Download Worksheet, version 2 Name _______________ History Alive

Worksheet, version 2
Name __________________
History Alive! chapter 20, “African Americans at Mid-Century”
Mr. D – 8th history
Goal: List facts found in the class textbook; identify causes and affects of slavery; draw conclusions.
Directions: Use the textbook, fill in the blanks, and answer the questions
NOTE – this paper replaces the blue paper handout. Copy any answers from that worksheet to this one.
Background
The Civil War has not started at the time of this chapter. The ‘storm’ is in the distance and gathering
but not yet seen. Though felt to be morally and humanely wrong by some, most Americans accept the
'peculiar institution’ of slavery. The battle lines will be drawn soon enough.
Remember the Constitutional Convention? The issue of slavery was never solved when the Framers
wrote the word ‘person’ as a euphemism for slave. It’s going to be solved soon enough. And at an
enormous cost.
When it’s capitalized, the word North refers to a particular place. The word north when it’s not
capitalized refers to a direction. The North in the Civil War was made up of northern states, all of
which were also free states, where slavery was outlawed. Many people in the North didn’t care one
way or another about slavery. But many others did not support it, and some of the people that did not
support it were strong in their opinions and insistent in being heard. For the Confederacy, substitute the
words South, south, slave states, and completely legal. Get the idea that there’s trouble in store for the
country?
The Civil War was fought between citizens of the United States. In the North, the people were led by
President Abraham Lincoln, first elected in 1861. The northern part of the country was known in the
Civil War as the Union.
Opposing the Union was the Confederacy. It was made up of Southern states. These states supported
states’ rights over federal rights. Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederacy during the Civil
War. Southern plantation owners and politicians supported slavery and wanted it to continue.
Union soldiers wore blue uniforms; they were called Yanks. Confederate soldiers wore gray. They were
called rebels and sometimes Johnny Reb.
The Civil War lasted from 1861 – 1865. Lincoln was elected in November, 1860 and took office
January, 1861. He was reelected in 1864 but was assassinated 4-14-1865.
On 4-7-1865, at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the
Confederate Army to Ulysses S. Grant, General of the Union Army.
During the war the Union suffered 110,070 war casualties and 250,152 deaths due to disease and other
non-combat related causes. In the South, 94,000 died war-related deaths. Another 164,000 died
because of disease and other related causes. In all, “these casualties exceed the nation's loss in all its
other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.”1 (How did most people die? What does this tell
you?)
1
Davis, B. "The Price in Blood! Casualties in the Civil War." Civil War Home. The Civil War, Strange and
Fascinating Facts, 2004. Web. 23 Apr 2012. <http://www.civilwarhome.com/casualties.htm>.
Directions
Get out a sheet of paper and put your name on it. Write “Chapter 20 Worksheet” at the top. You’ll use
this to respond to some of the questions below. Number each of your responses.
Fill in the blanks. You can find almost all the answers in order of the sections in the chapter.
1. USA – 1850. Population of US: ______________ Number of slaves: ______________
2. From the Constitution: Slaves were counted as ______________ of a person.
3. There were free blacks and slaves before the Civil War. Bullet point answers: Similarities
between free blacks and slaves and differences:
4. In 1850 (and until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862) slaves were not people under the
law but were considered ______________. Slaves were not legally people!
5. Frederick Douglas, one of this country’s greatest men and a former slave said: “…a slave can
own ______________. possess ______________. acquire ______________.
6. Most slaves in the South worked on ______________ and ______________ .
7. Enslaved people also worked in cities or urban areas. All wages earned belonged to a slave’s
______________.
8. Yes – some Blacks people were free. They worked as ______________,
______________, and ______________. They were considered ______________.
They couldn’t own ______________ or work at certain jobs.
9. Define discrimination in your own words:
10. Define segregation in your own words:
11. Yes – even in the North, African Americans were denied the right to ______________.
Black kids weren’t allowed to go to schools with white kids in them!
12. Now answer this question on your “Chapter 20 Worksheet”: Unequal education? What does
this mean for society? Does it exist today? Where? Pretend you’re in charge – what do you do
to fix this?
13. African Americans organized their own churches including the church known as the
______________ ______________ ______________ Church where they controlled their world,
were equal with each other, and could be the men and women they actually were without fear
of racism.
14. Most whites in the South owned slaves – true or false
15. The Southern economy, based as it was on agriculture, specifically the farming of
______________ meant that slaves were needed to work the fields: planting, harvesting, etc.
They were cheap, cheap labor.
16. Cotton is measured in bales. There are approximately 500 pounds of cotton in a bale. A fast,
efficient picker can gather 350 pounds of cotton in a day.
17. A wagon full of cotton weighs approximately 1500 pounds. It takes approximately one acre of
cotton to fill a wagon. Cotton seeds make up 60% of every pound of cotton; only 40% of each
cotton bole is useful.
18. Answer this on your “Worksheet”: Why did it take so long to produce cotton before the
invention of the cotton gin? (Are you numbering your answers?)
19. In 1790 the South produced 3,000 bales of cotton. By the 1850s production had soared to
______________ bales a year.
20. The cotton gin (‘gin’ is short for ‘engine’) was invented by ______________ who was
from Massachusetts. It might have meant a reduction in the work load of slaves. It actually
increased the need for more ______________ because with the cotton gin more land could be
______________.
21. As cotton prices went up slaves became more _____________. This could have meant
better living conditions for slaves. It didn’t. It meant, the _____________ value of slaves
made _____________ less willing to talk of ending slavery.
22. On small farms slaves and owners worked ______________ by ______________.
23. On large plantations ______________ were paid to ______________ the slaves.
24. About ________ of rural slaves were ‘field hands’ who worked morning to night picking cotton.
25. On plantations, some slaves also worked as ______________, ______________, or
______________
26. On the “Chapter 20 Worksheet” you made: Describe the working conditions of slaves: Where
did they work; what tools did they use; how many hours might they work in a day?
27. Read section Use your handwritten “Worksheet” to answer all these questions. From section
20.8. Use your imagination. Describe the living conditions for slaves: What was a home built
from? What was the food? How about clothing? Furniture? Sleeping arrangements?
Privacy? How do you think it smelled? Where did people wash their clothes? What did the
clothes look like? What were the bathroom facilities? How would you care for the children?
28. On page 276 the author describes the experiences of Frederick Douglas under the slavebreaker
Edward Covey. His method was made up of equal parts ______________,
29. ______________, and ______________.
30. You know where to answer these: What does the term ‘quiet acts of rebellion’ mean? What is
one way you can ‘quietly rebel’ when you don’t want to do something? Name three ways
slaves could.
31. The ______________ is a breed of dog used to track down runaway slaves.
32. The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad. What was it? Why was it
called this? Write your answer, in a complete sentence or two, on the handwritten
“Worksheet.”
33. Nat Turner’s rebellion. When ______________ Where ______________
34. Who was Turner:
35. Answer these questions on your "Worksheet.” (Make sure you’ve been numbering your
answers.)
36. What Turner do? Why did he do it?
37. • Pretend you are a nearby plantation owner at this time: Argue the position that he was wrong
and should be hunted down and killed.
• Now you’re Turner’s brother or sister: Take the position that he was right
38. Answer below: What does it mean to ‘jump the broom’:
39. Use your imagination and your knowledge of slave life. On your “Worksheet” describe the
viewpoint of a slave seller at a slave auction and the mother or father who has their child sold at
the auction.
40. Answer this one on your handwritten “Worksheet”: What do the words, “Come day / Go day /
God Send Sunday” tell you about how slaves might have seen their present and future?[
41. Bullet points: Name three healthy and three unhealthy leisure time activities for slaves:
42. What was the ‘invisible church’? How might the ‘preaching’ be different in this and the white
church?
43. Modern day African American culture has some deep roots in slave culture, true or false.