Using Political Cartoons to Teach History in the Homeschool - "A Union Christmas Dinner"

 

There are many visual resources at the Library of Congress that are free to use when teaching history in your homeschool. These include archival images that can be probed for their message as well as for what they can tell about the time they represent. These clues are hidden in the fashion, décor and more. Political cartoons are one category of historical images available at the Library of Congress. There are also photographs, etchings, maps and more. This blog points homeschoolers to a political cartoon that was published in Harper’s Weekly in 1864[1] called “A Union Christmas Dinner”.

It depicts President Lincoln standing at the door of the White House dining room. A large table is set. Half the seats are taken already. The president is inviting the Confederate states to return to the table, to reunite with the country. The unanswered question in the cartoon is whether any additional guests, shown behind the door, will take their seats. There are no holiday decorations in the picture. That is because Christmas did not become a federal holiday until 1870 when President Grant signed it into law along with Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July.

Ask your students why they think the cartoonist set this on Christmas. Perhaps he was thinking about how the angels in the Christian Christmas story proclaimed a similar invitation in their message to the shepherds. They said that in the City of David, a savior had been born. They clarified that His birth heralded peace and good will to men. The shepherds hurriedly took the announcement as their summons and invitation to go and see that wondrous sight. Later they were followed by the magi. It is a familiar story. Perhaps that was in the cartoonist’s mind when he drew the Union Christmas Dinner.

Abraham Lincoln did not share a Christmas message with the American people. He did not send an official White House Christmas card. He did not put up a Christmas tree or decorate the White House. But he did lead a fractured nation to a new peace. He did release the people bound in slavery to new freedom. Then, just a few months after this cartoon was published, his life was taken by an assassin’s bullet.

An interesting creative assignment for your students after they have been introduced to the “Union Christmas Dinner” might be to draw their own Christmas political cartoon based on today’s current events.

By Lesley Barker ©2020

 

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[1] The Union Christmas Dinner political cartoon of plea for peace, showing Pres. Lincoln inviting Confederate states to join Northern states at peace table. , 1864. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/99614261/.