â
To paint a more comprehensive picture, this activity asks students to investigate social conditions in Five Points by examining the 1855 New York State census and other pieces of evidence. Students will use census data, bank records, emigrant letters and newspaper articles to assess the accuracy of a number of then-current notions about Five Points.
It may be helpful for students (or the instructor) to become familiar with the Five Points census database first. Â See the short lesson Understanding the 1855 Census Database to familiarize participants with the database. Â
Step 1: (Optional) Introduce students to the Five Points census database website. (See Understanding the 1855 Census Database activity for instructions and handouts explaining the categories in the census.) Review with students what a census is and what a stereotype is. Â
Step 2: Â Divide the students into groups of four and assign each group one stereotype to investigate: labor, family, and politics. (It is okay to have more than one group working on each stereotype.) Give students in each group the correct worksheet and the "Explanation of 1855 Census Categories" handout. In their groups, students should read through the stereotype about Irish immigrants described at the top and review the questions. Â
Step 3: Â Working with the online census database, students should answer the questions on the worksheet. In their groups or individually, students should consider how the evidence confirms or contradicts the stereotype and write a paragraph about their conclusions. Students should cite evidence from the census to support their conclusions. Â
Step 4: Â After the groups have reviewed the census data, hand out the four documents to each group. In their groups, students review the documents to further test their conclusions. Students should examine each primary source, answering the questions on the graphic organizer. Â
Step 5: Â Each group member should choose one document and individually write a paragraph comparing it with conclusions gathered from the census data. After writing the group should discuss what each member wrote and decide which piece of evidence best supports their census conclusions. Â
Step 6: Â Reconvene the whole class. Ask members from each stereotype group to report to the whole class about what the stereotype they investigated was, how they used the census to investigate its accuracy, their conclusions from the stereotype, and the primary source document that best helps support their conclusions. Possible discussion questions include:
What does the census data tell us about life in the Five Points? If we did not have the census records, what would we know (or not know) about the Five Points? Â
How does the source of the primary sources affect their reliability? Â
Were some sources better for gathering facts and some sources better for making inferences? If so, which ones? What conclusions can you draw about using quantitative data (like the bank records or the census) versus written records (like the letters or the newspaper reports)?Â
Students will examine the experiences of African Americans during the Uprising of the 20,000.
Students will analyze the ways that race and class affected the goals and impacts of social reform movements. Â
This activity supports the following Common Core Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies:
WHSS.6-8.2. Write informative/explanatory texts.
Step 1: Have students watch the 30-minute film Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl. Â Alternatively, students can read relevant passages from the viewing guide for the film. Â
Step 2: Give each student a copy of the excerpt from Meredith Tax's The Rising Women and the triple-entry journal form. Â Each student should read the excerpt and take notes with the form:
In column A, note key facts, words or phrases
In column B, note your reactions to the reading
At the bottom of the page, identify areas or issues you wanted to know more about as a result of this reading.
Step 3: Now have students choose a partner (or divide students into pairs). Â With their partners, students should exchange their notes on the reading and write their responses to the notes in Column C. Â After noting their responses, students should pass the journal form back to their partners for them to read. Â Partners should discuss the issues raised with each other. Â
Step 4: Lead the entire group in a discussion of the reading and the questions it raised. Â Discussion questions include:
What has the reading informed you about issues of race, class and gender?
Do similar issues resonate today?
What do you still want to know more about?
Step 5: Ask students to imagine that they are journalists in 1909. Â Using the information provided in the film, the viewer's guide and Meredith Tax's excerpt, they should write an editorial about the Uprising of the 20,000, focusing on the situation of black women. Â
Students will be able to describe how, after the Civil War, freedpeople acted on their freedom by reuniting with family and getting married.
Students will be able to identify the ways freedpeople attempted to secure their citizenship status by voting, establishing schools, and holding elected office.
Students will understand that freedpeople believed land ownership was crucial to their economic self-sufficiency and that freedpeople had a right to the land they had worked.
Students will be able to describe the methods of physical violence and intimidation used by white southerners in response to freedpeople's attempts to exercise their political and economic rights. Â
This activity supports the following Common Core Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies:
RHSS.6-8.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
Step 1: (Optional) Have students view the film Dr. Toer's Amazing Magic Lantern Show: A Different View of Emancipation (30 minutes) or read selected passages from the Dr. Toer's viewing guide. Â Pages 1-2 of the viewing guide explain who Dr. Toer was. Â
Step 2:Â Divide students into groups of 4-6 students. Â Give each student a worksheet and each group a packet of the documents. Â Review the three historical understandings on the worksheet, making sure that students understand what all the words mean. Â
Project each of the documents and discuss them as a class. Â As students listen to discussion, they should decide whether each document is an example of what was done "to" "for" or "by" freedpeople during Reconstruction and note that on their worksheets. Â
Step 3:Â (Optional) Divide students into pairs. Â Give each student a copy of the "Meanings of Freedom: Voices of Freedpeople During Reconstruction" worksheet. Â With their partners, students should read the quotes from freedpeople and rewrite each in their own words. Â
Note: Step 3 is a modification for ESL/ELL students. Â
Step 4:Â Each group's task is to create a magic lantern show (presentation) that illustrates at least one of the historical understandings from the worksheet. Â (The teacher may opt to assign historical understandings to each group.) Â Students should prepare to share their lantern shows with the class. Â
Students' lantern shows should include:Â
6 slides
At least one, but up to three, of the historical understandings
A title, a series of slides, and a narration
The presentation, through slides or narration, should incorporate at least TWO of the text documents in the packet
Students should create their presentations in one of these formats: poster presentation, powerpoint or Smartboard.
Step 5: Â (Optional) Â Pass out historical understanding cards to students (one card with each historical understanding). Â As students listen to each other's presentations, they should decide which historical understanding(s) it illustrates. Â At the end of each presentation, ask students to hold up the correct card(s). Â The presenting group should tell whether the class has guessed correctly or not. Â For this strategy, it is helpful to color-code the historical understanding cards so that it is easy to tell at a glance if students are on the right track.Â
Students will analyze the importance of different locations within San Francisco's Chinatown. Â
Students will be able to describe the different perspectives on Chinatown from an "insider" versus an "outsider" perspective. Â
Students will write an essay in defense of Chinatown, using information gathered from document analysis and a gallery walk.
This activity supports the following Common Core Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies:
RHSS.6-8.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
RHSS.6-8.6. Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author's point of view or purpose.
WHSS.6-8.2. Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
Step 1: Have students read San Francisco's Chinatown background essay OR view a clip from the film Becoming American (Disc 2, first 9 minutes of Chapter 1). Â After reading/viewing, lead a discussion about what kind of community was San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1890s. Â Points to bring out in discussion include:Â
like "a country within a country"; an immigrant community; "bachelor" society as a result of exclusion laws; refuge from violence; residents from diverse regions, speaking different dialects; opera and other familiar culture available; stores served as gathering places, hiring halls
Step 2: Divide the class into five groups and assign each group one Chinatown place: grocery store, restaurant, theater, school, Six Companies self-help association. Â There is one photograph and one text document for each place. Â Hand these out to the groups, along with the worksheet. (Optional: Divide the class into four groups and use one of the photographs as a model.)Â
Step 3: Â Allow students to examine the photograph first, and use Part I of the worksheet to make a list of observations about what people, objects and activities they see. Groups should then decide on three inferences that they can make based on these observations, as well as any questions about the photograph they have.Â
Then, ask students to read the text documents and use Part II of the worksheet to compare "insider" and "outsider" perspectives.
While groups are working, pass out five pieces of chart paper around the classroom, each with one of the five photographs already attached.
Step 4: Groups should review the information gathered on both sides of their worksheets. Then, on the chart paper, each group will:
Write down the inference(s) substantiated by the insider or outsider text and the phrases from the text that support the inference(s)
Circle the part(s) of the photo that support(s) the inference(s)
List a question that is still unanswered that the photo raised
Post the five pieces of chart paper around the classroom.
Step 5: Divide the students into pairs and have them do a gallery walk of all five photographs. Give them a list of the following historical understandings about Chinatown and ask them to circle which photograph/text supports each photograph:
Historical Understandings:
San Francisco's Chinatown included residents from different classes and regions of China.
Restaurant  Grocery  Theater  Six Companies  School
San Francisco's Chinatown provided familiar cultural traditions to its residents, including foods, goods, and entertainment.
Restaurant  Grocery  Theater  Six Companies  School
In response to exclusion and violence against them, Chinese residents of Chinatown created self-help organizations and educated their children.
Restaurant  Grocery  Theater  Six Companies  School
Outside visitors to Chinatown viewed it as exotic and interesting, as well as foreign and threatening.
Restaurant  Grocery  Theater  Six Companies  School
Share out responses with the group. Discuss the questions written on the chart paper that were left unanswered.
Step 6: Have students complete a written assessment of the activity using the following writing prompt:
After the 1906 earthquake destroyed San Francisco, city leaders debated whether or not Chinatown should be rebuilt. Chinatown occupied valuable real estate in the center of town, and some wanted to use the land for other purposes. Imagine you are a resident of Chinatown. Write a letter to a city official in which you argue why your neighborhood should be rebuilt. Use evidence and details you have gathered from the gallery of photographs and accompanying text.Â
Â
Students will be able to describe the conflicting viewpoints of and weigh social pressures on African Americans and Irish Americans in the midst of the New York City Draft Riots. Â
Students will perform a role play of characters debating their actions during the New York City Draft Riots. Â
Step 1: Divide students into two groups, one to represent the African-American household and one to represent the Irish household. Tell students that they will be researching and performing a role play of black and Irish New Yorkers debating their options during the New York City Draft Riots of 1863. Explain the situation:
It is Wednesday, July 15, 1863--the third day of the riots.
In one house, three African Americans discuss their options. Â Should they seek help from neighboring families, flee, or stay put? Â They've heard about the violence in the streets, but know that they also may not be safe in their home. Â They have lived on the block for many years and are friendly with their neighbors. Â
Next door an Irish family discusses the violence. Â They know that their African-American neighbors are in danger, but cannot agree on whether to help them or not. Â
Step 2: Divide each group into smaller subgroups of 2-3 students each. Â Assign each subgroup a different "character" to research for the role play. Â
African-American household (Family #192 from the 1855 Census)
Matthew Fletcher, Male, 48: A well-established local printer and landowner
John Johnston, Male, 36: Although ineligible for conscription, is interested in enlisting in the Union Army
Hannah Day, Female, 42: Has heard stories about the violence in the streets--knows that the rioters are mainly targeting men
Irish household (Family #194 from the 1855 Census)
Edward Galher, Male, 53, Policeman: Has been out in the streets for two days for two days trying to put down the riot and has seen the violence firsthand
Catherine Galher, Female, 55: Sees many similarities between the experiences of the Irish and African Americans in America
John Galher, Male, 26: As a male citizen of draft age, is concerned about his future
Step 3: Give all students the two background documents (the background essay on the riots and 1855 Census page) and the character talking points worksheet. Â Then, depending on whether they are portraying Irish or African-Americans, give them either of the two packets:
African-American household documents: "Men of Color, To Arms!"; African-American Victims Describe the New York City Draft Riots; The Emancipation Proclamation (excerpt)
Irish household documents: New York City Policy Respond to the Draft Riots; Congress Issues the Conscription Act; The People of Ireland Ask the Irish in America to Support Abolition
Step 4: Students prepare for roles by (in their subgroups) reviewing the readings and selecting evidence and information they wish to include in the exchange. Â Students should record their talking points on the worksheet, noting the source where each point comes from. Â Remind students to think about the arguments and evidence the characters would use, and how he/she would counter the arguments of the opposing household members. Â
Step 5: Each subgroup should choose a member who will play its role for the whole class. Â Have the three African-American characters perform first, then the three Irish characters. Â Each character should explain what they think their household should do and try to convince the others of this position. Â
Step 6: After the role plays have been performed, lead students in a discussion. Â
How did different characters see issues differently, and why?
How did the perspectives of individual group members vary, depending on what role they played and on how they interpreted the role and the historical evidence? Â
Were the arguments that were presented in the role play grounded in the historical evidence and context provided? Â