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A Reconstruction Mixer

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A Reconstruction Mixer When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer BY ADAM SANCHEZ AND NQOBILE MTHETHWA SHORTLY AFTER HEARING IN 1865 THAT SHE When this once seemingly impossible fate and others on her Florida plantation were no became a reality, it democratized and revolution- longer enslaved, Frances told a friend what she ized U.S. society. The sense that the impossible thought their future might look like: “This time could be made possible by the organization of next year all the white folks will be at work in the oppressed people to fight against their oppression fields, and the plantations and the houses, and had implications far beyond the struggle against everything in them will be turned over to us to slavery. As Roediger documents, between 1865 do with as we please.” While her fantasy didn’t and 1869, a series of “war-and-emancipation- become a reality, something remarkable did. inspired insurgencies . raised the possibilities Without saying anything to their former owner, for something like a 19th-century Rainbow on New Year’s Day 1866, every freed slave on the Coalition, seeking to bring together the nation’s plantation left. aggrieved.” The ability of newly freed people to imagine But ultimately racism and sexism tore these their former owners serving them, or to walk off movements apart, and the consequences left a plantation en masse in a society that had heavily Black people few allies to fight the insurgent policed Black movement, reveals the possibilities white supremacists that one by one overthrew of a period where something that had only a few Reconstruction governments in the South. years prior seemed unthinkable was now a fact of This mixer aims to draw out many of these les- life. Because, as historian David Roediger writes sons for students by introducing them to individu- in his book Seizing Freedom, “If anything seemed als in the various social movements that followed impossible in the 1850s political universe, it was the Civil War and their attempts to build alliances the immediate, unplanned, and uncompensated with one another. In the mixer, each student takes emancipation of four million slaves.” on the role of a different person involved in the Frances Harper, William Sylvis, Isaac Myers , and John Roy Lynch are a few of the people featured in the role play. When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 1 social movements of the time. Several roles focus activity we are going to meet many of the on the close alliance and tragic split between the people involved in these movements to try feminist and abolitionist movement; other roles to understand what brought them together emphasize the important efforts to break down after the Civil War and what ultimately kept racism and sexism inside the emerging labor them apart.” movement; a few roles touch on alliances that abo- Distribute one mixer role and a blank litionists built with the movements against Indian nametag to each student in the class. There removal and for Cuban independence; lastly, sev- are 21 roles, so in many classes some stu- eral roles focus on the incredible transformation of dents will be assigned the same characters. Black life in the South — the key example of the 2. Have students fill out their nametags using impossible becoming possible. the name of the individual they are assigned. As students meet other individuals in the Tell students that in this activity they will room, they learn the revolutionary possibility of take on the role of the person they are solidarity — the potential power of social move- assigned. Ask students to read their roles ments working together. But these stories also and to underline key points. reveal how racism, sexism, and classism can keep movements divided. For those today who care 3. Distribute a copy of the “Reconstruction about movements for social justice and whether Mixer: Questions” to every student. Explain those movements might coalesce to form some- how the mixer will work: Students will cir- thing even more powerful, this lesson opens a culate through the classroom, meeting other window into the possibilities and pitfalls such a people who fought for justice. They will use project might face. the questions on the sheet as a guide to talk with others about their lives and to complete Materials Needed: the questions as fully as possible. They must • Copies of “Reconstruction Mixer: Questions” use a different individual to answer each of for every student. the eight questions. Read the questions out loud with students and have them star the • One role for every student in the class. questions that apply to their character. • Blank nametags. Enough for every student 4. After you’ve read through the questions, in the class. have students re-read their roles one or two more times and memorize as much as they Time Required: can. It can be helpful to encourage students One class period for the mixer. Time for follow- to turn over their roles and list three to five up discussion. key facts about their character (especially ones that relate to the mixer questions — Suggested Procedure: what movements were they a part of? Did 1. Explain to students that they are going to they try to break or form alliances with do an activity about the social movements other movements? etc.). Given that the roles that emerged after the Civil War. Tell them are longer and more complex than most that “Many people were inspired by the mixers, you might also ask students to write abolition of slavery to demand things that a short interior monologue about their they had previously considered impossible. hopes and fears for the future. This meant that after the Civil War many 5. It’s helpful to lay out a few rules for the new social movements emerged and there mixer: 1) Students assigned the same person were some attempts to bring them together, may not meet themselves. 2) Engage with but by 1870 those fighting for justice in dif- each other one on one rather than in large ferent movements remained divided. In this groups. 3) It’s not a race; the point is to learn When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 2 from each character’s experience, so spend again converged. What do you think were time listening to one another; don’t just some of the consequences of this division? scribble down answers to the questions. • What connections do you see between the 4) Students should not show their roles to social movements you encountered in this anyone; this is a conversation-based activ- mixer and what’s going on today? Can ity. 5) Tell students not to adopt accents in you think of any examples of contempo- an effort to try more authentically to rep- rary social movements working together resent their individual. (These can invite or clashing with one another? stereotyping.) 9. Afterward, ask students to share some of 6. Ask students to stand up and begin to cir- their conclusions with the whole class. ◼ culate throughout the class to meet one another. Sometimes to get them out of their Adam Sanchez ([email protected]) is an editor of Re- seat it’s helpful to require that the first per- thinking Schools magazine. Sanchez teaches at Harvest Collegiate son they talk to is sitting across the room. High School in New York City and works as curriculum writer and 7. When it seems like students have had suffi- organizer with the Zinn Education Project. cient time to fill out all or most of the ques- Nqobile Mthethwa ([email protected]) is a Zinn tions, ask them to sit back down and silently Education Project Research Fellow and has a B.A. in Political Sci- write on a few debrief questions. ence from the University of Virginia. Mthethwa did archiving and 8. Here are some possible questions: research with the Carter G. Woodson Institute digital exhibition, “The Movement in the Archive.” • Out of all the people you met, whose story did you find most interesting. Why? • Historian David Roediger writes about how the self-emancipation of enslaved people during the Civil War inspired others to demand things that previously would have seemed impossible. Did you encounter these themes of “self-emancipa- tion” or making “the impossible possible” while meeting any characters? What does this say about the time period following the Civil War? • Was it possible for different social move- ments to work together after the Civil War? What brought them closer? What pushed them apart? • Was it inevitable that these social move- This article is offered for use in educational settings as part ments would be driven apart? Why or of the Zinn Education Project, a collaboration of Rethinking why not? Schools and Teaching for Change, publishers and distributors of social justice educational materials. Contact the • What role did racism play in preventing Zinn Education Project ([email protected]) directly social movements from coming together? for permission to reprint this material in course packets, newsletters, books, or other publications. What about classism? For more information: • By 1870, those fighting for justice in dif- Rethinking Schools Teaching for Change ferent movements remained divided and it www.rethinkingschools.org www.teachingforchange.org would be decades before these movements When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 3 HANDOUT Reconstruction Mixer: Questions 1. Find someone who was enslaved before the war and accomplished something afterward that they never could have under slavery. What did this person accomplish? 2. Find someone who worked for both Black rights and women’s rights.
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