Unit 5: War and Reconstruction, 1860-1878

Unit Overview: Sectionalism and War

This unit covers the decade before the Civil War to the war's conclusion in 1865 . Some important themes covered in this unit:

Unit Essay: War and Reconstruction

In order to get credit for this project, you must write a well-developed essay on ONE of the following topics:

War and ReconstructionFRQ: Analyze the ways in which controversy over the extension of slavery into western territories contributed to the coming of the Civil War. Confine your answer to the period 1845-1861. (2010)

DBQ: In what ways did African Americans shape the course and consequences of the Civil War? Confine your answer to the years from 1861 to 1870. (2009)

FRQ: Explain why and how the role of the federal government changed as a result of the Civil War with respect to TWO of the following during the period 1861-1877: Race Relations,  Economic Development, Westward Expansion. (2006)

FRQ: Evaluate the impact of the Civil war on political and economic developments in TWO of the following regions: The South, The North, The West. Focus your answer on the period between 1865 and 1900 (2003)

Attachments:  2009B Questions.pdf

Unit Videos:                                                        

Civil War Episode 1: The Cause

Civil War Episode 2: A Very Bloody Affair

Civil War Episode 5: The Universe of Battle

Civil War Episode 6: The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Civil War Episode 7: Most Hallowed Ground

Civil War Episode 8: War is All Hell

Civil War Episode 9: The Better Angels of Our Nature

God in America 3: A Nation Reborn

Unit Lectures:

Sectionalism and War Essay Class

Primary Sources:

The Crittenden Compromise, December 1860Jefferson Davis, "On Withdrawing from the Union", 1861The Battle Hymn of the Republic, 1862

The Homestead Act, 1862

The Pacific Railway Act, 1862

The Gettysburg Address, 1863

Abraham Lincoln, "Proclamation on the Wade Davis Bill", 1864

Walt Whitman, "O Captain! My Captain", 1865

An Act to Establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees, 1865

Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866

Winning the West: The Army in the Indian Wars, 1865-1890

Sparknotes Summaries:

Civil War and Reconstruction

AP US History Unit 5 Key Terms

For this project you must define the terms listed below and explain each term's significance to the unit/era being studied. Your definition should be 2-3 sentences long and may be copied and pasted from a source like Wikipedia, but the significance of the term must be in your own words and based on your own understanding. To fill out a term's significance, ask yourself, "Why is this item included in my study of this unit? Why is this term in a history book?" The answer to this question is your term's significance. 

Unit 5 Key Terms:

3/5th Compromise                       

Uncle Tom's Cabin                         

Election of 1860                            

Battle of Gettysburg

Fugitive Slave Act of 1793            

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854     

Confederate States of America     

Anaconda Plan

Compromise of 1820                    

Frederick Douglass                     

Battle of For Sumter                     

Wilderness Campaign

Slavery Abolition Act of 1833       

Harper's Ferry                              

Battle of Antietam                         

Sherman's March to the Sea

Eli Whitney                                    

Lincoln Douglas Debates             

Emancipation Proclamation           

John Wilkes Booth

Below is an example of a key term done with the proper format:

William the Conqueror: William I (c. 1028[2] – 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II. Before his conquest of England, he was known as William the Bastard because of the illegitimacy of his birth.To press his claim to the English crown, William invaded England in 1066, leading an army of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, and Frenchmen (from Paris andÎle-de-France) to victory over the English forces of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest.[3] (I copied and pasted this definition from Wikipedia)

Significance: William the Conqueror is significant because his conquest of England created the first nation state in Europe. His rearrangement of English feudal territories to give himself dramatically more power than the the barons and nobles around him caused him to be the most powerful monarch in Europe and eventually led to the rise of other nation states over the next few centuries. (These are my words based on my knowledge of English and European history.)