Subscribe

7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 1 of 10

Reconstruction

New rights, and rights rolled back

What your child practices

Reconstruction from 1865 to 1877 as a bridge to high school US history: the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, Black officeholders, the violence that opposed them and how gains were later rolled back.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 7.4.18.1; 7.4.18.2 · Reconstruction, and how racism and segregation followed it

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Reconstruction (1865–1877) rebuilt the South after the Civil War.
  2. Three amendments: the 13th ended slavery, the 14th gave citizenship and equal protection, the 15th protected Black men’s vote.
  3. Many Black men were elected, but violence opposed them, and gains were rolled back after federal troops left in 1877.

Example: Which amendment protected Black men’s right to vote? The 13th ended slavery; the 14th gave citizenship. The 15th dealt with voting. Answer: the 15th

Reconstruction in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 1 of 10 in 7th grade Social Studies, before Industrial America.

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: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

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

    Radical Republicans in Congress wanted…

    • No changes in the South
    • Slavery restored
    • A king
    • Strong protection of rights for freedpeople

  2. Question 2

    Sharecropping was a system where…

    • Everyone owned land
    • Farmers worked land owned by others for a share of the crop, often staying in debt
    • Crops were shared free
    • Farmers were paid high wages

  3. Question 3

    Andrew Johnson, who became president after Lincoln, was impeached because…

    • He freed enslaved people
    • He clashed with Congress over Reconstruction and was accused of breaking a law
    • He won the war
    • He bought Alaska

  4. Question 4

    Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction was called the Ten Percent Plan because…

    • A state could rejoin when 10% of its 1860 voters swore loyalty to the Union
    • 10% of slaves were freed
    • Taxes were set at 10%
    • 10 states joined

  5. Question 5

    Which amendment protected Black men's right to vote?

    • The 15th
    • The 13th
    • The 14th
    • The 10th

  6. Question 6

    "Forty acres and a mule" refers to…

    • A promise of land to freedpeople that was mostly taken back
    • A rule for soldiers
    • A tax
    • A Western homestead

More 7th grade