These lesson plans, tailored to Virginia's history content standards, will help teachers utilize the project's primary sources and contextual essays in their classrooms. The activities will stimulate discussion, hone research skills and reading comprehension, and deepen students' understanding of the Civil War era. 

1. The Costs of War: Wounds, Disease, and Death among Black Union Soldiers
2. The Ties That Bind: Marriage and Family Life for Black Union Soldiers
3. "Making Every Slave Free, and Every Free Man a Voter": African American Politics, 1861-1870
4. "Begging Their Chance to Lead the Charge": Free Black Military Service
5. War on the Water: Black Sailors in the Union Navy