Category: Reconstruction

Check out this virtual tour of Ford’s Theatre! Use the white arrows to move around the theatre and click/drag your mouse on the screen to turn around. The first part shows the main theater view from the stage, but if you scroll down the page, you will see other parts of the theater. Show your students exactly where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated! What better way to teach about what happened when Lincoln was assassinated than to take them inside the presidential box where it happened. See the stage on which John Wilkes Booth jumped when he yelled “Sic semper tyrranis!” Students can really visualize the events of that night using this tour.

How to Use This in Your Classroom

• Note: This may not take an entire class period, especially if you are on block schedule or have high level students.
• I suggest telling your students what happened the night of the assassination (take notes if necessary, etc.). Then, pull up the tour and show them around the theatre, explaining what happened where (or ask them to tell you what happened where).
• Tell your students that the poem “O Captain, My Captain” was written about the death of Lincoln. Optional assignment: Break students into pairs and give them a copy of the poem worksheet. Have them answer the questions. This should not take more than about 5 minutes. This may be a little challenging for lower level students, but it’s a good cross-curricular tie in with literature and a great way to practice critical thinking and analysis. (Fun fact for poetry lovers: Lincoln’s favorite poem was Mortality by William Knox. There’s a video about it here.)
• Go over the poem and/or worksheet.
• Give them this assignment to work on: Write 10 tweets that might have been posted about Lincoln’s assassination. (More instructions are given on my download.) Students can post tweets by certain famous figures or random people, but the tweets must demonstrate facts and emotions associated with Lincoln’s assassination.
• You can also show this video if you have time:

One final note: Have you ever seen The Conspirator? It’s a great movie about Mary Surratt, the only female charged in Lincoln’s assassination. It’s too long to show it in class, but it’s a really interesting movie that scratches that history itch!