Vocabulary from the First Part
of the Gettysburg Address (inc.)

Gettysburg is a town in Pennsylvania where the most famous battle of the Civil War was fought. It turned the tide in the war, and gave the advantage to the North. It lasted three days, July 1-3, 1863. 57,000 soldiers died, more than in any battle in US history.

Abraham Lincoln was the sixteen president of the United States, famous for his patient and wise handling of the states during the war which almost broke up the United States, 1861-65.

An address is another name for a short speech, here not a house number. The speech President Abe Lincoln made at Gettysburg is probably the greatest American speech ever made. Lincoln was not even to be the main speaker at the dedication of the cemetary where so many thousands of civil war solders had died months before.

A score is an older word for twenty of something, here twenty years. So "4 score and seven years ago" means 4 x 20 +7 years before this speech was given in 1863. Can you figure what year he was speaking about? What happened in that famous year? What famous war was fought? What was its result? Hint: see the picture to the right. ---------->

If you still don't know,

read on below....

Our fathers referred to the leaders (forefathers) who started this country 87 years before: George Washington (the top general and later on our first president), John Adams, (second), Thomas Jefferson (third), Benjamin Franklin, inventor and founder, and many others. Jefferson is famous for writing the Declaration of Independence, and later as the third US President for buying half of the United States in the Louisiana Purchase from France for 15 million dollars, one of the best land deals in world history.

A continent is a huge body of land. There are either five or seven continents, depending whether you count Australia, Arctica, and Antarctica. Can you name the five main continents?

Link to continent identification site

to be completed

Link to Amerigo Vespucci

or a picture of him here

(to be completed)

A nation is a country. What is the name of our country? Find out who or what America is named after. Find out how many countries there are in the world today. (Would google help?)

Conceived means two things, both of which work here. First, it means to be "thought up" like someone "conceives of a great idea." It also means "to be with child, or pregnant." So "conceived in Liberty" means that Liberty (or freedom) is kind of the mother of our country. Look up and note the "four freedoms." What are they?

picture of the Statue of Liberty

here with a link for further research

(to be completed)

link to internet dictionary

with various meanings of the word

(to be completed)

Dedicated is like when someone dedicates a song for someone on the radio. It means "devoted" or "given to" someone or something. Use it in a sentence.

A proposition is a proposal or a plan. So, our country is based on the two ideas of liberty and equality.

Discuss what the four freedoms are,

maybe including a link to them

or the Norman Rockwell painting

(to be completed)

pic on slaves on the trading block

or of black Union Soldiers

(to be completed)

all men here did not at the time refer to women, or black slaves just yet. Lincoln would later make it official that slaves were to be freed (in the Emancipation Proclamation) but the civil war was primarily fought over keeping the states together as one country and not so much over freeing the slaves. Women would become full citizens with the right to vote 57 years later in the 1920 (under the 19th Amendment).