Discussion – Page 4 – Civil War & Reconstruction Online Course

Teaching the Underground Railroad

On August 7, 2012

In Discussion, Lesson Plans, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources

When I first started teaching US history six years ago, the questions I always got when I started teaching the Underground railroad were the following:

So is the Underground Railroad really a railroad?

Why was it all underground?

My biggest goal in teaching the underground railroad is trying to dispel the misconceptions that students have. Over the years, I have refined my teaching of the Underground Railroad, but one of the challenges has been time. Usually my teaching of the Underground Railroad comes at the end of the year, when I am pressed for time and have so much to get through. Last year, I found an amazing website that is both educational and fun for students examining the underground railroad. It allows the students to get out of the classroom and use technology. The website is is from Scholastic: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad/index.htm

I like this website because it is geared towards students, but also provided great worksheets that you can print out for the students to use. The students follow the path of the slave from slavery to reaching freedom and the challenges they face.

The first year I used this website it took about 3 days to complete all the worksheets. This past year, I modified it so it took a period and a half and offered the Harriet Tubman webquest as extra credit. I highly recommend using this website and the worksheets.

In the end, the students understand that the Underground Railroad is not a railroad nor is it completely underground. The best part about this though is that it is student centered.

Teacher’s Tour of Gettysburg

By Lance Warren

On August 7, 2012

In Digital Storytelling, Discussion, Mapping

Take a teacher’s tour of Gettysburg as Matt guides you through the battle’s turning points, illustrating some of its most significant personalities and acts of heroism while sketching the bigger picture of the Gettysburg Campaign.

http://vimeo.com/48368173

http://vimeo.com/48363076

http://vimeo.com/48326791

http://vimeo.com/48326733

http://vimeo.com/48322824

Soldier’s Letters

By tmyers

On August 6, 2012

In Discussion, Primary Sources, Word Clouds

Every time I listen to a lecture, attend a conference, find new material and new ways of thinking about the Civil War I have to rethink how I teach it. I only have two weeks, maybe three at the most if I stretch it, to teach the Civil War from start to finish including what led up to it. How to choose the most important parts to teach and then how to effectively teach them is a real struggle for me. I find that students tend to remember things much better when emotion is attached to whatever they are learning. I have been moved to tears a few times when reading soldiers’ letters home over the last few days and I think this is a valuable tool.

I decided to do my Wordle experiment with the words of a very sweet love letter from a soldier to his wife. I thought this might be a good introduction to both Wordle and the real experiences of war as seen from the primary sources of letters written by soldiers of both sides of the war.

This is something I intend to use. I think the emotion from the voices of the soldiers tell the story of the war very well. As I have read in more than one place, how great it is that during the Civil War there was no censorship of the soldiers’ letters so we can see the honest feelings of the men. My sudents will connect with this.

Mary Todd – A lucky woman

By tmyers

On August 6, 2012

In Discussion

This is just pure reflection. Of course having listened to the lectures and read the additional documents, watched the guest speakers, etc. Lincoln is on my mind. I love him. I think I am one of his biggest fans. I think of what it must have been like to be married to such an extraordinary man. I imagine their dinner conversations or even private conversations when they retire for the evening, and I am envious of such a lucky woman to be able to actually just listen to Abraham. However, like many married women, Mary did a lot of “retail therapy” to try to make herself happy because she was apparently not so. I guess, sadly for my romantic side, the Lincolns did not share a relationship like the Adams. What a missed opportunity. I imagine the President when he finally relaxes at night, if he was able to, sharing his real and private thoughts with his wife. How amazing would that be? I believe and am totally convinced that Lincoln ALWAYS hated slavery. He said so himself. I believe the war was about slavery. He said it in the Second Inaugural Address and I believe it was ALWAYS about slavery. Of course it was also about preserving the Union. Lincoln loved this experiement in government and could not stand the idea that it could fail. But he also hated slavery. Was he racist? Perhaps to some degree – especially by today’s standards, however he evolved like all of us do as we learn more and have more life experiences. I think we often, especially in elementary levels, see students who just think of Lincoln as a good honest president who freed the slaves. But he was SO much more than that. He was shrewd. He was brilliant. He was a great politician and he seemed to know exactly when to say what to achieve the results he really wanted. I am so glad we have awesome historians who dig deep into subjects and then share the knowledge they acquire. It makes me feel like I know Abraham Lincoln just a little bit.

Scarlett O’Hara in scrubs…

By davemcintire

On August 6, 2012

In Discussion, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources

: Confederate Circular asking Southern women to grow poppies for morphine (National Archives)

The Faust book is a godsend for my students-they just don’t know it yet.

Every year each students pick a Civil War topic to research and every year several students choose women-related topic. Spies. Nurses. Homefront. It ends up that most all of it is from a Northern perspective. Alot of them get stymied by the lack of Confederate information. There are a few online sources but most are at an academic level that my 13 year olds struggle with. This book is a goldmine. I’ve already sent an email to my librarian asking for two copies.

I started reading it from page one but have found myself going to the index over and over again as I remember topics students wanted to search out but our library on online source didn’t have. Many of them are covered by Dr. Faust.

One area my students wrestle with is the sensibility of the day. Chivalry states that women were too delicate physically and emotionally. Seeing men at their worst would change a women. They would get in the way of the doctor and might even start bossing the doctor around. Nursing is such a female dominated occupation today that concerns over “The Florence Nightingale Business” (p. 92) seem trivial.

One gift in this book is the explanation of how the Confederate nursing corp developed. We have so much information about the Union and Dorthea Dix and The Sanitation Commission that I almost automatically send students that direction. To have an accessible explanation on how nurses came to care for Southern soldiers is exciting.

BTW-the document up top is a Confederate Circular asking women to grow poppies to be ground into morphine (source-National Archives).

Abraham Lincoln in Kansas

By leahy

On August 6, 2012

In Discussion, Mapping

In 1859 Abraham Lincoln visited Kansas from November 30th through December 5th . He had been invited by a distant relative Mrs. Mark W.Delahay. Her husband Mark Delahay had a personal friendship with Abraham Lincoln originating with their mutual cause in establishing the Republican Party.In 1859, Delahay sought the Republican nomination for a United States Senate seat for Kansas.This is history that Kansas students seem to really enjoy and it gives them a sense that our state was an important part of US history especially from the 1850’s and throughout the time period of the Civil war. I tell them the towns he visited and what he did and said while he was there.

Lincoln crossed the Missouri river from St. Joseph Missouri and arrived in Elwood, Kansas delivering his first Kansas speech November 30,1859
Traveled to Troy on a cold morning gave a 2 hour speech and that same day traveled ten miles to Doniphan and spoke again December 1,1859
Friday morning December 2, 1859 travels to Atchinson gives a 2 hour speech and learns that John Brown was hung for treason.
Travels to his final Kansas destination in Leavenworth and stays with the Delahay family whom he was a distant relative to.
Much of his Cooper Union Speech was used while in Kansas . The future President thought Kansas would be a good testing ground for his famous New York City speech.

I have attempted to create a Google Map to show you where Abraham Lincoln traveled while in the state of Kansas.

Rage Militaire

By nathanramin

On August 6, 2012

In Discussion, Primary Sources

It is incredibly difficult to think of a moment that made me want to fight and die for my country. As a liberal arts student at a liberal arts college, I had casual conversations with friends, perhaps late at night and fueled by liquid courage, about what might happen if the U.S. was attacked by an outside force. In reality, the idea is, despite the events of recent years, so remote as to be inaccessible to most Americans.

I was a sophomore in college on September 11, 2001. I remember this as perhaps the most confusing day of my life. I didn’t know what to do, or how to feel. We actually attended class that day — I remember my professor in Italian 101 breaking down in the middle of her lecture.

One thing I remember, beyond the sadness, beyond the confusion, was the rage. The willingness of my classmates to sign up for, or at least talk about signing up for, military service was shocking. Of course, few did, but I know the feeling was not unique to Loyola University.

This is the closest I can get to the mindset of the Oberlin College student cited by McPherson on p. 16 of his book. “WAR! and volunteers are only topics of conversation or thought. The lessons today have been a mere form. I cannot study. I cannot sleep. I cannot work.”

How do we move our students to understand this mindset? The September 11 attacks themselves are difficult to teach — most high school students are too young to remember them. How can we give life to the words long dead soldiers in our nation’s deadliest conflict?

fascinated with pro-slavery thought

By mike kleiner

On August 6, 2012

In Discussion, Primary Sources, Word Clouds

Alexander Stephens’ “Cornerstone” speech

I was mucking about with Tagxedo…

I am fascinated with pro-slavery thought. My younger self believed the planter class lived in a sad state of denial, not knowing the wrongs they committed. A bit later, I wondered at the stress that must have consumed those whose hands held the wolf’s ears. It’s not that I never felt deeply for the slaves, or at all blamed enslaved people for their condition and treatment. I don’t blame victims.

But I am curious about the mindset of victimizers; perhaps there may be some future value in that understanding. Among the most interesting elements of the buildup to the Civil War was the reaction of Southern political leaders to the pending ascendancy of the Republican party, especially among the most eloquent pro-slavery speakers.

Alexander Stephens is represented above, in his Cornerstone speech of March 21, 1861. “Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.”

Fascinating.

House Divided Fergus Bordewich Video

By stoned

On August 5, 2012

In Discussion, Lesson Plans, Secondary Sources

I spent some time exploring and becoming familiar with the House Divided research engine this afternoon. There seem to be a lot of very interesting facets to this project which could be utilized in the classroom. While exploring I spent some time with the House Divided Video Channel and viewed the interview with Fergus Bordewich about the Underground Railroad.

I found Bordewich’s discussion about the religious motivation behind the Underground Railroad particularly interesting. He commented that he was surprised by the significance that the religious revivalism of the time played in the establishment of the Underground Railroad. Because I am interested in the religious aspects of the abolitionist and anti-slavery movements this caught my attention. I am intrigued by and would like to know more about this aspect of the coming of the war, the war itself and Reconstruction. Any suggestions as to books, websites or other materials on this would be appreciated

His telling of the story of Jermain Loguen was also notable. This portion of the clip would be a great attention getter to show at the beginning of a lesson on the Underground Railroad. It could also serve as a springboard into some form of discussion activity which could lead into a brief writing assignment or blogging activity. Good stuff.

Mother of Invention by Drew Gilpin Faust

By vannabbott

On August 5, 2012

In Discussion, Secondary Sources

I will admit to tunnel vision with much of my teaching over the last eight years. I believe that I am in such a hurry to make up for the lack of information that I was given on Black Studies in high school and with my undergraduate degree and, I am trying to ensure that my students do not share the same fate. So I am definitely a bottom up interpreter of history teacher for my students.

So, I am intrigued that I am so drawn to the book by Faust and she hooked me with the introduction. As she explain that the “history of elites has not been a particularly fashionable topic in recent years,” and why she chose to still pursue the research. What captured me was that through this work, I was also able to learn nuances of the enslaved people as well.

I use the book NightJohn by Gary Pulsen to teach the Antebellum Period and we watch the movie in its entirety. Last year I added the narratives of Thomas Day and Dave the Potter to give students a wider perspective of people of color during this period. On page 161 of Faust book, where she discusses reading and writing, and how the Civil War and literacy changed the course for many women, I thought that I could add this in another layer to my NightJohn lesson, particularly comparing and contrasting the meaning of reading from an enslaved perspective and that of the elite class. So excited to see where this will lead.