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Mystery
Lesson Plan
Social Studies
8
90 Minutes
Shalisa Gee

Instructional Unit Content

Standard(s)/Element(s)
Content Area Standard
SS8H6.c Analyze the impact of Reconstruction on Georgia and other southern states, emphasizing Freedmens
Bureau; sharecropping and tenant farming; Reconstruction plans; 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the
constitution; Henry McNeal Turner and black legislators; and the Ku Klux Klan

TAG Standard
Advanced Communication Skills
10. The student supports and defends his/her own opinions while respecting the opinions of others.
Advanced Research Skills
5. The student gathers, organizes, analyzes, and synthesizes data from multiple sources to support or
disprove a hypothesis.
Higher Order Critical Thinking Skills
11. The student draws conclusions based upon relevant information while discarding irrelevant
information.

Summary/Overview
The focus of this lesson is for students use a number of primary sources to investigate how the
Freedmens Bureau ac-accomplished its goals. Students discuss both the immediate-ate effects and
the ultimate goals of emancipation and how the Freedmens Bureau contributed to the transition from
slavery to freedom

Enduring Understanding(s)
At the end of this lesson the student will understand
a. Students will understand the ways in which the Freed-mens Bureau attempted to assist
former slaves to make the transition from slavery to freedom in many facets of their lives.

Revised April 2009

Essential Question(s)
1. What were the goals of the Freedmens Bureau?
2. In what specific ways did the Bureau attempt to assist the lives of the freedmen?

Concept(s) to Maintain

Evidence of Learning
What students should know:
a. Southern states wanted slavery; Northern states wanted to abolish slavery Southern states
supported states rights allowing states to rule themselves; Northern states believed in a
strong national government.
b. Southern states believed that states could nullify or declare invalid, any law they
deemed unconstitutional.
c. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed for popular sovereignty thus giving territories
the right to allow citizens to vote on the issue of slavery upon becoming a state.
d. Dred Scott was slave who traveled with his master to a free state. Upon his return to the
slave state of Missouri, Scott was arrested. He later filed a lawsuit claiming his freedom
because he lived in a free state of Wisconsin. The US Supreme Court ruled that Scott
could not sue because slaves were not citizens but property.
e. In the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The Southern states
were afraid Lincoln would end slavery. Thus beginning in secession movement.
What students should be able to do:
1. Understand the challenges faced by African-Americans after emancipation.
2. Describe the purposes for which the Freedmens Bureau was originally established.
3. Analyze primary sources to learn how the Bureau attempted to perform one of its
functions.
4. Explain the effects of the Freedmens Bureau and the restrictions placed on the rights and
opportunities of freedmen, including racial segregation and Jim Crow

Suggested Vocabulary

Tenant Farming
Share Cropping
13th amendment
14th Amendment

Revised April 2009

15th Amendment
Reconstruction
Emancipation Proclamation

Procedure(s)
Phase 1: Hook
1. Ask students have what type detective shows have they seen on TV? What types of shows have they
seen that relates to people doing detective work but they arent actually detectives they hold another
profession? List some skills that are needed when you have to solve a mystery? What are some
tools/objects that are needed when solving mysteries? Students will share out their responses

Phase 2: Examine the Content

Share the Mystery. Distribute Freedmans Bureau Act of 1866, (Handout 1) to students.
Read through the Act as a class, section by section. If necessary, allow extra time to discuss the
meanings of unfamiliar words and concepts. Record on the board what students think the
meaning/purpose of each section of the Act was. develop a list of tentative hypotheses.

1.

Explain that students will now be working in small groups with sets of primary sources. Each set
is related to one aspect of the Bureaus work. The students task is to use these sources to answer
the questions on the Freedmens Bureau Worksheet. (Handout 2) Then they will use their sources
to describe their aspect of the Bureaus work to their classmates. Divide the class into groups of
two or three and give each group one of the source sets and enough worksheets for each student
to have one. In a large class you may need to create groups of four or five and split each set
between sub-groups. Allow students time to analyze their sources and fill out their worksheets.

2.

Present the Clues.

a. Distribute the clues for Meeting 1 Students will examine the Emancipation during and after the
Civil war and answer clues that are provided. (Handout 3)
b. Distribute the clue for Meeting 2. Hope within a Wilderness of Suffering: The Transition From
Slavery to Freedom During the Civil War Time in Tennessee.(Handout 4) Students will analyze
clues
c. Distribute the clues for Meeting 3 Abandon Lands Primary (Handout 5) source document,
analyze clues
d. Distribute the clues for Meeting 4. Students will evaluate all clues record the clues provided

Phase 3: Synthesis Activity

Have students analyze and then compare and contrast the portrayal of the Freedmens Bureau in
the following three sources: The Freedmans Bureau Act of 1866 (Handout 1) with the
Freedmans Bureau Drawing (Handout 4)
4. Class Discussion Students will share out their findings and we will discuss as a class their findings.
3.

Summarizing Activity

Revised April 2009

As a class, reflect on the final question from Step 2. Ask the students: Based on what they have
learned today, did the Freedmens Bureau meet all the needs of the former slaves? What do they
think the Bureau should have done differently? Refine its hypothesis and propose a solution to
the mystery. (Handout 6)

Resource(s):
http://www.umbc.edu
Anchor Text(s):
Technology:
Computers
Handouts:
Handout 1:
Handout 2:
Handout 3:
Handout 4:

Meeting 1 Freedmans Bureau Act of 1866

Freedmens Bureau Worksheet
Meeting 2 Emancipation during and after the Civil war
Meeting 3 Hope within a Wilderness of Suffering: The Transition From Slavery to Freedom

During the Civil War Time in Tennessee

Handout 5: Meeting 4 Abandon Lands Primary Source Document

Handout 6: Freedmans Drawing

Handout 7 Solution

Revised April 2009