Unit 1: Post Civil War America

Unit 1 of A People’s Playlist: U.S. History with Music as a Primary Source includes six lessons that cover the time period of Reconstruction and Westward Expansion in United States history. An introduction activity and assessment are also included in the unit plan. At the beginning of the unit, students will analyze an image from the Library of Congress and complete a writing activity based on the image as an introduction to the topics of Reconstruction and Westward Expansion.

The first three lessons of the unit are about the time period of Reconstruction. Students will examine the early years of Reconstruction focusing on the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution through the analysis of primary and secondary sources about the Hyers Sisters, who were early pioneers of Black musical theater. Students will then follow the Fisk Jubilee Singers on tour through primary and secondary source analysis to explore the later years of Reconstruction and assess why Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877. The third lesson in the unit will focus on the Black American entertainer Bert Williams to identify how the rise of Jim Crow laws and the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson shaped the American experience after Reconstruction ended.

The final three lessons of the unit focus on Westward Expansion in terms of the transcontinental railroad, the Homestead Act, and the impact on Native Americans. Students will assess the significance of the transcontinental railroad on westward expansion through the examination of work songs collected by John Lomax. Cowboy songs collected by John Lomax will be analyzed in the next lesson to assess the impact of the Homestead Act on westward expansion and how the interactions between different cultures shaped the American West. The last lesson includes the music group Redbone and the Wounded Knee Massacre to analyze how music and other aspects of culture were used in an attempt to force Native Americans to assimilate as settlers moved west.

For the end of the unit assessment, students will write a corrido (traditional Mexican ballad) about cowboy Nat Love. Students will be given a rubric and guidelines to assist in their writing and will be asked to include the content from the unit into their corrido to demonstrate their understanding of the unit.

Funded by a grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program, through the Lewis-Houghton Initiative. Content created and featured in partnership with the TPS program does not indicate an endorsement by the Library of Congress.