Reconstruction 360 uses a 360 degree video platform as a storytelling device that lets the audience step inside pivotal Reconstruction events. By clicking on icons within the 360 video the user can access short documentaries that offer the perspectives of multiple characters. Reconstruction 360 also includes lesson plans, primary documents, and curriculum standards.
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After the slave revolt led by Nat Turner in 1831, most Southern states passed laws making it a crime to teach the enslaved to read and write. During Reconstruction freedpeople demanded education, and...
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Historian Kate Masur explains the origins of 40 Acres and a Mule, a famous phrase that many have heard but may not fully understand. It originated in the early days of Reconstruction, when General...
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Reconstruction 360 is built on a 360 degree video platform that features a reenactment set on a farm in 1865. The reenactment was shot at Freewoods Farm, a living farm museum in the Freewoods...
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A popular book for teaching spelling and reading was Noah Webster’s Elementary Spelling Book, known as “the blue-back speller” because of its binding. Many enslaved people, including Frederick...
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These little chalkboards would be used by the students in this class to practice reading, writing and arithmetic. They are a type of tablet, a solid, flat surface that can be written on...
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Although this school has only a few students, many schools for freedpeople were overcrowded. Like most newly emancipated people, these children believe that education is the key to maintaining freedom...
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Freedpeople often had difficulty finding appropriate school buildings, and Black students regularly attended school in churches. Ministers were often happy to host schools in their churches, and...
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This community member, the leader of a local mutual aid society , has been instrumental in raising funds to hire a new teacher. Black communities often pooled their money to build schools and pay...
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The flowers used in this vignette were purchased for the scene and aren’t necessarily native to Alabama. Native wildflowers are sometimes considered weeds, but they play an important role in natural...
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The Freedmen’s Bureau supported African American education. Although the bureau didn’t operate schools or hire teachers, its agents helped build schools and supply them with books, and they sometimes...
