Civil War Biosketches due Thursday (periods 2, 4, 6 and7)

Instructions:  In groups of two, choose an imaginary identity.  One writer will pretend to be a girl, while the other pretends to be a boy.  I will randomly assign each pair as either supporters of the Confederacy or Union, so the class is evenly divided.  During the war, mail was not sent across Confederate lines into Union states. 

1. Look at a map of the U.S. in 1861 and decide the following:
• What are your imaginary names?
• What is your relationship?  How do you know each other?  (e.g. mother/son; father/daughter; sister/brother; neighbors; engaged couple; husband/wife; grandpa/granddaughter)
• How old is each of you?
• Where does each of you live?  What are you addresses?  (No zips needed way back then!)
• What is your race?  Consider the diverse population of Americans living during the 1860s- -(immigrant; a freeborn African American; a slave; a Mexican American; an American whose ancestor fought in the American Revolutionary War, Southern Farmer, Northern Student, Eastern European immigrant, etc.)
2. On an index card, write your real name at the top, and below, write the answers to the above questions.  Use both sides of the card; one side per person.  Your identities will need approval by me.
3. Write a biographical sketch, after your identity has been approved.  The sketch must be based on the following questions:
• Describe your home-life and the town, city, state where you live.
• Describe the most important members of your family in detail.  You may include pets, if they are included.
• Describe your upbringing and the extent of your education.  (e.g. college student, grade school, no school, uneducated)
• Describe your livelihood or how you were financially supported before the Civil War began.
• If you are a man, explain what compelled you to enlist to fight.  If you are a woman, explain how you feel about your writing partner joining to fight.
• Describe the most pressing concern of your life, your hopes and dreams, before the war began. 
• Describe the ways in which you fear the war will change your life.
• Get a photograph of your imaginary persona.  You may download an image from the internet or take a photo of yourself dressed in a costume.

PBS.org

Burns, Ken.  The Civil War by Ken Burns.  PBS.org.       

http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/classroom/lesson_letters.html.  2002.  Web.  March 14, 2012.