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American Democracy in Word and Deed

MDUSD/UCB H-SSP

8th Grade Lesson: “Economics of sharecropping during Reconstruction”

Developed by: Emily Richards, Kathe Welch, Suzan Taylor, Diane Shamai, Sue Kunich

Teaching American History Grant Focus Question:

How have the words and deeds of people and institutions shaped democracy in the U.S.?

8th Grade Year-long Focus Questions:

2006-2010 Grant Questions:

- How did federalism shape the roles of the national and state governments?

- How did the rights of citizens expand and contract during the 18th and 19th centuries?

Unit 5, Chapters 15-16

The Nation Breaks Apart

Unit 5 Focus Question:

Why did the United States split apart and how was it reunified politically and socially?

Unit Working Thesis:

The moral issue of slavery, the economic regionalization of the nation and sectional politics all led to the Civil War. The war brought new types of technology, new kinds of warfare and an economic boom in the North. Reconstruction of the South after the war attempted to make social and political changes to the South to limited success.

Lesson Focus Question:

How did the development of the cotton gin impact the economy of the agrarian south and lead to

the increased dependency on slavery?

Lesson Working Thesis:

What will the students learn?

Reading and Writing Strategy/ies:

• READING Strategy:
• Sentence level (Sentence Deconstruction/Sentence Chunking)

OR

• Passage level (Chronology/sequence, P.O.V./Debate/ perspective/ message; Compare and contrast, Cause and effect, or Evidence/argument development)

OR

• “Reading” and analyzing a visual source (political cartoon, art, image, map, chart, graph)

• WRITING Strategy: Various paragraph outlines, working with writing components (Thesis, Evidence, Analysis), etc

Lesson Assessment:

How will you gauge that students are learning the content or skills? Is there a written assessment you will use? Please write a short description that explains how you will assess student learning.

Suggested Amount of Time:

How many days or class periods?

Textbook:

Deverell, William and White, Deborah Gray. United States History: Independence to 1914. Orlando, Florida: Holt, Rinehart and Winston., 2006, Chapter 16: “Reconstruction,” pp528-530

Primary Source Citation:

Context of the lesson in the unit (and its connection to American Democracy in Word and Deed):

Specify when your lesson will take place in the unit, and what students should know or have

studied beforehand.

Lesson Procedure:

Use this area to explain step by step how a teacher could approach the lesson.

Example:

1. Introduction

• Step One…
• Step Two…
• Ex: Pass out…
• Ex: Students will…
• Ex: Teacher explains…

2. Reading Strategy

• First, …
• Step Two, …

3. Writing Strategy

Homework:

History-Social Science Content Standards:

http://www.cde.ca.gov/BE/ST/SS/documents/hssstandards.doc

Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills:

http://www.cde.ca.gov/BE/ST/SS/documents/hssstandards.doc

*Note: They are listed under K-5, grades 6-8, grades 9-12, and are embedded within a larger document that also lists the individual grade level standards.

Reading/Language Arts Content Standards:

http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/elastandards.doc

Farming in the South

Few African Americans in the South could afford to buy or even rent farms. Moving West also was costly. Many African Americans therefore remained on plantations. Others tried to make a living in the cities.

African Americans who stayed on plantations often became part of a system known as sharecropping, or sharing the crop. Land-owners provided the land, tools, and supplies, and sharecroppers provided the labor. At harvest time, the sharecropper usually had to give most of the crop to the landowner. Whatever remained belonged to the sharecropper. Many sharecroppers hoped to save enough money from selling their share of the crops to one day be able to buy a farm. Unfortunately, only a few ever achieved this dream.

Instead, most sharecroppers lived in a cycle of debt. When they needed food, clothing, or supplies, most families had to buy goods on credit because they had little cash. When sharecroppers sold their crops, they hoped to be able to pay off these debts. However, bad weather, poor harvests, or low crop prices often made this dream impossible.

Sharecroppers usually grew cotton, one of the South one of the South’s most important cash crops. When too many farmers planted cotton, however, the supply became excessive. As a result, the price per bale of cotton dropped. Many farmers understood the drawbacks of planting cotton. However, farmers felt pressure from banks and others to keep raising cotton. A southern farmer explained why so many sharecroppers depended on cotton:

“Cotton is the thing to get credit on in this country… You can always sell cotton…[Y]ou load up your wagon with wheat or corn… and I doubt some days whether you could sell it.” -Farmer quoted in The Promise of the New South, by Edward L. Ayers

Copyright 2007 UC Regents

NAME Teacher Key

Copyright 2007 UC Regents