Some ideas for starting out the year in CP US history:
History is the critical examination of the past
Memory is how a collective body of people remember the past
History and memory can be used to “prop up” a social or political power structure (Holocaust)
Historiography is the study of the “writing of history”.
Knowing your history empowers you to fight back
Pew Research Poll (April 20, 2011)
Very interesting results regarding the Civil War today. (150th anniversary)
- 56% of Americans say the Civil War is still relevant to US politics and political life
- 23% say they sympathize more with the Confederate cause than the Union cause.
- 48% of Americans think the main cause of the Civil War was states’ rights, compared to 38% who cite slavery
Pew poll
video clip:
The Collective Amnesia of the Country
South website
Video: Ole Miss (show in class)
“Not in Our Town” Old Miss (Feb. 2012)
First 12 min. of video
Re-enacting? Is it a good thing? Why do it?
(good one-South)
(features North)
(blacks in Philly)
Good article in the recent copy of the Upfront Magazine (Sept. edition) entitled “Why the Civil War Still Isn’t History”.
I found the following story on the NPR iPad App: In Alabama, the Sons of Confederate Veterans are planning a re-enactment of the swearing in of Jefferson Davis this weekend. The group wants to commemorate the upcoming 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The ceremony and accompanying parade of re-enactors is rubbing some people the wrong way.
- More at
(Virginia textbook controversy over Black Confederate Soldiers)
Forgotten Men in Gray
(forrest, too)
Response: What are the key elements used by the advocates for black Confederates? What’s the most compelling argument against it?
(Also: get at the numbers game that few whites owned slaves)
The Lost Cause: Reading (website)
How did we get away from the focus of slavery being the main cause of the Civil War?
The Lost Cause: an interpretation of the Civil War that seeks to present the war from the perspective of the Confederates. The Lost Cause romanticized the “Old South” and the Confederate war effort.
Gary Gallagher speaks about the meaning of the Lost Cause:
Questions from Reading of “The Lost Cause”
- Define the “Lost Cause”.
- Look closely at the 6 “tenets or assertions” of the Lost Cause and summarize each one
- Look at the origins of the Lost Cause and summarize the main events that led to this interpretation of the Civil War
- Under the section “mainstreaming the lost cause” identify cultural products that were created to justify the beliefs of the Lost Cause
Culminating Essay:
Given the information presented in class over the past three days, write an essay to answer the following prompts:
- As the country marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War over the next four years, many events will be held to honor the historic milestones.
Some of these events will honor Confederate high marks such as South Carolina’s secession or Jefferson Davis’s inauguration.
Do these events threaten to distort our “memory of history” as to the main cause of the Civil War or “preserve our heritage” by commemorating Confederate history”? Should the federal government attempt to stop celebrations of the Confederacy?
- Should states be allowed to display the Confederate flag on their license plates or state flags, put up memorials to honor Confederate heroes, hold reenactments commemorating Confederate highlights?
- Should southern universities be allowed to have mascots like Colonel Reb and sing fight songs at football games like “The South Will Rise Again”?
Another possibility:
“If you had to lead a mixed-race group of people (or die-hard Yankees with Neo-Confederates) in a discussion that was going to achieve some kind of agreement, how would you deal with the debate over commemorating the Confederate past? Would you ban celebrations, require a concession by neo-Confederates or others, or offer some other solution?”
Notes For Class:
Civil War (1861-1865) 620,000 died
Slavery On its way out in the 1800’s.
World Movements to end slavery:
Great Britain 1807 (first to eliminate the importation of slaves)
All British empires 1833
Netherlands 1814
France 1831
Spain 1834
Portugal 1846
Latin America
Chile 1823
Mexico 1829
Bolivia 1831
Uruguay 1842
United States 1865 (stopped the international slave trade in 1808)
Brazil 1888 (last country to stop the international slave trade)
Important to note: Northern States adopted gradual emancipation laws:
Slavery existed in all 13 colonies by 1750’s (Mass. Was first colony to legalize slavery)
Vermont: 1777
Pa. 1780 (freed slaves after they turned 28 years old)
Mass, RI, Conn. 1777-1784
New Jersey 1830’s (last northern state to enact emancipation laws)
Election of 1860:
Republican Party: Abraham Lincoln
Pledged to halt the further spread of slavery
Promised not to interfere with slavery in the south (Constitution protected slavery)
Lincoln knew that slavery would eventually die out as more states were added to the union.
Republican Party promised free land (Homestead Act) to settlers willing to go west.
Also promised to build a transcontinental RR (1869)
Democrat Party: (split over slavery)
Northern Democrats (Stephen Douglas) favored popular sovereignty (let people decide by vote)
Southern Democrats (John Breckinridge) favored unrestricted extension of slavery in the new territories. Called for annexation of Cuba (another state where slavery could flourish.
Constitutional Union Party: John Bell
Favored following the Constitution. Enforcement of the laws.
Lincoln’s election convinced the South they had lost their political voice in national government.
South Carolina seceded in Dec. 1860 (give handout)
Next 6 weeks:
Mississippi
Florida
Alabama
Georgia
Louisiana
Texas
Also seceded:
Arkansas
North Carolina
Virginia
Tennessee
Four slave states did not secede. (Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware) called Border States. Would have increased the south’s population by 50%.
North pop. 22 million
South pop. 5 ½ million
Representatives from 7 states met in Montgomery, Alabama in Feb. 1861
Formed the Confederate States of America
Wrote a constitution and placed limits on government’s power to impose tariffs and restrict slavery
Elected Jefferson Davis (Miss. Senator) as President of Confederate States
Alexander Stephens (Va.) Vice President of C.S.
Stephens quote” The Confederacy’s cornerstone 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”.
Emancipation Proclamation was issued Jan. 1, 1863:
If you are still in rebellion on Jan. 1, 1863 Lincoln will free the slaves in those states.
History is the critical examination of the past
Memory is how a collective body of people remember the past
History and memory can be used to prop up a social or political power structure
Since 1866, an attempt has been made to rewrite the history of the Civil War. It is still happening 150 years later. WHY?