US History through the African American Experience

Reader’s Theater: Did Abraham Lincoln Free the Slaves?

Who Freed the Slaves Readers Theater2010

In this exercise, you will take on the role of one of the participants who cared about freeing the slaves. You will research your individual, and fill in the role card. Then you will come up with statements this person would make to answer the question. Did Abraham Lincoln free the slaves?

This presentation will have seven sections, each based on speeches or actions between 1860 and 1865 concerning freeing the slaves. The scenes include

1. Introduction to the players and to the question (this is written)

2. Congress: First and Second Confiscation Acts – Sumner, Stevens, Douglas

3. The Military: Fremont, Butler and Hunter

4. The African Americans Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Martin Delaney, and blacks serving in the military

5. Lincoln: Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address – Lincoln, Fremont, Stanton

6. Lincoln: Second Inaugural Address

The Lincoln Institute sponsors The site, “Mr. Lincoln’s White House” with a grant from the Gilder Lehrman Institute at http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/index.aspAlso, read “Mr. Lincoln and Freedom” found at http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/

http://constitutioncenter.org/lincoln/ - video game

You can find excellent information about the individuals on these sites.

You must write a one-page script that includes at least 4 people. You must address the question of who freed the slaves based on the subject of your scene.

Scene 1 – the major players set the context and establish their roles: Lincoln, Sumner, Douglas, Fremont

Scene 2 Congress – what role did Congress play in freeing the slaves?

Charles Sumner, Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Lincoln, First and Second confiscation Acts

Scene 3 What role did the military play in freeing the slaves?

Consider John C. Fremont, David Hunter, General Benjamin Butler, Lincoln –General Order No. 63

Scene 4 What role did African Americans play in freeing themselves?

Consider Frederick Douglass Men of Color to Arms! 3/2/1863, Dr. Martin Delaney – highest ranking black commissioned office, and Harriet Tubman – works as spy in war, Lincoln

Scene 5 Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

Consider Lincoln, Horace Greeley –wanted Lincoln to go faster, Mary Todd Lincoln – his wife from a slaveholding family, Frederick Douglass, Charles Sumner, William Seward, Edwin Stanton, Frederick Douglas

Sources for Who Freed the Slaves

LINCOLN

Speech at Hartford, March 5, 1860

Speech at New Haven, March 6, 1860

Letter to AH Stevens, December 22, 1860

Letter to WH Seward, February 1, 1861

Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862

Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863

Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1864

AFRICAN AMERICANS

William Henry Singleton, Recollections of My Slavery Days

Lincoln’s Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862

General Benjamin Butler’s letter to Winfield Scott, May 27, 1861

“African Americans in the Civil War”

Frederick Douglass, “Men of Color to Arms,” March 2, 1863

T.W. Higginson, Letter to NY Times, February 14, 1864

E.W. Hyde, Farewell Address to the Troops, February 9, 1866

CONGRESS

Proposed Amendment to the Constitution, March 2, 1861

First Confiscation Act, August 6, 1861

Second Confiscation Act, July 17, 1862

Militia Act, July 17, 1862

Senator Charles Sumner argues for emancipation, May 1862

13th Amendment, ratified January 31,1865

MILITARY

General Benjamin Butler to General in Chief Winfield Scott, May 27, 1861

Annual Report of Secretary of War Simon Cameron, December 1, 1861

Company E, 4th United States Colored Infantry, c. 1864

David Hunter’s General Orders May 9, 1862

Abraham Lincoln to General Hunter, May 19, 1862

Testimony by the Superintendent of Contrabands at Fortress, MO, May 9, 1863

Role Card

Name of role Scene #

Date of scene

1. Your introductory statement that includes: State of residence,

Main occupation, Birth and Death years, Political position held,

Relationship to Lincoln – personal and/or public

2. Main role in freeing the slaves

3. Primary Source used and its main idea

4. Quote from primary source

5. Two other characters with whom you interact.

6.  A phrase ( like “All men are created equal) that is repeated 3 times

7. Write your dialogue on the back. Keep the big question in mind: To what extent did Lincoln Free the Slaves? You will work with partners for your scene.

Sources in proper form:

The Lincoln Institute, “Mr. Lincoln and Freedom” 2002-2008 found at http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=1&subjectID=1, accessed 7/15/2008.

The Lincoln Institute, “Mr. Lincoln’s White House,” 2002-2009 found at http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/index.asp, accessed 7/14/2008.

Who Freed the Slaves

President Abraham Lincoln: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Frederick Douglass: All Men are Created Equal

Lincoln: that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Frederick Douglass: A New Birth of Freedom

Senator Charles Sumner: Government of the people, by the people, for the people

Col. John Fremont: shall not perish from the earth.

Lincoln: My Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation changed the cause for fighting the Civil War.

Horace Greeley: At first Lincoln proclaimed that the war was fought to keep the Union together.

General David Hunter: In 1861 he did not make freeing the slaves a high priority, even when the military knew that freeing the slaves would help win the war.

Senator Thaddeus Stevens: He made it difficult for slaves to run to the Union troops and he would not let them serve in the Army

Douglas: He may be known as the Great Emancipator, but he wouldn’t have moved unless he’d been pushed by the colored people, by the military and by Congress.

Lincoln: You know that acting quickly to end slavery could have jeopardized the strength of the Union, especially with the four border states, Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware and Maryland. If I abolished slavery, they could have chosen to join the Confederacy.

Pres. Jefferson Davis: As President of the Confederacy, I know that freeing the slaves is what the Union wanted from the very start. Lincoln came through for those wild-eyed abolitionists.

All: Who freed the slaves?

Congress?

The Military

African Americans

Or Lincoln himself?