Brian Howell - The US Civil War and Reconstruction

Published in the United States of America

by cherry Lake Publishing

Ann Arbor, Michigan

www.cherrylakepublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Corporate Graphics Inc

September 2011

CLFA09

Consultants: Brett Barker, associate professor of history, University of WisconsinMarathon county; Gail Saunders-Smith, associate professor of literacy, Beeghly college of Education, Youngstown State University

Editorial direction:

Rebecca Rowell

Design and production:

Marie Tupy

Photo credits: Library of Congress, cover, 1, 8, 14, 17, 23; Alexander Gardner/Library of congress, 5, 18; North Wind Picture Archives, 7, 13; W. H. Rease/Library of congress, 10; Nic Taylor/iStockphoto, 15; William Sherman/iStockphoto, 20; W. Roberts/R.A. Dimmick/Library of Congress, 25, 30; Shutterstock Images, 27

Copyright 2012 by Cherry Lake Publishing

All right reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Howell, Brian, 1974

The US Civil War and Reconstruction / by Brian Howell.

p.cm. (Language Arts Explorer: History digs.)

ISBN 978-1-61080-201-7 ISBN 978-1-61080-289-5 (pbk.)

1. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Juvenile literature. 2. Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)Juvenile literature. I. Title.

E468H88 2011

973.8dc22

2011015126

Cherry Lake Publishing would like to acknowledge the work of The partnership for 21st Century Skills. Please visit www.21stCenturySkills.org for more information.

You are being given a mission. The facts inWhat You Knowwill help you accomplish it. Remember the clues fromWhat You Knowwhile you are reading the story. The clues and the story will help you answer the questions at the end of the book. Have fun on this adventure!

Your mission is to learn to think like a historian. What tools do historians use to research the past? What kinds of questions do they ask, and where do they look for answers? On this assignment, your goal is to learn about the Civil War. What were the causes of the war? What role did Abraham Lincoln play in the war? How did the war affect the United States? How did the United States rebuild after the war? As you read, keep the facts in What You Know in mind.

• Before the Civil War, part of the United States practiced slavery and part did not.
• The South seceded from the Union.
• During the Civil War, Lincoln came to support the abolition of slavery.
• The North, which was against slavery, beat the South to win the Civil War.
• Slavery was abolished as a result of the Civil War.

Use this book to explore history in ways a historian might. Read the following journal to discover what one student learned about this time period while helping launch a new Civil War museum in town.

Lincoln had the challenging task of trying to lead a country that was divided.

My teacher said the new building near school is a museum about the Civil War. That got me very excited. The Civil War was one of my favorite topics in history class. Last week, I stopped by the museum and saw workers moving items inside. I met a woman, Isabel Lucas, who told me they were setting up all of the exhibits in the museum. She is a curator at the museum. I asked her if I could work as a volunteer to help set up the exhibits. Luckily, she said yes, so Im spending the week of spring break working at the museum.

Today was my first day at the museum. I helped Isabel set up an exhibit about slavery. I saw many artifacts , including tools slaves used to farm and chains traders and owners used to keep the enslaved captive. There was also the story of a man named Olaudah Equiano. He was an African who had been captured as a boy and sold into slavery. As an adult, he wrote his autobiography . He described his journey on the ship that took him from his homeland:

The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us.The air soon became unfit for respirationand brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.

This deck plan of a slave ship shows how captured Africans were arranged as cargo.

The display included audio. I unpacked the headsets visitors will use to listen to recordings of real former slaves talking about their experiences. Isabel said these firsthand accounts are important historical resources. They allow listeners to understand what slavery was like for those who were enslaved in the 1800s.

I listened to one of the recordings. It was an interview with a man named Fountain Hughes. He had been born a slave in Virginia in 1848. He was interviewed in 1949, when he was 101 years old. Hughes explained that his grandfather had been owned by Thomas Jefferson. He talked about being born a slave and working as one: Time to cut tobacco. If they want you to cut all night long out in the field, you cut. And if they want you to hang all night long, you hanghang tobacco. It didnt matter about youre tired. Being tired, youre afraid to say youre tired.

This is a receipt for the purchase of Jane 18-year-old slave, her one-year-old, Henry, and any future children. The receipt is dated December 20, 1849.

The museum had several of these recordings. I learned a lot from them and other artifacts in the display. I was curious to know how slavery led to the Civil War. Isabel said Id find out this week.