The year is 1873. Picture yourself as a Freedmen (New freed former slave) living in the southern U.S. during Reconstruction. Pretend you are writing a letter to a family member who had escaped to the North before the Civil War. Since this person was a runaway slave, you would not have had any contact with this person for many years. In writing your letter you’ll be describing the events of the past 12 or more years.
Letter Heading. Includes your name and address, the family member’s name and address, and date. Names should be made up from your imagination (don't use your real name or address)!!!! (5pts.)
Letter Body (descriptions of events that took place and how it personally effected your character). Include at least two paragraphs minimum Your paragraphs should be 4-5 sentences in length or longer. (40 pts.) For ideas, you can include any of the following:
What the war was like personally and the effects
What it was like to be freed
How did you learn to read and write?
What was it like hearing about the assassination of President Lincoln
How too search for other lost relatives
The enforcement of the “black codes”
The 14th and 15th amendments
KKK activity
Sharecropping or tenant farming
Getting help from the Freedmen’s Bureau
Children going to school for the first time
Why did it take so long to write?
From: Sherlock Holmes 221B Baker St. To: Lulu Flame 334 Shakespear Ave. 3/30/19873
Dear Cousin Lulu,
I am glad that we are finally able to be in contact after so many years apart. I regret not leaving with you when you decided to run away up North. Things here have been a bit different from the last time you were here. After I was able to become free with time. In other words, I paid for my freedom. I learned how to read and write at a school. The school is only for former slaves who were able to become free and the teachers and former slaves that learned to read and write in the North.
I was able to find you by asking around. I was lettings others know of that I was looking for someone with your name who had moved to New York during the time that you left. After two years of searching, and sending letters to a few other Lulu's I was able to find you. I even found another cousin of ours and we were planning on getting together in the upcoming month.
