By matthew lopez directed by meredith mcdonough



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The

Whipping Man

BY MATTHEW LOPEZ

DIRECTED BY MEREDITH MCDONOUGH

PLAY GUIDE




ABOUT THE 

THE WHIPPING MAN 

PLAY GUIDE

This play guide is a standards-based resource designed to 

enhance your theatre experience. Its goal is twofold:  to nurture 

the teaching and learning of theatre arts and to encourage 

essential questions that lead to enduring understandings of 

the play’s historical  meaning and relevance. Inside you will 

find history/contextual information and vocabulary that lay 

the groundwork of the story and build anticipation for the 

performance. Oral discussion and writing prompts encourage 

your students to reflect upon their impressions and to analyze 

and relate key ideas to their personal experiences and the world 

around them. These can easily be adapted to fit most writing 

objectives. The Bridgework connects theatre elements with 

ideas for drama activities in the classroom as well as integrated 

curriculum. We encourage you to adapt and extend the material 

in any way to best fit the needs of your community of learners. 

Please feel free to make copies of this guide, or you may 

download it from our website:  ActorsTheatre.org. We hope this 

material, combined with our pre-show workshops, will give you 

the tools to make your time at Actors Theatre a valuable learning 

experience. 

 

The Whipping Man student matinees and play guides address 

specific EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES:

• Students will identify or describe the 

  use of elements of drama in dramatic 

 works. 

• Students will analyze how time, 

  place and ideas are reflected in 

 drama/theatre.

• Students will explain how 

  drama/theatre fufills a variety of 

 purposes.

If you have any questions or suggestions

regarding our play guides, please contact

Steven Rahe, Director of Education, at

502-584-1265 ext. 3045.

TABLE OF CONTENTS



The Whipping Man Synopsis, Character List and  

 Setting


About Mattew Lopez, About Meredith McDonough



“Why is This Year Different From All Other Years?”  



 

Engaging our Past with The Whipping Man 



Beyond the Seder:  American Jews in the Civil War. 



7 

Bearing Witness–Excerpts from Thirty Years a slave:  

 

from Bondage to Freedom 



8       Interview with Chris Miller, Composer 

Discussion Starters, Communication Portfolio, Further  

 Research 

10-11 Glossary

12 

Works Cited



Actors Theatre Education

Steven Rahe, Director of Education

Jacob Stoebel, Associate Director of Education

Jane B. Jones, Education Associate

Liz Fentress, Resident Teaching Artist

Keith McGill, Resident Teaching Artist  

Gabriel Garcia, Education/Teaching Artist Intern

LeShawn Holcomb, Education/Teaching Artist Intern 

Lori Pitts, Education/Teaching Artist Intern

 

Play Guide by Leshawn Holcomb, Gabriel Garcia, Jane B. 



Jones, Sarah Lunnie, Hannah Rae Montgomery, Lori Pitts, 

Steven Rahe, Christina Shackelford, Jacob Stoebel and 

Kathryn Zukaitis

 

Graphic Design by Keith La Rue



The Kentucky Arts Council, the 

state arts agency, supports 

Actors Theatre of Louisville with 

state tax dolars and federal 

funding from the National 

Endowment for the Arts.



2


The Whipping Man opens at the end of the Civil War, when 

a badly wounded Jewish soldier, Caleb, returns to his home 

in Richmond, Virginia. His family has fled, leaving behind 

two former slaves, Simon and John, in the torn and ruined 

house. Simon tries to safeguard the house and property while 

he waits for the return of his wife and daughter. John uses 

the house as a holding place for the things he loots from 

the surrounding community. When the men realize that it 

is Passover, the Jewish festival commemorating the story of 

Exodus when the enslaved Israelites were freed from Egypt, 

they begin preparations for a Seder meal, a Jewish ritual feast.

CAST OF 

CHARACTERS

Caleb

Caleb is a Jewish Confederate soldier. Wounded, he returns 

home to find that his family has fled, and two of his former 

slaves are living in the ruins of their once grand home. 

 

Simon

Simon is a former slave of the De Leon family and a devout 

Jew. His wife and daughter also served the DeLeon family.

John

John is a Jewish former slave of the DeLeon family, who is 

bursting with dreams.

It is April, 1865 in Richmond, Virginia.  



“The lights rise on what was once the front entrance 

of a grand town home, now in ruins.  Craters dot 

the hardwood floors. The wallpaper is stained with 

soot and parts of it are burned away.  Most of the 

windows are broken. The damage to the house 

suggests recent destruction rather than years of 

neglect. This was someone’s home not too long ago.”

 

 —from the opening stage directions of The Whipping Man



3

Fallen Confererate capitol, Richmond, Va., April 1865



SYNOPSIS 

SETTING


ABOUT  

MATTHEW LOPEZ

ABOUT  

MEREDITH MCDONOUGH

4

It might seem incongruous to some that a playwright of Puerto Rican 

and Polish descent would write a play about Jewish former slaves and 

their master at the close of the Civil War. However, in an interview 

with New York Times journalist Felicia Lee, Lopez explains, “I don’t 

know if you have to be in a certain group to tell a story…We as 

Americans have to take responsibility for our past, even if most of 

us in this country today are not descendants of slaveholders.” The 



Whipping Man has become one of the more regularly produced new 

American plays, with dozens of productions all around the country. 

After the premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club in February of 2011, 

Lopez was awarded the John Gassner Playwriting Award from the 

Outer Critics Circle. Lopez is now the artist-in-residence at the 

Old Globe in San Diego. He is also commissioned by Roundabout 

Theatre Company, is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect 

and is a recent member of the Ars Nova Play Group.

New Associate Artistic Director, Meredith McDonough, has 

crafted a thriving career as a theatre director fueled by her passion 

for new plays and new musicals. Most recently, McDonough 

served as the Director of New Works at TheatreWorks in Palo 

Alto, California.  While there she directed the world premieres 

of Laura Schellhardt’s Upright Grand and Auctioning the 



Ainsleys, as well as Now Circa Then, [title of show] and Opus 

(Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards: Best Director and Best 

Production). In New York City, McDonough has developed 

work with Roundabout Theatre Company, Atlantic Theatre 

Company, Keen Company, and Ars Nova. She has been the 

Associate Artistic Director of The Orchard Project, was the New 

Works Director for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, 

a Drama League Fellow, an alum of the Women’s Project 

Directors Lab and a Kesselring Award Panelist. McDonough 

is pleased to return to Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she 

began as a directing intern, and then served as the Associate 

Director of the Apprentice/Intern Program for two seasons.



The Whipping Man is Meredith McDonough’s first directorial 

project as Associate Artistic Director, though she has directed 

at Actors and in the Humana Festival of New American 

Plays previously. This production of The Whipping Man is 

particularly exciting to McDonough because of her friendship 

with Matthew Lopez and her love of his work. McDonough is 

captivated by Lopez’s range as a writer and his ability to write 

dynamic characters who must navigate complex personal and 

interpersonal conflicts. 

 

McDonough received her B.S. in performance studies from 



Northwestern University and her M.F.A. in directing from 

University of California, San Diego, where she studied with 

Actors Theatre Artistic Director Les Waters.   

Matthew Lopez, playwright

Meredith McDonough,  

Actors Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director




5

“WHY IS THIS YEAR DIFFERENT FROM ALL THE OTHER YEARS?”

On Saturday, April 15, 1865, three men hold a makeshift Seder 

in the ruins of a once-grand home in the fallen Confederate 

capital of Richmond, Virginia. Theirs is an unusual celebration 

for a number of reasons. It’s happening several days late, for one 

thing, owing to the chaos that has prevailed in recent weeks. 

And given the privations brought on by wartime, the men must 

make do with what they have on hand—celery instead of bitter 

herbs, hardtack in place of matzah. But the improvised Seder 

in playwright Matthew Lopez’s The Whipping Man is most 

remarkable because of the men who are holding it: Simon and 

John, two recently freed slaves, and Caleb, their former master.

It is a fascinating but seldom discussed 

matter of U.S. history that in 1865, the 

end of the Civil War coincided with the 

beginning of the observance of Passover. 

Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses 

S. Grant at Appomattox Court house 

on April 9, marking the conclusion 

of a bloody four-year conflict that 

ultimately would result in the abolition 

of slavery throughout the reconstituted 

Union. Passover—the weeklong festival 

that commemorates the Exodus of 

Hebrew slaves from Egypt—began 

at sundown the following night. The 

symbolic resonance of this coincidence 

inspired Matthew Lopez to write The 



Whipping Man, an unflinching look 

at the unresolved hypocrisies of our 

shared American history. “While 

American Jews were celebrating this 

ancient observance of the Exodus from 

Egypt,” Lopez explained in a 2010 

web interview, “a new kind of exodus 

was happening around them. I imagined a Jewish slave-owning 

family (such families did exist) and their slaves who have, over 

time, adopted the religion. Hopefully it causes audiences to 

question the meaning of freedom and personal responsibility, 

both in their own lives and as citizens.”

The play chronicles the fraught reunion of Simon, John and 

Caleb in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Richmond, as 

the men attempt to sort through the wreckage of their former 

lives, and begin to imagine the future. When Captain Caleb 

De Leon, a badly wounded soldier in the defeated Confederate 

army, returns to his home, he finds his family gone and the place 

changed beyond recognition. Simon, who has spent his life as a 

slave in the De Leon household, has stayed behind to take care 

of the house and to wait for Caleb. Meanwhile John—a younger 

former slave, alongside whom Caleb grew up—loots from the 

surrounding abandoned homes while planning his next move. 

But these men all safeguard dangerous secrets, and ultimately 

they must contend with the ghosts of the past, and with each 

other, before they can move forward.

“I’ve long been fascinated with the idea that history is made up 

of more than just great, calamitous events; it is also the quiet 

moments (which, in truth, are never all that quiet) between the 

big events in which life is allowed to return to normal,” says 

Lopez of The Whipping Man’s inception, explaining how his first 

play began as a voyage into his own curiosity. “There was no event 

more calamitous in American history than the Civil War and 

slavery. How can you be a slave all your life and then suddenly 

be presented with freedom? How do you make that shift? Is it 

sudden or gradual? What if you were forced to make that shift 

in the presence of your former master? How do you react to 

him?” These are questions that resonate powerfully in a nation 

still grappling with slavery’s legacy, and since its 2006 premiere 

at Luna Stage in Montclair, New Jersey, The Whipping Man has 

enjoyed one of the most impressive regional 

runs in American theatre today—including 

a critically acclaimed 2011 production 

at New York’s Manhattan Theatre Club, 

and more than 25 recent or upcoming 

productions at theatres around the country.

When queried by the New York Times about 

his own relationship to his material—Lopez 

is neither black nor Jewish—the playwright 

challenged the notion that, when it 

comes to writing, one must stick to what 

one knows. “I don’t know if you need to 

belong to a certain group to tell a story,” 

he argued. “If you did, I would only write 

about gay Puerto Rican guys who live in 

Park Slope. We as Americans have to take 

responsibility for our past, even if most of 

us in the country today are not descendants 

of slaveholders.”

Indeed, the call to engage with the stories 

of the past is the animating spirit of the 

Seder. The ritual has its origins in the Book of Exodus, which 

commands that every year Jews should tell their children the story 

of their ancestors’ bondage and liberation. Because the function 

of the feast is one of remembrance, questions and answers are an 

important part of the ritual. Perhaps the most famous question 

asked at the Seder, usually by the youngest child present, is “Why 

is this night different from all other nights?” In April, 1865, as 

a divided country began the slow process of healing after a long 

war—and as four million former slaves contemplated newfound 

freedom—John’s revised question would have spoken to the 

significance of the moment with a startling clarity: “Why is this 

year different from all other years?” Like the Seder itself, The 

Whipping Man is also a kind of ceremony of recollection. Lopez 

asks his audience, regardless of race or religious identity, to look 

back together on the complicated, sometimes painful truths of 

our nation’s history—and to remember.



ENGAGING OUR PAST  

WITH THE WHIPPING MAN

—Sarah Lunnie



SIMON

: John, you say today is April 

fourteenth?

JOHN

: It is.

SIMON

: You know that puts us at 

Passover.

JOHN

: Imagine that. Couldn’t come at a 

better time.

CALEB

: It comes every year at this time.

JOHN

: You know what I’m talking about.

SIMON

: I think he’s talking about−

CALEB

: I know what he means.

SIMON

: −the fact that here we are 

this year, where we are this year, in the 

middle of all we are this year  and Pesach 

happening at the same time.

JOHN

Why is this year different from all 

other years?


6

BEYOND THE SEDER:

In Matthew Lopez’s The Whipping Man, three Southern 

Jews celebrate a very unusual Passover Seder. The play shines 

a spotlight on an aspect of Civil War history that is often 

overlooked. Let’s step back for a broader picture of the 

experience of American Jews during the Civil War.



Demographics:

At the outbreak of the Civil War, there were approximately  

150,000 Jews living in the United States, out of a total   

population of more than 31 million. 

•  Nearly two-thirds of American Jews were immigrants,  

 

summoned to the shores of the New World by the   



 

promise of prosperity, equality and religious freedom. Most  

 

of the recent arrivals were Ashkenazi Jews from Germany  



 

and Eastern Europe; the more established communities  

 

tended to be Sephardic Jews (like the DeLeon family in  



 

The Whipping Man), with roots in Spain, Portugal, North  

 

Africa and the Middle East.



•  They settled in the North in greater numbers but rose  

 

to greater political prominence in the South, thanks in  



 

part to the appointment of Judah P. Benjamin, a Jewish  

 

senator from Louisiana, to three successive Cabinet  



 

positions in the Confederacy. 

•  Eight to Ten thousand American Jews enlisted as soldiers in  

 

the Civil War, devoting their services, and sometimes their  



 

lives, to both sides of the conflict.



Jews and slavery:

One of the biggest political and moral questions facing the new 

immigrants was that of slavery. Lacking any kind of national, 

unified Jewish leadership, congregations and individuals 

espoused a great diversity of positions, which ran the gamut 

from outspoken abolitionism to the defense of the slave system. 

•  The leading rabbis of the era were deeply divided on the  

 

issue. Many, especially among the more recent immigrants,  



 

maintained that political discussions had no role in  

 

religious practice. Others took to the pulpit to preach on  



 

abolition and secession. 

 

•  Many Northern Jews, even those who opposed the practice    



 

of slavery, upheld the South’s right to regulate its own  

 

 

affairs. The handful of outspoken abolitionists among the    



 

rabbis was balanced by other Northern Jews who argued    

 

based on biblical precedent that slavery was part of God’s    



 

plan for humankind. 

•  Most Southern Jews, like their gentile neighbors, supported   

 

(or at least did not actively oppose) the institution of  



 

 

slavery. A small minority of Southern Jews participated in    



 

the slave system as owners, traders, and auctioneers. 



Persecution and the struggle for recognition:

Like other largely immigrant populations, Jews became frequent 

targets of prejudice, serving as scapegoats for the mounting 

frustration caused by simmering social tension during the buildup 

to war. Against the backdrop of a national conflict fueled by 

competing notions of autonomy and freedom, American Jews 

fought their own series of battles for justice. 

•  In the first years of the war, the laws governing the Union’s    

 

armies required that all military chaplains must be “regularly  



 

ordained ministers of some Christian denomination.” After   

 

petitioners brought the matter to President Lincoln   



 

 

attention, Congress amended the regulations to    



 

 

allow for non-Christian chaplains. 



•  The most blatant example of anti-Semitism in the Civil War   

 

was Ulysses S. Grant’s General Order No. 11 in December    



 

1862. In a misguided attempt to target the cotton speculators  

 

following his army, he ordered the expulsion of “Jews as a    



 

class” from his military department. 

•  In one of the few instances of strict enforcement of Grant’s    

 

edict, the approximately 30 Jewish families in Paducah,  



 

 

Kentucky were given 24 hours to vacate the city. A group of   



 

Jewish merchants from Paducah drew the public’s attention   

 

to the gross injustice of the order, organizing protests in  



 

 

many nearby cities, including Louisville. 



•  When Abraham Lincoln learned of the incident, he took    

 

immediate action to reverse Grant’s edict, and General Order  



 

No. 11 was nullified less than three weeks after it was issued   

 

Grant renounced the order during his 1868 presidential  



 

 

campaign but stopped short of issuing a full apology.



AMERICAN JEWS INTHE CIVIL WAR

Modern Seder plate

Traditional Seder Plate

—Kathryn Zukaitis




7

BEYOND THE SEDER:

The Whipping Man explores the experience of slavery through 

the fictional eyes of Simon and John, slaves in the wealthy 

De Leon household in Richmond, Virginia. Louis Hughes 

chronicled his own, real-life experience of slavery, and 

the challenges of eking out a new life after the war, in his 

autobiography, Thirty Years a Slave. Though his experience 

differs from Simon’s and John’s in many of its particulars—

Hughes spent most of his life as a slave on a Mississippi 

cotton plantation, and was Christian, not Jewish—many of 

his reflections dialogue with Matthew Lopez’s play in striking 

ways. Excerpted below are Hughes’ thoughts on the practice 

of hiring out the whipping of slaves; the pain of being forcibly 

separated from one’s family; and the hypocrisies inherent to the 

institution of slavery—all subjects examined in The Whipping 

Man.

 

from “Slave Whipping 

As A Business”

“Whipping was done 

at these markets, or 

trader's yards, all the 

time. People who lived 

in the city of Richmond 

would send their slaves 

here for punishment. 

When any one wanted a 

slave whipped he would 

send a note to that effect 

with the servant to the 

trader. Any petty offense 

on the part of a slave was 

sufficient to subject the 

offender to this brutal 

treatment. Owners 

who affected culture 

and refinement preferred to send a servant to the yard for 

punishment to inflicting it themselves. It saved them trouble, 

they said, and possibly a slight wear and tear of feeling. For this 

service the owner was charged a certain sum for each slave, and 

the earnings of the traders from this source formed a very large 

part of the profits of his business.”

 

On the reunion of Hughes’ wife and her mother—from 

whom she had been separated in slavery—after the war

“I worked on, hoping to go further north, feeling somehow 

that it would be better for us there; when, one day I ran across 

a man who knew my wife's mother. He said to me: ‘Why, your 

wife's mother went back up the river to Cincinnati. I knew her 

well and the people to whom she belonged.’ This information 

made us eager to take steps to find her. My wife was naturally 

anxious to follow the clue thus obtained, in hopes of finding 

her mother, whom she had not seen since the separation at 

Memphis years before… We felt it was almost impossible that 



EXCERPTS FROM THIRTY YEARS A SLAVE: 

FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM

we should see any one that we ever knew; but the man had 

spoken so earnestly and positively regarding my mother-in-law 

that we were not without hope... When we reached the place to 

which we had been directed, my wife not only found her mother 

but one of her sisters. The meeting was a joyful one to us all. 

No mortal who has not experienced it can imagine the feeling 

of those who meet again after long years of enforced separation 

and hardship and utter ignorance of one another's condition 

and place of habitation… This meeting again of mother and 

daughters, after years of separation and many vicissitudes, was an 

occasion of the profoundest joy, although all were almost wholly 

destitute of the necessaries of life.”

 

from “A Word For My Old Master”

“It is, perhaps, but justice to 

say of my old master that he 

was in some respects kinder 

and more humane than many 

other slaveholders. He fed 

well, and all had enough to 

wear, such as it was…which 

could not truthfully be said 

of the clothing of the slaves of 

other planters… But while my 

master showed these virtues, 

similar to those which a 

provident farmer would show 

in the care of his dumb brutes, 

he lacked in that humane 

feeling which should have kept 

him from buying and selling 

human beings and parting 

kindred—which should have 

made it impossible for him to 

have permitted the lashing, 

beating and lacerating of his slaves, much more the hiring of an 

irresponsible brute, by the year, to perform this barbarous service 

for him. The McGees were charitable—as they interpreted the 

word—were always ready to contribute to educational and 

missionary funds, while denying, under the severest penalties, all 

education to those most needing it… Possessing absolute power 

over the bodies and souls of their slaves, and grown rich from 

their unrequited toil, they became possessed by the demon of 

avarice and pride, and lost sight of the most vital of the Christly 

qualities.”

More first-person narratives from Civil War-era America can 

be found online at Documenting the American South, a digital 

archive created by the University of North Carolina at Chapel 

Hill—visit Docsouth.unc.edu.

 

—Sarah Lunnie



BEARING WITNESS

Cumberland Landing, Va. Group of 'contrabands' at Foller's house, 1862




8

INTERVIEW WITH THE COMPOSER: CHRIS MILLER

Actors Theatre had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Miller, 

the composer of the musical underscore for The Whipping Man

We learned a little more about his background, his thoughts 

about the play and what inspires him as a musician and 

composer. 



 

Actors:

 What inspired you to pursue a career in composing 

music?

Chris Miller:

 Music has always run in my family. I grew up 

studying piano, voice and guitar. It seemed natural to me to 

want to write. My father is a singer and a guitarist. My mother 

is a pianist and a singer as well, and my brother is a music 

therapist. So it all made sense for me to be a writer. 



Actors:

 What is the process of writing incidental music for a 

story? Do you create it all yourself or do you use other sources 

as well?


Chris Miller:

 You try to keep it small and self-contained. I’ll try 

to play and record all the instruments myself or have one other 

person that helps me out, because usually with a play, it’s not 

as expansive as a musical or a film. I’ll sit with a director and 

we’ll talk about what is needed for the play. I’ll listen to the play 

and watch it on its feet with notes about where the music would 

work. I then go back home and write some material and give it to 

the director for feedback. Once I get a “thumbs up” I’ll go back, 

flesh it out and record it.



Actors: 

What genre of music will underscore The Whipping Man?



Chris Miller:

 The trick of the show is giving it an atmosphere, 

a very specific time and place. I have a feeling it’s going to be a 

single viola that is overdubbed many, many times to create a sort 

of canvas of time and place. It will be more atmospheric than 

either traditional folk music or traditional Jewish music.  



Actors:

 How is music going to aid or enhance the story in The 



Whipping Man?

Chris Miller:

 It is definitely going to help with giving it a specific 

time and place and a foundation for the drama. A lot of times 

music tells the audience where they are and what is about to 

happen. Not like musical wallpaper, but more like preparing the 

audience for what they are about to see, or emotionally moving 

from one place to the next smoothly.

Actors:

 What challenges have you encountered writing music for 

this show?

Chris Miller:

 I think the big challenge is not being overly specific 

about going the direction of traditionally Jewish or “folky” music, 

but still holding fast and true to that story and its setting. The 

challenge will be finding the correct atmosphere, so the audience 

isn’t told what to feel, but we’re still giving them clues and 

emotional entry points.

Actors:

 This production of The Whipping Man will include a great 

deal of rain onstage. What are your thoughts on this?

Chris Miller:

 I love it. And I hope that once the sound designer 

and I start working together we can come up with an organic, 

seamless combination of what’s happening in the music and 

what’s happening in the soundscape, because the rain is totally 

the atmosphere of the play. The question is, how much music do 

I put on top of the rain and then how much do I let it be what it 

is? I’m very excited that someone is creating that soundscape and 

making as much a character as the music will be.

Chris earned his undergraduate degree in piano performance from Elon University in 

North Carolina and an M.F.A. in musical theatre writing from New York University 

in 2001.


—Gabriel Garcia


9

INTERVIEW WITH THE COMPOSER: CHRIS MILLER

PRESHOW QUESTIONS

 

•  Slavery and freedom are major themes of The Whipping  



 Man. What does freedom mean to you? What would it  

 

be like if your freedom was taken away? What would you  



 

be willing to do to restore your freedom?  

•  It was common for slave owners to teach religion to their  

 

slaves in the 1800s. In The Whipping Man, Judaism is  



 

practiced by everyone in the DeLeon household. How do  

 

you think having a shared religion affected the relationships  



 

between slave owner and slave?

•  The characters in The Whipping Man honor the Passover  

 

holiday by organizing a Seder, which serves as a symbolic  



 

celebration of freedom. How do you celebrate freedom in  

 

your life?



POSTSHOW QUESTIONS

 

•  What did you think of the overall design of the show?  



 

Consider each element: set, costumes, lighting, sound,  

 

props. How did they inform your understanding of the  



 

play?  What themes did the design help suggest or establish?

•  At the end of the play, each character must choose what to  

 

do with their new sense of freedom. What kinds of choices  



 

do you think each man will make? Why? Who might be  

 

the best equipped to survive?  



•  Why did both John and Caleb resort to lying to the other  

 

characters? Was their lying justified? Why or why not?   



 

How would you behave in their set of circumstances?     



NARRATIVE

 

Write a journal entry from the perspective of a recently freed 



slave. What does freedom mean to you? What do you wish to do 

with your freedom? What are your fears? What are your dreams? 

   

INFORMATIVE

 

Research the Passover Seder and explain the significance behind 



the language, the food and each step of this annual Jewish 

celebration.

 

COMMUNICATION PORTFOLIO

BOOKS:

 

African American Faces of the Civil War: An Album by Ronald S. 

Coddington

Civil War Curiosities : Strange Stories, Oddities, Events, and 

Coincidences by Webb Garrison

The Jewish Confederates by Robert N. Rosen

Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory by David W. 

Blight


Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Confederate Capital by 

Nelson Lankford



The Untold Civil War: Exploring the Human Side of War by James 

Robertson



This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by 

Drew Gilpin Faust



When General Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan D. Sarna

DISCUSSION STARTERS

ARGUMENTATIVE

 

Review and consider the challenges recently freed slaves would 



have encountered after the Civil War. Select one challenge 

and explain why you think this challenge would be the largest, 

most substantial obstacle facing recently freed slaves. Offer 

evidence and examples to support why your argument is the 

strongest. 

FURTHER RESEARCH

FILM:

American Experience: Death & The Civil War, director Ric 

Burns


Gettysburg, director Ronald F. Maxwell

Glory, director Edward Zwick

Lincoln, director Stephen Spielberg

The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns

The Last Days of the Civil War (History Channel)

ONLINE:

Find these topics by searching the following:

•  The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full  

 

 Citizenship

•  American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology

•  Documenting the American South



10

GLOSSARY

THE CIVIL WAR

Abolitionist

: A person who opposed slavery and fought to  

abolish it.

Amputation

: The removal of an injured or diseased body part, 

often through surgery.

Appomattox Court House

: The last battle of the Civil War; 

where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union Army.

Chimborazo

: One of the largest Confederate hospitals during 

the Civil War.

Confederacy

: The government set up by the Southern states 

that seceded from the United State of America. Citizens of these 

states were known as Confederates, Rebels, or Rebs.



Deserter

: A soldier who abandons his duty without permission; 

punishment was death.

Pardon/Paroled Papers

: These papers would forgive those who 

lost the war from all crimes and would exempt them from  

prosecution.



Emancipation

: The liberation of a certain group from the 

power, dominance or enslavement of another.

Ether

: A highly volatile liquid first used as an anesthetic in 

1846.

Frederick Douglass

: Born into slavery, he escaped and became 

a great abolitionist, even advising Abraham Lincoln.

Gangrene

: The death of tissue in any part of the body causing 

extreme pain and even death.

Hardtack

: A cracker made from flour and water that became a 

staple for soldiers.

Nat Turner

: A slave who led a slave rebellion in 1831 in 

Virginia; he remains an enigmatic figure even today.

Petersburg

: The site of intense battles over several months. 

The fall of Petersburg to the Union allowed the Union to take 

Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy.



President Jefferson Davis

: President of the Confederacy during 

the Civil War.

Tourniquet:

 A constricting device used to temporarily stop 

blood flow in a particular area of the body; often used during 

amputations to stop too much blood loss.



Union

: The Northern states during the Civil War; citizens were 

known as the Federals or Feds, Yankees or Yanks.

 

THE JEWISH FAITH



Kosher

: Food items or practices that conform to the Jewish 

dietary or ceremonial laws.

Leviticus

: The third book of the Torah that contains laws on 

sacrifice, priesthood, and cleanliness.

Minyan

: An assembly of at least ten Jewish adults required to 

fulfill religious obligations such as prayer.

Moses

: The prophet who led the Hebrews out of Egypt, as 

described in Exodus.

Passover (Pesach in Hebrew)

: A Jewish holiday lasting eight 

days that commemorates the Exodus of the Hebrews from 

Egypt.


Rabbi

: A religious teacher and leader of the Jewish faith.



Shabbat

: The Jewish Sabbath, celebrated from sundown on 

Friday to sundown on Saturday.

“Shabbat Shalom”

: A greeting given on the Jewish Sabbath, 

wishing the other person a peaceful day.

Torah:

 The holy text of the Jewish faith; the entire text is on a 

large scroll and is read each week during Shabbat.

Zion:

 Referring to Mt. Zion, it is a name often used as a  

synonym for Jerusalem.



11

GLOSSARY

THE SEDER MEAL

Seder

, meaning “order”, is a meal in remembrance of the sig-

nificance of God freeing the Jewish people from bondage.  Four 

cups of wine are drunk throughout the Seder, while the washing 

of hands happens twice, once without a blessing and once with 

a blessing.  The traditional Seder plate includes:

 

 

 



Beitsah

:

 a roasted egg signifying renewal; the egg is not  

 eaten. 

 Charoset

:

 a mixture of apples, nuts, cinnamon and wine,  

 

symbolizing the mortar used by the Jews to make bricks  



 

during their slavery.



 

 

 

Karpas

:  a vegetable, sometimes parsley, dipped in salt  

 

water to symbolize tears shed during slavery.



 

Maror

: bitter herbs symbolize the bitterness of slavery.

 

 

Matzah



: an unleavened bread made from flour and water,  

 

both the symbol of affliction and slavery



 

Zeroah

: a shank bone representing the lamb that was sacri 

 

ficed the night of the Exodus from Egypt.



Richmond, Va. Ruined building in the burned district, April 1865

Fallen Richmond, 1865-photograph shows African Ameri-

can refugees on barge with household belongings

Often sung in Hebrew by a child, the following 

questions are asked during a Seder meal:

Why is this night different from all other nights?

Why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either bread 

or matzah, but on this night we eat only matzah?

Why is it that on all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables, but 

on this night we eat bitter herbs?

Why is it on all other nights we do not dip even once, but on this 

night we dip twice?

Why is it that on all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining, 

but on this night we eat in a reclining position?



Attention: Young Playwrights!

 

Actors Theatre of Louisville is seeking 

submissions for our New Voices Ten-Minute  

Play Contest.

 

Students grades 6-12 living in the Commonwealth of 



Kentucky or the (812) area code of southern Indiana are 

invited to submit their very best ten-minute play to New 

Voices, Actors Theatre of Louisville’s annual ten-minute 

play contest for young playwrights!

 

Guidelines, tips, examples and submission details are 



outlined at ActorsTheatre.org/NewVoices. You may also 

email your questions to NewVoices@ActorsTheatre.org.



Deadline for submissions:

October, 31 2013, Halloween

 

Missed the deadline?  Send us your play anyway! We’ll 



automatically enter it into next year’s contest.

New Voices Young Playwrights Festival

Winning plays will be fully produced at Actors Theatre of 

Louisville in April 2014 and will be published in our New 

Voices Anthology!

David, Rabbi Jo. “Blessings for Sukkot.” Jewishappleseed.org.  

 

Jewish Appleseed Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Oct.  



 

2012.

 htm>.

Donald, David Herbert, Jean Harvey Baker, and Michael F.  



 

Holt. The Civil War and Reconstruction. 3rd ed.  

 

Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1969.  



 Print. 

Faber, Eli. Jews, Slaves, and the Slave Trade: Setting the Record  

 

Straight. New York: New York UP, 1998. Print.



Freeman, Tzvi. “Torah, Slavery and the Jews.” Chabad.com.  

 

Chabad.com, n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. 

 habad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/305549/jewish/ 

 

Torah-Slavery-and-the-Jews.htm>.



Goldenberg, David M. The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery  

 

in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Princeton,  



 

NJ: Princeton UP, 2003. Print.

Horn, Dara. “Civil War Jews Who Weren’€™t Just Whistlin’€™  

 

Dixie.” JewishJournal.com. N.p., 2 Apr. 2009Web.  



 

11 Oct. 2012.

 passover/article/civil_war_jews_who_werent_just_whis 

  tlin_dixie_20090402/>.

Interfaith Family. “The Seven Blessings.” InterfaithFamily.com.   

 

Interfaith Family, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.

 

interfaithfamily.com/life_cycle/weddings/The_Seven_   

 Blessings.shtml>.

Lopez, Matthew. The Whipping Man. New York: Samuel  

 

 

French, 2011. Print.



Norton, Louis A. “Passover During the Civil War: Antagonist’s   

 

Civil War Passover.” Jewishmag.com. N.p.,    



 

 

\Apr. 2012. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.

 

 

com/164mag/civil_war_passover/civil_war_passover.  



 htm>.

Rich, Tracey R. “Pesach: Passover.” Judaism 101. N.p., 1995-   

 

2011. Web. 26 Oct. 2012.

 holidaya.htm>.

Rosen, Robert N. The Jewish Confederates. Columbia:  

 

 

University of South Carolina, 2000. Print.



Sarna, Jonathan D., ed. The American Jewish Experience. New    

 

York: Holmes & Meier, 1986. Print.



Soloveitchik , Joseph B.. “Slaves to Pharoah in Egypt.” Shabbat   

 

Shalom. Orthodox Union, 06 01 2010. Web.  



 

 

11 Oct 2012.

 

 shabbat_shalom/article/64276/>. 



WORKS CITED

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