Place the following documents on posters around the classroom to participate in a Gallery Walk. Each document relates to the issue of Black families and reunification following emancipation.
- Advertisements Seeking Relatives
- Letter from the Wife of a Michigan Black Soldier
- Army Report from A.B. Randall
- Freedwoman’s Letter to Her Husband
- “Finding His Family” Newspaper Article
Instruct students to walk around the room and answer the following three questions on each poster:
- List 2-3 observations you can make based on this document.
- What does this information tell you about how emancipation affected Black families?
- What questions remain for you about family reunification following emancipation?
Then, divide students into small groups and give each small group just one of the posters. As a group, students should read through all the comments and prepare a short verbal presentation to the class summarizing the source’s main idea and any salient comments from the gallery walk. Take turns presenting the posters.