This collection includes artifacts, stamps, political cartoons, portraits, and videos representing various long-term and short-term causes of the Civil War. Students could use the collection as the basis for a sorting activity: Which causes are long-term and which are short? Which represent economic, social, or political differences between the North and South? Can they be put in chronological order? Which show attempts at compromise and which show that violence was difficult to avoid? Additional teaching ideas are listed in the Notes to Other Users section.
• Let students choose five of the resources. How would Northerners and Southerners respond differently to what is depicted in the resource? Write a paragraph for each one. • Have students debate the greatest factor leading to the Civil War with a March Madness-style bracket. Pit two resources against each other and discuss which more directly led to the outbreak of war. • Ask students to choose four or five resources that they would use to create their own collection illustrating one cause that led to the Civil War. Require them to do additional research and write supplemental captions for each object included in their collection. • Have students read and annotate Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address. Which artifacts would they use to help illustrate key moments in the speech? Ask them to explain why they chose those artifacts. • Use this worksheet from the National Archives to perform an analysis of one or more of the political cartoons: https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/cartoon_analysis_worksheet.pdf Whose perspective is represented?
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