Home Video ProgramsLesson PlansPrimary SourcesMaps and GraphsBios and Events

 

LESSON PLAN: A New Birth of Freedom

Video Segment

The Cause, 1861; Volume #142 Chapters 1-8


Table of Contents


Summary

America in the mid-nineteenth century was still a young nation, not yet a hundred years old. In fact, some believed that it represented more an amalgam of diverse communities with a common constitution than a real nation. Stark differences separated the growing cities of the North from the rural farming communities of the South; in the West, frontiers were still developing as settlers moved into new and unexplored territories. Nowhere was the disparity of life in the United States more apparent than in the South, where slavery was the daily reality for more than a third of the Southern population.

The United States was arriving at a crossroads it had been approaching since its birth. Voices rose and arguments exploded in debates over the fate of slavery and states' rights. Congress drew up territories and admitted new states, but failed to resolve the issue of slavery and its expansion into new lands. The Supreme Court delivered an unsettling decision on the rights of black people. Settlers exchanged fire in Kansas over slavery in that new state. Northerners turned their faces in shame over the South's "peculiar institution," and abolitionists like John Brown began to demonstrate the ferocity of their determination. By 1860, all eyes were on the presidential election. Slave-owners had defied the North to impose its values on their long-established ways. Now President Lincoln and his new Republican Party were forced to act.


Questions for Discussion

1. Slavery

  • Which part of the country had slaves?
  • What kinds of people owned slaves?
  • Why did slaves not have legal rights? Were they Americans? Who were they?
  • Describe an average day in the life of a slave plantation worker.
  • What did the word "freedom" mean to slaves? How could a slave obtain it?
  • How did the cotton gin change the economy of the South?

2. Confronting the South

  • What did the word "freedom" mean to slave-owners?
  • What kinds of people were abolitionists? How did they influence people in the North and the South?
  • What did Frederick Douglass mean when he said "I stole this body?" Who would have considered him a thief?

3. Half Slave and Half Free

  • What did the word "freedom" mean to Abraham Lincoln? What did it mean to the Supreme Court?
  • What were some of the events that affected political conditions in the country at this time? (Fighting in Kansas; publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin; Harpers Ferry; Dred Scott decision; cotton gin; confrontations in the Senate.)
  • Why did Dred Scott not have the same rights as a white man? What did this mean for other blacks? Did it affect black and white women?
  • Characterize the differences between the North and the South. What made the United States a single nation? What divided it?
  • In your opinion, could this nation have solved the issue of slavery peacefully?

4. Harpers Ferry

  • What did the word "freedom" mean to John Brown?
  • What did John Brown have to do with the Civil War?
  • Agree or disagree: "John Brown did the right thing."
  • In your opinion, what was Brown's final message?

5. Secessionism

  • What did the word "freedom" mean to southerners?
  • Why was the 1860 election a referendum on the southern way of life? Describe the southern way of life. Why did southerners dislike Lincoln?
  • Agree or disagree, and support your opinion: "Abolitionists started the war;" "Secessionists started the war."
6. The Birth of the Confederacy
  • Explain why many people in the South believed that states had a right to secede from the United States.
  • Do you think many southerners believed that their new nation could survive? What was their new country like?
  • What kinds of advantages (social, economic, cultural, geographic, etc.) did the North have over the South? What kinds of advantages did the South have over the North?


Activities

  1. Brainstorm about the causes of the Civil War with the class. Whenever possible, refer to the video segments from Volume #142. Write students' contributions on the board for reference throughout this series and discuss the war's causes as a class. Later in the series, you may want to make note of the war's impact on the opposite side of the board. Use these notes to discuss cause and effect.

  2. What impact must events such as Lovejoy's death, Bleeding Kansas, the beating received by Sumner, and the Dred Scott decision, have had on the public? Do similar events occur today?

  3. Brainstorm about the principles that northerners and southerners believed they were defending. Give each student a blank outline map of the United States. Invite students to work alone, in pairs, or in small groups to write up the principles that divided the North and South on their maps.

  4. Divide the class into groups and designate each group as one of the following: a constitutional convention; slaves; southern slave-owners; abolitionists. Student groups should discuss the issues facing the country just before the war. Give each group its task (some groups may have the same task), selected from the following:

    • Congress: What is the balance between the federal government and states' rights? Should the issue of slavery belong to the federal government or to state's rights?
    • slaves: What are some possible ways of ending slavery? How else can blacks get their freedom?
    • slave-owners: Why are slaves important to the southern economy? What should be done if northerners insist upon ending slavery?
    • abolitionists: What is wrong with slavery? How can it be stopped?

  5. Students should work in their groups to come up with several possible solutions to their specific problem. Encourage students to review the Population, Free and Not Free, Cotton Production, and Comparing Economies graphs. Students might also want to use the following maps: the United States, Confederate States, Slave States and Free States, and Secession.

  6. Have each group present its conclusions to the class. Which of the groups would have been in conflict with which others? Would these groups be able to compromise with one another? Would your class have gone to war?

  7. In the segment about the Secession, students learn about the departure of southern states from the Union. What were the advantages and disadvantages of secession from the perspectives of the North and South? Could the South have survived as a separate country? What other courses of action were open to the southern states?

  8. Hold an in-class debate on the topic of who started the war. The debate's central point should be which side (North or South), if any, can be blamed for causing the war. Divide the class into two teams, one for each argument. Award points to each team for the quantity and quality of responses it has to the other team's statements.

  9. Individuals such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips and John Brown actively campaigned against slavery prior to the outbreak of war. Students might research these individuals (see video and Profiles) and describe what they did to undo slavery. How did these people demonstrate that individuals can make a difference?

  10. Have students design a book cover, movie poster, or review of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Review her profile on screen and in text. Why are books capable of having a far-reaching impact on people? (Do they have the same power today? If not, what does?) Encourage students to design their projects with today's audiences in mind.

  11. Review the segment on Harpers Ferry (Volume #142, Chapter 7). Hold a class debate on the revolt led by John Brown and his execution. Was John Brown right? Did he do the right thing? Did Brown's speech justify his actions? Discuss some of the other things Brown might have done.

  12. In 1858, before he was elected president, Abraham Lincoln stated:

    "My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."

  13. Help students work through the statement. What does it mean and what motivated it? Does it mean that Lincoln supported slavery? (You might explain to the class that abolitionist Frederick Douglass and others who shared the same convictions helped to change Lincoln's position.)

  14. As students learn about Lincoln's overall importance as a president, have them focus on his views of slavery.

  15. Ask students to define the term abolition. What other areas of struggle could the term cover?


Keywords


Profiles


Maps


Graphs


Primary Documents

 

Back to Top of Page