Brother versus Brother: The Drayton Letter

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Brother versus Brother: The Drayton Letter

This lesson was designed for students to learn how the social, economic, and political differences between the North and South led to the Civil War. They will achieve this by analyzing a primary source from the day after the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. They will then compare and contrast the impressions they get from the letter with those from a Civil War documentary film.

Essential Questions

What role does analysis have in historical construction?
Why is time and space important to the study of history?

Objectives

  • Students will understand that the social, economic, and political differences between the North and South led to the Civil War.
  • Students will be able to analyze a primary source by discussing its various points and then forming a response in the style of a contemporary letter.
  • Students will be able to use a secondary source in support by utilizing information gained from the Ken Burns documentary in the writing of their responses.

Primary Sources

The Drayton Letter

Other Materials

Document Analysis Worksheet

Drayton Letter Transcription

The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns (Also available at many local and school libraries.)

Suggested Instructional Procedures

  1. The teacher will engage students in a discussion about their own letter writing experiences. Students will answer the following prompts: When was the last time they wrote a letter? What prompted them to write their letters? When was the last time they sent an email or text message, or posted something on social media? Did any of these communications contain important news? If students had something very important to convey, what form of communication would they choose? Why would letter writing be such an important means of communication in America in the 1800s?
  2. Students are divided into North and South and asked to imagine that they are living in America in 1860 and have just heard the news of Abraham Lincoln's election. They are given five minutes to compose a brief letter, as a Northerner or Southerner, in response to this news. Students will then share their responses with the rest of the class.
  3. The teacher will lead students in a whole group discussion about the different perspectives presented and use the discussion as a vehicle to access prior student knowledge regarding the social, economic, and political differences between the antebellum North and South.
  4. Students will view "Episode One: The Cause" of the documentary The Civil War through chapter 7, "The Secessionists," stopping after the election of Abraham Lincoln. The class should briefly discuss what they have learned from the film about the lead-up to the war, and how this matches or contradicts their preconceptions.
  5. Students will read the letter from Thomas Drayton to Percival Drayton as a class.The teacher may like to provide the transcription as needed.
  6. Students will work in their cooperative groups to analyze the letter, completing the Document Analysis Worksheet. 
  7. The whole class will then discuss the letter in conjunction with the film. Students should compare and contrast the sources, discussing how they agree or disagree in their depiction of life in antebellum America.
  8. Students are to compose a 3-5 paragraph response to the Thomas Drayton letter, using evidence from the documentary as support.

Vocabulary

Abolitionist: A person who favors the discontinuation of a practice or institution,especially used in the United States to mean someone against slavery.

Antebellum: Belonging or relating to the time before the Civil War.

Secede: To withdraw formally from membership in a federal union, an alliance, or a political or religious organization.

Sectionalism: Loyalty to the interests of one's own region or section of the country, rather than to the country as a whole.