TeachRock

Disclaimer

This lesson contains primary source documents and other materials that may include terms and images reflecting the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times that today are considered offensive and demeaning. Teachrock.org does not endorse the views expressed in these documents, but recognizes the value such materials provide for historical inquiry. For guidance on introducing controversial historical materials into the classroom, we suggest reviewing this document from The Library of Congress.

Motivational Activity:

1. Play Clip 1, Song Excerpt from “Cheer Up Sam”. Then ask students:
   • What kind of performance is this video capturing? Have you seen anything similar to this in your life?
   • Have you ever seen a musical, live or broadcast? Do you have a favorite musical?
2. Inform students that musicals became very popular forms of entertainment in the late 1800s, largely thanks to the Hyers Sisters, who both produced and sang in these kinds of productions. Play Clip 2, The Birth of the Musical. Ask students:
   • What innovations did the Hyers Sisters bring to theater performances? (“The Hyers used various types of music to advance one musical story. This innovation produced what we now call ‘a musical’”.)
     
   • Based on this clip, what would you say is the historical importance of the Hyers Sisters is for the history of American entertainment? What about their impact on American society more generally? (They created the musical, and “brought the first African American leads onto the mainstream stage.”)
3. Tell students that in the lesson they will be investigating the Hyers Sisters’ legacy, their artistic works, and the time during which they lived.

Procedure

1. Inform students that the Hyers Sisters were singers and entertainers who worked mostly during and after the period of Reconstruction. Play Clip 3, Introduction to Reconstruction. Then ask students:
   • According to the clip, when did Reconstruction occur? (Roughly 1865 to 1877.)
   • Why is this period of time known as “Reconstruction”? (The title speaks to the project of reconstructing American society after the Civil War.)
   • How were new laws enforced during this period? (By federal troops stationed in the South.)
2. Explain that one of the primary laws needing to be enforced during Reconstruction were new Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Distribute Handout – Reconstruction Amendment Chart (Teacher’s Guide). Ask students to fill in the chart. If desired, students can then share what they wrote in the chart as part of a Think-Pair-Share activity. Then ask student volunteers to share the completed chart with the class.
3. Inform students that they will now watch a video detailing the Hyers Sisters’ early career, starting in Northern California.  Play Clip 4, The Hyers Sisters, then ask students:
   • What kind of music did the Hyers Sisters get their start performing? How do you know? (Opera – as represented in the musical reproduction at the beginning of their clip and the name of their first company, the Hyers Concert Opera Company.) 
   • According to the clip, did the Hyers sisters have a successful career in the opera? What aided them in their success? (As described by in the captions and by Susheel Bibbs, the sisters became famous, and were aided by their father, as well as the transcontinental railroad.)
4. As a class, brainstorm what students know about Opera. Ask students:
   • What do you know about Opera? Have you ever heard or seen it before?
   • What associations do you make with Opera? Would you consider it “high class” or “low class” music?
   • What kind of person do you think typically performed Opera in the United States in the 1860s?
   • Why might it have been historically important for the Hyers Sisters to achieve fame singing Opera? What legacy might have that created?
5. Inform students that around 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes removed the federal troops supporting Reconstruction amendments from the South (Note to teacher: for more on the events leading up to 1877, see the lesson Late Reconstruction featuring the Fisk Jubilee Singers.) Ask students:
   • What effects might this action have caused in the South? 
   • Do you think formerly enslaved people continued to have the same freedoms in the South that they once did immediately following the Civil War? (Note to teacher: for more on Jim Crow laws, Minstrelsy, and other Post-Reconstruction events, see the lesson Plessy V. Ferguson featuring Bert Williams.)
6. Inform students that after Reconstruction, the Hyers Sisters chose not to go to Europe to continue their opera career, but to create performances in the United States that specifically showed the dignity and creativity of African Americans. Ask students:
   • Why might the Hyers Sisters have made this decision?
   • What about the Hyers Sisters’ background and past might have informed this decision? (If needed, remind students that the sisters grew up surrounded by the African American activist community in Sacramento.)
   • What might this decision say about the Hyers Sisters’ priorities and values?
     

     Public Domain

7. Display Image 1, Out of Bondage Promotional Poster. Explain to students that this is the poster of the Hyers Sisters’ first production. Using the Teacher’s Guide for Analyzing Photographs and Prints from the Library of Congress as a guide, have students examine the poster displayed on the board, with the goal of trying to identify what the play Out of Bondage might have been about. Focus on the following questions from the Teacher’s Guide: 
   • Based on your investigations, can you hypothesize about what the play Out of Bondage might be about? What might the characters in the play be getting “out” of? (The play details a family of enslaved people becoming free after the Civil War.) 
   • What is the first thing you notice about this image?
   • Find something small but interesting in the image.
   • What do you notice that you can’t explain?
   • What do you notice now that you didn’t earlier?
   • Why do you think this image was made?
   • Who do you think was the audience for this image?
   •  What’s happening in the image?
8. After students have analyzed the image as a primary source, ask them:
   • Based on your investigations, can you hypothesize about what the play Out of Bondage might be about? What might the characters in the play be getting “out” of? (The play details a family of enslaved people becoming free after the Civil War.)
9. Pass out to each student Handout – Out of Bondage Scene Excerpts, and explain that they will be doing a dramatic reading from the play. Assign characters for students to read, read each excerpt, and discuss the questions on the handout as a class. (Warning: explain to students that some of the language used in the play is outdated and today may be considered offensive. Give students the assurance that they can say the words in the script without judgment, but also allow them to withhold from saying certain words if they are uncomfortable doing so.)
10. After the reading, ask students to consider what is left out of the story: Nareisse, Kaloolah, and Prince’s journey from Georgia to Boston. Ask students the following questions, while noting their responses on the board.
    • What challenges might that journey have posed for the recently freed people? (Ask students to take notes on what their classmates say, as inspiration for the following creative writing activity.)
    • What resources did the three have when leaving the plantation in Georgia and making the journey to Boston? What sort of help might they have needed?
11. Pass out to students Handout – Creative Writing Activity: On the Journey to Boston. Individually or in groups, ask students to complete the handout, using the notes from the board as inspiration for their story outline.
12. Ask student groups or volunteers to share their stories they developed from the handout with the rest of the class.

Summary Activity:

1. Inform students that to finish the lesson, they will be thinking through how the historical events they learned in class might have played a role in the fictional account presented in Out of Bondage. Ask students:
   • What were the Reconstruction Amendments? What role might they have played for the characters in Out of Bondage?
   • What was the Freedmen’s Bureau? While not addressed in the play, how might that organization or organizations similar helped the characters in Out of Bondage?
   • What does Out of Bondage say about the Reconstruction Era? Does it portray the era positively or negatively?
   • Finally, what does the career of the Hyers Sisters say about the Post-Reconstruction era?

Extension Activities:

1. Create an extra scene for Out of Bondage based upon the outline created in Handout – Creative Writing Activity: On the Journey to Boston. Ask students to do a dramatic reading of the new scene.
2. Learn more about Reconstruction in the TeachRock Lesson Almost Emancipated: Reconstruction.
3. Learn more about the Black American’s experiences during Reconstruction with the lesson Seizing Freedom: Reconstruction – An Unfinished Revolution from New American History.
4. Read the full history of the Founding of the Freedmen’s Bureau from Senate.gov
5. Research another organization like the Freedmen’s Bureau that served recently freed people, and summarize the organization’s goals and history:
   • American League of Colored Laborers
   • The National Negro Labor Council
   • The Colored Farmers’ National Alliance and Cooperative Union
6. Investigate the work of Isaiah Dickerson and Callie House, and summarize their work and historical importance during Reconstruction.

Handout – Creative Writing Activity: On the Journey to Boston Handout – Out of Bondage Scene Excerpts Reconstruction Amendment Chart Reconstruction Amendment Chart (Teacher’s Guide) Teacher’s Guide for Analyzing Photographs and Prints from the Library of Congress

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Social Studies Standards

History

• D2.His.3.9-12. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to assess how the significance of their actions changes over time and is shaped by the historical context.
• D2.His.4.9-12. Analyze complex and interacting factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras.
• D2.His.5.9-12. Analyze how historical contexts shaped and continue to shape people’s perspectives.
• D2.His.14.9-12. Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past.

California History–Social Science Content Standards

8.11 Students analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction

• 1. List the original aims of Reconstruction and describe its effects on the political and social structures of different regions.
• 2. Identify the push-pull factors in the movement of former slaves to the cities in the North and to the West and their differing experiences in those regions
• 3.Understand the effects of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the restrictions placed on the rights and opportunities of freedmen, including racial segregation and “Jim Crow” laws.
• 5. Understand the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and analyze their connection to Reconstruction.

Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework Standards

Topic 5. The Civil War and Reconstruction: causes and consequences [USI.T5]

• 6. Analyze the consequences of the Civil War and Reconstruction (e.g., the physical and economic destruction of the South and the loss of life of both Southern and Northern troops; the increased role of the federal government; the impeachment of President Johnson; the13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments; the expansion of the industrial capacity of the Northern U.S.; the role of the Freedmen’s Bureau and organizations such as the American League of Colored Laborers, the National Negro Labor Council, the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance and Cooperative Union; the accomplishments and failures of Radical Reconstruction; the presidential election of 1876; and the end of Reconstruction)

Social Studies – National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)

• Theme 1: Culture
• Theme 2: Time, Continuity, and Change
• Theme 3: People, Place, and Environments
• Theme 4: Individual Development and Identity
• Theme 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions

Common Core State Standards

College and Career Readiness Reading Literature  Standards for Grades 9-12

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

College and Career Readiness Reading Information Text Standards for Grades 9-12

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.7 Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing for Grades 9-12

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening for Grades 9-12

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.2 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.2 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.

Learning for Justice Social Justice Standards

JU.9-12.15 I can identify figures, groups, events and a variety of strategies and philosophies relevant to the history of social justice around the world.