The Civil War- Week 4

For the previous week in American Studies, we talked more about the United States as it progressed through the 1800's. We discussed America, and the different territories, and how they changed into states as time progressed. We had a big discussion on the Civil War, and the different events that took place to launch it into effect. We talked about the crumbling nation after James Buchanan had left it, and when Abraham Lincoln took office, 7 states had seceded from the Union, prompting Lincoln to start the Civil War, the bloodiest battle in American history. The war had killed 750,000 Americans. In class we discussed two major battles in the Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg, and the Battle of Cold Harbor. We talked about them in great detail and watched historical representations and reenactments of the battles. We talked about the importance of the location of Gettysburg, and we analyzed some of the battle plans for both sides, I found it interesting how each side planned their attacks and the outcomes of each individual attack and it was helpful to see a visual representation. We also looked into another document, a court case between a slave and the government, The case was not on the issue Dred Scott (a free slave) had brought up, but whether or not Africans had the right to bring cases to court. I found the case extremely interesting, and saw how oppressed blacks truly were. We created an OPVL on the document, which helped me understand the text even more because of the further analyzation.