5_3+Let+Us+Have+Peace+.+.+.+the+Era+of+Reconstruction

Welcome to the Wiki page for Era 5, Part 3!

The Mini-institute on this topic will be held on May 17 and 23, 2011, at the East Tennessee Historical Society. The purpose of this wiki page is to allow those who attended the opportunity to pool resources and ideas gleaned from that institute. Feel free to post lesson plans, project ideas, or other ways that you have integrated the material or methods learned at this day's sessions into your classroom. What worked, or did not work? What materials have you discovered were most helpful? Or least helpful? What material (photos, documents, videos, etc) do you wish you had more of? And who has found some to recommend?

If you have never used a wiki before, do not worry. Most have not! Just click on the giant pencil icon that says "EDIT" to begin adding your contributions to this project. Do not forget that creating a classroom project based on these institutes, and being observed during the project, can all count towards the completion of your Professional Development Plan (PDP).

The following file is a plot summary for the influential film __The Birth of a Nation__:

Visit the Freedmen's Bureau website for outstanding, searchable records dealing with individual states, accounts of violence, marriage records, and other important resources. Another important Freedmen's Bureau website was put together by the University of Maryland's History Department. Some of the documents that we used in a session, including the petition of Black Nashvillians to a Union Convention, a newspaper account of Black Religious Leaders meeting Union Army officials, the Freedmen's Bureau Law, a petition of Tennessee Freedmen to the local Freedmen Bureau official, and a letter from White Tennessean to the Freedmen's Bureau superintendant, were all found on that website.

Here are the image slides, many of them from __Harper's Weekly__ (once again, the files were so large I broke them into three downloads):



Also, here are the testimonies concerning the Memphis Race Riots that were used in session:, and the Freedmen's Bureau report on the riots can be found here.

A really good novel to use for civil war and reconstruction is Traveller by Richard Adams.

Traveller, the favorite horse of retired Civil War general Robert E. Lee, relates the story of his life and experiences to his feline friend. His narrative, meant to begin early spring of 1866, follows the events of the war as seen through his eyes, from the time he was bought by General Lee in 1862, until Lee's death in 1870. At the end of the novel, Traveller, with undying faith in Lee, becomes convinced that the Confederate Army beat the Union and that Lee is now "commander of the country" (versus his actual postbellum role as president of Washington and Lee University). And despite marching in Lee's funeral procession, Traveller does not understand that his master has died and will not return to ride again.

This novel shows the incredible devotion and friendship between Robert E Lee and Traveller.

The novel is out of print but available through Amazon.com for 72 cents each.

The website for the National Archives has a set of worksheets for examining different sources. There is a worksheet for written documents, for photographs , for cartoons , for posters , for maps , for artifacts , for movies , and for sound files.

Nancy also used a lot of images from the Digital History website of the University of Houston, and there are a lot of other images, documents, and materials available there as well.

‍‍‍‍Interested in riots in Tennessee ‍‍‍‍, including the Memphis Race Riot of 1866? The Tennessee State Library has an online exhibit all about it, as well as information about other disasters in the state.