Some Sources for Teaching about Sharecropping

It can be hard to find accessible information for students to read about sharecropping.  Here an oral history, photograph, and sharecropping contract are combined to build an understanding of the system. 

In Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter, Osceola talks about "Daddy's Work."  It's a short piece that provides students with a picture of the types of work sharecropper's did, for whom, and how they were paid.  

Read "Daddy's Work" to the class and then in small groups have students re-read the passage and fill out charts with columns for "Daddy's Work," "For whom did he work?,"  and "How was he paid?"

Then use a sharecropping photo such as this Lewis Hine photo and visual thinking strategies to gather more information about sharecropping.  

Have students write three-word phrases that describe sharecropping.

Generate questions they might have about sharecropping.

Read out loud a sharecropping contract and have students follow along, underlining details that reveal more about sharecropping. Do a verbal document analysis on it--who wrote it, date, what it says.

Then fill out a worksheet that has students detail what the landowner gets and gives and what the sharecropper gets and gives.

Generate new three-word phrases that describe sharecropping.

Possible writing prompts might include:

•  Read the 13^th Amendment and the sharecropping contract.  Then discuss what freedom means.

•  Read the contract and look at the photo.  Imagine yourself as the child pictured.

•  Choose the name of someone in the contract.  What does freedom mean to you?

Published Oral Histories about Sharecropping

Alan Govenar, ed., Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter (2000)

Oral history of Osceola Mays, born in East Texas in 1909, the daughter of a sharecropper and the grand-daughter of slaves.

Eloise Greenfield and Lessie Jones Little, Childtimes (1979)

Three generations of black women remember their "childtimes."

Leon Walter Tillage, Leon's Story (2000)

Tillage, a black custodian in a Baltimore private school, reminisces about his childhood as a sharecropper's son in the South, and his youth as a civil-rights protester.

Sharecropping Links

From Slave to Sharecropper

PBS Site Bibliography

From Slavery to Sharecropping 

Lesson with background information and transcribed contract

Gilder Lehrman: Sharecropper Contract

Lots of background information, lessons, and primary sources

Here's Osceola providing an oration or plea for justice.

Two Veterans

Winslow Homer's painting, The Veteran in a New Field (1865) depicts a hopeful image for America. The bountiful fields of grain seem to stretch on and on while the farmer's uniform jacket has been cast aside.  For a full analysis of this painting see the National Endowment for the Humanities Picturing America site and this Edsitement lesson which includes a "map" to the painting highlighting the many symbols and their meanings.

While there were numerous veterans who returned to their northern farms and picked up their scythes, there were many other veterans who returned to very different fields--fields they didn't own and crops they couldn't sell.  Natasha Trethewey responds to Homer's painting in a poem called Again, The Fields. The poem is a reminder that many African-American veterans returned from the Civil War only to become bound into the sharecropping system.

AGAIN, THE FIELDS

After Winslow Homer

No more muskets, the bone-drag

weariness of marching, the trampled

grass, soaked earth red as the wine

of sacrament. Now, the veteran

turns toward a new field, bright 

as domes of the republic. Here,

he has shrugged off the past--his jacket

and canteen flung down in the corner.

At the center of the painting, he anchors

the trinity, joining earth and sky.

The wheat falls beneath his scythe--

a language of bounty --the swaths

like scripture on the field's open page.

Boundless, the wheat stretches beyond

the frame, as if toward a distant field--

the white canvas where sky and cotton

meet, where another veteran toils,

his hands the color of dark soil.

Have your students read this poem aloud.

What images do they envision in the first stanza? Could they find a Civil War painting or photograph that might illustrate that bone-drag weariness of marching?

Show Homer's painting. Which stanzas describe Homer's painting? What is the mood of those stanzas?

What happens in the last stanza? Who is the poet describing? What is the mood of this stanza? 

See if they can find an image that depicts this other veteran.  

                                                                                              Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History

This exercise might be an interesting transition from the Civil War to Reconstruction and the New South.

Raising an Army at Town Meeting

Communities held numerous town meetings throughout the Civil War to decide how they would meet their quotas. In order to get enough men to enlist, towns offered bounties to men who enlisted. They then raised taxes to pay for the bounties.  Here is a sample town meeting record from Strafford, Vermont.

To use this with students begin by helping them transcribe and translate the record. This will require hints on handwriting and some vocabulary work.  Students can then work through a series of scaffolded questions to find out how armies were raised during the Civil War. Take a trip to your town office and see what was happening in your town!

Inquiring into a Primary Source

What can primary sources tell us about how Vermont (and other states in the North) raised an army during the Civil War?  Local sources such as town meeting records, rosters, and pay records can help students to understand how communities responded to the call for men.

To get the most out of a primary source, students need to ask a variety of questions. One way to guide them is by asking scaffolded questions that move from description to analysis.  Here are some sample questions:

Descriptive Questions
Questions that help students identify the primary source Who, What, When, Where?

• What do you see in this picture/map/document? 
• Look more closely, what details help you know what is going on? 
• Find, locate, tell, list, define, draw, label, record 

Interpretive Questions 
Questions that help students formulate ideas based on existing evidence; questions that encourage them to probe more deeply

• Why do you think this document/map/picture was created? 
• What are the most important things about this document? 
• What do you think happened just before this picture was taken? 
• Are there any clues about how life was different from life today? 
• Who would have had a different point of view? 
• Use a timeline to put the source into context 
• What do you think the title means? 
• Confirm, predict, match, relate, sort, categorize 

 Analytical Questions 
Open-ended questions that provoke discussion

• What can you say about early settlement in this community? 
• What does this document tell you about life in the US at the time it was created? 
• What do you now understand about _______in our nation’s history? 
• Compare/Contrast the source with one from a different place, perspective, or time 
• Can you predict what might happen? 
• What question would you like to ask this author? 
• What questions do you have about this document? 
• Where might you find the answers? 
• Give your opinion about…. 
• What connections can you draw between this photograph and what you have learned in your history class? 
• Design, invent, compose, hypothesize, compare, investigate, critique, criticize, assess, conclude, justify 

 If students are just beginning to use primary sources, begin with just one or jigsaw several groups of students with just one document per group.  Later when they are more experienced, students can begin to collect information from a series of primary sources and write an analytical response.

Civil War Poetry Prompt—Remembering the Past

A eulogy is a spoken or written tribute that reveals the virtues and accomplishments of a person who died.

Write a eulogy for the a soldier from your local cemetery. You could look at examples from local newspapers or historical newspapers to help with the writing process. Consider:

• Biographical information: the name of the person, date of death, and age at death, and a possible cause of death as determined through your group analysis
• Accomplishments/honors: What is this person known for? Why should we remember him or her? List two or three possible accomplishments of the person during his or her life. (For example: wife, mother, etc.)
• One or two events that actually occurred in history during the life of this person that might have had an effect on his or her life.
• Turn it into a Wordle—this example is drawn from Walt Whitman’s eulogy to Abraham Lincoln

  Walt Whitman

O Captain! My Captain!

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.


O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills; 10
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.


My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 20
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead

Civil War Poetry Prompts—The Citizen Soldier

Focus Question: What did Full Duty mean to people in our region?

1. Poetry with Two Voices—poetry written for two or more voices is a poem that is written for two or more people to perform. The poetry usually has two columns—one for each person who is reading the poem. Sometimes the poet wants the two readers to say something at the same time, then the poet will write the words on the same line in each column. 

The compare/contrast nature of this creative writing exercise translates well to history.

·       Think about two people who might have been in communication during the War, two people who might have opposed each other, or what an optimist and a pessimist would say to each other about the War.

·       Write a phrase that both people can say together that reflects agreement. For example “I love my country” or “He is my brother.”

·       Collect quotes from letters or other primary sources that illustrate how the two people might disagree.

·       Write 5 – 8 pairs of statements showing how they might disagree.

·       In the middle, once or twice, have another statement they make together.

·       End with a statement they both make together.

Another option would be to adapt the two versions of The Battle Cry of Freedom.  The Union version is below. The confederate version can be found online. How could the two different versions oppose each other in one poem and come together in unity as well?

2. Ballads—In a ballad, verses can give little vignettes of the soldier’s life on the battlefield, while the refrain, repeated between each verse, describes him. The key is to retain the shape of a ballad with verses followed by the refrain with the verses telling different things and the refrain repeating the same words. Often ballads have 4 lines for each verse and begin and end with the refrain.

Begin by writing a refrain with 4 lines that describes your soldier.

Choose a battle that your soldier was involved in.  Take notes on the on the battle and tell its story in verses of 4 lines each. You could have a verse that is descriptive, one that is full of action, and one that is full of feeling. You could also choose photographs from the battle to inspire you. 

Drawn from: The Story in History: Writing Your Way into the Experience

George Frederick Root

The Battle Cry of Freedom- Union

Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys,
We'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,
We will rally from the hillside,
We'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.

CHORUS: The Union forever,
Hurrah! boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitors,
Up with the stars;
While we rally round the flag, boys,
Rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.

We are springing to the call
Of our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;
And we'll fill our vacant ranks with
A million free men more,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.-CHORUS

We will welcome to our numbers
The loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;
And although they may be poor,
Not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.-CHORUS

So we're springing to the call
From the East and from the West,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;
And we'll hurl the rebel crew
From the land that we love best,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.-CHORUS

Civil War Poetry Prompt—The Home Front

Focus Question: What did Full Duty mean to people in our region?
Six-Word Memoir

Try writing a six-word memoir for a Civil War person in a local cemetery.  First create a list of core words that connect to your person. Then look for synonyms for the core words. Have you chosen your best word?  Put the six best words in the best order. Find more Six-Word Memoirs at the online project here.

Be specific about an aspect of the person’s life. Let the limitations push you to be creative. Revise, revise, revise with a thesaurus. Rearrange, rearrange, rearrange until you’re satisfied.

Example— Abraham Lincoln

“Split wood, split country, saved it”

Example—Drawn from Come up from the Fields, Father

“Stricken mother’s soul, son is dead”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892).  Leaves of Grass.  1900.

Come up from the fields father, here's a letter from our Pete,
And come to the front door mother, here's a letter from thy dear son.

Lo, 'tis autumn, Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder,
Cool and sweeten Ohio's villages with leaves fluttering in the moderate wind,
Where apples ripe in the orchards hang and grapes on the trellis'd vines,
(Smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines?
Smell you the buckwheat where the bees were lately buzzing?)

Above all, lo, the sky so calm, so transparent after the rain, and with wondrous clouds,
Below too, all calm, all vital and beautiful, and the farm prospers well.

Down in the fields all prospers well,
But now from the fields come father, come at the daughter's call.
And come to the entry mother, to the front door come right away.

Fast as she can she hurries, something ominous, her steps trembling,
She does not tarry to smooth her hair nor adjust her cap.

Open the envelope quickly,
O this is not our son's writing, yet his name is sign'd,
O a strange hand writes for our dear son, O stricken mother's soul!
All swims before her eyes, flashes with black, she catches the main words only,
Sentences broken, gunshot wound in the breast, cavalry skirmish, taken to hospital,
At present low, but will soon be better.

Ah now the single figure to me,
Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio with all its cities and farms,
Sickly white in the face and dull in the head, very faint,
By the jamb of a door leans.

Grieve not so, dear mother, (the just-grown daughter speaks through her sobs,
The little sisters huddle around speechless and dismay'd,)
See, dearest mother, the letter says Pete will soon be better.

Alas poor boy, he will never be better, (nor may-be needs to be better, that brave and simple soul,)
While they stand at home at the door he is dead already,
The only son is dead.

But the mother needs to be better,
She with thin form presently drest in black,
By day her meals untouch'd, then at night fitfully sleeping, often waking,
In the midnight waking, weeping, longing with one deep longing,

O that she might withdraw unnoticed, silent from life escape and withdraw,
To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.

Civil War Poetry Prompt--Raising an Army

Erasure poetry is a form of found poetry created by erasing words from an existing text in prose or verse and framing the result on the page as a poem. The results can be allowed to stand in situ or they can be arranged into lines and/or stanzas.  
Want to see more erasure poetry? Check out Newspaper Blackout


Three Hundred Thousand More by James Sloan Gibbons

We are coming, Father Abraam, three hundred thousand more,
From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore;
We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear,
With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear;
We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before,
We are coming, Father Abraam, three hundred thousand more.
If you look across the hilltops that meet the northern sky,
Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry;
And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,
And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;
And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour,
We are coming, Father Abraam, three hundred thousand more.
If you look all up our valleys, where the growing harvests shine,
You may see our sturdy farmer - boys fast forming into line;
And children from their mothers' knees are pulling at the weeds,
And learning how to reap and sow, against their country's needs;
And a farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door,
We are coming, Father Abraam, three hundred thousand more.
You have called us, and we're coming, by Richmond's bloody tide,
To lay us down for freedom's sake, our brother's bones beside;
Or from foul treason's savage group to wrench the murderous blade,
And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to parade;
Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before,
We are coming, Father Abraam, three hundred thousand more.


Example 1: Three Hundred Thousand More

steadfast.
lines of rising dust
bayonets
boys fast forming into line;
brother's bones.
murderous blade
fragments
six hundred thousand gone before
three hundred thousand more.

Example 2: We are coming

We are coming, Father Abraam, three hundred thousand //////////////////////////more////////////
From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's ///////////////////////shore//////
We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear////////
With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear///////////////////////////////////////////////////
We dare not look behi////////////////////////////// us, but steadfastly before,////////////////////////////
We are coming, Father Abraam, three hundred thousand more/……………////.../...////////// f you look across the hilltops T///////////////////////ha////t meet the northern sky,///////////////////
Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry////////////////////
And now thewind,/////////////////////////// an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,///////////////////
And float aloft///////////////////////////// our spangled flag in glory and in pride////////////////////////
And bayonets within the sunlight gleam, an////////////////////////////d bands brave music pour..
We are coming, Fathe////////////////////////////.r Abraam, three hundred thousand more.///////////If you look a////////////////////////////ll up our valleys, where the growing harvests shine,/////////
You may see our sturdy farmer - boys fast forming into line;///////////////
And children fr////////////////////////om their mothers' knees are pulling at the weeds,/////////.
And learning how to reap and sow, against their country's needs;////////.
And a farewell gro////////////////////////////up stands weep at every cottage door,/////////////////////
We are coming, Father Abraam, three hundred thousand more.//////////////////……//////////….You have called us, …………………and we're coming, by Richmond's bloody tide//////.
To lay us down for ////////////////////////////freedom's sake, our brother's bones beside/////////////
Or from foul treason's savage group to ………………wrench the murderous blade/////
And in the face of foreign foes,’ i………………..ts fragments to parade/////////////////////////
Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before//////////////////
We are coming, Fath…………………..er Abraam, three hundred thousands more////////////

Civil War Poetry Prompt—The Industrial Revolution and the Civil War

List Poems are comprised of a list of persons, places, things, or abstract ideas that share a common denominator. Walt Whitman’s “I hear America singing!” is a list poem. This poem was published in 1860 on the eve of the Civil War and honors mechanics, carpenters, boatmen, ploughboys who, for Whitman, embodied democracy.   How might this poem be changed to reflect the mood of the nation after the Civil War? How might it reflect the south or the north? Would he hear America crying? Sighing? Mourning? Singing a different tune? What might the list of person, places, things, or ideas be?

Substitute the words singing and songs for words that depict a different emotion. Or keep the singing and substitute the people, places, and things for Civil War themes.

Drawn from: Read, Write Think

Walt Whitman (1819–1892).  Leaves of Grass.  1900.

I Hear America Singing

I HEAR America singing, the varied carols I hear;
Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;
The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work;
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck;	5
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands;
The wood-cutter’s song—the ploughboy’s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;
The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing—Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else;
The day what belongs to the day—At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.	10

Reader's Theater

We tried out a Reader's Theater approach with the journal Brokenburn. First we assigned small groups excerpts from the journal. We chose our excerpts so we would progress through the writer's life as we read while at the same time highlighting key themes such as attitudes toward slavery and the civilian experience in war. Each excerpt was paired with a primary source:

Brokenburn Excerpt	Primary Source
p. 86	excerpt from Solomon Northup
p. 145-146	Brokenburn 1860 Slave Schedule from Ancestry.com
p. 172-173	From Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs (1886) Chapter XXX: The Campaign Against Vicksburg; Employing the Freedmen [November-December 1862]
p. 190	Brokenburn 1860 Census
p. 218-219	Letter from Milliken's Bend
p. 339-340	1880 Census

The instructions were simple--read through the excerpt, analyze the primary source, and come up with a very short reading that synthesizes the documents.  We had some insightful results!

A Woman in the South

Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone provides a fascinating picture of a wealthy young girl growing up on a large plantation in Louisiana and grappling with the coming of the Civil War and ensuing invasion.

Kate was nearly 20 years old when the Civil War began and lived on a plantation with 150 slaves. As the Yankees approached, Kate and her family escaped in a canoe and become refugees in Texas. Many themes come up in this journal-- slavery, plantation life, women's roles, civilian life during war, the deprivations of war, and southern attitudes toward the North.

The Civil War through the eyes of civilians, women, and southerners are critical perspectives when studying the conflict. Brokenburn provides all three.

We used Brokenburn in book group by pairing specific passages with relevant primary sources and then sharing the material through reader's theater. The resulting performances were poignant glimpses into the Civil War.

Investigating the Civil War 2.0: Summer Institute

The Civil War is a crucial episode in American history. One hundred and fifty years later,
the war still surrounds us. It is hiding in plain sight across the Upper Valley in cemeteries,
villages, parks, public art, and historic sites.

Join scholars and staff from the region’s museums to explore the Civil War in an exciting
5-day place-based teacher institute. Each day features scholarly presentations, primary
source investigations, and place-based workshops that will help you tie local Civil War
stories to the Vermont and New Hampshire frameworks and key themes of American
history. Sessions also include new technologies that support student inquiry: Google docs,
Google maps, GPS, QR codes and other 2.0 web tools.

Institute Schedule

Registration Information

Voices from the Front: New Exhibition in Concord

The lives of soldiers who fought and the people who endured life on the home front are explored in a new exhibition on view at the New Hampshire Historical Society’s museum through December 31, 2012. The exhibition, Voices from the Front: New Hampshire and the American Civil War, tells the compelling stories of people forever changed by the conflict.

Through photographs, letters, diaries, and objects, the exhibition Voices from the Front: New Hampshire and the American Civil War, tells the stories of the soldiers who fought the war and the people who endured on the home front.

From their own pens...

What were the experiences of Civil War soldiers as they left home, experienced camp life, and fought in their first battles? The University of Vermont and Vermont Historical Society are collaborating on a digitizing project to bring these experiences to the internet, directly from the soldiers' own pens.

You can view the original letter or a typed transcription. Each letter also has a brief description of the writer, recipient, and topic(s). For instance, the little clipping below is accompanied by:

Hiram H. Barton was born in 1836 at Crown Point, N.Y., the son of William A. and Electa (Taylor) Barton. He served in Co. C, 96th New York State Volunteers. He married Jennie Abbie Johnson on September 5, 1869 in Bridport, Vermont. He died there of a cerebral abscess on April 6, 1903 and was buried in the Bridport Village Cemetery.

Hiram Barton's one letter was written to his sister, Melissa Barton, and describes his regiment, the soldiers' clothes, and the barracks.

It is also possible to search the website by topics such as: African-Americans, battles, desertion, diseases, drill tactics, fugitive slaves, homesickness, grief, slavery, religion, and many others. To find topics, just click on Browse the Collection.

Teachers are beginning to use the collection in a variety of ways. One teacher is having students choose topics to research and collect quotes related to the topics. Students then find historic photographs to connect to the quotes and share via Google presentation. Another teacher had his students collect quotes on topics which they will then use to compare with stories they gather from veterans in their community today..