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Big Idea Overview and Resources

Big Idea 1: Resistance to Slavery

Big Idea 2: A Nation Divided

Big Idea 3: A Poetic Revolution

Big Idea 1: Resistance to Slavery

Overview

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, it was legal for Africans to be purchased as property throughout the North and South. In the South, the laws were the most oppressive. It was illegal for enslaved people to learn how to read or write, and many were punished or killed when they tried to escape. In the North, while slavery was still legal, some of the conditions and attitudes toward enslaved people were less restrictive. Over time, the issue of whether to continue to keep slavery legal split the North and the South.

Despite their dire circumstances, many enslaved people were determined to fight for their freedom. Some disobeyed the laws and taught themselves to read and write. Spirituals that combined Christian hymns with traditional African music were written by enslaved people throughout this era. These spirituals expressed not only their religious faith but their desire for freedom. Some, like "Follow the Drinking Gourd," makes reference to the escape of enslaved persons from the South and their journey across the Ohio River.

Narratives by enslaved people revealed to the nation the horrors and injustices of slavery. These writers risked their lives by submitting tales of brutality and exposing slave owners as tyrants. One such writer was Frederick Douglass. At the age of twenty, Douglass escaped a life of slavery to become a powerful orator and influential figure of the abolitionist movement. Several other writers followed in his path, including Sojourner Truth. These slave narratives spread throughout the country, encouraging people to view enslaved persons as human beings rather than property.

Web Resources

The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam005.html
The site describes the wealth abolitionist literature held by the Library of Congress. The collection includes songs, almanacs, handbills, and advertisements. Images are available of some items.

The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/doughtml/doughome.html
The collection contains 7,400 items (including 38,000 images) relating to Douglass' life as an abolitionist, editor, orator, and public servant.

Newspapers: Freedom's Journal
http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/newbios/nwsppr/freedom/freedom.html
This Web site discusses Freedom's Journal, the first newspaper in the United States owned and operated by African Americans. Freedom's Journal denounced slavery, advocated for African Americans' political rights, and spoke out against lynchings.

Harriet Beecher Stowe
http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/
This site is devoted to the Hartford, Connecticut, home and library of Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe. The Teacher and Student Resources link leads to many historical documents about the abolitionist movement.

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Big Idea 2: A Nation Divided

Overview

War pits nations against each other throughout the entire world. But imagine war within your own country, a war in which neighbors, communities, and even families fight each other. During the Civil War, battles raged between the North and the South as the issue of slavery and states' rights divided the Union .

Many people in the United States—Northerners and Southerners alike—had conflicting feelings about the war. Some plantation owners hated slavery even though their families owned enslaved. One such Southerner, Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, personally detested slavery but remained loyal to the South. She documented the details of the war in her now-famous journal, A Diary from Dixie. Chesnut's stories depicted the losses and victories of war and its toll on the economy.

Most people know that President Lincoln was instrumental in abolishing slavery. What many do not know is that Lincoln's first goal was to keep the Union together, and he feared that ending slavery would tear it apart. Lincoln's fears became reality, and the Civil War began soon after he took office.

Lincoln's goals to limit slavery and protect the Union gave way to public pressure to end slavery altogether. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln produced the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved people in the Southern states rebelling against the Union .

Lincoln was a famous orator whose speeches reveal his desire to keep the Union together. His powerful, emotional Gettysburg Address in 1863 expressed his vision for a new United States and called for a healing of the nation's wounds.

Web Resources

100 Milestone Documents
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/content.php?flash=true&page=milestone
On this site, you can browse through copies of one-hundred original documents that served as milestones in our nation's history, including the Gettysburg Address. The Our Documents initiative is a cooperative effort among National History Day, the National Archives and Records Administration, and USA Freedom Corps.

First-Person Narratives of the American South
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/tgm.html
As part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's "Documenting the American South" collection, the site includes an electronic edition of A Diary from Dixie by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, illustrations, and footnotes. It also includes a summary of the book and background information on Chesnut.

The First Wave of Secession
http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/outlines/secession.html
What is secession? This page, from University of Virginia's Valley Project, details the first wave of secession, during the winter of 1860-1861. Features include information on secessionist rhetoric, the formation of the Confederacy, attempts to keep the Union together, and local responses to secession.

Explorations: Why Did the South Secede?
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/south_secede/south_secede_menu.cfm
Why did the South secede? Between December, 1860, and March, 1861, seven states in the South left the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Discover what caused them to reject President Lincoln's vision of a new United States.

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Big Idea 3: A Poetic Revolution

Overview

During the Civil War era, many great poets emerged, including Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Although the names and works of these two poets often appear together, their lives and writing styles of these poets differed dramatically.

During his life, Walt Whitman traveled the country, working as a reporter, laborer, and teacher, as well as a nurse during the Civil War. His observations of everyday life and the experiences of common people were reflected in his poetry.

Whitman cared for hospitalized Union and Confederate soldiers during the war. He developed sympathy for the Union as well as enormous respect for President Lincoln. His elegy (a poem of mourning or remembrance) to Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd," was described once as being a tribute equal to the Lincoln Memorial.

Dickinson, on the other hand, observed life from her home in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her poems were deeply introspective and focused on moments and emotions, rather than on specific events. For instance, one of her poems uses sunset and darkness as metaphors for the many deaths occurring during the Civil War. Although Dickinson wrote more than one thousand poems, fewer than a dozen were published during her lifetime.

Both poets had unique, unconventional writing styles. Whitman wrote poems in free verse—long, rambling lines similar to the natural rhythms of speech—rather than in traditional poetic meter. This style may have reflected the way Whitman's thoughts unfolded during his long walks through his Brooklyn neighborhood. Dickinson chose to write in short, clipped sentences. Within these lines, however, are an intensity and depth that belie their brevity.

Web Resources

Poet at Work: Walt Whitman Notebooks 1850s–1860s
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/whitman/
The Library of Congress' Web site about recovered notebooks from the Thomas Biggs Harned Walt Whitman collection. Whitman carried around tiny notebooks as he visited wounded soldiers during the Civil War. He recorded the soldiers' various needs and wants, from the kinds of treats they requested to the addresses of the family members with whom they wanted Whitman to correspond.

CivilWar@Smithsonian: Abraham Lincoln
http://civilwar.si.edu/lincoln_intro.html
Here you will find information on topics related to Abraham Lincoln. Find out why he was called a "rail splitter" and view various images of him. By following the sidebar links, you can get answers to your questions about slavery and abolition, soldiering, weapons, and cavalries.

The Gettysburg Address
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/
The Library of Congress Web site devoted to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863. This site features early drafts of the speech, photographs from the event (including the only known photograph of Lincoln at the event), and more.

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/poet/dickinson.html
This profile of Emily Dickinson appears on a companion site to the PBS program, "Thomas Hampson: I Hear America Singing." Read her biography and several poems.

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