Worksheet

Free Them Now or Wait? A Mock Cabinet Meeting, 1862

Grade 8 Civil War: a mock 1862 cabinet debate on the Emancipation Proclamation, then Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Appomattox as turning points.

Grade 8Social StudiesInteractive · Printable

Aligned toHIS.8.6

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1 C3 Framework standard
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11 questions
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Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Social Studies
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students weigh the arguments for issuing or delaying the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862.
Students explain what the Emancipation Proclamation did and did not do.
Students explain why Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Appomattox were turning points.

How to use

Read the passage, then assign the two role cards to groups and hold a short mock cabinet meeting before students answer. Remind students that the cards sum up arguments people made at the time.

Curriculum

C3 Framework standard covered

HIS.8.6

Describe key events, people and turning points of the Civil War, such as Gettysburg, the Emancipation Proclamation and Appomattox.

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Free Them Now or Wait? A Mock Cabinet Meeting, 1862

Weigh the arguments over emancipation, then trace the war's turning points.

The war and the proclamation

Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

From Fort Sumter to Appomattox

1The Civil War began in April 1861, when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Four more slave states then joined the Confederacy, making eleven in all. Four slave states, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, stayed in the Union and were called the border states. At first President Abraham Lincoln said the North was fighting to save the Union, and many Northern soldiers agreed. But thousands of enslaved people escaped to Union army camps, and their actions pushed the question of slavery into the war.

2The war went badly for the Union in the East at first. By the summer of 1862, a large Union attack aimed at the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, had failed. In July 1862 Lincoln read his cabinet a draft of a proclamation freeing enslaved people in the states in rebellion. Secretary of State William Seward advised him to wait for a Union victory. Lincoln put the draft away.

3On September 17, 1862, Union and Confederate armies fought at Antietam Creek in Maryland, the bloodiest single day of the war. General Robert E. Lee's army retreated to Virginia. Five days later Lincoln announced that on January 1, 1863, all enslaved people in areas still in rebellion would be "thenceforward, and forever free."

4The Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863. It did not apply to the border states or to parts of the South already under Union control. It could be carried out only where Union armies reached. Still, it made ending slavery a Union war aim. Britain, which had ended slavery in its empire years earlier, became less willing to help the Confederacy. The proclamation also allowed Black men to join the Union army and navy, and by the end of the war about 180,000 Black soldiers had served in the army.

5In July 1863 came two more turning points. At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Union forces stopped Lee's invasion of the North after three days of fighting, July 1–3. On July 4 the Confederate city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River. That November, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address described the war as a test of whether a nation "conceived in Liberty" could survive. After nearly two more years of fighting, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865.

Which event did Lincoln wait for before he announced the proclamation?

A. The Union victory at Gettysburg
B. Lee's retreat after Antietam
C. The surrender of Vicksburg
D. The attack on Fort Sumter

Circle the sentence from paragraph 4 that shows a limit of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863.It did not apply to the border states or to parts of the South already under Union control.Still, it made ending slavery a Union war aim.Britain, which had ended slavery in its empire years earlier, became less willing to help the Confederacy.

A family is enslaved on a farm in Kentucky in February 1863. What did the Emancipation Proclamation mean for them?

A. It freed them once Union troops reached the farm.
B. It freed them, because Kentucky had joined the Confederacy.
C. It made them free on January 1, 1863, like everyone else.
D. It did not free them, because Kentucky stayed in the Union.

A family is enslaved on a plantation deep inside Confederate Georgia, far from any Union army, in February 1863. Which statement best fits their situation?

A. It declared them free, but freedom came with Union armies.
B. Georgia's government freed them under the new order.
C. The proclamation did not cover Georgia.
D. They became free in September 1862, when Lincoln first announced it.

Mock cabinet meeting: July 1862

The question before the cabinet: Should the President issue the proclamation now? Each role card sums up arguments that people made in 1862.

Role card 1: Issue it now. Enslaved workers grow the Confederacy's food and dig its forts, so freeing them weakens the South. Britain and France will find it harder to help a Confederacy that is fighting to keep slavery. Black men who want to fight for freedom could join the Union army.
Role card 2: Wait. The border states might leave the Union if the President moves against slavery. Many Northern soldiers and voters joined to save the Union, not to end slavery, and some may lose heart. After the failed attack on Richmond, the order would look like a cry of desperation.

Sort each argument by the role card that makes it.

Enslaved workers keep the Confederacy supplied.Border states may turn against the Union.Foreign nations may stay out of the war.The timing after a defeat looks desperate.Soldiers who joined to save the Union may lose heart.New soldiers could fill Union ranks.

Issue it now	Wait

Lincoln left the border states out of the final proclamation. Which argument from the role cards was he most likely answering?

A. The border states might leave the Union.
B. Britain and France could help the South.
C. Black men could join the Union army.
D. Enslaved workers dig Confederate forts.

Which argument on Role card 1 does paragraph 4 show came true by the end of the war?

A. The border states freed enslaved people in 1863.
B. Black men joined the Union army in large numbers.
C. France sent its navy to help the Union win.
D. The Confederacy surrendered as soon as the order took effect.

Turning points

Use the passage.

Draw a line from each event to why it mattered.

Antietam, September 1862
Gettysburg, July 1863
Vicksburg, July 1863
Appomattox, April 1865

A. Gave Lincoln the victory he needed to announce emancipation
B. Gave the Union control of the Mississippi River
C. Lee's army surrendered to Grant
D. Ended Lee's invasion of the North

The war lasted about years, from the attack on Fort Sumter to Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

10.

Which statement about the purpose of the war is best supported by the passage?

A. Ending slavery became a Union war aim before Fort Sumter.
B. Its purpose changed after Lee surrendered at Appomattox.
C. Saving the Union came first; ending slavery became a goal later.
D. From its first day, the Union fought mainly to end slavery.

11.

Which was the bigger turning point of the war: the Emancipation Proclamation, or the Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg? Make a claim, use at least two pieces of evidence from the page, and explain your reasoning.