The Road to Civil War

Era of Reform - NEW

Era Of Reform C3 Inquiry - NEW.pdf

Numerous Reform Movements Changed US 1800s.pdf

Part 1: How did the Era of Reform Push the United States Closer to the Civil War?

Formative Assessment Work:

Day 1 (Monday, March 16)

Introductory Slides (1-17)
Newsela Article: "Numerous Reform Movements Changed the U.S. During the 1800s"
Start SQ#1: How did the Era of Reform empower people to improve society? History Alive! p. 340-341

HW: Finish notes on History Alive! p. 340-341

Numerous Reform Movements Changed US 1800s.pdf

Era of Reform - Newsela.pdf

Day 2 (Block Day, March 17 & 18)

Supporting Question #1 - How did the Era of Reform empower people to improve society?

Read and take notes on Sources B-D.
Complete Venn Diagram: Compare the Great Awakening to Transcendentalism

Supporting Question #2: How did Americans show more compassion to marginalized groups in society?

Explore the Sources from Marginalized Groups
- Source A: History Alive! p. 341-342
- Source B: "Disability History: Early & Shifting Attitudes of Treatment" (unit pdf)
Complete the History Frame (SQ2)

Era of Reform SQ1 - Venn.pdf

Era of Reform SQ2 - History Frame.pdf

SQ 2: Marginalized Groups

Day 3 (Thursday, March 19)

SQ#3: How did Education reform change society?

Explore Education reform sources
- Source A: History Alive! p. 342-343
- Source B: "The Education Reform Movement in Antebellum America"
- Source C: Quotes by Horace Mann (unit pdf)
Complete the information Chart (SQ3).

Education Reform Movement.pdf

Era of Reform - SQ3 Graphic Organizer

SQ3: Education Reform

Day 4 (Friday, March 20 )

Supporting Question #4 - How did Abolitionists and Women’s Rights activists challenge the thinking of Americans prior to the Civil War?

FOCUS: Women’s Rights

Read and take notes on Sources E-G
- Source F: "Women's Roles and Rights in the 1800s" (excerpt in sources)
- Source E: History Alive! p. 346-349 "Equal Rights for Women"
- Source G: "Declaration of Sentiments" (cards passed out in class)
- Source H: Susan B. Anthony passage (see source packet)
Fill in Struggles and Change Graphic Organizer (T-Chart)

Women's Roles and Right in the 1800s.pdf

Declaration of Sentiments.pdf

Day 5 (Monday, March 23)

Supporting Question #4 - How did Abolitionists and Women’s Rights activists challenge the thinking of Americans prior to the Civil War?

FOCUS: Abolition

Read and take notes on Sources A-D
- Source A: History Alive! p. 344-345 and (Optional: 376, 380-382)
- Source B: William Lloyd Garrison: "To the Public" 1831
- Source Set C: Sojourner Truth QUOTES (Bio, Speech re-enactment - SKIP for 2026)
- Source D: "The Meaning of July Fourth to the Negro" - Frederick Douglass
Fill in Struggles and Change Graphic Organizer (T-Chart) and Chart for SQ#4

HW: Era of Reform Performance Task Packet DUE ON BLOCK DAY

Changed for 2026

Part 1: Frederick Douglass

*Open with Frederick Douglass Video Clips 1 &2

Frederick Douglass Documentary: Becoming Frederick Douglass (Clips 1 & 2)
Source D: "The Meaning of July Fourth to the Negro" - Frederick Douglass
Clip #3

Era of Reform - SQ4 Graphic Organizer

1 - "The Abolitionists" - Clip (show to open lesson) 3:01

2 - Frederick Douglass Clip - 1:27 (show prior to reading Source D)

Becoming Frederick Douglass

Part 2: How did the Actions of Key Individuals Bring the United States Closer to Civil War?

Road to Civil War: Key Individuals

Dred Scott

Nat Turner

John Brown

Harriet Tubman

Day 6 (Block day, March 24 & 25) ): Nat Turner & John Brown - Two Rebellions

Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery - Part 3From Andrew Jackson to Nat Turner

Day 6, Part 1: Nat Turner's Rebellion

Groups investigate Case File, then discuss as a class

Source 1: PBS - take notes
Source 2: "Confessions of Nat Turner" (Optional)
Source 3: Image - "Nat Turner Preaches Religion"
Source 4: Composite of scenes of Nat Turner's rebellion.
Source 5: "The Discovery of Nat Turner”
Video: Africans in America: "Divine Retribution" (1:15-1:26)

Performance Task: Nat Turner Graphic Organizer

Source #1:

Nat Turner's Rebellion (Click here)

Source #2 "Confessions of Nat Turner"

After his capture and arrest on October 30, 1831, Nat Turner was imprisoned in the Southampton County Jail, where he was interviewed by Thomas R. Gray, a Southern physician. Out of that interview came his "Confession."

Convinced that "the great day of judgement was at hand," and that he "should commence the great work," Turner took the eclipse of the sun to mean that "I should arise and prepare myself, and slay my enemies with their own weapons."

Gray described Turner as being extremely intelligent but a fanatic. He went on to say: "The calm, deliberate composure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions, the expression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm; still bearing the stains of the blood of helpless innocence about him; clothed with rags and covered with chains, yet daring to raise his manacled hands to heaven; with a spirit soaring above the attributes of man, I looked on him and my blood curdled in my veins."

Image Credit: The Library Company of Philadelphia

"Confessions of Nat Turner" (Click here for text)

Source #3: "Nat Turner Preaches Religion"

This drawing shows Nat Turner preaching in the forest. In his "Confession," Turner said, "Knowing the influence I had obtained over the minds of my fellow-servants...by the communion of the Spirit, whose revelations I often communicated to them... I now began to prepare them for my purpose."

Image Credit: The Granger Collection, New York

Source 4: Composite of scenes of Nat Turner's rebellion.

Illus. in: Authentic and impartial narrative of the tragical scene which was witnessed in Southampton County. [New York], 1831.

In August of 1831, seventy slaves in Southampton County, Virginia, revolted and killed 57 whites. The rebels and their leader, minister Nat Turner, were captured and hanged. “Horrid Massacre in Virginia” is an image from a pamphlet published by Samuel Warner nine days before Turner’s capture. The pamphlet, titled Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical Scene, was the first publication, other than newspaper articles, to document Turner’s revolt. Claiming to be “authentic and impartial,” the pamphlet reported “eye-witness” accounts of the attacks, attributing Turner’s actions to his ability to read and write. In the aftermath of the attack, white vigilantes murdered dozens of slaves and drove hundreds of free people of color into exile. Virginia legislators also limited the activities of African American following the revolt. They made laws restricting slaves’ freedom of assembly and forbade any slave to read, write, or preach.

Excerpt taken from: http://historymaking.org/textbook/items/show/222

Source #5: "The Discovery of Nat Turner"

This image portrays the discovery of Nat Turner. After state and federal troops dispersed Turner's forces, he escaped and hid in several different places near the farm where he had been a slave. His hiding place was discovered by a dog, and on October 30 he was captured.

Image Credit: From the collections of the Library of Congress

Day 6, Part 2: John Brown

John Brown Newsela Article "The Abolitionists: John Brown" (early life and joining the abolition movement)
History Alive! text - Rewiew: Missouri Compromise (404) & Compromise of 1850 (410). Read: Kansas-Nebraska Act (410), Bloody Kansas (410-411)
Clip: Bloody Kansas (6 min.) Video titled "White West" (Begin at 53:00)
History Alive! text: John Brown's Raid (414-415)
Clip 3: Harper's Ferry Raid, October 1859 (Watch from 1:07-1:18)
Class discussion: John Brown - How should the United States deal with violent protest?

Performance Tasks:

John Brown Graphic Organizer
Venn Diagram comparing Nat Turner and John Brown

Bleeding Kansas

John Brown - Abolitionist Newsela.pdf

Africans in America: John Brown

Discussion on Violent Protest

What is your view of violent protest?
Is violent protest sometimes necessary? Is it effective in creating positive change?
What are the pros and cons of violent protest?
How can you connect John Brown's Raid to modern protests that have turned violent?
Were John Brown's actions justified? Explain your position.
Do you agree with John Brown's execution?
How should modern protestors who engage in destruction be treated under the law?

Day 7, Thursday 3/26

Dred Scott, 1857

See History Alive! Text and take notes on pages 412-413
Read the Case Study on slide 5: "Dred Scott v. Sandford." Complete the graphic organizer on your student copy under Classwork
See the following excerpt on slide 6: "Impact on Civil War" https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/dred-scott-case#section_5
Clip 4: The Dred Scott Decision, 1857 Watch from 56:31-58:45 and take notes

Justice Taney

Dred Scott - Supreme Court Case Study.pdf

Day 8 (Friday, 4/27): Harriet Tubman

Clip: "Original Abolitionists" from Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom (4 min.)
Read the Newsela Article on Tubman and take notes
History Alive! text: 390-393

Tubman-Douglass_CloseReading_VennDiagram-graphic_organizer.pdf

Letter to Harriet Tubman from Frederick Douglass

PBS: "Visions"

Bonus Clip: What You Never Knew About Harriet Tubman

Tubman Bio - Newsela.pdf

Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom

"As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal' . . . We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.'

When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic]."

-Abraham Lincoln

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/speed.htm

Unit Assessment:

Museum Exhibit

Era of Reform Project Tasks.pdf

Rubric

Road to Civil War - Museum Project.pdf

Monday (3/30): Exhibit Planning - organize content and divide tasks

DUE: Student work slides

Goals:

List A

Title
Quotes
Stamp

List B

Background Paragraph
Create Timeline
Map

Block day, 3/31 & 4/1

EACH Group Member:

Locate images for visual aids: print, trim images, glue to background paper and trim again
Write explanatory Text to accompany your images (cite any sources on explanatory text)
Wrap up any unfinished tasks from block day, if needed

Thursday, 4/2

Complete work for board content
Begin assembling items on board
PLAN: Artifacts & Interactive features

Interactive Feature Ideas:

Video Clip with Quiz
Game: What would you do? Give your visitors decisions related to your topic, then reveal what actually happened.
Matching: Match a reformer with a quote and/or accomplishment
Create a mini-play/skit
Meet the Reformer: Re-enactment
Show the before and after of your reformer/movement with audience participation
Flip panels with questions and answers

Friday, 4/3

Finish board assembly
Complete any extra activities for visitors
Complete any work needed on artifacts
Practice Presentations - you will need to entertain visitors for approximately 7 minutes