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8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 1 of 15

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.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 8.1a; 8.1b; 8.1c · plans for Reconstruction, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, and how the rights of African Americans were attacked and rolled back

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan let a state rejoin when 10% of its 1860 voters swore loyalty to the Union.
  2. Radical Republicans in Congress wanted strong protection of rights for freedpeople.
  3. Andrew Johnson clashed with Congress over Reconstruction and was impeached, but not removed.

Example: Why was Lincoln’s plan called the Ten Percent Plan? It set a rule for a state to rejoin the Union. Some of the state’s 1860 voters had to swear loyalty. The number needed was 10%. Answer: A state could rejoin when 10% of its 1860 voters swore loyalty.

Reconstruction in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 1 of 15 in 8th 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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    Reconstruction (1865–1877) was the period of…

    • Building the Erie Canal
    • Westward removal
    • Rebuilding the South and bringing Southern states back into the Union
    • The Revolution

  2. Question 2

    The Ku Klux Klan was formed after the war to…

    • Rebuild railroads
    • Use terror and violence to stop Black Americans from voting and gaining rights
    • Help freedpeople
    • Run schools

  3. Question 3

    What happened to many Black Southerners' rights after Reconstruction ended?

    • They grew stronger
    • They were fully protected
    • They were taken away through poll taxes, literacy tests, violence and segregation
    • Nothing changed

  4. Question 4

    Which amendments are called the Reconstruction Amendments?

    • The 10th, 11th and 12th
    • The 18th, 19th and 20th
    • The 13th, 14th and 15th
    • The 1st, 2nd and 3rd

  5. Question 5

    Many Black families searched for relatives after the war because…

    • Slavery had separated families through sale
    • They wanted to move to Europe
    • They were bored
    • They had lost maps

  6. Question 6

    "Forty acres and a mule" refers to…

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

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