The Role of African Americans in the Civil War

Integrated Literacy Assignment

Pamala Finger

SST 309-Section 4

Grade Level Content Expectation

8-U5.2.4 Describe the role of African Americans in the war, including black soldiers and regiments, and the increased resistance of enslaved peoples.

Fact-Finding Mission Field Trip

• You are about to venture on a “Fact-Finding Mission Field Trip” to discover the role of African American soldiers during the Civil War, as well as, the slaves and their resistance movement during this period.

• Enjoy your snack, the same snack African American soldiers ate as they waited to enter battle--Hardtack. The soldiers called them “teeth dullers” and “sheet-iron crackers.”

Trade Books

In this book, you can find the recipe

for “Homemade Hardtack” on page

8l.

These books are

at different reading levels.

Big Book: Timeline

Textbook & Supporting Web site

Abolitionists Support Slave Rebellion

Slave Rebellion and Conspiracy Video

• Voices of the Civil War Episode 10: “Slave Rebellion and Conspiracy” Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o2ey__ZtNI

Primary Resources/Video: Contraband

The Forgotten: The Contraband of America and the Road to Freedom video. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35IdcChfoxY

Music of Rebellion

• Slave Spiritual Story-Wade in the Water Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXqMQfpNSes

• Coded Songs and Slavery Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lbsW7ifWYA

• Louis Armstrong-Go Down Moses Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP5EfwBWgg0

Emancipation

Music: Battle Hymn of the Republic

Song used for recruiting African

American Regiments.

54th Massachusetts Infantry

http://www.history.com/topics/the-54th-massachusetts-infantry/videos#gilder-lehrman-massachussetts-54th

Retrieved from

54th Massachusetts Infantry

WILLIAM J. NETSON OF THE 54TH

MASSACHUSETTS.

SERGEANT WILLIAM H. CARNEY RECEIVED

THE MEDAL OF HONOR FOR HIS

PARTICIPATION IN THE BATTLE OF FORT

WAGNER. 

PRIVATE ABRAHAM F. BROWN OF THE

54TH MASSACHUSETTS

Primary Resource: Diary Entry

Christian Fleetwood's diary details his actions

during a battle at Chaffin's farm near Richmond, Virginia, on

September 29, 1864, which

led to his receipt of the Congressional

Medal of Honor.

Battle Maps

Movie Clips: Glory

Glory (1989) Part 2/8. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BrlqD5lkP8

Glory (1989) Part 5/8. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-M8avPkPUI

Glory (1989) Part 8/8 Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGPACVNk6ck

Black Soldiers in the American Civil War:

Videos

• Black Soldiers in the American Civil War demonstrate courage of African American patriots video. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjzspHlPlAs

• Louisiana Black Soldiers in the Civil War video. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8z7ADI8KLw

• Overview of African Americans in the Civil War video. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8-GzX4Jz_w

Primary Resources: Photographs

Music of the Soldiers

Arlington, Va. Band of 107th U.S. Colored Infantry

Poetry

Our Hero by Frances E.W. Harper

Onward to her destination,O’er the steam the Hannah spedWhen a cry of consternationSmote and chilled our hearts with dread.

Wildly leaping, madly sweeping,All relentless in their sway,Like a band of cruel demons,Flames were closing round our way.

Oh! the horror of those moments;Flames above and waves below.Oh! the agony of agesCrowded in one hour of woe.

Fainter grew our hearts with anguishIn that hour with peril rife,When we saw the pilot flying,Terror-stricken, for his life.

Then a man up rose before us-We had once despised his raceBut we saw a lofty purposeLighting up his darkened face.

While the flames were madly roaring,With a courage grand and high,Forth he rushed unto our rescue,Strong to suffer, brave to die.

Helplessly the boat was drifting,Death was staring in each face,When he grasped the fallen rudder,Took the pilot's vacant place.

ArtworkThomas Moran’s

“Slave Hunt, Dismal Swamp, Virginia”

(1862)

Storming of Fort Wagner: Charge of the

54' Mass (Col'd) Rgt. July 18' 1863

Web sites• African American Odyssey. (n.d.). Library of Congress

Retrieved from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html

• The Civil War Trust. Retrieved from http://www.civilwar.org/• “Civil War Unit.” (2012). The Regents of the University of

California. Retrieved from http://historyblueprint.org/• “American Civil War.” (2012) . Neo K12. Retrieved from

http://www.neok12.com/American-Civil-War.htm• “Timeline: African Americans in the Civil War.” (n.d.).

Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/lincolns-soldiers/

Resources• “Assault on Fort Wagner, SC Map.” The Civil War Trust. n.p.,2013. Retrieved

from http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/batterywagner/maps/batterywagnermap.html

• Benoit, P. (2012). The Civil War. New York, NY: Scholastic.• Brown, W. W. (1848). The Anti-Slavery Harp: A Collection of Songs for Anti-

slavery Meetings. Boston: Abner Forbes.• “Casualty List of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment from the Assault on

Fort Wagner, South Carolina.” The National Archives Experience Docs Teach. N.p., n.d.

• “Civil War Lesson #6: Emancipation.” (2011). The Regents of the University of California. Retrieved from http://

historyblueprint.org/site/pdf/Civil%20War%20Lesson%206%20(Emancipation)%20Final.pdf

• Davis, W.C. (1998). The Civil War Wall Chart. Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications International, LTD.

Resources • Harper, F.E.W. (1898 ). Our Hero. In Poems (p. 15). Retrieved from http://

archive.org/stream/poems00harp#page/14/mode/2up • Herbert, J. (1999). The Civil War for kids: a history with 21 activities.

Chicago: Chicago Review Press.• McPherson, J.M. (2002). Fields of fury. New York, NY: Byron Press Visual

Publications, Inc.• Photographs of African-American Soldiers in the Civil War. (n.d.) Retrieved

from http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/civilwar/aasoldrs/photocol.html

• Ray, D. (1991). Behind the blue and gray. New York, NY: Puffin.• “The Civil War’s Black Soldiers.” (n.d.). National Park Service. [Online].

Retrieved from: http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/civil_war_series/2/sec10.htm

• The Civil War Music Site. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.civilwarmusic.net/