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Overview
What was life like in Florida during World War II? Students will read letters, documents, advertisements and telegrams from the World War II era in Florida in order to answer this question. Short descriptions of the documents appear below.

Save and Serve: Share the Meat for Victory
Agriculture was Florida's primary economic contribution to the war effort. The brochure, Save and Serve: Share the Meat for Victory, encourages farmers to grow, process and store their home meat supply. With recipes for liver pudding and guidelines for how neighbors can form a "Farmer's Beef Club", farmers are encouraged to "aid the war effort, bring victory and write the peace."

Letter from Student at St. Joseph's Academy
The Drew family papers trace the activities of a prominent Florida family through more than a century of its history. A letter written by Frances Drew when she was away at boarding school in St. Augustine describes the crash of two Navy fighter planes during a Navy Day parade.

Letter re: Women Drivers and Motorcycle Riders
The Florida Motorized Civil Unit was the brainchild of Guy H. Allen, Tampa branch manager of American Oil Company, and was created to counter possible invasion landings by German submarines in the Gulf of Mexico before the United States entry into World War II in 1941.

What are Negroes Doing in your Community in Volunteer Defense Work?
The State Defense Council was created in November 1940 by Governor Frederick P. Cone to direct a concerted effort leading toward total preparedness for Florida. This documents from the State Fefense Council shows both the kinds of work that volunteers were involved in to further the war effort, and the segregation that existed in day to day society.

Advertisement for a Sniff Kit
The Sniff Kit is designed to provide an easy and safe method of identifying the five principal gases used in chemical warfare.

Western Union Telegram re: Scrap Rubber
This telegram from the offices of the State Defense Council gives information about a scrap rubber drive in Milton, Florida.

Western Union Telegram re: Lights in Jacksonville
This telegram from the offices of the State Defense Council mentions that two American ships were destroyed off the coast opposite Jacksonville Beach Friday night, and the possibility that the submarine was aided by the lights of the amusement concessions.

Prerequisites

Students should already have some knowledge of the events of World War II. They should be familiar with some of the changes on the homefront, including the increase in employment due to war time production, and the rationing of goods such as meat and sugar.

Objective

Working in small groups and using a jigsaw format, students will answer the question, "What was life like in Florida during World War II?"

Materials and Preparation
Forms are available in HTML or PDF format. The PDF format requires Adobe Acrobat Reader™. If you do not have the Adobe Acrobat Reader™, you can download it for free here.

Procedure

1. Assemble students in four (4) "Home Groups", A, B, C and D.

2.Give each home group one of the jigsaw pieces (some groups will have one long document, others will have two or three short documents.)

• Group A-Share the Meat for Victory
• Group B- Letter from the Student at St. Joseph's Academy
• Group C -
  • Letter re: Women Drivers and Motorcycle Riders
  • What are Negroes Doing in your Community in Volunteer Defense Work
• Group D-
  
  • Western Union Telegram re: Scrap Rubber
  • Western Union Telegram re: Lights in Jacksonville
  • Advertisement for a Sniff Kit

2. Have the students in the home groups read and discuss their document(s). Each group is responsible for collecting the following information about their document(s):

• Who are the people you read about in the documents?
• What ordinary, everyday events or activities were portrayed in the documents?
• What events or activities were portrayed that were caused by or related to World War II?
• What is the most interesting or unusual fact you learned by reading this document?

2. Assemble students in "Jigsaw Groups". Give each student three minutes to tell the other group members about the section of the brochure they read as well as the information they collected.

3. Have the group to give a presentation that address the question, "What was life like in Florida during World War II?"