Lincoln's Gettysburg Address assignment

8.H.2.1 Explain the impact of economic, political, social, and military conflicts (e.g. war, slavery, states’ rights and citizenship and immigration policies) on the development of North Carolina and the United States.

8.H.2.2 - Summarize how leadership and citizen actions influenced the outcome of key conflicts in North Carolina and the United States.

8.H.1.3 Use primary and secondary sources to interpret various historical perspectives. 

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address-

Read over the text in the document

* If you struggle you can use the rewordify link here Links to an external site. or play the recording here Links to an external site.as you follow along on the page.

Answer the questions on the document in complete sentences.

The following is a transcript of President Abraham Lincoln’s speech on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: 

"Four score (score= 20 years so X 4= 80 years) and seven years ago (1776) our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived (plan or idea) in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition (argument) that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate (make holy)—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Questions:

1. For what occasion did Lincoln give this speech?

2. What year is Lincoln talking about in line 1? Why is it significant?

3. What is Lincoln implying that the Nation can no longer endure?

4. What is the mood (feeling) of Lincoln's speech?  

5. What reaction is Lincoln trying to provoke (tone) from the audience?

6. What is Lincoln defending in this speech?

7. What is the Great Task Before Us?