Part 1: Understanding Hallowed Ground
In Part 1, students learn about the America’s Hallowed Ground project and develop a shared understanding of what hallowed ground is and means. Start here before engaging your class in Parts 2, 3, or 4.
Essential Questions
- What is hallowed ground, and what makes a place hallowed ground?
- What is the America’s Hallowed Ground project?
- Why are sites of hallowed ground important for us to learn about?
Content Understandings
- In July of 1863, Union and Confederate soldiers fought the Battle of Gettysburg – one of the Civil War’s bloodiest. In November of the same year, President Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech at the dedication of the Gettysburg Civil War Cemetery. Lincoln’s speech – 272 words and roughly 2 minutes long – came to be known as the Gettysburg Address. In it, Lincoln declared that he actually had no role to play in “dedicating,” “consecrating,” or “hallowing” the land. In fact, Lincoln said, the battlefield had already been made sacred by the Union soldiers who fought there to end the institution of slavery and move the nation closer to the ideals suggested by our nation’s founding documents – freedom and equality for all people.
- In the context of Lincoln’s speech, “hallowed ground” refers to the Gettysburg Civil War Cemetery. In the context of the America’s Hallowed Ground project, “hallowed ground” refers not just to Gettysburg, but to many other sites of struggle across our country.
- A site of hallowed ground is:
- A physical space or group of spaces connected by a shared story
- A place capable of teaching us about our nation’s expressed ideals of equality, justice, and democracy, along with the moments we have fallen short, and where people and communities have been harmed by those shortcomings
- A site connected to broader conflicts and struggles in American history
- A sacred ground whose impact is best experienced physically, where people may visit and pay respect to the spirit, aspirations, and lessons it embodies
- These lands may be considered sacred today because of the history that happened there – events that reverberate through time and affect our nation today.
- Exploring and visiting these places to learn about their histories, their communities, and their present is important to understanding our country’s character, in all its complexity. This understanding is necessary if we are committed to helping create an America that lives up to our noble ideals.
Classroom Activities & Teacher Resources
Part 1 includes classroom activities that can be adjusted to provide the appropriate levels of support or independence for a group of students. Begin with the launch activity; then, choose additional activities to sequence over additional days of instruction.
Start here to launch student learning
Choose one or more activities to deepen student learning
Students build context about, listen to, and read/reread the Gettysburg Address to discuss what Lincoln means when he calls Gettysburg “hallowed ground.”
Students compare and contrast the two poems’ perspectives of America to deepen their understanding of the America’s Hallowed Ground project.
Support students to synthesize, reflect, & respond
Students generate and discuss examples of hallowed places throughout America and pin the locations on a map.
All activities are aligned to the Common Core State Standards for Literacy; the National Core Arts Standards; and/or the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards.
