When Fourth Graders Meet Abraham Lincoln's Words (And Actually Understand Them)
Thursday morning. I'm handing out copies of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address to my fourth graders.
This is the speech Abraham Lincoln gave in March 1865, just weeks before he was assassinated. It's about slavery, war, healing, and what should happen next for a broken nation.
It's also notoriously difficult - full of complex ideas and formal language that even adults find challenging.
But something unexpected happened Thursday morning.
Students didn't just read Lincoln's words. They understood them. They made connections I hadn't anticipated. They asked questions that showed genuine wrestling with Lincoln's ideas.
And it all happened because they weren't reading as students doing an assignment. They were reading as Florida government officials preparing to rebuild their state after a war.
Before We Started: Setting the Stage
"It's March 1865," I told students as they settled into their roles. "The Civil War is almost over. Everyone knows the Union is going to win. Lincoln is giving his second inaugural address—the speech presidents give when they start another term. But instead of celebrating victory, he's talking about what happens NEXT."
I let that hang in the air for a moment.
"You're Florida legislators in 1869. Lincoln is dead by your time—assassinated just weeks after giving this speech. But his words set the direction for Reconstruction. Let's see what he said about the work you're about to do."
We quickly previewed five vocabulary words: inaugural, address, insurgent, magnitude, providence. Nothing fancy - just enough so the words wouldn't trip them up.
Then we started reading.
"Everyone Knew That Slavery Was the Real Reason"
The first section talks about how the war started and what caused it. Lincoln doesn't dance around the issue:
"One out of every eight people were colored slaves. They did not live all over the country. Most lived in the South. These slaves were very important. Everyone knew that slavery was the cause of the war."
Marcus raised his hand immediately. "That's exactly what happened in our Civil War simulation! Florida seceded because they wanted to keep slavery. That's what the whole war was actually about."
Emma nodded. "And remember how at the beginning, we thought the war would be quick? Lincoln says both sides thought it would be small and short, but they were totally wrong."
I hadn't expected students to make this connection so quickly. We'd finished the Civil War simulation last month, but they were pulling from that experience to understand Lincoln's words.
"So when Lincoln talks about how both sides were wrong about the war," I asked, "what does he mean?"
Miguel spoke up: "They thought it would be over fast but it went on for years. And way more people died than anyone expected. Like in our simulation - the war just kept going and going and we kept running out of supplies."
Students were reading Lincoln through the lens of experience. They'd lived a version of what Lincoln was describing, so his words weren't abstract anymore.
The Part That Made Them Uncomfortable
We moved to the most challenging section - where Lincoln talks about both sides praying to the same God:
"Both sides read the same Bible and pray to the same God. Both sides ask God to help them. It seems strange that anyone would ask God to help them make money from other people's hard work. But let us not judge them."
The room got quiet as we finished reading this section.
Sophia broke the silence: "Wait. Lincoln is saying the South prayed to God to help them keep slavery? But slavery was wrong. How could they pray for that?"
"Good question," I said. "What do you all think?"
Zoe thought for a moment. "Maybe they didn't think it was wrong? Like, they convinced themselves it was okay?"
"But Lincoln clearly thinks slavery is wrong," Riley pointed out. "He says it's strange that people would ask God to help them make money from other people’s hard work. So why does he say 'let us not judge'? Why doesn't he just say they were wrong?"
This was the question I'd hoped someone would ask.
"What do you think?" I turned it back to Riley.
She struggled for a bit, then: "Maybe... if he says all the Southern people were bad, they won't want to work with the North anymore? They'll stay mad?"
Jordan jumped in: "Yeah! If you're trying to bring everyone back together, you can't start by saying 'you're all terrible people.' Even if they did wrong things."
"So even though Lincoln knows slavery is wrong," I clarified, "he's choosing his words carefully about Southern people. He's trying to criticize slavery without making it impossible to reunite the country."
Carlos nodded slowly. "That's really hard to do. Because slavery WAS wrong, but he still has to work with the people who had slaves."
The discomfort in the room was palpable - and important. Students were grappling with a real tension: How do you condemn an injustice while trying to heal relationships with people who committed that injustice?
"With Malice Toward None"
We reached Lincoln's famous conclusion:
"We should not hate anyone. We should be kind to everyone. Let us work to finish this war. Let us heal the nation."
"What does this mean?" I asked.
"Be nice to everyone?" Jordan offered.
"Okay, but think about this as Florida legislators," I pushed. "You're going to be making laws next week about voting rights and civil rights. Some people in Florida are not going to want to follow those laws. Should you still have 'be kind to everyone' toward people who are fighting against equality?"
The room got quiet again.
Finally, Zoe raised her hand: "Maybe it means you don't hate them as people, but you still make them follow the law? Like, you can be kind but also make sure the rules are followed?"
"That's interesting," I said. "So you're saying there's a difference between hating someone and enforcing laws they don't like?"
"Yeah," Zoe continued, working through her thinking. "You can understand why they're upset about changes happening, but that doesn't mean they get to keep doing wrong things."
Emma connected it back to the text: "That's the 'firmness in the right' part. Lincoln says to have charity for everyone BUT ALSO be firm in doing what's right. Both things at the same time."
Marcus looked frustrated. "But how do you actually DO that? How do you be kind to people who are trying to stop you from doing the right thing?"
"That," I said, "is exactly what you're going to figure out next week when you start making laws as Florida's government."
The weight of that settled over the room.
When It All Clicked
We moved on to the comprehension questions on the worksheet, but these weren't busy work anymore. Students were genuinely thinking.
One question asked: "Lincoln said that if God wants 'every drop of blood from the whip to be paid back by a drop of blood from the sword,' then 'God is fair and right.' What do you think Lincoln meant? Do you think he believed the terrible war was a punishment for slavery?"
Miguel, who often struggles with writing, wrote something that stopped me in my tracks: "The war was so terrible because slavery was so terrible. All the suffering had to happen to end slavery because it was such a bad thing. Lincoln thinks maybe God made the war last long to punish America for having slavery for so long."
He'd understood one of the most complex ideas in the entire speech - that Lincoln saw the war's horrific cost as proportional to slavery's moral evil.
The final question asked: "At the end of his speech, Lincoln said, 'We should not hate anyone. We should be kind to everyone.' The war wasn't over yet, and many people had died. Why do you think Lincoln talked about being kind instead of talking about winning the war or punishing the South?"
Carlos wrote: "Because after you win a war you still have to live with the people you fought. If you're mean to them they won't want to work with you and the country can't come back together."
These weren't recycled textbook answers. These were original thoughts from students who were genuinely engaging with Lincoln's ideas and thinking about them from their roles as government officials who'd soon face similar challenges.
Want to try this approach in your classroom?
Download a free 4-day sample of the Reconstruction simulation to see how constitutional documents, Lincoln's speech, and role-based learning work together. The sample includes Day 1-2 setup materials, Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address primary source, and your first legislative session.
The Observation I Didn't Expect
Near the end of class, Alex raised his hand with a comment, not a question.
"I just realized something. Lincoln is talking about 'binding up the nation's wounds' and bringing everyone back together. But he died right after giving this speech. So all these plans he had about how to fix everything... he didn't get to see them happen. Someone else had to do it."
The room went silent.
"That's a really good observation," I said. "Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, just a few weeks after giving this speech. So the work of Reconstruction - the work YOU'RE about to attempt in our simulation - that happened without Lincoln there to guide it."
"That's really sad," Sophia said quietly. "He had all these ideas about healing and being kind to everyone, but then he died and couldn't make sure it happened that way."
Kai added: "So the people who came after him had to try to do what he wanted without him there to help. That must have been hard."
I hadn't planned to get into the impact of Lincoln's assassination, but students had led us there naturally by really thinking about what Lincoln was saying and what it meant.
The Connection That Brought It All Together
As we wrapped up, I asked one final question: "Knowing what Lincoln hoped for - healing, kindness, firmness in doing right, binding up wounds - what do you think will be hardest about Reconstruction for you as Florida's government?"
Emma spoke first: "Probably the 'with malice toward none' part. Because people are going to fight against the new laws, and it's going to be hard to not get mad at them."
Marcus: "Making people follow laws they don't want to follow. That's going to cause a lot of problems."
Riley: "Figuring out what 'firmness in the right' means. Like, how firm should we be? When do we compromise and when do we not?"
Miguel: "The whole thing is going to be hard because people are still mad about the war. You can't just say 'okay, war's over, let's be friends now.'"
These responses showed me that students understood the magnitude of what they were about to attempt in the simulation. Lincoln's speech wasn't just a reading assignment anymore. It was a vision for the work ahead - work students now understood would be incredibly difficult.
What Made Thursday Special
I've taught Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address before, but I've never had students engage with it like this.
The difference wasn't the reading level or my teaching. The difference was context and purpose.
Students had spent Monday and Tuesday reading constitutional documents as Florida government officials. By Thursday, they weren't pretending anymore - they genuinely saw themselves as legislators preparing for difficult work.
So when they read Lincoln's words, they weren't reading about history. They were reading advice from a president about challenges THEY were about to face.
That changed everything.
Students made connections to their Civil War simulation experience. They wrestled with the tension between justice and healing. They asked hard questions about how to be kind while enforcing laws. They recognized that Lincoln's assassination meant his vision would be harder to achieve.
None of this was in my lesson plan. It emerged because students were genuinely engaging with Lincoln's ideas, not just completing an assignment.
Looking Ahead
Tomorrow, students will read the 1869 Legislative Briefing about voting rights in Florida. They'll learn about violence at polling places, threats against Black voters, and the crisis facing Florida's democracy.
Then on Monday, they'll hold their first legislative session and write actual bills responding to this crisis.
They'll have Lincoln's vision of "with malice toward none, with charity for all" in their minds.
They'll remember his call for "firmness in the right."
They'll understand they're attempting the work Lincoln described: binding up Florida's wounds while also ensuring justice.
And they'll discover just how hard that work actually is.
But Thursday morning, they at least understood what they were attempting. They'd heard Lincoln's words - and more importantly, they'd understood what those words were asking of them.
That's what happens when fourth graders read primary sources with purpose and context.
They don't just read the words.
They understand the weight behind them.
Ready to help your students engage deeply with primary sources through meaningful context?
The Reconstruction simulation sequences primary sources strategically—students read Lincoln's words with the roles and preparation that make his message powerful and relevant to their work.
