Joseph Schwartz's Story
Before assigning the book:
1) Read Explanatory Notes for Teachers Using Joseph Schwartz's Story so you'll be prepared to answer students' questions.
2) Acquaint students with Joseph's world by showing 1860s photos of Baltimore: Joseph Schwartz's Baltimore.
After the book is assigned:
On a blank outline map* of Maryland, have students:
1) Locate and label places referred to in the book: Baltimore, Annapolis, Chesapeake Bay, Potomac River, Frederick, Cockeysville, and Washington, DC.
2) Write in the names of states bordering Maryland. (Remind students that today's West Virginia was at this time part of Virginia.)
3) Locate Harpers Ferry (now WV).
For extra credit: Find where the 1861 railroad lines were and put them in.
*(Print maps from www.netstate.com/states/maps/md_maps.htm.)
After finishing the book:
Suggested Writing Assignments:
1) Choose one of the following for the subject of a character sketch: Joseph, Harold, Alex, Pa, Ma, Anneliese, or Franz. (For this assignment, students might find page 2 of www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/twisters_character_sketch_help.pdf useful.
2) Write an essay discussing the lack of opportunities for nineteenth-century women and girls, based on the lives of Ma and her daughters.
3) Imagine that Anneliese kept a secret diary that she wrote in by candlelight after her little sisters were asleep. Write four or five entries that might have appeared in this diary.
4) Imagine what might happen when Franz discovers the money he'd been saving replaced by his mother's note. Write the scene, making sure that your characters act in character.
Suggested Discussion Questions:
1) What are some of the reasons Joseph felt that he didn't fit in anywhere - not at home, at school, or in the neighborhood? To what extent to you think these were real issues, and to what extent was he worrying for no reason?
2) What were some of the rumors circulating in Baltimore at the beginning of the Civil War? How widespread are rumors today?
3) Flags were very important symbols at this time. What are some examples of the part flags played in the story?
4) What do you think Joseph's life at school would have been like if the other boys had known all along that he was a Unionist? What do you think next year will be like for him?
5) There are some things a person can't be taught but has to learn for themselves. What important life-lessons do you think Joseph learned "the hard way"?
Explanatory notes for teachers using Joseph Schwartz's Story
by Carolyn Reeder
CHAPTER ONE
Alexander declared, "It's about time Virginia left the Union - they waited long enough." The Virginia Secession Convention had been meeting since February, and twice it had voted to stay in the Union. (Two-thirds of the delegates that Virginians elected to represent them at the Convention were Unionists.) But with Lincoln's April 15 call for troops to put down the South's rebellion, Virginia chose to cast her lot with the Confederacy rather than force the southern states to remain in the Union against their will.
CHAPTER TWO
"Did you hear the news? Virginia troops have taken over the U.S. Arsenal at Harper's Ferry!" Today, Harpers Ferry (written without the apostrophe now) is in West Virginia, but this was before Virginia's forty western counties broke away to form a new state loyal to the Union. The U.S. soldiers garrisoned in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, set the arsenal afire and withdrew after they received news of the state's secession, but when the Virginia militiamen arrived, they were able to put out the fire and save much of the machinery used for manufacturing the rifles that had been stored there. (It was the arsenal at Harpers Ferry that had been John Brown's objective in 1859, when he and his small band attempted to seize the weapons stored there and use them to arm a slave uprising. )
CHAPTER SEVEN
Joseph knew that from Frederick on west, Maryland was mostly Unionist - In the western part of the state where wheat was a major crop, farmers needed workers only at harvest time, so they would hire a crew of men each autumn. But in the eastern and southern part of the state where tobacco was raised, farmers needed workers all year round for planting, for thinning the plants, for keeping the insects off, for harvesting the leaves, and finally for drying them. They found it more economical to own slaves than to hire full-time workers.
CHAPTER EIGHT
"If you're so strong for Maryland, you must be for states' rights," one of the boys said, looking puzzled, "but if you're for states' rights, I don't see why you're neutral instead of for the Confederacy." People who are for "states' rights" believe that individual states should make decisions on important issues that affect them rather than having the federal government make a single decision that would affect all the states. (Most people in the South regarded secession as a states' rights issue.)
To link to the author interview, click here.
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