Building Fluency through Reader’s Theater Causes C C h a r a c t e r s a of the u s e s o John Brown: abolitionist f t Civil War h e C Watson iv Brown: John Brown’s son il W a James r reporter Redpath: Robert E. Lee: U.S. Army colonel Jeb Stuart: U.S. Army lieutenant John Henry John Brown’s Kagi: second in command ■ TCM 11545 C o n k lin Wendy Conklin Quality Resources for Every Classroom Instant Delivery 24 Hours a Day Thank you for purchasing the following e-book –another quality product from Teacher Created Materials Publishing For more information or to purchase additional books and materials, please visit our website at: www.tcmpub.com For further information about our products and services, please e-mail us at: [email protected] To receive special offers via e-mail, please join our mailing list at: www.tcmpub.com/emailOffers 5301 Oceanus Drive Huntington Beach, CA 92649-1030 800.858.7339 FAX 714.230.7070 www.tcmpub.com Causes of the Civil War Wendy Conklin Associate Editor Creative Director Causes of the Civil War Torrey Maloof Lee Aucoin Editor Illustration Manager/Designer Story Summary Wendy Conklin, M.A. Timothy J. Bradley Editorial Director Cover Designer Dona Herweck Rice Lesley Palmer Editor-in-Chief Cover Art Sharon Coan, M.S.Ed. John Steuart Curry/ John Brown is an abolitionist who believes he has a Editorial Manager Kansas State Capitol, Topeka calling to end slavery in any way possible. He begins in The Library of Congress Gisela Lee, M.A. Kansas, where he kills several unarmed proslavery men. Publisher Then, he raises a small army of men who go with him to Rachelle Cracchiolo, M.S.Ed. Harpers Ferry, Virginia, to start a revolution. Harpers Ferry is a gateway to the west that has mountains where the army can seek refuge. He takes over the United States armory in the middle of the night. Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant Jeb Stuart arrive in Harpers Ferry to put down the rebellion. In the end, John Brown is captured, tried, and convicted of treason. Teacher Created Materials, Inc. 5301 Oceanus Drive Huntington Beach, CA 92649 http://www.tcmpub.com ISBN 978-1-4333-0545-0 © 2010 Teacher Created Materials, Inc. Reprinted 2011 2 33 Tips for Performing Tips for Performing Reader’s Theater Reader’s Theater (cont.) Adapted from Aaron Shepard • Don’t let your script hide your face. If you can’t see the • If the audience laughs, wait for them to stop before you audience, your script is too high. speak again. • Look up often when you speak. Don’t just look at • If someone in the audience talks, don’t pay attention. your script. • If someone walks into the room, don’t pay attention. • Talk slowly so the audience knows what you are saying. • If you make a mistake, pretend it was right. • Talk loudly so everyone can hear you. • If you drop something, try to leave it where it is until • Talk with feelings. If the character is sad, let your voice the audience is looking somewhere else. be sad. If the character is surprised, let your voice be • If a reader forgets to read his or her part, see if you can surprised. read the part instead, make something up, or just skip • Stand up straight. Keep your hands and feet still. over it. Don’t whisper to the reader! • Remember that even when you are not talking, you are still your character. 4 5 Causes of the Civil War Act 1 James Redpath: It does not seem possible that in a few minutes John Brown will meet his death in the gallows. Characters Jeb Stuart: Colonel Lee, did you see the coffin on the John Brown Robert E. Lee horse-drawn wagon over there? Watson Brown Jeb Stuart James Redpath John Henry Kagi Robert E. Lee: That is Brown’s coffin. They want to be able to take his body away as soon as this is over. Jeb Stuart: There was some talk in town this morning that the hand of God would snatch him from his cell Setting and take him straight to heaven. This reader’s theater begins in Virginia at the James Redpath: I have heard whispers that there are armed execution of John Brown. The story then goes back men hiding in the forest around here. They are waiting to rescue Brown and take him away. in time to Brown’s home in Kansas. After giving an interview to James Redpath, Brown makes his way Robert E. Lee: No matter where I go, I see newspapers like across the nation to raise an army. He decides that yours, James, that tell the story of Brown. Harpers Ferry, Virginia, is the perfect place for a slave uprising. But, things go terribly wrong when Jeb Stuart: I heard that he only grew the beard after coming the United States Army, under the command of out this way to Harpers Ferry. He wanted to disguise himself. Robert E. Lee, confronts Brown. The story returns and ends at Brown’s execution in Virginia. 6 7 Robert E. Lee: One thing I know for sure, people are John Brown: Mr. Redpath, this is my son, Watson. And this passionate about what they think of Brown. is John Henry Kagi, my second in command. I Some people call him a madman. But after am glad you are here. I want my message to be today, he will be a martyr. heard by all so that I can build my army. Jeb Stuart: How can anyone look at Brown as a hero? James Redpath: What message is that, Mr. Brown? Don’t they know that he is responsible for brutally murdering unarmed men? John Brown: Slavery is a national sin that stains the souls of all Americans. No American can expect to be James Redpath: I have been writing about John Brown for a few saved from hell until slavery is abolished. I will years now. At one time, I thought of Brown as start a race war, one that will wipe out slavery. a hero. I met him for the first time just three years ago. Let me tell you that story. James Redpath: Watson, is this view shared by your entire family? Act 2 Watson Brown: Mr. Redpath, Father was raised by an Watson Brown: Father, James Redpath is here to see you. He is abolitionist. It is all he has ever known. a reporter from Harpers Illustrated Magazine. John Brown: Watson is right. When I was only 12 years old, John Brown: Yes, son, I have agreed to speak with him. I stayed with neighbors who owned a slave my age. The boy was ill-clothed and poorly fed. He had been separated from his parents and was James Redpath: Mr. Brown, thank you for allowing me to come confused. It is hard for me to talk about this. to your camp in Osawatomie. Watson Brown: Father, allow me. The boy made a small mistake, and his owner beat him senseless with a shovel. 8 9 John Brown: I will never forget that beating. I was too young James Redpath: I see what you mean. I wrote about the Dred to say anything. But from that day on, I swore Scott case. The Supreme Court ruled that slaves that I would wage an eternal war on slavery. are not citizens and have no rights. Watson Brown: By the time Father was 20 years old, he had Watson Brown: We were pleased when the Kansas-Nebraska already helped one slave escape to Canada. Act was passed. This act allowed the people I am very proud to say that our house was a living in Kansas to vote to decide if the state station on the Underground Railroad. would be a free state or a slave state. James Redpath: There are so many other well-known John Brown: The Kansas-Nebraska Act was my invitation abolitionists. Why haven’t you joined with to war. I decided to move to Kansas with my Northern abolitionists like William Lloyd sword in hand ready to smite down those who Garrison or Frederick Douglass? stand for slavery. John Henry Kagi: They are all talk and no action. This talking James Redpath: I know that there is a warrant out for your will not break the grip that slavery has on arrest. Some people say that you and your this nation. sons massacred innocent people. Surely, there is a good reason for this. Can you tell me what happened? John Brown: I see myself as a warrior of God. He has sent me to destroy this wicked institution of slavery. John Brown: Mr. Redpath, you must understand that I have a higher set of laws that I must obey. I am Watson Brown: Mr. Redpath, you must understand that answering God’s call. If blood must be shed to Congress has only hurt the slaves. It passed end slavery, then God will smile on this blood. the Fugitive Slave Law. This law allowed the South to keep its slaves. It also stated that the Southerners could cross over into Northern Watson Brown: The massacre that you speak of, Mr. Redpath, states when slaves tried to gain freedom by was because of those proslavery Missourians. escaping. 10 11 James Redpath: What do you mean? James Redpath: Why Lawrence, Kansas? John Henry Kagi: Most people around here call them Border Watson Brown: Lawrence is the center of Free State activities, Ruffians. They live in Missouri, but they cross including antislavery newspapers. In Lawrence, the border to vote for Kansas to be a slave state. they looted homes, set a hotel on fire, and destroyed the printing presses of two antislavery newspapers. Watson Brown: We are members of the Free State Party, a political party that opposes slavery. Anyway, there was a shoot-out between an antislavery John Brown: I have no patience for timid antislavery settler and a proslavery settler over their farm Americans. So, three days later, I led a small boundaries. band of seven men into Pottawatomie, Kansas. John Henry Kagi: This shoot-out started a war between the Free Watson Brown: I was with Father and the others that night. We Staters and Border Ruffians. visited the homes of several proslavery activists. James Redpath: I remember my magazine covering this event. James Redpath: Mr. Brown, the reports say that you were They called it Bleeding Kansas because so many armed with guns and razor-sharp swords. What people died. But didn’t the Free Staters get happened that night? enough votes to make Kansas a free state? John Brown: We knocked on the doors. I announced that John Henry Kagi: Yes, eventually Kansas became a free state. But I was captain of the Northern Army and this made the Border Ruffians angry. that I intended to take these proslavery men prisoners. Watson Brown: The Border Ruffians organized one more despicable act. One of them, a federal marshal, James Redpath: Were these men armed? led 800 men into Lawrence, Kansas. 12 13 Watson Brown: No, they did not have any weapons, but these Poem: Brown of Osawatomie men were evil. They were for slavery, the cruelest form of human treatment. They all deserved to die. Act 3 John Brown: From studying those maps and military books, James Redpath: Did their slaves break free and follow you? I am sure this is the divine place. These mountains around Harpers Ferry will be our stronghold where we can strike at our enemies. Watson Brown: No, these men did not have slaves, but that does not matter. The fact that they were for slavery is what matters. John Henry Kagi: Harpers Ferry is perfect. It has a large arsenal right down the road where rifles are made and stored. This extra stash will come in handy. James Redpath: Are you worried about being arrested? Do you Our army can carry all the firearms to the know if the law is on your trail? mountains where we can establish our fortress. Watson Brown: We are not afraid of being caught. After all, John Brown: That is why you are my second in command, Kansas has no organized police force. Kagi. You think just like I do. Do we have enough funding to help us buy more guns and ammunition? John Brown: I only have one short life to live and only one death to die. I will die fighting for this cause. There will be no peace in this land until slavery John Henry Kagi: We have a good amount. I have purchased 200 is abolished. rifles, 200 pistols, and 1,000 pikes. Most slaves will not know how to use guns, so we had these pikes made especially for them. All this was James Redpath: Thank you, Mr. Brown. I am leaving here with purchased with money from the Secret Six. more respect for the Great Struggle than I have ever had before. I feel that I have just met the leader of the second and holier American Watson Brown: Do you mind me asking, who are the Secret Six? Revolution. 14 15