Grade 8 Lesson at a Glance: Chapter 13, Lesson 3

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
A More Perfect Union

Lesson at a Glance
Chapter 13, Lesson 3: Southern Life Under Reconstruction (pp. 391-397)

The Big Idea
Framework Concept: Change Some goals of the Civil War and Reconstruction were met while others remained unrealized.

Describe the efforts of freed blacks to establish themselves as independent farmers and why most of those efforts finally failed. Talk about the ways in which white Southerners continued to resist Reconstruction and black civil rights, both legally and illegally.

Discuss the reasons why Reconstruction finally ended. Ask students what they think the legacy of Reconstruction was and discuss their answers, guiding them to talk about the end of slavery, the establishment of federal authority, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, and loss of black civil rights.

Lesson Outline
Use the Lesson Outline to preview the content of the lesson. You may wish to print it for your students as a guide during reading.

Check for Understanding

Have each student write a paragraph describing why many freed blacks were not able to gain economic independence. Encourage them to include the impact of Johnson's restoration of white property, white Southern attitudes, and the economics of sharecropping. Have students share their ideas and discuss.
Have students work in groups to recreate the timeline on page 395. Students can use simple language or illustrations to show each event and should color-code their timelines to show which events helped freed blacks and which hurt freed blacks.

Social Studies Center | Houghton Mifflin Social Studies | Grade 8 Home
Education Place | Site Index

You may download, print, and make copies of Lesson at a Glance pages for use in your classroom, provided that you include the copyright notice shown below on all such copies.