This document summarizes key parts of a lesson plan about names and identity during the Reconstruction Era. It discusses how freed slaves needed surnames for practical purposes like contracts but also saw choosing their own names as a symbol of newly won freedom and dignity. The lesson includes an activity having students create identity charts and analyze a primary source account of an enslaved woman who declares her name for the first time. It prompts students to consider how names reveal aspects of identity and what they imply about individual agency and freedom in society.

1. THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA AND
THE FRAGILITY OF DEMOCRACY
I D E N T I T Y : W H A T ’ S I N A N A M E ?
J U L Y 7 - 9 , 2 0 1 5
G E N E A U T R Y M U S E U M

2.  Essential Questions:
 What do names reveal about
a person’s identity?
 What do they suggest about
our agency and freedom in
society?
(Lesson 1)
The Power of Names

3.  Identity charts
 Create an identity chart for
yourself
The Power of Names: Identity

4.  “It is through names that we first place ourselves in
the world” – Ralph Ellison
 “Two Names, Two Worlds” (p. 7)
Journal:
What is the relationship between your name and your identity?
The Power of Names:
Two Names, Two Worlds

5. Debrief Questions
 What does Jonathan mean by the phrase “two names,
two worlds”? What are the two worlds his name
represents?
 How does he resolve these two worlds? What does he
think is the essence of his identity?
 What parts of Jonathan’s identity are reflected in his
name? What parts are hidden?
 What values and traditions are reflected in his name?

6.  After the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished,
freedpeople, as we will refer to formerly enslaved people,
needed surnames in order to identify themselves for a variety of
fundamental civil procedures such as obtaining a marriage
license and, especially, signing an employment contract.
 They also recognized the power to choose their names as a
symbol of freedom and dignity they had not enjoyed while
enslaved. As historian Taylor Branch writes, “Among the most
joyous feelings most frequently mentioned by freed or escaped
slaves was the freedom to choose a name.”
The Power of Names : Historical Context

7.  “An Enslaved Woman Declares Her Name”
 Read Silently
 Respond in writing with your immediate thoughts, feelings,
reaction, and questions.
 Levels of Questions – (handout 1.4, p. 11)
 Each group will collaborate to answer 2 questions:
 Level 1: Comprehension (omit)
 Level 2: Inferential (Question #5)
 Level 3: Universal (Question #2)
 Share out
The Power of Names: Liza Mixon

8.  Reflect:
 What do names reveal about a person’s identity?
 What do they suggest about our agency and freedom in
society?
 Thoughts or comments about the process of looking at names
and identity…
The Power of Names – Debrief