Question

Write a letter of about 100 words to a family member, taking the point of view of a freed slave, a Northerner, or a Southerner. Express your feelings about Reconstruction and the changes it would have made in your world.
What are your feelings about the war and Reconstruction?
What do you expect to see coming in the future?
What do you feel might result?
Once you’ve finished writing the letter, share it with a classmate, a friend, a family member, or another peer for peer review. The reviewer can use the following questions to review the letter.
Do the details in the letter accurately reflect the historical background and information about Reconstruction and the Civil War?
Does the letter believably reflect the views of a freed slave, a Northerner, or a white Southerner?
Are the sentences in the letter complete and grammatically correct?
Is the tone of the letter appropriate for its audience?
Are the ideas of the writer presented clearly and connected with transitions?
Revise your letter according to the suggestions you received from the reviewer, and submit both versions along with this activity. In the space below, write a short paragraph about how you used the feedback.

Answer 1

In 1854, Sen. Stephen Douglas forced the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress. The bill, which repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, also opened up a good portion of the Midwest to the possible expansion of slavery.

Douglas' political rival, former Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln, was enraged by the bill. He scheduled three public speeches in the fall of 1854, in response. The longest of those speeches — known as the Peoria Speech — took three hours to deliver. In it, Lincoln aired his grievances over Douglas' bill and outlined his moral, economic, political and legal arguments against slavery.