View/Download PDF
Significant events and their impact on the leadership of Abraham Lincoln:
Diana Hardenstein
Leaders, Terror and Black Soldiers in the Civil Wa
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the sixteenth president of the United States. By the time he became president, he had already been a successful attorney and politician. Several policies addressing the spread of slavery had been issued by the time Lincoln joined the Republican Party. He spoke out against the Kansas-Nebraska Act in letters and speeches. Upon receiving the party's official nomination for the Senate, Lincoln gave he now famous "House Divided" speech. Some people, especially in the South, felt that he was calling for a war over slavery. This lesson will give students a brief review of Lincoln's biography, the policies addressing slavery, and an opportunity for review of key facts using a Bingo game that is developed by the students.
Bingo card template
paper clips or pennies for Bingo
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/sites/birth.htm
http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/
one ninety minute block
1
How were Lincoln's leadership and attitude toward slavery impacted by events and policies?
Using an overhead projector, or board, list the following dates on one side:
1850, 1852, 1854, 1857, 1859,
Down the other side, list the following events:
Kansas-Nebraska Act, Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Compromise of 1850, Dred Scott Decision, Fugitive Slave Act, John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry,
Challenge students to match the dates to the events and rewrite them in chronological order. Acknowledge that they may draw conclusions about the significance of these events and how they impacted Lincoln's attitude towards slavery.
Access image of Lincoln Memorial at http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/sites/birth.htm. Display image without revealing identity and ask students to guess what this is, where it is and why it was built.
Start by reviewing a brief biography of Lincoln:
Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky in 1809. http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/sites/birth.htm
(information on his birthplace)
When he was eight years old, the family moved to Spencer County, Indiana where he grew up. His mother died when he was ten years. Old. Since his family was very poor, Lincoln began working at an early age. Although there were some schools in the Indiana territory, he had little formal schooling and was largely self-taught. He worked on a farm until he was twenty-two years old, and then in 1831 moved to Menard County, Illinois, where he worked as a clerk ina store. From 1834 to 1840, Lincoln served in the Illinois legislature, studied to become a lawyer, and moved to Springfield, Illinois, to practice law. He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849 then returned to his law practice. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States; he immediately was faced with the secession of southern states from the Union and the beginning of the Civil War. Although he disapproved of slavery, Lincoln was not an abolitionist (Definition: Person who worked to end slavery during the 18th and 19th centuries. Context: Abolitionist John Brown had a bold plan to strike against slavery.) He recognized that slave owners had paid for their slaves. Since slaves were considered to be property, it was believed to be unlawful to take someone's property away. Once the southern states had become enemies of the Union, President Lincoln used his war powers as commander-in-Chief of the Army to abolish slavery in the southern states. In September 1862, Lincoln proclaimed that unless the southern states rejoined the Union by January 1, 1863, their slave property would be considered legally confiscated. Thus, Lincoln acquired the legal right to free the slaves.
Abraham Lincoln was re-elected President in 1864 but was assassinated in 1865.
http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/
time-line of Lincoln
Next, review some of the significant events that, from 1860 to 1861, led 11 Southern states to secede from the Union.
- Compromise of 1850 Definition: A law that called for California to be admitted into the Union as a free state and authorized an end to slave trading in Washington, d.C. It also provided Southern slaveholders with sweeping new powers to capture runaway slaves in the North.
- Fugitive Slave Act
Definition: A law passed by Congress in 1850 that required the return of runaway slaves
Context: Northerners protested the Fugitive Slave Act. - Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
- Kansas-Nebraska Act
Definition:A law passed in 1854 that allowed the majority of settlers in each territory to decide whether or not they would allow slavery in the area. This law was based on the concept of "popular sovereignty" It explicitly eliminated the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and gave the South an opportunity to expand the practice of slavery into new territories.
Context: Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. - Dred Scott Decision
Definition: Supreme Court decision that stated Congress had no power to ban slavery anywhere, including the territories
Context:While the fighting went on in Kansas, the Supreme Court issued the controversial Dred Scott Decision, named after a slave - John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia
Discuss conflicting opinions of Abraham Lincoln during the war.
Ask students: Did most Northerners and Southerners feel the same way about the President? What was the Emancipation Proclamation?
Definition: An edict issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, making slavery illegal in the Confederate states
Context: The Emancipation Proclamation made slavery illegal in the 11 rebelling Southern states, but it left slavery in place in the states that had stayed loyal to the Union. (refer to lesson 2) How did it affect peoples' feelings towards Lincoln? How did it change the war? Help students understand that the Confederates were angered by this proclamation to abolish slavery, believing it would ruin the Southern economy. The Emancipation Proclamation also shifted the emphasis of the war from keeping the nation together to a struggle to free the slaves.
BINGO Activity:
Divide students up into five smaller groups. Tell them that their task is to identify those topics discussed during the lesson that are most important on a need to know basis, and then to come up with some mnemonic to help remember the most salient fact. Each group will need at least ten facts about the lesson. Each group, after working together for 20-30 minutes, should reconvene as a large group once again to report and compare what topics they have chosen for scrutiny. (Provide slips of paper with quotes from Lincoln)
Provide students with blank BINGO card templates and have them brainstorm terms to use to fill in the squares with words representing what they have learned. Write the words on the board, or overhead. (You will need at least 25 terms)
Suggested words: Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Act, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Dred Scott Decision, Kansas-Nebraska Act, John Brown's raid, Emancipation Proclamation, abolitionist, Confederate States, popular sovereignty, secede, Union States, Lincoln,
Next, tell students to fill in the cards with the words leaving the middle square blank. They are to use each word only once. Pass out pennies, or paper-clips to use as markers for the game. Each group will take turns reading a clue to the whole class. The facilitator (teacher) will need to create a list as well to fill in the blanks. Play Bingo until there is a winner!
Place students in six groups. Assign each group one of the six events listed in Instructional Activities and have them explain how each event impacted President Lincoln's leadership and/or attitude toward slavery. Have one student in each group share the group's conclusion with the entire class.
Refer to the following site for quotes with annotations to add to the lesson: http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/quotes.htm
None
None