Civil War and Reconstruction Course Outline 2009-2010

It is my hope that in this course you will gain a better understanding of the causes and effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction through the use of investigative research. Scholarly works, primary source documents, documentaries, docudramas and classic films will be used to examine both the historical time period and the folklore that sprung up about it subsequently. After a detailed investigation of the role slavery, cotton and industrialization played in the Northern and Southern economies, you will consider the moral arguments used for and against the “Peculiar Institution.”
The War itself will be seen through the eyes of soldiers, slaves and women. President Lincoln will be contrasted with other historical figures who took a more radical stance against slavery.
The struggle to establish and maintain racial equality in the post-war South will be contrasted with the challenges of upholding the principle of equality and liberty today and we will ask, have we yet created a post-racial society?


Essential Question: At What Point are Differences of Opinion Irreconcilable?



September - Introduction to Mr. Copeland’s History Class

• Political Systems
• Economic Systems
• Political and Economic Ideological Spectrum
• World and U. S. Geography

Skills: Note taking, analysis of primary sources
Texts: Party platforms of selected political parties, quotations from selected historical figures
Films: Excerpts from political roundtable discussions on various cable and PBS programs
Assessments: Quizzes, 3 page personal political/economic framework essay with quotes



October – Race, Gender and Class in the Antebellum South
Essential Question: How Can Economic Conflict Lead to War?

• The Atlantic Slave Trade
• Slavery in the Americas
• The Conditions and Toll of Involuntary Servitude in the United States
• “King Cotton”: Class Among White Southerners

Skills: analysis of graphs and numeric data, content vocabulary usage, analysis of primary and secondary sources, development of a written argument, determining appropriateness of evidence
Texts: A People’s History of the United States (Zinn), From Slavery To Freedom (Franklin), Civil War and Reconstruction (Randall), Who Built America? (American Social History Project) A People a Nation (Norton, et al)
Films: Queen (Mini-series based on book by Alex Haley)
Assessments: Quizzes, Unit Exam, Film Reflection/Response Essay with thesis and quotes




November – Economic Roots of the War
Essential Question: How Can Economic Conflict Lead to War?
• Industrial Capitalism
• Urbanization and Immigration in the North
• Economic Relationship between the North and South

Skills: U. S. geography/map, analysis of graphs and numeric data, content vocabulary usage, analysis of graphs and numeric data, content vocabulary usage, analysis of primary and secondary sources, development of a written argument, determining appropriateness of evidence
Texts: A People’s History of the United States (Zinn), From Slavery To Freedom (Franklin), Civil War and Reconstruction (Randall), Who Built America? (American Social History Project) A People a Nation (Norton, et al)
Films: Selected CUNY, PBS and other documentaries, Gone with the Wind
Assessments: quizzes, unit exam, 4 page response essay with clear thesis and evidence





December /January – Political Roots of the War
Essential Question: How Much Damage and Destruction are You Willing to Cause to do What You Believe is Right? The Trial of John Brown

• Sectionalism
• Abolitionism
• Mexican War
• Trial of John Brown

Skills: analysis of graphs and numeric data, content vocabulary usage, analysis of graphs and numeric data, content vocabulary usage, analysis of primary and secondary sources, development of a written argument, determining appropriateness of evidence, logic, reasoning and debating skills
Texts: A People’s History of the United States (Zinn), From Slavery To Freedom (Franklin), Civil War and Reconstruction (Randall), Who Built America? (American Social History Project) A People a Nation (Norton, et al) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Films: Selected CUNY, PBS and other documentaries
Assessments: quizzes, unit exam, mock trial group project





February /March – The Civil War
Essential Question: Did Lincoln Fight the War to Free the Slaves?
• Abraham Lincoln
• Battlefield Medicine
• Military Technology
• Role of African American Soldiers
• Role of Women in the War
• Economic Impact of the War

Skills: map/ U. S. geography, analysis of graphs and numeric data, content vocabulary usage, analysis of graphs and numeric data, content vocabulary usage, analysis of primary and secondary sources, development of a written argument, determining appropriateness of evidence
Texts: A People’s History of the United States (Zinn), From Slavery To Freedom (Franklin), Civil War and Reconstruction (Randall), Who Built America? (American Social History Project) A People a Nation (Norton, et al) Our Lincoln (Foner), Women’s America (Kerber)
Films: Glory, The Red Badge of Courage
Assessments: unit exam, quizzes, 6 page response essay with clear thesis and arguments, group presentation




April/May/June – Reconstruction
Essential Question: What was it like to go from Slavery to Freedom to Jim Crow?
• Presidential Reconstruction
• Radical Reconstruction
• Southern Redemption and the Restoration of White Supremacy
• Industrialization

Skills: analysis of graphs and numeric data, content vocabulary usage, analysis of graphs and numeric data, content vocabulary usage, analysis of primary and secondary sources, development of a written argument, determining appropriateness of evidence
Texts: A People’s History of the United States (Zinn), From Slavery To Freedom (Franklin), Civil War and Reconstruction (Randall), Who Built America? (American Social History Project) A People a Nation (Norton, et al) Our Lincoln (Foner), Women’s America (Kerber)
Films: Birth of a Nation, Aftershock: Beyond the Civil War, American Experience: The Richest Man in the World - Andrew Carnegie (1997)
Assessments: unit exam, final exam, quizzes, 4 page response essay with clear thesis and arguments