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September—2015 (Weekly lessons will also be posted)

IB HL History of the Americas Unit Objectives: Topic 8—American Civil War

8: United States’ Civil War: Causes, course and effects (1840–1877)

This section focuses on the United States’ Civil War between the North and the South (1861–1865), which is often perceived as the great watershed in the history of the United States. It transformed the country forever, but the war created a new set of problems: how would the country be reunited? How would the South rebuild its society and economy? How would the four million freed former slaves fit into society?

  • Slavery: cotton economy and slavery; conditions of enslavement; adaptation and resistance; abolitionist debate—ideological, legal, religious and economic arguments for and against slavery, and their impact
  • Origins of the Civil War: the Nullification Crisis; states’ rights; sectionalism; slavery; political issues; economic differences between the North and South
  • Reasons for, and effects of, westward expansion and the sectional debates; the crises of the 1850s; compromise of 1850; political developments, including the Lincoln–Douglas debates and the presidential election of 1860
  • Union versus Confederate: strengths and weaknesses; economic resources; role and significance of leaders during the Civil War; role of Lincoln; significant military battles/campaigns
  • Factors affecting the outcome of the Civil War; the role of foreign relations; the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and participation of African Americans in the Civil War
  • Reconstruction: presidential and congressional plans; methods of southern resistance; economic, social and political successes and failures
  • African Americans in the New South: legal issues; the black codes; Jim Crow laws

In order to understand the IB Topic Requirements—we must first try to understand the uniqueness of the United States’ history; its ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery. In the 21 Century it may be difficult to look to the past at this ‘ugly’ practice—but we need to do it in order to go further.

We are reading A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, in order to try to understand the following:

  • Begin to understand the different interpretations of slavery, and history.
  • Begin to understand MORE about the development of the US from a society with slaves—into a slave society.
  • Begin to understand how that impacted the future of the United States up to this very minute.

First Week:

  • Activate some issues—discuss what we know or don’t know about slavery in the US or history in general—how it’s done.
  • READ the Preface of Douglass
  • Discuss the Abolitionists/Anti-slavery folks.
  • Look closely at the writing of Garrison—get some vocabulary going!
  • THINK about how American Slavery has affected every part of US history.

Second Week:

Monday & Tuesday, September 14 & 15, 2015

  1. Please—vocabulary in the Preface that was difficult? SPLASH the words on the white boards please—do this every reading, by the way.
  1. Break up into groups and jigsaw the meaning & context of W.L. Garrison’s writing in the Preface—also with Wendell Philips.
  1. Look closely at the “Liberator” reading and vocab that I will hand out (should have last week . . .”
  1. Share & discuss with whole class
  1.  Homework: Read Chapter 1 in FD & “What is History?” Essay—t-4 essay-- & be able to discuss both.
  2. Probably will have a mini quiz Wed & Thursday on these readings. Don’t panic—nothing big

September 16 & 17 Wednesday & Thursday

  1. Discuss Essay, “What is History?”
  2. Introduce historiography
  3. Discuss Chapter 1, Douglass
  4. Quiz!!!
  5. Homework—read Chapters 2-5 in Douglass for Friday & Monday—Be ready for a reading check quiz on Douglass—nothing deep, just a check—

Friday September 18 & Monday September 21

  1. Quiz
  2. Discuss 2-5—take notes! Ask questions!
  1. What do you know about the arguments for and against slavery in the United States during the 18th & 19th centuries?
  1. Share at tables—write one point you talked about on the board. Share as a whole
  1. How do we know today how people lived in the United States during the 19th century? (1800s)
  2. Do we have the same data from all groups of people? American Indians, immigrants, slaves, women factory workers? Why or why not?
  1. Introduce Slave Narratives—discuss meaning and process. Show clip.

Unchained Slave Narratives—time permitting

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/narratives-slavery/

  1. Short Abolitionist—Anti-Slavery Lesson—please know the following
  1. Difference in Anti-slavery groups and Abolitionists groups
  1. Know the political parties, religious groups and regions that espoused, for the most part, the arguments. I will show you. You need to ask questions and take notes.
  1. Insert chart here—good place to start making a kind of chart to keep things organized . . .
  1. Know Immediatism & Moral Suasion (probably should take notes here. This material will be assessed on a short little quiz)
  1. Immediatism
  1. Moral Suasion—from our reading who ascribed deeply to immediatism and to the use of moral suasion? Which clues do have to “guess” that?” We will talk about history as just a guess . . .. Later.

Know:

  1. William Lloyd Garrison & The Liberator, January 1, 1831 (should know what a big year 1831 was in the US)

  1. Nat Turner? When? Outcome? Reaction or effects on the South? The North? The nation?
  1. Charles Grandison Finney—“Burned-Over Districts” & The Great Second Awakening—Evangelism

  1. Quakers
  1. New Yorkers Arthur & Lewis Tappan—money $$ behind much of the movement from New York—The Amistad Extra Credit viewing anybody?

  1. David Walker—Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829)
  1. Grimke Sisters

  1. John Brown
  1. Fire Eater—Edmund Ruffin & many others
  1. Theodore Dwight Weld
  1. American Colonization Society
  1. Wendell Phillips
  1. Hinton Helper
  1. Frederick Douglass
  2. Harriet Beecher Stowe

Short Break Here

IV: Frederick Douglass Books

  1. Video clip of Douglass speaking (actor)
  2. Homework—read Chapter 1 in FB & read “What is History?” Essay—t-4 essay.
  3. Purpose: vocabulary!

V: Historiography: Please read: “What Was the True Nature of Slavery?” Varying Viewpoints, 369-370

  1. Purpose: How did the way historians view the nature of slavery change or differ over time? What was going on in the times that the historians were writing that may have affected their conclusions?
  2. Make a chart—Historians, thesis, years—etc.