Lesson Title: A Look at Virginians During ReconstructionAuthor(s): Elly Greene and Linda Sargent WoodSchool: Piloted at Lane Elementary School, Fairfax County as part of a

Laurel Grove School Curriculum ProjectGrade Level: 4th gradeTime Estimated: 2 days

Overview:In this lesson students will examine how governmental actions during Reconstruction(1865-77) affected individual choices. Students will consider the lives of AfricanAmericans in Virginia during this period, noting how national and state political actionsimpacted the education of African Americans in Virginia. This lesson focuses on theopportunities that Reconstruction opened up for African Americans. Specifically, itprovides students the opportunity to learn about a former slave, William Jasper, and hisfamily. It works well after students have learned about slavery and the Civil War inVirginia, and before students study the effects of segregation and “Jim Crow” on life inVirginia – a time during which many of these opportunities vanished.

Historical Background

Virginia, 1865-1870

The 1869 Virginia Constitution, unlike previous state charters, mandated publiceducation. Virginia’s position on public education – let alone its position on educatingblacks – had been tenuous at best. Despite the efforts of some of its more famouscitizens, the state had long resisted a system of free schools. Thomas Jefferson’sunsuccessful campaign for free schools had yielded little more than a literary fund forindigent children. All of that began to change when Congress passed the ReconstructionAct of March 2, 1867 and demanded that southern states ratify new constitutionsguaranteeing black suffrage. Once these constitutions met with congressional approvaland after the state approved the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress promised re-admittance into the Union.

Responding to the Reconstruction Act, Virginians registered voters and called an electionto decide if the state would hold a convention to revise the state’s constitution. In 1867,226 Fairfax County blacks registered to vote and cast their ballots unanimously in favorof a constitutional convention. In 1869, they returned to the polls and voted for adoptionof the Constitution.

At the 1867-1868 Constitutional Convention, education proved to be one of the mosthotly debated topics. (The state’s war debt was the other top issue.) Though delegates,largely comprised of northern emigrants and freedmen, easily approved a public schoolsystem, they were strongly divided over the question of integration. Many northernimmigrants viewed public schools as the foundation of a democratic society and a key to

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reconstruction of the South. They were not prepared, however, to vote for schools inwhich black and white children sat next to each other. When black members introducedresolutions ensuring equal access to education “without distinction of color,”most whitedelegates never took these suggestions seriously. Even radicals who supporteddesegregation voted against such resolutions. Mindful of widespread sentiment againstmixed schools, they did not want to risk ratification. In the end, while most assumedpublic schools would be segregated, no language could be agreed upon and the questionwas not resolved until the legislature revisited the issue in 1870.

Though blacks lost their campaign for mixed schools, they still crossed a milestone.Gaining access to public education was significant. However, as a result of poor politicaland financial support, Virginia’s first public schools for both blacks and whites weregrossly inadequate. Many did not have heat or toilets, schools were small and scattered,and the average term was less than the five months mandated by the Constitution, andattendance, which was not required, was sparse. Despite these conditions – and those forblack children were considerably worse than those for whites – black and white childrenstill learned.

The William Jasper family, 1808-1870 [Talking Points]

• William Jasper, an African American, was probably born in 1808 not far fromGeorge Washington’s plantation in Mount Vernon. He was born a slave on theHayfield plantation of William Hayward Foote. Foote was one of the richest menin Fairfax County—when he died he owned 50 slaves.

• Jasper worked on a plantation that grew wheat and corn, and raised horses, cattle,sheep and hogs. Slaves at Hayfield, including Jasper, are likely to have beenskilled as blacksmiths and carpenters.

• Jasper and his family were not sold south to booming cotton and sugarplantations, as were many other slaves.

• According to his will, Foote decided to free his slaves on or soon after his death in1846. At this time Jasper, in his thirties, was valued by appraisers to be worth$350. Foote’s will also freed Jasper’s wife Sarah, in her mid-twenties, and theirtwo daughters, Susan and Eliza, who were six and four. The family was actuallyfreed in the early 1850s.

• It is important to note that the Jaspers were free blacks in Virginia before the CivilWar. But even as free blacks they faced numerous obstacles. They could notown a gun, obtain an education, vote, conduct business freely, or worship inreligious services unless supervised by whites. Also they might be captured byslave traders and sold back into slavery.

• The Jaspers wanted to stay in Virginia near friends and family, so in 1853 and1858 they chose to register as free blacks in Fairfax County to prove theirfreedom. This meant they could travel and gain employment without too muchfear of being mistaken for a slave.

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• In 1860 William Jasper purchased 13 acres of land near the Hayfield Plantation.It is likely that he put together the $200 to pay a white farmer and slave owner forthe land from his work as a farmer.

• The Jaspers probably did not stay on their newly acquired property during theCivil War -- and it is also likely that what they had on this land, includingbuildings, animals and crops, was trampled by Confederate and Union soldiersduring the war. After the war, the Jaspers returned to their farm.

Objectives:

Students will

1. Identify some of the problems Virginians faced during the period ofReconstruction following the Civil War

2. Recognize how the national government supported African Americans duringReconstruction

3. Appreciate how African Americans in Virginia exercised their newly wonrights

4. Identify and interpret primary source documents

5. Determine cause and effect relationships

6. Sequence events in Virginia history

7. Interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives.

8. Write a story that incorporates historical specifics, including primary sources.

Standards of Learning; Virginia Studies

Skills VS.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysisincluding the ability to

a) identify and interpret artifacts and primary and secondary source documents tounderstand events in history

b) determine cause and effect relationships

f) sequence events in Virginia history

g) interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives

Content VS.8 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the reconstruction of

Virginia following the Civil War by

a) identifying the effects of Reconstruction on life in Virginia.

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Materials:

Primary sources [available as PDF documents]

• Registry of Black Voters 1867

• 1869 Marriage License

Handout: Role play parts for Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1867-68

1. White Radicals

2. Black freedmen/Radicals

3. White southern/Conservatives

Optional: Create a transparency adapting the Talking Points on the William Jasperfamily and have an overhead projector.

Strategies:

Day 1

1. Hook: Begin by asking students what they remember about slavery – specificallyabout how slavery impacted the lives of those who were slaves. Write students’recollections on a web on the board or a flip chart. Then ask students what they knowabout free blacks before the Civil War: specifically what rights did and didn’t theyhave?

2. Tell students that they will learn about the true story of William Jasper and his family,people who were first slaves then free blacks in Virginia, and will then get a chanceto examine some documents for clues about life in Virginia after the Civil War.

3. Use the talking points above about William Jasper and his family to tell students thisstory. As you do, ask students how the Jaspers’ experience is similar to or differentfrom what they remember about slaves and free blacks.

4. Next have students work in pairs or small groups using the two primary sourcedocuments to focus their attention on life in Virginia during Reconstruction. Directthem to examine the documents and answer the following questions for each one:

• What kind of document is this? How do you know?

• When was it written?

• How does each document involve William Jasper?

• Why was the document written? Explain how you know the document’s purpose.Additional questions and observations: On the marriage license, why might there bea different name for William Jasper’s wife, than that in the Talking Points? (Explain

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that Sara Jasper died and that William Jasper married again.) Also notice ages, andoccupation. On the list of voters, note the total number of colored voters voting, thatonly men are listed, and that they were not just registered but voted in 1867. Do youneed to put something in the talking points about Jasper’s marriage to explain it to theteachers?

5. Reconvene the class and have students report out what they found. Ask students:

• What rights do these documents show that Jasper (and others) had in 1867 and1869 that they did not have as slaves or as free blacks?

• How did free blacks get the right to marry legally and to vote (among otherrights)?

6. Wrap up: The last question will provide an important problem-posing link tostudents’ study of Reconstruction: encourage students to hypothesize how theserights became legal for freed black people in Virginia, and write their hypotheses onthe board or a flip chart.

Day 2

1. Before class, write the information listed in # 3 below on the board or a flip chart.

2. Hook: Begin with the word “Reconstruction”: ask students what it means and whatthey think needed to be reconstructed at the end of the Civil War in Virginia. Whatgroups of people would need help and why? Problems faced by Virginians duringReconstruction include:

• Millions of freed slaves needed housing, clothing, food, jobs, and aneducation/literacy

• Virginia’s economy was in ruins

• Confederate money had no value

• Banks were closed

• Railroads, bridges, farms and crops were destroyed

3. Give students a brief explanation of the Congressional actions during Reconstructionby reading and showing them the information below. Be sure to remind students that

in 1863 Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had already freed slaves in areasunder Confederate control. Also explain that the amendments listed below wereadditions to the U.S. Constitution.

• 13th amendment – December 6, 1865

o This amendment abolished slavery in the entire United States.• 14th amendment – July 9, 1868

o This amendment made former slaves citizens of the United States andthe state in which they live.

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o It also forbade the denial of equal rights.• 15th amendment – February 3, 1870

o This amendment said that voting rights cannot be denied to a personbecause of his race.

o This amendment did not specifically say that African Americans havethe right to vote.

• Congress set up the Freedmen’s Bureau, a national government agency thatprovided food, schools, and medical care for free slaves and others in Virginiaand the rest of the South.

4. Set the stage for the role play on the 1867 Virginia Constitutional Convention byexplaining that

• According to Congress, the requirements for Virginia – and all formerConfederate states – to be readmitted into the union was that they had toaccept Amendments 13, 14 and 15, and write a new constitution. AlsoCongress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867 demanding that southernstates ratify new constitutions guaranteeing black suffrage (right to vote).

• All Virginia voters could vote on whether to have a convention to create anew state constitution – and that among these voters was William Jasper. Besure to explain why black voters would want a new state constitution.

• The major topic at this convention was education: whether or not to havepublic education for all children, and whether to have black and whitechildren attend the same schools.

5. For the role play, you can divide students into three large groups and assign them toplay these groups of delegates to the 1867 Virginia Constitutional Convention ORyou can divide students into smaller groups of three. In a class of 30 students, withthree large groups you’ll have one simulation and with smaller groups you will have10 simulations:

White Radicals (including white northern emigrants and a fewsoutherners)

Black freedmen/Radicals

White southern/Conservatives

6. Give each student in the same group the same role description. These explain eachgroup’s views on the topic of education, and it will be useful to go over the wordingto be sure they understand:

White Radicals – We believe that public school for all children is essential as thefoundation of a democratic society, and it has worked this way in our northernstates for years. Also, public schools are important to the reconstruction ofthe South. People need an education to be good citizens and productivepeople. But, while it might be fair to have black children attend any school,

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we worry that if we write this into this constitution, Virginia voters will voteagainst, or not ratify, the constitution.

Black freedmen/Radicals – We believe that public school for all children isessential as the foundation of a democratic society. To be good citizens, allchildren need to learn to read and write. We also believe that black childrenshould have equal access to all schools – that is only fair. Black childrendeserve the same schools as white children. Education is the gateway to allthe other rights and black children should be prepared to become fullAmerican citizens.

White southern/Conservatives – We are not convinced that there should be publicschools for white children, whether rich or poor. Wealthy families can pay forprivate schools. And why do poor people need an education? Their meniallabor does not require them to read and write. We are even less sure aboutpublic education for black children and absolutely certain that black and whitechildren should not attend the same schools. We are afraid that, sinceVirginians already have to pay off large war debts, adding taxes to pay forpublic education would be a bad idea at this time.

7. Direct students once in their groups to have each member of the group read his or herrole, then put what they read in their own words. Next ask students to discuss howthey will vote on the education questions. (Remind students they’ll have to vote onthese questions as if they were delegates to the Convention: whether or not to havepublic education for all children, and whether to have black and white children attendthe same schools.)

8. Acting as facilitator, reconvene the whole class with students still in their roles andask each group’s representative to explain their group’s position. (With the largegroups ask each group to select a representative who will speak for the group, in thesmall groups each student will speak. With smaller groups, when they are finished,ask one group to present their vote to the class.) Finally, record the votes of eachperson on the two education questions – and announce the winning positions.

9. Debrief: Ask students to step out of their roles – and to be themselves again and givethem an opportunity to tell how their role felt to them. Tell students that the actualconvention voted to have public education for both black and white children – thefirst time there was public education at all in Virginia. Note that, although mostpeople at that time assumed public schools would be segregated, the 1869Constitution did not include these words. The first Virginia superintendent ofeducation, William H. Ruffner, developed a plan for establishing public schools in1870 and in that plan, he instituted separate schools for blacks and whites. And,finally, point out that, since Virginians owed so much money in war debts, there wasnot much money left over for public schools for white students and definitely not forblack students.

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10. Inform students that all African American men (remind students that women did nothave the vote) who voted in Fairfax County voted in favor of this Constitution. Notethat African American men in Virginia had several opportunities to vote: First, theyelected delegates to the Convention, then African American delegates at theConvention helped decide what would go in the Constitution. And after theConvention, African American men had another chance to be citizens. They, alongwith white male voters, voted whether of not the Constitution would be ratified.African American men voted unanimously for ratification of the Constitution of 1869.

11. Finally, ask students to compare what actually happened during Reconstruction withtheir hypotheses on Day 1 (when you asked them to hypothesize how these rightsbecame legal for freed people in Virginia).

12. Wrap up: Ask students to write a story that William Jasper might tell his childrenand grandchildren explaining what life was like for Virginians, particularly AfricanAmerican Virginians, during Reconstruction. Explain that students will need toinclude specifics from this history as an integral part of their story. It might be usefulto take some time during English/Language Arts to complete this writing, since itprovides students with practice in “writing effective narratives and explanations,”(Grade Four English Standard of Learning 4.7).

Assessment:

A rubric might specify that an exemplary piece of writing would:

• Accurately and clearly discuss two or three historical specifics fromReconstruction

• Connect the lives of individuals to the actions of Congress and Virginia stategovernment

• Demonstrate evidence that the student planned, wrote, revised and edited theirnarrative.

Differentiation:

1. For Day 1 select the main ideas from the Talking Points and put them in 4th grader-friendly terms on a transparency to show on an overhead projector while you tell thestory of William Jasper and his family. This will support both visual and auditorylearning modes.

2. When explaining Congressional actions during Reconstruction, have students work insmall groups and assign each group one of the four actions to illustrate the action(with stick figures). Have students use flip chart paper and markers or crayons to dothis, and ask each group’s representative to explain their drawing to the rest of theclass. Post students’ drawings as a reminder.

3. For the Role Play be sure to mix able and less able readers so as to be sure that allstudents in a group understand their group’s opinions and positions.

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4. With the narrative writing assignment at the end of the lesson, you could offerstudents a choice of how to accomplish this task, thus drawing on multipleintelligences. They might write the story, write and illustrate a multi-frame cartoon,act out their story or write and sing a song.

Resources:

Websites for teacher reference:

America's Reconstruction: People and Politics After the Civil War

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/reconstruction/section1/section1_intro.html

This exhibition is part of the Digital History site that contains an up-to-date U.S. historytextbook; annotated primary sources on United States, Mexican American, and NativeAmerican history, and slavery; and succinct essays on the history of ethnicity andimmigration, film, private life, and science and technology. The text is by Eric Foner, theDeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University and renowned expert onReconstruction, and Olivia Mahoney, Director of Historical Documentation at theChicago Historical Society.

Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/timeline/civilwar/civilwar.html

This Library of Congress exhibition contains succinct overviews of several aspects of theCivil War and Reconstruction and features primary sources, maps, and images

Bibliography for Teachers:

Anderson, James. The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935. Chapel Hill:University of North Carolina Press, 1988.

Berlin, Ira. Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South. NewYork: Free Press, 1974.

Buck, J.L. Blair. The Development of Public Schools in Virginia, 1607-1952. Richmond:State Board of Education, 1952.

Foner, Eric. A Short History of Reconstruction. New York: Harper & Row, 1990.

Heatwole, Cornelius J. A History of Education in Virginia. New York: Macmillan,1916.

Wood, Linda Sargent. “The Laurel Grove School: Educating the First Generation Borninto Freedom.” Unpublished essay: Nov. 27, 2002.

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Handouts for Role Play

White Radicals – We believe that public school for all children isessential as the foundation of a democratic society, and it has workedthis way in our northern states for years. Also, public schools areimportant to the reconstruction of the South. People need aneducation to be good citizens and productive people. But, while itmight be fair to have black children attend any school, we worry thatif we write this into this constitution, Virginia voters will vote against,or not ratify, the constitution.

Black freedmen/Radicals – We believe that public school for all childrenis essential as the foundation of a democratic society. To be goodcitizens, all children need to learn to read and write. We also believethat black children should have equal access to all schools – that isonly fair. Black children deserve the same schools as white children.Education is the gateway to all the other rights and black childrenshould be prepared to become full American citizens.

White southern/Conservatives – We are not convinced that there shouldbe public schools for white children, whether rich or poor. . Wealthyfamilies can pay for private schools. And why do poor people need aneducation? Their menial labor does not require them to read and write. We areeven less sure about public education for black children andabsolutely certain that black and white children should not attend thesame schools. We are afraid that, since Virginians already have topay off large war debts, adding taxes to pay for public educationwould be a bad idea at this time.