Teacher Name: Lynn Dille
School: Hammond Middle School
Subject Area: US History – 1877 to the Present
Grade/level: 7th
Lesson Plan Template
based on Understanding by Design by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins
Title of Lesson
Exodusters: A New Beginning for Former Slaves
Unit Topic
Westward Expansion after the Civil War
Exact title and link to
an image from the LOC "Negro Exodusters en route to Kansas, fleeing from the yellow fever.
to be used in the web
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam009.html
publication of your
lesson plan
Enduring
As a result of this lesson, students will understand:
Understanding
Freedom brought problems as well as opportunities for ex-slaves
after the Civil War.
Content Knowledge
As a result of this lesson, students will know:
Following the Civil War and the end of slavery, many ex-slaves
moved to western territories to make a new beginning.
They moved there because, in the west they could obtain land and it
was an opportunity for a new beginning.
They moved because farming was the skill most ex-slaves already
knew.
They were called “Exodusters”
The communities they established were largely in Kansas.
Skills
As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:
Draw conclusions from a primary source photograph or document.
Compare several documents and connect their content to prior
historical knowledge to develop a hypothesis as to meaning.
1
SOLs addressed
USII.3
The student will demonstrate knowledge of how life changed
after the Civil War by
a) identifying the reasons for westward expansion;
Length of Lesson
One 70 Minute Period
Overview of lesson
The students will examine pictures from the “Exoduster” movement
to discover what it was, when it took place, why it took place and how
successful it was. Students will take notes on a graphic organizer
and write a letter as an Exoduster to demonstrate their
understanding.
Prior Knowledge
It would be helpful if students have reviewed Reconstruction and the
Rise of Jim Crow, the KKK, and a segregated South after the Civil
War.
It would also be useful if students have studied the opening of the
Great Plains to settlement by The Homestead Act, the completion of
the Transcontinental Railroad and other new technologies and
adaptations such as dry farming, the windmill, the steel plow and
barbed wire.
This lesson fits well with studying who moved west in the years
following the Civil War, why these people moved west, where they
moved and why they moved.
Resources needed
Students have worked with analyzing primary source prints and
photos before and are familiar with what to look for.
All the images below were found at the following URL: Western
Migration and Homesteading: The African-American Mosaic (Library
of Congress Exhibition);
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam009.html
The "Exoduster" Movement.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/afric
an/images/pap.jpg
1.
Emigrants Traveling to Kansas.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/afric
an/images/boat.jpg
2.
2
"Negro Exodusters en route to
Kansas, fleeing from the yellow
fever.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/afric
an/afam009.html
3.
Benjamin Singleton, and S.A.
McClure, Leaders of the
Exodus, leaving Nashville,
Tennessee.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/afric
an/images/leaders.jpg
4.
"Ho For Kansas!".
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/afric
an/images/hofokan.jpg
5.
Other resources:
Kansas State Historical Society/.
http://www.kshs.org/cool3/exoduster.htm
National Park Service: Nicodemus National Historic Park.
http://www.nps.gov/features/nicodemus/intro.htm
Process of lesson
Merriam Webster Thesaurus: Definition of "ex"
Warm-up: Put a list of words such as: exit, ex-husband, ex-wife,
extemporary, exhibit, excel, extra, and exodus on the board. Ask the
students what all these words have in common. When they observe
that all the words start with “EX” ask them what they think the prefix
“EX” means. (From or Without)
Tell the students they will be studying 1 group of western settlers
today who were known as “Exodusters” after the section of the Bible
in which the Jews fled Egypt. This book of the bible is known as
“Exodus.”
Activities:
1) Display Placard 4 (Nego Exodusters) on the overhead.
Review photo analysis skills by having students form a
tableau of the scene from the placard. (Take volunteers or
assign students to assume the attitude and position of the
people in the woodcut in front of the projection.) Draw
attention to detail and emotion by asking them questions (For
example: Teacher: Who are you? Student: I am about 9 years
old and am a little boy) where they are, what they are feeling
3
etc.
2) Divide your students into small groups of 4 or 5. Give each
group a set of the Exoduster Placards: Placard 1, Placard 2,
Placard 3, Placard 4, Placard 5 and a copy the analysis
worksheet, African Americans and the West. (Laminate or put
placards inside report covers. Using an overhead marker,
students can circle areas and features as they examine each
photo to draw attention to its importance in interpreting the
photo.) Tell them they are to fill in as much information on the
worksheet as they can, JUST by looking at the front of the
placards. Give students about 10 minutes to examine the
placards and make guesses as to what they are looking at.
3) Discuss the student’s findings as a class. Then ask them to
read the information on the back of the placards and discuss
how the extra information changes what they had originally
thought.
4) Discuss what the students read and how it changes their
ideas as a class.
5) Have students use their class atlases or a US map to locate
Kansas and trace the probable route of the Exodusters from
the South by water.
6) Have the students write notes using a new copy of the
worksheet, African Americans and the West and complete it
as a class, emphasizing the lesson content. (The suggested
key is: African Americans and the West Key.)
Wrap-up: Put Placard 5 (Exoduster Leaders) on the overhead. Have
the students again form a tableau. Have students ask the members
of the tableaux questions again. Who are they? Where are they
going? Why are they going? How do they feel about the journey?
What problems are they having? What do they hope to do when they
get there?
Evaluation
Students will write a letter to a friend telling them they are going to
join an Exoduster group. They should say what they are doing, why
they are going, and what they will find on their journey. A student
letter worksheet and instruction rubric may found at Exoduster
Homework.
It may be evaluated according to following rubric: Exoduster
Evaluation Teacher Guide
Extension Activities
Have students research what happened to the towns that were
established in the movement.
Have students write a poem, a song, or a letter telling what life in
Nicodemus is like.
Have the students draw a map of a fictional exoduster town, labeling
4
the major buildings and farms. They should create a name for the
town and a census list for the year 1880.
Have the students create a short play in which they act out the roles
of several of the people in placard 5.
Possibilities for
Differentiation
Students may be put in mixed ability groups.
Dysgraphic students may want to copy just the words that are in bold
on the key or may highlight a copy of the key as you help the
students fill in their notes on the overhead.
Students with learning difficulty will really benefit from being
members of the tableaux.
5
Placard 1
Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809-1892), a former slave born in Nashville,
Tennessee, became the leader of the "Exoduster Movement" of 1879, and in
later years he was accorded the title "Father of the Exodus." In the late 1860s,
Singleton and his associates urged blacks to acquire farmland in Tennessee, but
whites would not sell productive land to them. As an alternative Singleton began
scouting land in Kansas in the early 1870s. Soon several black families migrated
from Nashville. By 1874, Singleton and his associates had formed the Edgefield
Real Estate and Homestead Association in Tennessee, which steered more than
20,000 black migrants to Kansas between 1877 and 1879. In 1880 Singleton
claimed to be "the whole cause of the Kansas immigration," in testimony before a
U.S. committee on the "exodus to Kansas."
Nell Irvin Painter Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas After the
Reconstruction, p. 100 New York: Knopf, 1977
Placard 2
Blacks had obtained information about Kansas by several means: letters from
migrants, who settled in Nicodemus and other locations; circulars; and mass
meetings. Benjamin Singleton printed handbills in an attempt to attract blacks to
visit or settle in Kansas. One such flier was headed: "Ho For Kansas!"
"Ho For Kansas!" Copyprint of handbill. Historic American Building Survey Field
Records, HABS FN-6, #KS-49-14 Prints and Photographs Division (109)
Placard 3
Emigrants Traveling to Kansas
In February of 1880, more than 900 black families from Mississippi reached St. Louis, en route to Kansas. Some black
migrants sought "conductors" to make travel arrangements for them. These conductors would often ask for money in
advance and not show up at the appointed departure time, leaving migrants stranded at docks and train stations.
Refugees on Levee, 1897. Carroll's Art Gallery. Photomural from gelatin-silver print Prints and Photographs Division (105)
Prints and Photographs Division (105)
Placard 4
"Negro Exodusters en route to Kansas, fleeing from the yellow fever, " Photomural from engraving. Harpers Weekly,
1870. Historic American Building Survey Field Records, HABS FN-6, #KS -49-11
Placard 5
Exoduster Leaders
In 1874 Benjamin Singleton and his associates formed the Edgefield Real Estate and Homestead Association in
Tennessee. This association sought out the best locations for black settlements. Singleton tried to establish a wellplanned and organized movement to Kansas, but by 1879, the unruly, mass Exodus had overwhelmed his efforts.
Benjamin Singleton, and S.A. McClure, Leaders of the Exodus, leaving Nashville, Tennessee. Photomural from montage.
Historic American Building Survey Field Records, HABS FN-6, #KS-49-12
African Americans and the West
Placard
Examine and describe:
Who? What? When? Where?
.
Analyze. Use your
historical knowledge.
Why did they go?
Imagine. What problems
did they have getting
there?
What did they do when
they got there?
African Americans and the West
Placard
Examine and describe:
Who? What? When? Where?
Analyze. Use your
historical knowledge.
Why did they go?
Cheap or free land was
available in the west.
(Homestead Act)
Imagine. What problems What did they do when
did they have getting
they got there?
there?
Dishonest guides
They established
communities such as
Nicodemus.
Segregation, Jim Crow
Refusals to sell them
Laws, lynchings, poverty, land
and the KKK in the South
meant there was little
opportunity for former
slaves in the South.
They want equality and
freedom.
.
Farming was something
the ex-slaves already
knew well and could
succeed at
THEY WANT
OPPORTUNITY AND A
NEW BEGINNING
Hunger, disease,
exhaustion
Farmed
Built churches, homes,
businesses
Bad weather, heat, cold,
rain, floods
THEY HAD A NEW
BEGINNING
Exoduster Homework
You are to write a letter to a friend telling them you have decided to join an
Exoduster group and go to Kansas. The letter is to tell your friend 1) What you
are going to do 2) Why you are going and 3) What you think you will find on your
journey. Be creative. Use your imagination. You may use the other side of this
paper for your letter if you wish.
You will be graded as follows:
Content (10 points each up to 80 points)
What
Leaving for Kansas
Traveling up the Mississippi/Missouri Rivers
Leaving from Mississippi, Alabama, or some other southern state
Why
No opportunity here/opportunity there/a new beginning
Jim Crow Laws, KKK, Segregation
Know how to farm
Cheap land
Will find:
Long, hard journey, sickness, bad weather, dishonest guides
Good farmland
Equality and more freedom, my rights
Opportunity and a new beginning
_____________
Total for content:
Mechanics and language control (5 points each up to 20 points)
Paragraph indent, beginning capitals, ending punctuation
Complete sentences
Elaboration (must have for an A)
Dialogue and use of dialect
Character development
_____________
Total for mechanics:
Student Grade: Contents: ________ plus mechanics _________ = ___________
Dear:
Yours in hope and
faith,
Exoduster Letter Evaluation Teacher’s Guide
Content
(80%)
Beginning
60
Letter clearly from an
African American on a
journey. Makes an attempt
to tell what the journey
means to him or her and
why s/he is going.
Demonstrates little
knowledge of time period.
Several factual errors.
Mechanics Very short, some
fragments, many spelling
(20%)
errors, some ending
punctuation missing, some
beginning capitalization
errors, no paragraphing
Developing
75
Describes some details of
the journey. Clearly shows
knowledge of where
Exodusters went, when
they went, who they were
and why they went.
No factual errors.
Accomplished
90
Historically accurate.
Describes the journey with
vividness and some detail.
Describes specific
problems (yellow fever,
dishonest agents, hunger).
No errors in knowledge of
the movement.
Exemplary
100
Historically accurate. Vivid
and imaginative letter.
Develops a character and
incorporates it into a story
about the journey. Uses
inference and context to
relay important information
about hopes, problems, and
goals of the character
Longer but still only 1
paragraph. Few spelling
errors. Some sentence
syntax errors. Basic
punctuation and
capitalization correct.
Several paragraphs long.
Few errors in mechanics
and syntax.
A page or more long with
few errors. Language and
vocabulary used is
appropriate to the period
and the education of the
exo-duster. May be written
so as to look like an artifact
from the period.