Project, Sullivan Ballou assignment reminder:

As we read more about the Civil War, keep your mind open for a person, battle, event, or cultural representation that you would like to explore through a paper and an alternative digital medium. What medium you choose may depend on your topic.

While you search, take time to make yourself conversant in the lives and historic effects of two men, Dred Scott and Frederick Douglass. They are covered in your text and in many places online.

My goal is for you, during Wednesday's class, to explore these two men together, using notes you take between now and Wednesday afternoon, and arrive at one or more big question or observation about their places in our country's complexion.

Also, after you listen to the last ten minutes of the first Civil War episode, defend or challenge the filmmakers' use of Sullivan Ballou's letter in the closing minutes of their introduction.

Write this as a short essay, three to five paragraphs. Revise it at least once, edit it and put it in a Google Doc. Then share it with me by Friday, sooner is fine.

Here is a rubric that will cover this essay.

Three Paragraph Essay Rubric

1. The initial paragraph of the essay summarizes what the piece is about.
Exceeds: Demonstrates insight and outside connections, amplifying original assignment beyond original question
Meets: Covers topic clearly
Partially Meets: Does not describe the topic fully

2. The second paragraph gives the writer's clear opinion on the subject.
Exceeds: Opinion is clear and supported by evidence placed smoothly into the exposition
Meets: Opinion is clear and supported by connected evidence
Partially Meets: Has either opinion or evidence or neither

3. The third paragraph provides a conclusion and ties the essay together.
Exceeds: Demonstrates depth of analysis, research and/or new insight gained
Meets: Ties ideas and information together to demonstrate accurate examination of topic
Partially Meets: Information provided does not relate to earlier ideas, or conclusion only partially connects previous thoughts

4. The essay is clear and easy to read and is well researched/explained.
Exceeds: Fluent use of language adds to the reader’s understanding
Meets: Language used provides accurate and interesting information
Partially Meets: Language obscures meaning

5. The essay is free of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.
Exceeds: No errors
Meets: 1-2 errors
Partially Meets: Enough errors that the meaning is obscured

6. Word choice.
Exceeds: Word choice demonstrates deep understanding and appreciation of topic, including appropriately placed terms of art
Meets: Word choice offers clear understanding
Partially Meets: Word choice obscures meaning

7. Paragraph coherence and unity.
Exceeds: All paragraphs contain topic sentences and unified, coherent supporting sentences and all three paragraphs relate logically
Meets:  All paragraphs contain topic sentences and supporting sentences and all three paragraphs relate to one another
Partially Meets: Paragraphs are disconnected from each other and sentences do not relate

Riley's Answers

1. Why did Wilmer McLain say the Civil War "began in his front yard and ended in [his] front parlor"?

Wilmer McLain owned a farm in Virginia. The first battle of the Civil War, Bull Run, took place on his property. McLain moved to a different property close to Appomattox Courthouse, also in Virginia. When Lee surrendered to Grant at the end of the war the official proceedings took place in McLain’s new living room.

2. What percentage of the male population died in the Civil War?

According to the Civil War documentary by Ken Burns 2% of the male population died off.

3. How did the friction between states rights and a federal government contribute to the start of the Civil War?

The states thought they had more power to make decisions and the Federal Government thought they should be more powerful. This became very apparent when the question of slavery was raised.

4. Discuss writer Shelby Foote's premise that the "Civil War defines us" as Americans.

Shelby Foote believed that our country was at a crossroads. Although the war was a horrible thing, it shaped us as a nation.

5. Discuss Thomas Jefferson's comment that to keep slavery in the U.S. was like "holding a wolf by the ears.."

Slavery had been an issue since the Revolutionary War. In the documentary it said slavery sat like a coiled snake under the benches of the Constitutional Convention. The Southern States depended on slavery as a workforce if they were to let slavery go the economy would fall.

6. If one in seven Americans were owned by another American and essentially no one in the northern states held slaves, discuss the complexion (literal and figurative) of the population in the South. How did slavery remain as part of the culture?

Slaves were more abundant in the South. This contributed to a different looking population compared to the Northern States where everyone was mostly white.

7. Who is Alexis de Toqueville? How did his 1830s era observations and books inform the non-slave owning world of what America was like?

Alexis de Toqueville was a French political writer. He informed the non slave owning Americans that there really wasn’t equality in America because black people and Native Americans were second class citizens.

8. Who was John Brown?

John Brown was a unsuccessful businessmen and an abolitionist. He worked in the underground railroad helping slaves escape. He got in trouble in Kansas where he is men murdered pro slavery settlers. He was caught by then Colonel Robert E. Lee at Harper’s Ferry Virginia. He was tried, convicted of murder and hanged. He became a martyr of the North according to the History Channel.

9. Who was William Lloyd Garrison?

William Lloyd Garrison was an abolitionist who ran a militant newspaper, The Liberator. He called for complete freedom for black people. He believed slavery was a sin and people who owned slaves were criminals.

10. Who was Elijah Lovejoy?

Elijah Lovejoy was born in Albion, Maine. He graduated from Colby and he studied to be a minister. He believed in the gradual abolition of slavery and published editorials in St. Louis Missouri. Mobs destroyed his printing press three times. He died defending freedom of speech when a mob tried to seize his printing press for the fourth time according to bookrags.com.

11. What is meant by "Bleeding Kansas"?

Bleeding Kansas describes the conflicts that took place while decisions were being made whether Kansas should be admitted to the Union as a free or slave state.

14. How did the presidential election of 1860 lay the groundwork for Civil War?

Lincoln was pro abolition and was not supported by the South. The vote was divided in the South and split the vote. When Lincoln became president the Southern states started seceding.

15. What state was the first to pass a secession bill? What significance does 

this have today, if any?

The first state to pass a secession bill was South Carolina. The Civil War documentary by Ken Burns said the cotton gin made the processing of cotton faster and more slaves were needed. South Carolina was a big cotton state and had the most to lose if slavery was abolished. The Civil War basically ruined their economy. They are still one of the poorer less educated states.

As you listen, watch, and read...

about the Civil War, keep your mind open for a person, battle, event, or cultural representation that you would like to explore through a paper and an alternative digital medium. What medium you choose may depend on your topic.

While you search, take time to make yourself conversant in the lives and historic effects of two men, Dred Scott and Frederick Douglass. They are covered in your text and in many places online.

My goal is for you, during Wednesday's class, to explore these two men together, using notes you take between now and Wednesday afternoon, and arrive at one or more big question or observation about their places in our country's complexion.

Also, after you listen the last ten minutes of the first Civil War episode, defend or challenge the filmmakers' use of Sullivan Ballou's letter in the closing minutes of their introduction.

Write this as a short essay, three to five paragraphs. Revise it at least once, edit it and put it in a Google Doc. Then share it with me by Friday, sooner is fine.

Leta's Answers... [post #1]

1. Why did Wilmer McLain say the Civil War "began in his front yard and ended in [his] front parlor"?

The first major battle of the Civil War occurred on July 21, 1861 at McLean’s farm in Manasses, Virginia. This battle is known as Bull Run and at the time was the largest bloodiest battle in American history. In the spring of 1863 McLean wanted to move away from the war, so he and his family moved west of Richmond, Virginia. On April 9, 1865 the Civil War ended with Robert E. Lee surrendering to Ulysses S. Grant in McLean’s parlor. 

2. What percentage of the male population died in the Civil War?

Over three million men fought in the Civil War and two precent of the male population, over 620,000, died in the war.

3. How did the friction between states rights and a federal government contribute to the start of the Civil War?

Each state had its own opinion on the legality of slavery. As states become more divided, the federal government’s becomes more difficult as the mediator between the states. It also brought into question the extent of the federal government’s power and whether the federal government or the states could decided whether to allow or abolish slavery.

4. Discuss writer Shelby Foote's premise that the "Civil War defines us" as Americans.

The Civil War decided the kind of a country the United States wanted to be on many levels, not just an equal or unequal country but also as a divided or unified country. The Civil War left some scars of slavery and prejudice that still exist today and it has effected and continues to effect political decisions.

5. Discuss Thomas Jefferson's comment that to keep slavery in the U.S. was like "holding a wolf by the ears.."

I agree with Craig on this one, and would add that if you let go of the wolf’s ears there is a risk that it might turn around and bite you.

7. Who is Alexis de Toqueville? How did his 1830s era observations and books inform the non-slave owning world of what America was like?

Alexis de Toqueville was a French aristocrat, political thinker, and historian. His book Democracy in America is his best known work. It includes his observations of America as it developed as a country during the Civil War. One point he makes is the contradiction between America’s nationalism and sectionalism. The United States presented itself as a unified country and wanted the complete country it began as, however within America great division and conflict between states transpired during the period of the Civil War.

8. Who was John Brown?

John Brown was an (in my opinion radical) abolitionist. He wanted complete abolition of slavery in America. He led that Pottawatomie Massacre, however he is most well known for his raid of Harpers Ferry in 1859. He was executed because of this raid and was seen as a martyr for slavery.

9. Who was William Lloyd Garrison?

  William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent abolitionist and journalist. He wanted slavery entirely eliminated in the United States. Garrison was one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, however he is most well know for his newspaper, The Liberator.

10. Who was Elijah Lovejoy?

Elijah Parish Lovejoy was born in Albion, Maine and attended Waterville College (now Colby College). After he moved to St. Louis, Missouri he promoted the abolition of slavery in a newspaper he started, the St. Louis Observer. He was also an active member of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Lovejoy received abuse from many pro-slavery groups and eventually they murdered Lovejoy. “Elijah Parish Lovejoy was America’s first martyr to freedom of the press.”

11. What is meant by "Bleeding Kansas"?

“Bleeding Kansas” refers to the period in Kansas after the Kansas-Nebraska act passed. The Kansas-Nebraska act ruled that the decision to make Kansas and Nebraska would be left up to the people living there, also known as “popular sovereignty.” This caused Northerns and Southerners to race to Kansas to claim the area and take it over as a free or slave state which led to high tension in the area and then resulted in violence.

13. Who was Hannibal Hamlin?

Hannibal Hamlin was President Lincoln’s Vice President during the Civil War. Interestingly, before his vice presidency he was the 26th Governor of Maine.

14. How did the presidential election of 1860 lay the groundwork for Civil War?

When Abraham Lincoln was elected as president in 1860 South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana seceded from the Union, wrote a new constitution and created the Confederate States of America. These secessions directly impacted the Civil War’s commencement. The text also mentioned that Abraham Lincoln did not hate the South, and in fact was married to a Southern. He was against slavery, however one of his main goals was to bring the states together as one country. His election in 1860 prompted the beginning stages of uniting the states.

15. What state was the first to pass a secession bill? What significance does this have today, if any?

South Carolina was the first to pass the secession bill. As the leader of the movement towards the Confederate States of America it played a large role in the start of the Civil War. I am not sure if that has any implications today in South Carolina, perhaps it is a more conservative state?

For You Devoted Students of the Civil War:

First, aspiring to be a student of history demonstrates scholarship and an appreciation of human nature in the face of all manner of misery, so congratulations.

Second, we are a disparate little group. Today, for instance, apparently only one of you will attend class.

Third, thank the cosmos for the Internet.

Here are questions from Ken Burns' Civil War for you to discuss/answer/elaborate on in the comments:

Those in bold type are mandatory to meet expectations for this assignment. Keep in mind, those who answer first have some advantage in that their observations might be more general, though they must be correct and point in a useful direction for further discussion. Posing another question within your comment is always good, even if it feels a little contrived. The deadline for at least three contributions is this Friday, 13.April.2012. To meet expectations, begin or continue at least seven more discussions by the Monday after vacation. Feel free to get all 10 out of the way this week. Though every comment counts, do your best to write and think generously in each one.

Use your memory, the oracle Google (and a good resource), or your text for information. Use good organization, provide sources (even if you simply say, According to...), vary your sentence beginnings. Attempt to write as if a prospective boss were reading your comments.

1. Why did Wilmer McLain say the Civil War "began in his front yard and ended in [his] front parlor"?

2. What percentage of the male population died in the Civil War?

3. How did the friction between states rights and a federal government contribute to the start of the Civil War?

4. Discuss writer Shelby Foote's premise that the "Civil War defines us" as Americans.


5. Discuss Thomas Jefferson's comment that to keep slavery in the U.S. was like "holding a wolf by the ears.."

6. If one in seven Americans were owned by another American and essentially no one in the northern states held slaves, discuss the complexion (literal and figurative) of the population in the South. How did slavery remain as part of the culture?

7. Who is Alexis de Toqueville? How did his 1830s era observations and books inform the non-slave owning world of what America was like?

8. Who was John Brown?


9. Who was William Lloyd Garrison?

10. Who was Elijah Lovejoy?

11. What is meant by "Bleeding Kansas"?

12. How did Southern Militias play a part in the rise of the Confederacy?

13. Who was Hannibal Hamlin?

14. How did the presidential election of 1860 lay the groundwork for Civil War?

15. What state was the first to pass a secession bill? What significance does this have today, if any?

On through Chapter 12

The weekend and Monday's work includes reading and blogging. Please attach any notes or notable topics as comments here.

Also, Leta and Riley should demonstrate good bloggy protocol. Please check the notes Craig has posted and add or discuss any aspect. Craig, you can comment on the comments.

More Ch.11 notes.

Mason Dixon Line: Northeastern border of slave states (Pensilvania/Maryland) (Ohio River)

Underground Railroad: used to bring slaves from southern states to northern states.

Ohio: back and forth between whether or not someone could be processed for hiding slaves.

Manifest Destiny: God-blessed choice of own destiny.

City on a Hill: Beacon of all other cultures: THE BEST.

Burning up the chapters...

That is my optimistic titling of what we did today. Craig took great notes while I read Section 1 from Chapter 11. We discussed headings and major topics and used the review section to make sure the notes included important bits.

I was going to have Craig send the notes to me, but I am going to contact him and ask that he post them here, either in a separate post or comment.

Wednesday, you will finish the poster and assess our reading. Ken Burns' Civil War is on deck.