Unit 2: 19th Century Louisiana

Unit Description

After officially becoming an American state, Louisiana’s economy grew rapidly. This was largely due to the prolific spread of Louisiana’s cash crops– King Cotton and sugar. With the growth of Louisiana cotton and sugar fields came the increase of slavery in Louisiana. The issue of slavery became a fiercely debated issue in the United States and propelled the nation into the Civil War and Louisiana’s secession from the Union. Post-Civil War Reconstruction sought to bring the Southern states back into the Union and protect the new freedoms of black citizens in the south, but was it successful? In this unit, students will investigate this claim as they build background knowledge about the social, political, and economic conditions for African-Americans in Louisiana before, during, and after the Civil War.

Essential Question

What is the legacy of conflict and resolution on Louisiana's identify?

Themes

    • History is often told from the perspective of the oppressor, which eliminates the voices of the oppressed and promotes a single story. As a result, oppressed peoples fight back in different ways in an attempt to (re)claim their freedoms.
    • Land features create different societies and also create conflicts between people.
    • Push/pull factors cause people to migrate to seek new opportunities, and the resulting interaction of various cultural groups intentionally and unintentionally diffuses and mixes the cultures and traditions of each.
    • A region’s economy typically becomes reliant upon its resources and environment. However, people modify their environments in order to meet their diverse needs.
    • People create and further governing bodies in order to serve their various needs and interests.
    • All humans have fundamental rights and we must fight to protect them.
    • People enter conflicts to increase their power and defend their way of life.
    • Social and practical innovations affect how people live throughout the course of history.

Standards Addressed

    • 8.2.2- Explain the importance of the Mississippi River as it relates to historical events throughout Louisiana’s history.
    • 8.2.5- Analyze causes and effects of major events and evaluate their impact on the growth and development of Louisiana.
    • 8.2.6- Identify and describe economic, social, and political characteristics of Louisiana during the Antebellum/plantation economy, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction eras.
    • 8.4.3- Explain ways in which inventions and technological advances have affected Louisiana’s culture.
    • 8.8.2 Explain the importance of being an informed citizen on public issues, recognizing propaganda, and knowing the voting issues

Unit Outcomes

Students will know:

  • The political, social, and economic structures found in Louisiana before, during, and after the Civil War.
  • The importance of the Mississippi River before, during, and after the Civil War.
  • The causes, course, and consequences of the Civil War.
  • The impact sectionalism had on America.
  • The impact the Civil War had on enslaved people and free people of color.
  • The causes, course, and consequences of Reconstruction in the South

Students will be able to:

Historical Thinking:

  • Annotate documents
    • Use the different steps for different types of documents when analyzing their contents
  • Source documents
    • Identify author’s point of view/position on a historical event
    • Identify author’s purpose in producing the document
    • Consider the source’s audience
  • Contextualize Sources
    • Understand how context influences content of the document
    • Recognize documents are products of particular points in time

Writing:

  • U1: Strong body paragraphs
    • TOSEEC
    • Topic Sentences
    • 2 types of evidence
  • U2: Strengthening evidence
    • Context
    • Extended Response
    • Introducing Text Evidence

Unit Vocabulary

  1. Antebellum- The time period before the Civil War when slavery and large plantations dominated the South.
  2. fertile soil: land that is able to grow and sustain crops
  3. steamboat: invention that increased trade & slavery in Louisiana by making crops easier to transport
  4. agriculture: farming of crops
  5. chattel slavery- The system of slavery in the United States in which enslaved people were viewed as property that could be bought, sold, traded or inherited.
  6. cotton gin - invention that increased cotton production and slavery in LA
  7. Multiple-effect evaporator- invention that increased sugar production and slavery in LA
  8. Congo Square - area in New Orleans that served as a gathering place for enslaved and free Africans in the 19th century, where traditional music, dance, and cuisine could be openly enjoyed
  9. compromise: a settlement between two opposing sides where both sides give up something to reach the agreement
  10. sectionalism: major differences between the North and South that caused tensions; loyalty to one’s region opposed to the country as a whole
  11. secede- formally withdraw from membership; leave the United States of America
  12. Confederacy - the South in the Civil War
  13. The Union - the North in the Civil War
  14. Anaconda Plan - the North’s strategy to surround the South with blockades and squeeze them into surrender
  15. blockade- surrounding a location to prevent goods from entering/leaving; strategy
  16. Port Hudson - the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River and the site of the longest siege in American military history
  17. Louisiana Native Guard - the first official black regiment in the Confederate Army, mostly made of free men of color from New Orleans; eventually fought for the Union.
  18. Benjamin Butler- general who occupied New Orleans in the Civil War; was hated by residents
  19. Reconstruction—The time period after the Civil War when the country needed to be reunified and rebuilt
  20. Presidential Reconstruction - led by Andrew Johnson who wanted to reunite the country quickly and be lenient on the South
  21. Radical Reconstruction - run by Republicans from the North who believed the Southern States should be punished for their roles in the Civil War.
  22. carpetbaggers- Term for northerners who came from the North to the South during Reconstruction
  23. Black Codes - laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War designed to keep freedmen in an inferior position to whites in the South
  24. sharecropping- a system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop
  25. Reconstruction Amendments: the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments passed during Reconstruction with the intent of protecting the equal rights of black people
  26. 13th Amendment—Formally outlawed slavery
  27. 14th Amendment—Guaranteed equal citizenship for black people and prevented states from taking away the rights of American citizens
  28. 15th Amendment—Gave voting rights to all men, regardless of race.
  29. Freedmen’s Bureau: organization that provided services to freed slaves during Reconstruction
  30. Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 - law that sent the military back to the Confederate states, forcing them to follow the Reconstruction Amendments and to rewrite their state constitutions so they could re-enter the Union
  31. PBS Pinchback - the first African-American governor of Louisiana
  32. Compromise of 1877 - compromise over the winner of the Presidential election that led to the military withdrawal from the South and the return to unchecked white supremacy in the South
  33. white supremacist groups - terrorist organizations that try to control and disenfranchise black citizens through fear tactics
  34. Ku Klux Klan (KKK) - a notorious white supremacist group that rose during Reconstruction and tries to control and disenfranchise black citizens through fear tactics
  35. racism- prejudice or discrimination directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.
  36. Jim Crow - the time period after Reconstruction when laws were passed the enforced racial segregation in the South
  37. segregation - the enforced separation of different racial groups
  38. Plessy v. Ferguson - US Supreme Court decision that upheld the idea of “separate but equal,” making segregation legal across the entire country.
  39. Louisiana’s 1898 Constitution - included restrictions on voting that disenfranchised black people and poor white people through poll taxes and literacy tests
  40. disenfranchisement - depriving someone of the right to vote
  41. literacy test- false “reading test” required to vote; intended to stop poor black people from voting
  42. poll tax- fee paid to vote; intended to stop poor black people from voting