Stats and Strategies of the Union and Confederacy

This lesson was about the statistics and strategies of the Union and Confederacy at the beginning of the Civil War. The essential question was: "How did the differences between the North and South affect each region's strategy and success in the Civil War?" To answer this, we looked at documents with charts and maps of the North and South and their resources. We then made infographics using this information. I used my infographic to display what resources the North had that led them to victory in the Civil War. They had more industrial workers, which helped them make more weapons. They also had more railroads, which helped them move their weapons and get them to soldiers. While the South had more military experience, the resources of the North outweighed the strategies of the South.

The Election of 1860

This week we learned about the Election of 1860 and its causes. The essential question for this lesson was: "How were the results of the Election of 1860 representative of the deep divisions over slavery?" To answer this question, we first watched a Crash Course video. We took notes on topics the video discussed such as the Fugitive Slave Law, Bleeding Kansas, and the Dred Scott vs. Sanford Decision. We then recorded our first idea of the answer to the essential question. Afterwards, we went to a web page on the Civil War in Art. We saved the images from the left hand margin on the web page and wrote captions for them. The captions told the story of the Election of 1860 and the secession. We then found 3 more images to fill in the gaps of the story. Finally, we made an Educreations video narrating this story.

Bibliography
The Harper's Ferry Insurrection: John Brown, Now Under Sentence of Death for Treason and Murder, at Charleston, VA. November 18, 1859, Martin L. Lawrence
1860 Popular Vote. www.historycentral.com
The Seceding South Carolina Delegation. December 22, 1860, Mathew Brady
Abraham Lincoln's Induction Speech. www.theomahaproject.org
Our Banner in the Sky. Frederic E. Church, 1861
Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Charlestown. Currier and Ives, 1861

Elephants in the White House

The debate over slavery was considered an "'elephant in the room" in American politics during the 19th century. Our class got into groups and made timelines with events, such as Bleeding Kansas and the Dred Scott Decision, that proved this point.

The top of the timeline is made up of events that had a pro-slavery effect. The bottom of the timeline is made up of events with anti-slavery effects. As we can see, the timeline is very balanced; even some events had both effects. The Compromise of 1850, for example, had pro- and anti-slavery effects. California was recognized as a free state and slave trade was abolished (though ownership was still allowed), which contributed to anti-slavery. However, slaves needed to be turned in without a jury trial, inhabitants of states had to decide on slavery within their state, and while Texas gave up Santa Fe, it remained the largest slave state in the Union. These were pro-slavery effects. Bleeding Kansas was more balanced than an event with only one outcome, but still leaned more towards pro-antislavery because of John Brown's attack on pro-slavery men. Slavery was a huge point in the Lincoln-Douglas debates as well. Lincoln believed majority shouldn't deny minority of their rights, while Douglas won with his idea of popular sovereignty.

As we can see, while slavery was really a balanced issue in the 1800s, it caused violence and mixed responses. It especially invaded politics when it came to popular sovereignty and the Lincoln-Douglas debates. While no one wanted to admit that slavery was a large part of politics, it was hard to ignore.

Bibliography

Compromise of 1850 notes, Edline.

Bleeding Kansas notes, Edline.

Dred Scott Decision notes, Edline.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates notes, Edline.

Slavery During the Antebellum Period

We have been learning about slavery in America during the 19th century. There were a few essential questions for this lesson. They were: How did slavery become economically entrenched  in American society by the early 19th century?, How does a system of slavery based on race affect  human dignity?, and What human characteristics does such a system tend  to ignore? The documents and charts we analyzed as well as the movie we watched helped us to answer these questions.
To answer our first question, we looked at charts on slavery growth between 1790 and 1860. In 1790, cotton was an insignificant crop and the French and American revolutions led people to believe that slavery was coming to an end. Many slaveowners were planning on emancipating their slaves. However, after the introduction of the cotton gin, slavery skyrocketed. Cotton was easier to produce and therefore became a more profitable crop. But to keep up with the increase in cotton production, more slaves needed to be brought to the southern states. This graph shows a 57% increase of slaves in 1860 when cotton production hit 2.2 billion pounds per year.

To answer our second and third questions, I turned to "The Prince of Slaves", a movie we watched in class about Abdul Rahman. He was a prince in Futa Jallon who was captured and sold to slave traders. He was taken to Natchez, Mississippi and was bought by a man named Foster. One scene in the movie really stood out to me. When Rahman was brought to Foster's farm, he had to get his hair cut. Foster had to tie him down because he was struggling so much. Rahman didn't want to cut his long hair because it was a symbol of where he came from, his nobility, and his manhood. Rahman's attempts to convince Foster that he was a prince were futile and they cut his hair anyway. To me this shows that slave owners really had no care or consideration for human rights when it came to slavery and didn't even treat them as real people with past lives.