LESSON PLAN: Aftermath
Video Segments
- The Better Angles of Our Nature, 1865; Volume # 150
- Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1864; Volume # 147, Chapters 4 and 5
- Most Hollowed Ground, 1864; Volume # 148, Chapter 14
Table of ContentsIt was on the night of victory celebrations at Fort Sumter, almost exactly four years after the war's commencement, that John Wilkes Booth carried out his plan to assassinate the president. Having failed to kidnap him on prior occasions, he entered the theater in which Lincoln was enjoying a performance and fired a single fatal shot at the president.
The President of the Union had been killed but the President of the Confederacy lived on, spending only two years in prison. Grant, his popularity almost unshakable, became President and was reelected for a second term. His administration, however, suffered from scandal. Lee turned down lucrative offers to become a college president. He had become a legend in his own time, and his record went untarnished. The war had settled the issue of slavery, but had not created conditions for any real improvement of the living situation of most blacks. It would be a full century until passage of the Civil Rights Act cemented gains promised by emancipation.
1. Lincoln's Assassination
- Describe the assassination of the president.
- What reasons might some people have had for assassinating him?
- Discuss what President Lincoln might have gone on to do if he had lived.
2. Jefferson Davis
- Why did Jefferson Davis try to escape the country? Why do you think many people blamed Davis for the war?
- Shelby Foote argues that the South was more upset with Davis than the North. Why do you think this was so?
- Do you think Davis was punished for leading the Confederacy? Should he have been?
3. Robert E. Lee
- How was Lee brought up?
- What was Lee's view of duty and allegiance? How did he earn respect?
- Describe the characteristics that made Lee a leader.
- How did the end of the war affect Lee? What happened to him after the war was over?
- How has Lee been remembered by history?
- What personality traits characterized Lee?
4. Ulysses S. Grant
- What was Grant's feeling about duty?
- What kinds of lessons might Grant have learned from his life?
- What characteristics made Grant a leader?
- How did the end of the war affect Grant?
- What happened to him after the war ?
- How was Grant remembered by history?
5. Arlington Cemetery
- Why was a new cemetery necessary?
- How was this site chosen?
- Why do you think soldiers are buried together?
6. Civil War and Civil Rights
- Describe the conditions freed blacks encountered at the war's end.
- Did blacks achieve the freedom they had been hoping for when the Emancipation Proclamation was announced? In what ways did they or did they not enjoy freedom after the war?
- Summarize the point made by historian Barbara Fields. What does she say about history and the responsibilities of citizenship? Is freedom a right or a privilege?
7. Robert E. Lee
- How was Lee brought up?
- What was Lee's view of duty and allegiance? How did he earn respect?
- Describe the characteristics that made Lee a leader.
8. Portrait: Abraham Lincoln
- What was Lincoln's background and upbringing? How do you think he got his views?
- What other careers might Lincoln have pursued had he not become president?
- What might Lincoln be doing if he were alive today?
Primary Documents
- As a class, discuss Lincoln's assassination. Why is the job of president dangerous? Which other presidents have been assassinated or had attempts made on their lives? How do governments protect their presidents today, and why? What other kinds of people have bodyguards? Should people need to have bodyguards and personal security services?
- John Wilkes Booth was shot soon after the assassination, and some of his colleagues were hanged; some of those hanged might not have been guilty. Discuss Booth's fate. Do students think it was fair? Was the fate of his accomplices fair? Can punishment deter would-be assassins?
- Divide the class into groups and ask them to imagine that they are in charge of the personal security service for a famous person. Invite each group to first choose its employer. What are his or her needs? Must he or she appear in public? Does this person have enemies? What kinds of protection will the person need? Discuss the issues as a class. Who are some people today who need personal security, and why do they need it?
- After viewing the video portraits of Grant, Lincoln, and Lee, ask students if they think these men would be popular public figures today. Why or why not? Are a person's physical appearances (compare Lee and Lincoln) more important today than they were then? Have students work alone or in pairs and list the top five personality traits or qualities a person needs today to be a popular public figure. Compare students' lists. Are these characteristics similar to the ones drafted for leadership (see Thematic Lesson Plan: Leadership)?
Ask students to take notes on the video portraits of these three leaders. What did they have in common, and what were some of their distinguishing features? Can one person embody all of the positive qualities of a leader? How should people use their personal strengths to their advantage? What can they do about their weaknesses?
- Have students write a brief obituary for President Lincoln. Their obituaries should highlight the ways in which Lincoln helped his country. Post them on the classroom wall.
- Have students review the Emancipation Proclamation and the video segments - Gettysburg Address and Portrait: Lincoln. Ask students to list the personal causes that he stood up for. How did he make a difference as a president? How were his causes beneficial for the country? Do leaders always endorse good causes? Do some leaders stand for bad causes? What are some examples? Is it possible to tell if a leader's ethics are good or not? If so, how?
- What kinds of people who are leaders today might not have been given the chance to be leaders during the time of the Civil War? Could women have been generals then? Could they now? Could a Chinese or African-American have been a general then? Today? Ask students what kinds of leadership positions they think women should or should not be allowed to take in the military today. Students should provide their reasons.
- Ask students to name some typical ways of remembering and honoring famous people. Ask them if they know how streets come to be named. Can students recognize who some of their streets have been named after? Divide the class into groups and ask each group to come up with a list of famous Civil War people, places, and events that would make appropriate street names. Encourage students to consider some of the less-famous people they encountered in the series. Students might make street signs from these names to put on their classroom or school walls. Invite groups to then choose either a person or an event from their lists. Next have them create a human sculpture for the personality or person chosen. To conclude, you might also ask students to write a poem or song based on their group project.
- Review the video segments on Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and U.S. Grant. How were the lives of these men forever changed by the war? What did they do when the war was over? How did their lives change after the war?
- Invite students to interview members of the community, or other adults they know, who were involved in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or the Gulf War. How did being at war change their lives? Were their lives different when they returned home from war?
- Look at the text of the Thirteenth Amendment. You might also review Frederick Douglass: Independence Day Address. What were Douglass' comments to Americans about their national celebration? Why did he not feel included in them? Does the Thirteenth Amendment answer his complaints?
- Discuss the role of law in society; how was a change in law one cause of the Civil War? How can laws be used today to change society? In what ways are laws sometimes unfair? Explain to the class that the Thirteenth Amendment was written to change the US Constitution. The Civil War demonstrated that the Constitution was out of date. Ask students if they can name some laws they believe need to be changed today.
- View the segment Arlington Cemetery. Is this cemetery still used today? Ask students if they know why the gravestones appear identical to one another. Ask them to write a brief eulogy or obituary for an ordinary soldier killed in the war. What did he die for? What is he remembered by? What does the country owe him?
- Show students the Casualties of War graph. What does the graph tell you? In what ways was this the country's most costly war? Have students go to the front of the room and divide them into Confederates and Federals. Explain that one student is equal to 100,000 soldiers. Invite students to recreate the statistics on the screen by organizing themselves into groups.
- View Volume #150, Chapter 7. What does historian Barbara Fields think about the war's outcome and its impact on race relations in this country? Does she think that the war brought real freedom to Blacks? Ask students what kinds of freedom Fields would consider a real victory. In what ways can people today--including young people--help make this freedom real?
- Review the Profiles. How were some of these people changed by the war? Invite each student to choose one person from the Profiles section and compose an outline or paragraph about the ways in which this person's life might have been disrupted, for better or worse, by the war.
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