Subscribe

4th grade · Social Studies · Unit 10 of 12

Alabama & the Civil War

Secession, war and freedom

What your child practices

How slavery divided the nation, abolitionists, the Clotilda, Alabama's role in forming the Confederacy and the Unionists of north Alabama, key battles in Alabama and the nation, the home front and the end of the war and slavery.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 4.13; 4.14 · how slavery led to the Civil War, Alabama's role in the Confederacy, key people and battles, and how the war affected Alabamians

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Slavery divided the nation. The Missouri Compromise (1820) tried to balance free and slave states.
  2. The Confederacy was formed in Montgomery in 1861. Some north Alabamians stayed loyal to the Union.
  3. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in April 1865.

Example: Where was the Confederacy formed in 1861? It was Alabama’s capital. Alabama’s capital is Montgomery. Answer: Montgomery

Alabama & the Civil War in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 10 of 12 in 4th grade Social Studies, after Free States & Slave States and before Reconstruction & the Late 1800s.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)…

    • was banned everywhere in the North
    • turned many Northerners against slavery
    • supported slavery
    • was about the Revolution

  2. Question 2

    Many people in Winston County, in north Alabama, opposed secession, so it was nicknamed the…

    • Magic City
    • Rocket City
    • Free State of Winston
    • Heart of Dixie

  3. Question 3

    The Confederate capital moved from Montgomery to…

    • Washington, D.C.
    • New Orleans
    • Mobile
    • Richmond, Virginia

  4. Question 4

    The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) was fought in…

    • Alabama
    • Pennsylvania
    • Georgia
    • Virginia

  5. Question 5

    Harriet Tubman escaped slavery and then guided others to freedom on the…

    • transcontinental railroad
    • Federal Road
    • Oregon Trail
    • Underground Railroad

  6. Question 6

    Robert Smalls, enslaved in South Carolina, won his freedom by…

    • buying a plantation
    • becoming a Confederate general
    • inventing the telegraph
    • sailing a Confederate ship to the Union navy

More 4th grade