Subscribe

8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 4 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.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 8.9(A); 8.9(B); 8.9(C); 8.16(B) · Reconstruction, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, and Black officeholders such as Hiram Rhodes Revels

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 Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 4 of 10 in 8th grade Social Studies, after Factories & Reformers and before Colonies to Independence.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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

    Which amendment made formerly enslaved people citizens?

    • The 14th
    • The 13th
    • The 15th
    • The 1st

  2. Question 2

    Many Black men were elected to office during Reconstruction. What does this show?

    • Black men could not vote
    • Only Northerners voted
    • The 15th Amendment opened politics to Black voters for a time
    • Reconstruction failed immediately

  3. Question 3

    Black Codes passed in Southern states after the war…

    • Limited the freedom and rights of Black Americans
    • Gave Black Americans equal rights
    • Ended segregation
    • Created schools

  4. Question 4

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

    • 10 states joined
    • 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%

  5. Question 5

    Why were many freedpeople eager to attend school?

    • Schools paid them
    • They had nothing else to do
    • It was required by the Confederacy
    • Learning to read had been denied under slavery and opened new opportunities

  6. Question 6

    The Civil Rights Act of 1866 declared that…

    • Only landowners could vote
    • Slavery was legal
    • Women were citizens only in the North
    • All people born in the US were citizens with equal rights under the law

More 8th grade