Download Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
1809-1865
It can only be assumed that a man who dedicated his term as President of the United States to preserving the Union would be idolized as one of the greatest leaders in American history. Like many of his
day, Abraham Lincoln is revered as a self-made man; he was a successful attorney with very little formal
education. He propelled himself into the political arena without the coaching modern-day politicians
receive. By making speeches, he single-handedly launched himself into the public eye during a controversial time in the United States. Was Lincoln a hero because of his actions or because of the nation’s
responses to his actions?
Born in what is now LaRue County, Kentucky, in 1809, Lincoln was the second of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln’s three children. He would be the only one to live past the age of thirty. Born a child of poor frontier people, Lincoln’s childhood was far from the luxuries he would experience as the sixteenth President of the United States. After Nancy died, Lincoln’s father moved his family to Indiana, remarried, and
became the father of three additional children.
Lincoln’s formal education was sporadic; periodically, he would attend formal schooling in a nearby log
cabin. However, working soon took priority, and he began taking jobs after the family moved to Illinois.
Nonetheless, his thirst for knowledge never was quenched, and Lincoln read every book he could borrow.
His sister’s death during childbirth and his mother’s passing are believed to have caused Lincoln bouts
of depression throughout his life. He also experienced petit mal, a condition he acquired from a childhood accident that caused him occasionally to lose consciousness. Despite these conditions, Lincoln became successful. After his general store went out of business and left him in debt, Lincoln took his first
government position as the New Salem, Illinois postmaster. It was the first of many service jobs Lincoln
held.
Lincoln’s private life was just as fragile as his public life. The story of Ann Rutledge brings to light some
controversy about Lincoln. Some historians deny this love story as a Lincoln myth. Rutledge was engaged to Lincoln briefly during the 1830s. During this time, she was also engaged to John McNamar, a
successful merchant who had left New Salem. McNamar stayed away from New Salem for three years;
considering Lincoln a friend, McNamar refused to believe Lincoln would court Ann. Instead, Ann and
Lincoln planned to wed once she called off her engagement to McNamar. However, Lincoln and Rutledge never married. On August 25, 1835, Ann Rutledge died of a fever. Refusing to eat and unable to
sleep, it is said Lincoln sank deeper into depression.
The year 1836 was an important year in Lincoln’s political career. Reelected to the Illinois General Assembly in August, Lincoln now led the Whig Party. In September, despite having neither a grammar
school nor a college education, Lincoln was granted a license to practice law. It would take him five
years of practicing the profession before he joined Stephen Logan and started an independent firm.
(In those days, it was not required for a person to graduate from law school to become a lawyer.
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION continued:
Many individuals spent years working in law offices, literally “practicing” at law until they had learned
enough about the profession to be qualified and granted a license as an attorney.)
Lincoln became engaged, but never married. Then he met Mary Todd at a dance. His courtship with
Todd seemed destined to be rocky. They came from very different social and economic backgrounds.
The couple broke their engagement after less than a year. Lincoln and Todd avoided each other for
some time, but they reunited in 1842 and married on November 4.
Married and in a political slump, Lincoln left his partnership with Logan and established his own practice
in Springfield, Illinois, where he lived. Supporting Henry Clay’s platform for an American system, which
called for a more active government to help the economy, Lincoln endorsed Clay for president of the
United States in 1844. Clay’s campaign dissolved when he lost the nomination to James Polk.
In 1846, Lincoln won a seat to the United States House of Representatives. This would begin his road
to the White House. Over the next fifteen years, Lincoln would become a veteran congressman in the
House of Representatives, a United States senator, and the father of three surviving children.
During his political career, Lincoln witnessed the mistreatment of slaves and African Americans: on a visit to New Orleans, he observed a slave auction, and, on a trip to Kentucky, he saw twelve slaves chained
together. However, Lincoln was not necessarily sympathetic to slaves. He was a man of his times. He
had married into a family that once owned slaves. Some of his wife’s relatives would later fight on the
Confederate side in the Civil War. Lincoln was less concerned about slavery and more focused on how
slavery affected the United States. This issue would catapult him into the public eye.
While running for the Senate in Illinois, Lincoln publicly debated Stephen A. Douglas. In Lincoln’s famous
speech, “A House Divided,” he spoke out against the state of the Union at that time:
“In my opinion, [agitation] will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. A house
divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and
half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it
will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will
arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the
course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all
the States, old as well as new - North as well as South.”
Republican State Convention, Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858
Lincoln knew slavery was going to have to be addressed publicly. He was also positioning himself as a
“rail-splitter,” a label that showed how Lincoln appealed to opposing sides of society yet maintained
his unique political beliefs. His ability to position himself between the desires of the one class and the
expectations of another would help him during his presidential campaign.
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION continued:
Finally achieving political status and public recognition, Lincoln was nominated and won the Republican
nomination for President of the United States in the 1860 election. Once again he faced Douglas, the
Democratic candidate. It is reported that, on Election Day, Lincoln was generally quiet, but still had a
smile for everyone he came across. Winning the election with 180 of the 303 electoral votes, Lincoln’s
victory was received happily in and around the State House. He rested for several days after that night
of handshaking and congratulatory gestures from his supporters, and closed his law practice before
leaving for the White House. He gave a short farewell address in Illinois, promising to return home in a
few years. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him, Lincoln would never return to Illinois.
It is no wonder Lincoln experienced bouts of “melancholy” while serving as president. Lincoln is considered one of the most inexperienced men in history elected to the presidency, and one third of the voting population left the nation after his election. The Confederate States of America formed only weeks
into his presidency, and Lincoln was thrown into the role of a wartime leader. His first inaugural address
pleaded with the South for peace and unity. Lincoln promised Southerners he would not jeopardize
their way of life or slavery. However, if the South struck a violent hand at the Union, he would have no
choice but to retaliate:
...there needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
Nevertheless, on April 12, 1861, the Civil War began. Eleven states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln was
forced to introduce a proclamation calling for the remaining states of the Union to bond together and
form militias.
With Congress in disarray and the Confederates gaining victories in the early battles, Lincoln’s promise
to preserve the Union was fading. Lincoln issued a blockade of Southern ports, leaving the South disconnected from vital supplies for their war effort. After a rousing speech to Congress, he authorized a
call for 500,000 soldiers to preserve the Union. The clear Confederate victory in the first battle of the
war at Bull Run proved to be a hard battle for Lincoln to stomach. He cautioned the country that this
war would be long.
Finally facing the prospect of a long and bloody war, one that he never imagined would claim more than
six hundred thousand lives at its end, Lincoln switched hats from diplomat to commander-in-chief. Vowing to break the cycle of military Union defeats (Bull Run was preceded by the Union defeat at Fort Sumter), Lincoln spent hours studying books on military strategy. The war had left him more anxious and
sleepless than he had ever been. Not uncommon in his time, Lincoln often turned to potent prescription
drugs containing dangerously high amounts of mercury to ease his mind and induce sleep.
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION continued:
Barely a year into the conflict, Lincoln found himself in an international quandary. En route to England,
the United States Navy captured two Confederate officials aboard a British ship. Britain demanded
the release of the two officials; if the United States did not cooperate, Britain threatened to wage war
against America. After much deliberation, Lincoln reluctantly ordered the officials’ release in December.
“One war at a time,” Lincoln remarked after issuing his orders.
Throughout his tenure, Lincoln would make a number of strategic decisions to manipulate the public’s
perception of the war. The Emancipation Proclamation, for example, did not free slaves in the South,
at least not immediately. The Proclamation only freed slaves in states that were “in rebellion” against
the United States. However, if those states were rebelling, Lincoln was obviously no longer in charge
of those states. The Emancipation Proclamation did not free slaves in states that remained part of the
Union either, such as border states like Maryland that had not seceded. When the Proclamation was
announced on September 1862, it did not free any slaves. It was scheduled to take effect on January 1,
1863; and part of the strategy was that the Proclamation might induce some rebel states to return to
the Union so they could keep their slaves. As word spread about the Proclamation, it also was hoped
slaves would leave Southern plantations and farms to cross the lines of the Union army in the South,
where they would be free. This would weaken the Confederate labor pool and the South’s war effort.
Lincoln also wanted to prevent the British from entering the war on the side of the South. The British
textile industry was feeling the financial strain of limited imports of Southern cotton because of the
Union blockade and was lobbying the British government to side with the Confederacy. Lincoln believed
portraying the war as war to end slavery would influence British public opinion, which was strongly antislavery, make it politically unpopular for the British government to side with the Confederates. Though
Lincoln had long been personally opposed to slavery, his primary objective in the Civil War was to restore the Union. If he could use the issue of slavery against the South and protect the Union, he would.
It would take Lincoln six tries before he found a capable general to lead his army. Ulysses S. Grant gave
Lincoln only temporary solace. Although Lincoln finally gained a small amount of control over the raging
war, Lincoln’s personal life was still in shambles; and unfortunately, there would be no happy times in
sight.
Romantically, his years in the White House were just as tumultuous as his time in Illinois. A man of quiet
charm and courtesy, Lincoln was very popular among the female citizens in Washington, D.C. This bothered Lincoln’s wife Mary, and she was known to throw both private and public tantrums. She also did
not restrain herself from flirting with other men in Washington. These spectacles caused Lincoln great
embarrassment.
Although the Civil War occupied most of his attention in office, Lincoln would be forced to receive another striking blow to his emotional stability during his first term. On February 20, 1862, William Lincoln, Mary and Abraham’s third child, died of typhoid fever. The cause was believed to be contaminated
drinking water in the White House.
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Doted on by both mother and father and unintentionally seeming to outshine brother Tad, Willie’s
death caused both parents great anguish. Lincoln succumbed to intense feelings of hopelessness. Nevertheless, at such a critical time in the war, he returned to work almost immediately; he did not go any
longer than four days without producing an official document.
Mary’s emotional condition worried Lincoln immensely. After Willie’s death, her erratic behavior intensified. She commissioned spiritualists and held séances in the White House. She spent enormous
amounts of money on trinkets that she would never use: $5,000 on a shawl; $3,000 on earrings and
a pin. To understand the full impact of her purchases, consider that a loaf of bread in 1862 cost about
twelve cents. It is said that Lincoln showed Mary the battlements of an insane asylum and he cautioned
her that if she could not control her grief, they would be forced to send her there.
As Lincoln’s first term as president ended, the country still lay divided and at war. In what would later
become a tradition of the American people not to switch leaders during wartime, the Republican Party
nominated Lincoln for president in the 1864 election. Before his reelection, he would cautiously allow
Union General William T. Sherman to continue his “March to the Sea.”
In his second inaugural address, Lincoln spoke of the sin of slavery. He placed blame on the North and
the South for its existence and dubbed the Civil War as the consequence for their actions. He told the
crowd they must pray to be steadfast and focused on the path they had started; they must see the war
through until both sides are cleansed of the sin and rejuvenated. He really had no other choice than to
focus his address on the spoils of war. He was feeling the pressure from both citizens and politicians;
everyone was tired of the bloody war and looked to him for a resolution. Lincoln had none. However,
as he had done many times before, he approached the podium and spoke with patience, doing everything in his power to soften the attitudes of a people weary of battle. Ironically, Lincoln was sworn in by
a man who briefly opposed his reelection, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. Lincoln’s second term would
bring many of the same hardships he had seen in his first. Unlike that term, Lincoln would not live to
see this through to its end.
On April 10, 1865, Lincoln received the news he had long awaited: General Robert E. Lee had surrendered to Union forces one day earlier. Enormous celebrations broke out in Washington. Although the
burden of war had been lifted slightly from his shoulders, Lincoln realized other Union armies were still
at war. He hoped other Confederate forces would soon follow Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court
House, Virginia.
Lincoln prepared his last speech. He did not boast of the victory or the crushing defeat the Union army
achieved. Instead, he focused on reconstruction and the rebuilding of the South. He wanted Southerners to be readmitted into the Union as loyal members of society, not as captives of war. He also spoke
of newly extended rights for blacks. Having always listened to influential abolitionist Frederick Douglass,
Lincoln knew that newly freed blacks were now a part of free society.
Lincoln would not see the surrender of all the Southern forces. He was shot in the head on Good Fri-
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Lincoln would not see the surrender of all the Southern forces. He was shot in the head on Good
Friday, April 14, 1865, by the actor John Wilkes Booth, while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. He had attended with his wife, Major Henry Rathbone, and Rathbone’s fiancée, Clara Harris.
Lincoln was carried across the street to the Petersen House where he died the next morning. His last
words the previous night were to his wife, Mary, the source of so much of his melancholy. When she
asked him what Rathbone’s fiancée would think of her holding on to him in the theatre, he replied she
would think nothing of it.
The Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment
LESSON
What was the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation?
Grade Level: Subject: Time Required: Middle School
United States History
Two Days
Find Standards at the Bottom of the Lessons
Materials:
•Figure #1: “Writing the Emancipation Proclamation”
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c00066/
•Figure #2: “President Lincoln Writing the Proclamation of Freedom”
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.18444/
•Figure #3: “Breaking the Backbone”
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3a40000/3a42000/3a42800/3a42878r.jpg
•Figure #4: “The Emancipation of Negroes, January 1863- the Past and the Future”
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/ppmsca/19200/19253v.jpg
•Primary Source Analysis Tool
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Primary_Source_Analysis_Tool.pdf
•The Emancipation Proclamation
http://www.loc.gov/resource/lprbscsm.scsm1016/?st=gallery (Note: any other version of the text may be substituted)
•“My Fifth Strike for Freedom is a Success”, page 172 in Thirty Years a Slave.
https://archive.org/details/thirtyyearsslave01hugh (Note: use PDF version of the text)
•“ The Thirteenth Amendment”
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=013/llsl013.db&recNum=596
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
Figure 1
Figure 3
Figure 2
Figure 4
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
• Analyze images and political cartoons to understand different perspectives on the
Emancipation Proclamation,
• identify and discuss the limitations of the Emancipation Proclamation, and
• examine the connection between the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth
Amendment.
Note: The questions in the following lesson plan is open ended so as to promote critical thinking and
student discussion. The goal is the move students to a deeper understanding of the content. The red
answers in parentheses are suggestions and are meant to guide the discussion.
Day 1
Ask students to define the word “freedom”
• Which individuals are guaranteed freedom under the Constitution?
(Possible responses include: white males.)
• Which individuals/ groups were excluded?
(Possible responses include: women, enslaved and free Africans.)
• What were the reasons for their exclusion? (Possible responses include: ownership of property
was limited almost exclusively to white males, government representatives and those in power were white males, many Africans were considered property as were many women.)
• Who has the power to determine who is free in democracy? (Possible responses include: the
voting electorate, those with money and power, elected officials.)
Divide the class into 4 small groups and assign the:
a. “Writing the Emancipation Proclamation” to group one,
b. “President Lincoln Writing the Proclamation of Freedom” to group two,
c. “Breaking the Backbone” to group 3
d. “The Emancipation of Negroes, January 1863- the Past and the Future” to group 4.
Have each group view and discuss the image and record their responses on the Primary Source
Analysis Tool.
• What do you observe in the image?
(Possible responses will be specific to each image. Focus student discussion on how key figures
(i.e. Lincoln for groups 1 and 2, and Lincoln and African Americans in for groups 3 and 4.)
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
•
•
•
•
What symbols does the artist use to convey meaning? (Possible responses include:
image 1: Lincoln’s facial expressions and body posture which suggest deep thought;
image 2: Lincoln’s facial expression and body posture which suggest confusion, the disarray of
the room which also suggests confusion and lack of clarity; image 3: the representation of
the Confederate position as a rebellion represented by a chained, but fierce, animal, the
weapons used to attempt to control the “rebellious” creature; image 4: the images of the
gradual emancipation of enslaved Africans, the angels and celestial light surrounding the
word “emancipation” the placement of the image of Lincoln at the base to imply that he is
the central force in emancipation.)
What are your reflections on what you observe? (Reflections can include initial feelings that
the image evokes and/or connections to current or past historical events)
What questions does the image raise? (Possible responses include: who is the artist? Who was
the intended audience? What is the artist’s intended message? When was the image created?)
What additional research on the image would you do to answer your questions? What
resources would you consult to find the answers? (Possible responses include: primary
sources and articles on the artist and the image.)
Have each group develop a paragraph in which they summarize their analysis of the image.
Post an enlarged version of each image and have each group post its responses and summaries.
Ask each group to select one member to serve as “curator” for its image.
Have students participate in a Gallery Walk in which they rotate among the images and post comments
and questions.
Facilitate a class discussion of the images. Guiding questions include:
• Would the artist of each image most likely be a Union or Confederate sympathizer?
(Possible responses include: images 1, 3 and 4: Union; image 2: Confederate. Students may
argue that image 3 represents the Confederate perspective as Lincoln is portrayed as the
“keeper” of the rebellion and the only one who can crush it.)
• What “clues” in the image support your conclusion? (Possible responses include building on
the symbols that each artist uses.)
• Who might be the intended audience of each image? (Possible responses include: images 1 and
4: anti-slavery supporters and enslaved and free African Americans; image 2: pro-slavery and
anti-Lincoln supporters; image 3: arguments can be made for either perspective.)
• What message is the artist attempting to convey? Make specific references to each image
to support your answer. (Possible responses include students synthesizing their responses to
the previous discussion questions.)
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
CLASSROOM LESSON
Day 2
Distribute copies of The Emancipation Proclamation.
Have students work in their groups to read and analyze the document. Guiding questions include:
• What states and individuals does the Emancipation Proclamation include? (Possible responses
include: slaves in those states or parts of states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would
be declared free.) Which does it exclude? (Possible responses include: Pro-Union states that
had slavery.)
• Why might Lincoln have chosen to include certain states and individuals and exclude others?
(Possible responses include: Lincoln’s inclusion of only those states in rebellion was an attempt
to effectively end slavery, break the Southern economic system, and encourage freed slaves
to support the Union.)
• In paragraph 4 of the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln referred to the proclamation
as a war measure. What did that mean? (Possible responses include: breaking the institution
of slavery which was the basis of the Confederate economy would impact their ability to
produce goods and services essential to the success of the war effort.)
Facilitate a class discussion of the document. Guiding questions include:
• What would public response to the Emancipation Proclamation be in the South? (Possible
responses include: strengthen the support of the Confederate cause, fuel the war effort;
for enslaved African Americans: encourage migration to the North, support for the Union war
effort, increased admiration for Lincoln.)
• What would the response be in the North? (Possible responses include: strengthen the
Abolitionist position, increase admiration for Lincoln, appease Union slave owners.)
• How do the images we analyzed on day 1 reflect the different perspectives of the document?
(Possible responses include: Students synthesize their understanding of the images in relation
to the Emancipation Proclamation.)
Have students read the first paragraph under “My Fifth Strike for Freedom is a Success” on page 172 in
Thirty Years a Slave.
Facilitate a class discussion of the excerpt. Guiding questions include:
• What surprises you about this passage? (Possible responses include: long after the
Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in the South were still enslaved and their
movements were more restricted than previously, enslaved men and women need passes to
move from place to place for fear that they would assemble and plan to escape.)
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
CLASSROOM LESSON continued:
•
•
•
How did the Emancipation Proclamation impact the writer? (Possible responses include:
notwithstanding emancipation, the writer had been unsuccessful in escaping enslavement
until his fifth attempt.)
Do you feel that his reaction is reflective of all emancipated slaves? Why or why not?
(Possible responses include: many emancipated slaves remained in slavery as they were fearful
of capture and repercussions if caught attempting to escape.)
What does this reading add to your understanding of the overall emancipation experience?
(Possible responses include: the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President
Lincoln did not result in immediate freedom, enslaved men and women were not granted
their freedom, but rather had to escape to freedom.) Cite specific evidence from the text to
support your answer.
Distribute copies of the Thirteenth Amendment.
Have students work in their groups to read and analyze the document. Guiding questions include:
• What does the Thirteenth Amendment means for slavery? (Possible responses include:
slavery was abolished in all states and jurisdictions, not only in states that were in rebellion.)
• What were the reasons for including some individuals/ groups and excluding others?
(Possible responses include: slavery and involuntary servitude was allowed as a punishment for
a crime, the determination of whether or not slavery or involuntary servitude was left to
individual cases and courts which could potentially choose to apply the exclusion to African
Americans.)
• What role might public opinion have played in the decision? (Possible responses include:
public support for imprisonment of criminals, prejudice towards freed slaves who were viewed
as potential threats or of seeking retaliation against their former owners.)
• How did the Emancipation Proclamation lead to the Thirteenth Amendment? (Possible
responses include: the Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery in the Confederate states
and set the stage for the amendment that made slavery unconstitutional and gave the federal, rather than the state, government the authority to enforce it.)
• Why is Section 2 of the Amendment necessary? (Possible responses include: section 2
granted Congress the power to enforce the abolition of slavery by legislation, the passage of
laws to abolish slavery by the central government prevented individual states from
permitting slavery.)
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
Facilitate a class discussion of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment.
• What are the strengths and limitations of each document? (Possible responses include: the
Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved African Americans in the Confederate states which contributed to the end of the war, the document was limited in its scope and the central
government’s ability to enforce it. The Thirteen Amendment expanded the scope of the
Emancipation Proclamation to include all of the United States and gave the federal government
the power to enforce it, the document allowed slavery and involuntary imprisonment as
punishment for a crime which left its interpretation to individual states and courts.)
• What were the consequences of each document? (Possible responses include: the
Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved African Americans in the Confederate states
which contributed to the end of the war, The Thirteen Amendment expanded the scope of
the Emancipation Proclamation to include all of the United States and gave the federal
government the power to enforce it.)
• How did each document expand the definition of freedom as outlined in the Constitution?
(Both documents expanded the definition of freedom to include African Americans of
both genders.)
• To what extent are all Americans free and equal today? (Students are encouraged to explore
the degree to which people of color, women, immigrants and other minorities are treated
equally to whites. A culminating question can be: Are freedom and equality the same?)
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
Common Core State Standards for History/ Social Studies Alignment:
Key Ideas and details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to
domains related to history/social studies.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.6
Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7
Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.8
Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.
Common Core State Standards for Reading Informational Text
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.1
Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well
as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.2
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its
relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.3
Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events
(e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.5
Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences
in developing and refining a key concept.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.6
Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and
responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.7
Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video,
multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.8
Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is
sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.9
Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation.
Maryland Social Studies Grade 8 Standards
Standard 5.0 History
Topic C. Conflict between Ideas and Institutions
Indicator 5. Analyze factors affecting the outcome of the Civil War
History and Social Science Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools
Civil War and Reconstruction: 1860 to 1877 VUS.7
The student will demonstrate knowledge of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era and their importance
as major turning points in American history by
b) identifying the major events and the roles of key leaders of the Civil War Era, with emphasis on Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and Frederick Douglass.
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C.
District of Columbia Social Studies Pre-K through Grade 12 Standards
Grade 8 C IVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION (1830–1877)
8.11. Students analyze the multiple causes, key events, and complex consequences of the Civil War.
4. Describe Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and his significant writings and speeches and their
relationship to the Declaration of Independence (e.g., his House Divided speech in 1858, Gettysburg
Address in 1863, Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and inaugural addresses in 1861 and 1865). (P)
8.12. Students analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction.
1. Explain the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution and their connection to
Reconstruction. (P)
The Thirteenth Amendment Guided Questions
1. What does the Thirteenth Amendment means for slavery?
2. What were the reasons for including some individuals/ groups and excluding others?
3. What role might public opinion have played in the decision?
4. How did the Emancipation Proclamation lead to the Thirteenth Amendment?
5. Why is Section 2 of the Amendment necessary?
LESSON written by CICERO Systems
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