Procedure
1. Tell students that they are going to hear an excerpt form the memoir
of a Confederate soldier. Introduce concepts and vocabulary from the
memoir of Joshua Hoyet Frier. Ask students to give answers to
the following questions, either before you read the selection or as you
come to relevant passages.
a. If students have done the introductory lesson,
ask them to remember what they talked about. Call on a few students
to answer. If they have not done the introductory lesson, ask students
how important salt is to them. Ask them by a show of hands, how
many of them would travel a hundred miles to get salt. How many
would risk their lives to get salt?
b. What is a meat house? [A building
for smoking meat to preserve it. Think of smoked mullet.]
c. Why would someone put salt on meat?
[For the taste, to preserve it. See Meat
Curing and Smoking.]
d. How would you make salt if you couldn't
buy it at the store? [Evaporate it from sea water, other possibilities]
e. If you were going to evaporate salt
water to make salt, what would you put the salt water in? [Pot, kettle,
etc.]
f. If you build a sand castle on the beach,
what can happen to the sand castle? [High tide, people kicking it
over, rain.]
g. If you built a salt works on the beach
(coast) during the Civil War, what could happen to it? [High tide, storms,
Yankees knocking holes in the pots.]
h. What is a gale? [A strong wind,
32-63mph. Think of gale force winds.]
i. What are provisions? [Supplies,
food.]
j. What is a vessel? [In this case
it means a hollow container, a pot. Other meanings are blood vessel
(hollow container for blood), sailing vessel (hollow container that sits
on the sea).]
2. Read the excerpt from the memoir of Joshua Hoyet Frier.
3. Ask students what the think about the what Joshua Hoyet Frier
wrote. Were they surprised that he said salt was the most serious
consequence of the blockades? Would they eat meat that had been
covered in salty mud? What would the alternatives be if they didn't
want to eat it. Why was the Florida coastline important in producing
salt during the Civil War?
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