Dolley Madison and the War of 1812

Procedures:

Initiatory activity:

Students get with a partner and discuss the following questions:

1) If your house was burning and you could save one personal item, what would it be?

2) If you could save one item that may be important to your family, what would it be?

3) If you were the president and you could save only one item from the White House, what you think it would be?

Discuss the answers with the class. Identify some common characteristics of the student suggestions and write them on the board.

Activity #1

Have students read the letter that Dolley Madison wrote to her sister on August 23, 1814.

http://moderntimes.vcdh.virginia.edu/madison/exhibit/washington/letters/082314.html

After reading the letters have the students consider the following questions. The students should write out the evidence for each answer with specific quotations from the letter.

1) What is the relationship between James and Dolley Madison?

2) How does she decide what to save?

3) Is she worried about the advancing troops?

4) What kind of person is Dolley Madison. Can you tell any thing about her personality or character from this letter?

While students are reading and writing, distribute or display the cartoon of Washington under attack:

http://moderntimes.vcdh.virginia.edu/madison/exhibit/washington/img/cart1.html

5) Does the tone of the cartoon match the tone of Dolley’s letter.

Discussion: Discuss the answers to the questions.

Ask the students to imagine that they are historians.

1) Can they trust that this letter was really written in the White House as the British troops were approaching?

2) What if they discovered another version of this Dolley Madison letter with the same date, only Dolley does not sound as confident. Would that change their answers to the questions asked above?

3) Dolley actually did rewrite this famous letter at a later date. Why would she do this?

Activity #2

Distribute or have students look at the portraits of Dolley and James Madison.

Dolley http://moderntimes.vcdh.virginia.edu/madison/exhibit/washington/img/port1.html

James http://moderntimes.vcdh.virginia.edu/madison/exhibit/washington/img/port3.html

Look carefully at these portraits.

1) Which one looks more heroic?

2) Which one looks more like a stronger figure?

3) Do you think that the incident described in the letter would have had an effect on the portrayal of these figures?

Center for Technology and Teacher Education, University of Virginia, This module was created by Tom Fallace and Holly Shulman University of Virginia