Viewing History

In class we learned about the Election of 1860. The essential question for this lesson was, “How were the results of the Election of 1860 representative of the deep division over slavery?” To start of the lesson we watched a Crash Course video by John Green. The video helped the class understand the overall topic. After we watched the video we viewed a map that showed the states and the candidates they voted for. The map showed Lincoln having more votes in the North votes and Breckenridge having the majority votes in the South. This was no surprise because Lincoln was a republican wanted to abolish slavery whereas down south where they valued slavery, and voted for Breckenridge who is democratic and pro slavery. The South relied on slavery to keep their economy going, and wanted someone in office that would guarantee that slavery would stay. The in between states voted for candidates like Bell who was for the Union but did not want to abolish slavery. This map helped display the division of states. The northern states mostly voted for anti slavery candidates and the southern states mostly voted for pro slavery candidates. Afterwards, we read an article called, The Civil War in Art. The article explained the events of the Civil war depicted through pictures. Our class split up into little groups and captioned each photo. We then later went on and found three more pictures and captioned those as well. Each group created a video in Educreations of how the pictures helped tell the story of the Civil War.

https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/events-leading-up-to-the-civil-war/30080253/?ref=app

The Statistics that created the Civil War

In class we took notes about the statistics and strategies used by the North and South during the Civil War. The essential question for this lesson was, “How did the differences between the North and South affect each regions strategy and success in the Civil War?” Our teacher had us all make our own infographics on the information we found on various sources. I used a website called infogram to create my infographic. The point of the assignment was to display the disadvantages and advantages the North and South had on each other during the Civil War. In my infographic i included data about population, railroad mileage, slave population, factories, industrial workers, cotton production and war strategies. I included population and railroads in my infographic because I think it best represents the advantage the North had over the South. The north had more than two times as much population than the South, this gave North an advantage because they had more people to fight during the war and help manufacture products that could be used in war. I chose to include the railroads because it represented an advantage of the North as well. The North had more railroads than the South allowing the North to be able to transport troops, food, and supplies faster than the South. I included the slave population in my infogram because it shows how much the South valued slaves compared to the North. I also included the cotton production because the South relied on it to help their economy. I then added information on the war strategies between the North and the South. I enjoyed using an infographic to represent the data from both North and South. It was a fun easy way to display the data and it made it much easier to understand the topic that we were learning.

The fight between north and south | Create infographics

Avoiding the Subject

“The Elephant in the Room,” it is a metaphorical phrase that people use when they are trying to avoid a problem everyone is aware, instead they discuss little problems. The name of this lesson was called, “the elephant in the room,” and the essential question was, “How we know the debate over slavery was the “elephant in the room” for American politics in the early 19th century?” In class we worked in groups of three to create a timeline that discussed many events. We first took notes on the Missouri Compromise. The missouri compromise took place in 1820, and it stated that there would be an even split of 11 slaves states and 11 free states.  After the Missouri Compromise, we learned about the Gold Rush in California in 1849. California wanted to be declared a free state, but weren't allowed because it would mess up the even split.

These are images of my groups timeline.

Afterwards we read an article named, “The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act.” This article helped establish the five parts of the Compromise. The first part of the Compromise was, Texas would be given 10 million dollars to pay their debt to Mexico. Secondly, the territories of nevada, new Mexico, Arizona, and Utah would be organized without mention of slavery. These territories apply for statehood and they get to decide if they are a free state or not. Third, in Washington D.C the slave trade was abolished in District of Columbia, but slavery could still be permitted. Fourth,  California would become a free state. Fifth, the fugitive slave act was passed which required  citizens to notify the officials if  they knew a fugitive slaves.

Next we learned about the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, the US paid 15 million dollars for all of Nevada, California, Utah and more of Arizona and New Mexico in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

We then learned about the Kansas- Nebraska Act of 1854. During the Kansas Nebraska Act people were voting for either a free state or a slave state. The Kansas-Nebraska Act led to Bleeding Kansas in 1856. Kansas was being determined by the people to become a slave state or free state. The word of this news got out and people from both anti and pro slavery swarmed Kansas trying to vote. This resulted in a riot between both anti and pro slavery. Many died fighting for what they believed in during this act. The Dred Scott Decision in 1857 came after the Bleeding Kansas Act. Dred Scott was an enslaved man living in Missouri. He fired a lawsuit against his master, he fought that he was a free man because he was once a former resident with his master in a free state. We read an article that helped explain the outcome of the Dred Scott decision. It resulted in slaves not being able to have a fair trial, all territories were permitted slavery and slaves could not win freedom.

Afterwards we learned about the Lincoln-Douglas debate. Douglas and Lincoln did not agree, Douglas was pro slavery and wanted all white to have the opportunity to choose their government. Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery, and believed that everyone had equal rights. Lincoln tried to address the issue however douglas ended up winning the election.

Lastly we learned about John Brown's raid which took place in 1859. To learn more about what John Brown did we took out our textbooks and read that he led a group of men to attack the federal arsenal in Harpersferry, Virginia. He wanted to seize gunpowder and weapons and give them to slaves. He was later captured and killed. John Browns act didn't go unnoticed, there are many papers and songs written about him. We added all these events to our timeline. Slavery was considered the “Elephant in the Room,” no one wanted to address how slavery was a big issue but all the acts on the timeline was issued from slavery.