Designed for 7th- and 8th-grade students, the teaching unit demonstrates how blacks lived during and after the Civil War in the first government-provided housing in Freedman's Village. While concerned with local Arlington, Virginia sites and history, the unit provides an illustration of the role of architecture and design on American social history as a whole. Five lessons focus on the difficulties and rewards of finding and using maps, sketches, and source materials such as 19th century newspaper articles and letters to learn more about Freedman's Village. The unit includes goals and objectives, lesson descriptions, suggested materials, pretests and posttests, worksheets, a journal packet, student directions for projects, and learning simulations. A list of resources includes a 15-item bibliography, 10 nineteenth century newspaper articles, and 42 documents from the National Archives. (LH)