Webquest on Freedman's Village

Freedman's Village Arlington, Virginia: Harper's Weekly, May 7, 1864
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Further

Introduction: The year is 1863 and the Civil War is still raging between the Union and the Confederacy.Thousands of African Americans are coming into the nation's capital as a result of the preliminary emancipation in the District of Columbia as well as the Emancipation Proclamation. Contraband camps or camps for freedmen are being set up in many areas of the South. The camps in Washington DC are becoming overcrowded and disease is widespread in some of the camps. The city does not have enough work for all of the newly freed people of color.Ý To solve some of these problems in the camps in the District, a new camp called Freeman's Village is set up across the Potomac River from the nation's capital. It was thought that the "pure country air" would have a positive effect on the freedmen.Ý Freedman's Village It was established in 1863 as a model camp and was located on the land of the Arlington Estate.

You are a Northern philanthropist whose home is Boston. You belong to one of many benevolent and charitable organizations, which shows interest in helping in the South. You are coming south to Arlington, to evaluate the effectiveness of Freedman's Village that is located there. Your organization is prepared to give financial aid, volunteers if needed, and other types of help to the newly freed slaves who reside in the village.

Task: Students will work in pairs to gather information from various books, primary documents, articles and on-line resources about this particular camp for newly freed slaves in Arlington Virginia. After studying the documents and images of the camp you are to work together to prepare a newsletter in Microsoft Publisher to publicize to the people of Boston the needs of the villagers, what the federal government is doing to help take care of these needs and what specifically the people of Boston can and should do to help the citizens of Freedman's Village in Arlington Virginia.

The Process

1. Choose a role to play

2. Read the section in your textbook about the emancipation proclamation.

3. Find out about the Confiscation Act and what happened to the Arlington Estate at the time of the Civil War.

4. Explore the suggested links. Take notes in your own words which may help you.
Included here are selected books, journal articles and web sites for you to read and research further.Ý Also you may want to the keywords Freedman's Village while using various search engines.

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Freedom and Southern Society Project (located at the University of Maryland) is the best resource I have found for information related to emancipation. "The Freedmen and Southern Society Project was established in 1976 to capture the essence of that revolution by depicting the drama of emancipation in the words of the participants: liberated slaves and defeated slaveholders, soldiers and civilians, common folk and the elite, Northerners and Southerners". This project is located at the University of Maryland in College Park. They have many documents that are culled from thecollections of the National Archives.Ý For a detailed timeline on emancipation and great bibliography check out this site.

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Go to the documents section of this website which has many primary documents for you to interpret.

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Arlington Cemetery Homepage

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ James Parks Site from American Memory at Library of Congress

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Civil War Defenses of Washington (From the National Park Service Site)

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Arlington County Historical Markers

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ National Park Service web site (Go to Search--- and write in the keywords: Freedman's Village
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Arlington Virginia and then enter. You will see a wide selection of articles about this topic.

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Sojourner Truth (Counselor at FV)

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Arlington Virginia History and Genealogy

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Sojourner Truth: A legacy of Faith

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Freedman's Bureau Online This has information on many aspects of the Freedmen's Bureau throughout the South..Ý Of particular interest to researchers interested in Freedman's Village is theÝ Census ofÝ Dependent Freedpeople in Freedman's Village-undated.
Ý

Articles
"Freedman's Village, Arlington Virginia: A History."Ý Masters Dissertation, Department of History,Ý Howard University,Ý Washington DC, 1967.

"Aladdin's Lamp:Ý Education in Freedman's Village"
Bobbi Schildt, The Arlington Historical MagazineÝ Volume10 No.3 October, 1995.

"Freedman's Village, Arlington Virginia, 1863-1900"
Bobbi Schildt, The Arlington Historical Magazine Volume 7 No.4 October, 1984
Ý

Please note: If you find additional links please let your teacher know so she can add them to the list.
Your job is to work together to achieve each of these goals. Help out your partner as needed.
Determine what the needs of the freed people are
Find out what role the federal government plays in the village
Decide if and how the citizens of Boston can help the newly freed slaves who live in the village.
Plan your newspaper.
Find images to use in your paper which support your proposal.
Create a newsletter or cybernewspaper that will be used for publicizing your findings and if needed for fundraising efforts up in Boston. (The audience of your newsletter is the people of Boston who belong to a philanthropic group.)

Whenever possible you should use direct quotations to support your ideas for what the villagers need. Be sure to cite where you got your information.
Ý

Roles

Photojournalist/ Layout: Find graphics to use in the presentation. Also write one article for your paper. Be certain that you use images that are in the public domain or that you get permission to use them. Try and have several images for your newsletter and be certain that the images you use have to do with the story that you write. Be sure to give credit to the source of the photograph near it in your newsletter. You also must work with the editor to figure out how to layout the paper.

Writer Your job is to write three of the articles in your document. You need to effectively communicate to your classmates about the themes of your articles. You need to type up your articles.

Editor: You are the boss. You must write one article and also you must edit the overall newspaper. You need to work with your partners on layout and on putting the final touches on the newspaper. If you need some ideas you may want to use the book called Web Design for Dummies to get ideas on how to put the paper together. You may want to use Microsoft Publisher to help you with a template for the design process. Allow time to spell-check the articles, import the images and any last minute changes in the paper. You are in addition responsible for saving it to your H drive and running off a paper copy of your newsletter.

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Harper's Weekly July 15, 1865

Evaluation

Students will complete a self-evaluation. I will have them evaluate themselves using the following as their guide.

Is the project in on time and in on the due date?

Did the students stay on task and use their class time properly?

Is the information accurate?

Is the paper well organized?

Is a headline and a byline included for each article?

Is the paper typed or word-processed?

Has the paper given credit to the appropriate sources?

Does your creativity and originality show through the paper?

Is the paper well written? Is the paper in the words of the student? Was it edited?

Did your images reflect the topics covered in your articles?

Conclusion

When you complete this assignment you will have a better understanding of the challenges facing the former slaves at the time of emancipation. You will also understand the role that individuals, northern cities and benevolent societies played at this time in helping the freed people make the transition from slavery to freedom. To take it further you might want to discuss, consider or research one or more of the following questions.

To take it further

Directions: Listed below are some ideas for further research. Choose one of these topics or another one of interest on which to do independent research. Document your sources. Create a Power Point presentation on your findings.

How did the challenges the freed people faced change at the end of the Civil War?

In what ways were the challenges faced by the freedmen and women in Freedman's Village unique since it was a model camp located so near the Nations' capital?

What role did the Freedman's Bureau play during Reconstruction?

What was the Confiscation Act and what effect did it have on the Arlington Estate?

What were the names and locations of other "freedman's villages?

Are there some places in the world today where camps such as the freedman's villages are needed?

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Further Back to Bobbi's Page