07: Civil War

07: Civil War

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Mark E. Neely Jr. - Lincoln, the Civil War, and the Constitution - YouTube
Mark E. Neely Jr. - Lincoln, the Civil War, and the Constitution - YouTube
Clocking in a more than an hour and a quarter - this is a video for serious teachers who want to know more of the presidential power exercised by Lincoln during the Civil War. Better than that though, is the way Neely gives grades to other presidents; Adams, Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, etc in for exercising power to suppress opposition. His rubric for these grades includes the degree of threat the country faced and the proportion of these president's reactions. Great for connections across time
Mark E. Neely Jr. - Lincoln, the Civil War, and the Constitution - YouTube
LeConte, Emma. Diary, 1864-1865.
LeConte, Emma. Diary, 1864-1865.
Emma was a 17-year-old South Carolinian girl who witnessed the burning of Columbia, South Carolina by the Army of General Sherman
LeConte, Emma. Diary, 1864-1865.
Fiscal chart | Library of Congress
Fiscal chart | Library of Congress
Look what the Civil War did to public debt in the United States! This chart is also a great example of data visualization in the 1800s. Rather than have students interpret another political cartoon, see if they can make sense of this chart
Fiscal chart | Library of Congress
American Battlefield Trust - YouTube
American Battlefield Trust - YouTube
A wide variety of content is available through this organization. From two minute answers to common questions (Why did soldier's stand in lines?), to four minute summaries and extended battlefield tours there's a lot here teachers can choose from.
American Battlefield Trust - YouTube
American Antiquarian Society - Digitized Manuscripts - Caroline Barrett White Diaries
American Antiquarian Society - Digitized Manuscripts - Caroline Barrett White Diaries
Teachers wanting to show how difficult it is to be an historian, just show them these pages of Caroline White's diaries, written in long hand. White's diaries are a rich collection of northern perspective on the Civil War, and there are transcripted excerpts found on many sites, but this is where they started
American Antiquarian Society - Digitized Manuscripts - Caroline Barrett White Diaries
U.S. History: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) - YouTube
U.S. History: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) - YouTube
A worthwhile half hour for teachers, though language and references make this unusable with students. Though teachers could use the start/stop timing features of Google slides and embed the sections of the video in a slideshow.
U.S. History: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) - YouTube
A Mistaken Form of Trust: Ken Burns’s The Civil War At Thirty - The Journal of the Civil War Era
A Mistaken Form of Trust: Ken Burns’s The Civil War At Thirty - The Journal of the Civil War Era
Great piece for any teacher who uses elements of the Burn documentary in class. This doesn't mean you have to through out the wonder Ballou letter sequence, but it does mean that any documentary or movie you show in class is suspect, and a reflection of it's time as well as the past it protrays. The trick to truly effective history teaching, is making students aware of this also
A Mistaken Form of Trust: Ken Burns’s The Civil War At Thirty - The Journal of the Civil War Era
The Civil War through the lens of a journalist - PBS Newshour Extra
The Civil War through the lens of a journalist - PBS Newshour Extra
How did journalists report on slavery and military conflict during the Civil War? - primary documents and explanation from the Civil War - the political cartoons alone are worth a look. Well-designed and presented lesson
The Civil War through the lens of a journalist - PBS Newshour Extra
Contraband Camps - Interactive Map
Contraband Camps - Interactive Map
Completed ignored by the taught narrative canon, the camps of hundreds of thousands of escaped and emancipated slaves represent some of the worst conditions experiences by anyone during the Civil War. This maps show the location of camps and information about each and could be included as part of a lesson
Contraband Camps - Interactive Map
Lincoln 1864 Address at a Sanitary Fair in Baltimore
Lincoln 1864 Address at a Sanitary Fair in Baltimore
Lincoln's description of different understandings of the word "liberty" in this speech encapsulates the founding contradiction of the nation in clear and concise terms. The story of the sheep and the wolf is priceless
Lincoln 1864 Address at a Sanitary Fair in Baltimore
The New York City Draft Riots of 1863
The New York City Draft Riots of 1863
Teachers looking to incorporate the 1863 NYC draft riot into their lessons could use this reading with students. The reading level, comprehensiveness, and length make it effective. It also explodes the "north against slavery" myth
The New York City Draft Riots of 1863
Digital Programs | Fords Theatre
Digital Programs | Fords Theatre
Looking to learn or teach about the Lincoln assassination? You can use these virtual tours, webpages, primary source sets, and online exhibits.
Digital Programs | Fords Theatre
Introduction | Remembering Lincoln - Ford Theatre Primary Source Documents
Introduction | Remembering Lincoln - Ford Theatre Primary Source Documents

Much of the work students complete for history classes is self-contained within a set of specific documents or media. They are given explicit step-by-step directions to answer specific questions directly related to the media they've been given. This site offers a lesson more akin to the work of an historian; browsing through a broad collection of primary source documents of personal experiences of people of the past with an iconic moment - the assassination of the President Lincoln. Teachers should consider giving students the uncomfortable experience of trying to pull together a variety of sources to come up with just one story - how did the United States react to the assassination?

Just click through the Map of Responses and take a look at the southern sources, that will be enough to convince you that this is worth it

Introduction | Remembering Lincoln - Ford Theatre Primary Source Documents
The Day New York Tried to Secede
The Day New York Tried to Secede
This article exposes the involvement of NY City in human trafficking and slavery even after the abolition of the slave trade. NYC's relationship with slavery was so close the city almost seceded from the state at the start of the Civil War. Maybe teachers know about the July 1863 draft riot, but this story shows that event has a past as well.
The Day New York Tried to Secede
Why Pennsylvania should become one of the Confederate States of America: by a Native of Pennsylvania
Why Pennsylvania should become one of the Confederate States of America: by a Native of Pennsylvania
The Past is not only stranger than you think - it is stranger than you can think. This 1862 book calling for the secession of the state of Pennsylvania proves that adage to anyone who doesn't yet know if it. It sets forth a strong political and economic argument for PAs secession. We don't know if Lee was counting on this when he led the Army of Northern Virginia into the state
Why Pennsylvania should become one of the Confederate States of America: by a Native of Pennsylvania
Sarah Morgan Dawson.A Confederate Girl's Diary
Sarah Morgan Dawson.A Confederate Girl's Diary
Born into one of the best families of Baton Rouge, Sarah Morgan was not yet twenty when she began her diary in January 1862, nine months after the start of the Civil War. She was soon to experience a coming-of-age filled with the turmoil and upheaval that devastated the wartime South. She set down the Remarkable events of the war in a record that remains one of the most vivid, evocative portrayals in existence of a time and place that today make up a crucial chapter in our national history.
Sarah Morgan Dawson.A Confederate Girl's Diary
In Renovation of Golf Club, Donald Trump Also Dressed Up History - The New York Times
In Renovation of Golf Club, Donald Trump Also Dressed Up History - The New York Times
Teachers could use this article and others like it describing the "River of Blood" monument between the 14th and 15th holes of the Trump Golf Course in Virginia as an example of how public memory and historical scholarship interact. Historians know the statement on the monument is false, there is no evidence to support what it says. What role does this play in public memory?
In Renovation of Golf Club, Donald Trump Also Dressed Up History - The New York Times
Abraham Lincoln to George G. Meade, Tuesday, July 14, 1863 (Meade's failure to pursue Lee) | Library of Congress
Abraham Lincoln to George G. Meade, Tuesday, July 14, 1863 (Meade's failure to pursue Lee) | Library of Congress
Gettysburg was not the turning point of the war A. Lincoln - "my dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape— He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with the our other late successes, have ended the war— As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely."
Abraham Lincoln to George G. Meade, Tuesday, July 14, 1863 (Meade's failure to pursue Lee) | Library of Congress
Timeline of secession
Timeline of secession
This timeline includes references each seceding state made regarding slavery, making it clear that the reason for succession was slavery. Period.
Timeline of secession
The Lost Cause Narrative is a Discredited View. We Should Treat It as Such.
The Lost Cause Narrative is a Discredited View. We Should Treat It as Such.
Good article for teachers to read when they are trying to figure out how much weight to give to the Lost Cause narrative. For many people it is the only narrative of the Civil War, but historians know better. How do teachers make the choice of how to frame it for students when they are trying to balance both accuracy and giving various perspective?
The Lost Cause Narrative is a Discredited View. We Should Treat It as Such.
President Lincoln Assassinated!!: The Firsthand Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial, and Mourning - YouTube
President Lincoln Assassinated!!: The Firsthand Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial, and Mourning - YouTube
1 hour lecture from Harold Holzer on Lincoln's Assassination. at 13:30 he speaks about the story of Booth saying "this means negro citizenship" which appears in many, many accounts of the assassination. The level of detail is important - not so much for getting the facts absolutely established, but for demonstrating how readers commonly come across accounts of the past with facts that appear to be absolutely established but are not.
President Lincoln Assassinated!!: The Firsthand Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial, and Mourning - YouTube