TOPIC 5.9 GOvernment Policies during the CIvil War

Juneteenth: Field Order no. 3 DOcument Analysis

A Juneteenth celebration in Galveston, TX and Major General Gordon Granger who delivered Field Order No. 3

A Juneteenth celebration in Galveston, TX and Major General Gordon Granger who delivered Field Order No. 3


AP KC-5.3.I.B …Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation reframed the purpose of the war…

“Every year we must remind successive generations that this event triggered a series of events that one by one defines the challenges and responsibilities of successive generations. That’s why we need this holiday.” – Texas Congressman Al Edwards.

This Key Concept in an Antiracist Classroom:

Every American should know the meaning and the history behind this day.

Notes

Recently, there has been a renewed push to make Juneteenth a national holiday and students appreciate studying the background of this historic day.

Breaking down a primary source is a great warm-up activity. I use this document for my introduction to Reconstruction.

For years, I had my students practice the HIPP method of document analysis but never had a ton of success until I became an AP exam grader. I saw just how few students actually get the point for “sourcing” and how rarely students successfully tied a document back to a prompt. One major mistake I was making was giving my students HIPP charts to fill out with random primary sources and no essay prompt. That was foolish because everything students should write about a primary source document should be tied to the prompt itself. My students have become much better writers ever since I created the S.P.Y. Method (explanation included in teaching materials) for document analysis and now I always make a prompt to go along with a document so students practice targeted writing.

Class discussion for after the document analysis:

  • Why were people still enslaved in Galveston, Texas on June 18, 1865 (two years after the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after the end of the Civil War)?

  • List some potential challenges for the former enslaved people in Galveston, Texas:

  • Who will guarantee the safety of the freedmen?

  • Who is going to make sure freedmen will receive wages?

  • Who will set the wages?

  • Are the freedmen allowed to leave? Where would they go if they left?

This is a great set up for the upcoming challenges of Reconstruction.