Primary Sources » Using re-enactments

Reenactments and role plays are designed to bring to life the experience of the past. Civil War re-enactors who participated in our 2005 workshop dressed the parts of a Union Soldier, a female anti-slavery reformer, and President Abraham Lincoln. 

Doing a good reenactment requires significant research. Playing the part of a Union soldier, for example, requires knowing both how the army performed military drills and what white soldiers would have thought of black soldiers joining the Union army in segregated units.

Preparing students to do role plays and reenactments is one way of structuring an inquiry-based local history project.