Activity:
Students will be divided into committees. Each committee
will complete the Emancipation Proclamation worksheet.
- The teacher will review student responses.
- The teacher will then assign a different role to
each student in the committee (each student will represent
one of the following groups: enslaved people, free
blacks in the North, abolitionists, plantation owner
in the South, Union soldiers, Confederate soldiers,
factory workers in the North, factory owners). The
students in each committee will be asked to complete
the Character Sheet from the viewpoint of the population
group they represent.
- The teacher will separate the class into population
groups and have a full-class debate.
- To start the debate, the teacher will post the statement,
“The Emancipation Proclamation should become
the law of the land.” As the students present
their arguments, the teacher should make sure they
are doing so from a first-person point of view.
Application:
At the conclusion of the lesson, the teacher will ask
the following question: Should the Emancipation Proclamation
be considered one of the greatest documents in American
history?
Homework:
Assume you were in Lincoln's cabinet and he asked your
advice on whether or not he should issue a proclamation
freeing slaves. Write a position paper in which you
give him your recommendation. Be sure to include reasons
to support your opinion.
For additional resources or interesting information:
Letters and a painting about the Emancipation Proclamation:
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC05508.272
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC03790
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC02598
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC01569
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC03229
Additional information, timeline, and photos of the actual Emancipation Proclamation documents:
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/
emancipation_proclamation/index.php
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/almtime.html
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