TITLE: HISTORY PERSONIFIED
AUTHOR: Dawain M. Wheatley, Wasatch High School,
Heber City, UT
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: 5-12
OVERVIEW: Many students see history as a necessary evil, a needed
requirement for graduation, uninteresting, and sometimes boring.
History does not have to be any one of these for anyone.
PURPOSE: This activity is designed to allow each student to look at
historical events from a different perspective. The activity is
used during a term, I like to use it the first or second term, as
a term paper. It helps the student to research an historical
event, I allow them to choose any event they find interesting,
and write about that event or series of events in such a way that
it will become very personalized for them.
OBJECTIVES: The activity will allow the students to:
1. Plan, write, and edit an original personified history story
2. Research an historical event that interests the student.
3. Write a research paper in an original manner that cannot be copied
from some text.
4. Prepare the students to become knowledgeable in a specific area.
5. Help prepare A.P. students for essay questions by giving them outside
sources of reference.
6. Provide for the students an experience that can be fun, challenging,
and memorable. It gives history pizzaz.
RESOURCES/MATERIALS: Imagination, reference books, imagination,
willingness to try something new, imagination, previous examples,
imagination, desire to enjoy history. 'THE CANE' at the end of this lesson.
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1. At the beginning of class have a student define personify and/or
personification.
'personification' figure of speech by which things, qualities, or
abstract ideas are represented as having a personal nature or human
attributes. Examples: cruel waves; the singing rabbit
'personify' to regard or represent (a thing, quality, or idea)
as a person
2. Assign a research paper that must be written using personification.
I like to have two page minimum, typed, and a title page for the research
papers. At this point they have a lot of questions.
3. Read an example, 'The Cane'. Do not allow anyone to write about this
event to insure originality. Each year save several of the better examples
for future reference. Ask several questions about the story/event
such as:
a. What historical event is being depicted?
b. If they don't know, ask, Would you like to know more?
c. How many characters are depicted? Who are they? What are they
doing? What significance do they have in American history?
Ask any other question that is appropriate for the situation.
4. On the due date, read or have the students volunteer to read their own
papers. It is fun and provides a good review of many historical events.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
1. Return corrected personification papers. I weight the paper grading
(90% content, 10% grammar) to encourage the research to emphasize
individual learning of content.
2. Throughout the year, pull out a copy of previous papers to read when
introducing a specific historical event.
3. Encourage all students to share this paper with others.
THE CANE
It all started in the summer of 1851, I was this small and
helpless oak tree in South Carolina. During that summer I was
cut down. And i never thought that I would end up a nicely
looking cane that weighed eleven ounces, and in the hands of the
hot tempered Congressman Brooks. In 1856, Senator Charles Sumner
of Massachusetts (who was a tall and imposing man, and was also a
leading abolitionist) was giving a speech entitled, "The Crime
against Kansas. As senator Sumner gave his speech I noticed many
of the other senators were outraged and some agreeing moods.
Then to my surprise Sumner condemned proslavery men as,
"Hirelings picked from the drunken spew and vomit of an uneasy
civilization." He also referred insultingly to South Carolina
and to its white haired Senator Butler (who was one of the best
liked members of the Senate.
When Brooks found out about this, he was outraged, and picked me
up and slammed me back onto the floor. The pain felt bad for a while
but I got over it soon after it. I only wish I knew what was going to
happen to me soon after that.
Brooks, ordinarily gracious and gallant, did not appreciate
the comments and the insults to his state and distant cousin
Senator Butler. Brooks wanted a duel with Sumner, and in the south,
where one fought only with ones social equals. He decided not to
even ask for, he thought that Sumner would reject a challenge
On May 22, 1856, Brooks approached Senator Sumner, (who was
sitting at his desk) and all of a sudden I felt myself hurled
into the air and smashed the skull of Sumner. As Brooks beat
him, I felt myself get weak and worn from Sumner's beating. As
the last few blows were spent onto Sumner, I broke in half and
after that i blacked out. When I awoke I found myself glued
together and supported by a leather brace. I was returned to the
cane holder by the door of Brooks House.
Later on that month I heard a knock at the door, it was some
of Brook's admirers which they deluged him with some new canes,
some of them gold headed. Many of the people said that it was to
replace me.
Since the canes were from the south, I was looked upon as a
great hero. But the injuries that I placed upon Sumner were
serious. He was forced to leave his seat for three and a half
years, and went to Europe to be treated for head and nerve
injuries. In the mean time he was re-elected to his seat, but he
had to leave it empty. Bleeding Sumner was then joined with
bleeding Kansas as a political issue. Brooks in turn resigned
and again was triumphantly re-elected.
As I sat in the cane holder I heard many things that happened:
The free soil North was aroused by the uncouth and
cowardly bully Brooks. They made copies of Sumner's speech,
which were sold by the tens of thousands. Every time that I
struck Sumner, I struck thousands of Republican votes. The
southerners on the other hand were not unanimous in approving
Brooks, was angered because Sumner had made such an intemperate
speech but because it had been so extravagantly applauded in the
North.
So the clash in the between Sumner and Brooks made some
harsh and inflamed passions between the North and South. This
was one of the first clashes of the bloodshed between the North
and South.
Now that I think about it, it could have been avoided. I
place the blame on Sumner because if he would not have used some
of his distasteful language and tried some more cultured form of
speaking he probably would not have been beaten by Brooks.
The End
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