By Sunday 2/5

Journal Prompt #1:

The Civil war happened in the 1860s, specifically 1861-1865. It was a war between the states, the South seceded and were the Confederates, and the Northern states were the Union. President Abraham Lincoln was president and  he wanted to end slavery, this is what caused the south to secede. The 25 states in the Union supported the Government. There were various battles such as The Battle at Antietam, which was to ensure that the British would not get involved. The Battle of Gettysburg which was the turning point in the war, ending Lee's invasion of the North, also with the most casualties. There were several battles of attrition to wear down the opposing side. The Siege of Petersburg killed a lot of the Confederate soldiers. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which was a goal to end slavery.The Confederates could not defend Petersburg and the army retreated and was then defeated, making Lee surrender to Grant on April 9th 1865. A Proclamation of Amnesty was issued where soldiers took an oath of loyalty to the government.

After the Civil war the slaves were free but they had no money, education, and no work. They set up school houses where educated women from the North taught the illiterate people. The Black Codes were changed but made it so the enslaved people still had no rights. The people who were once slaves needed work and would work but got paid very little. The book, Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon shows how slavery was still happening by men getting paid very little to work and existing concentration camps held black men.

This is a shortened version but this is what I know of the Civil War.

Journal Prompt #3:

US History was never my favorite in High School. I would rather learn about other history in other countries, such as Europe. WWI and WWII interest me more, with the involvement of the other countries, propaganda, and the outcomes of the wars. The war that interest me the most in D-Day, and how it was such a changing point in the war.

Another thing in History that interest me is maps. I remember looking at them, recognizing borders and terrains. The world form a perspective of a map makes the understanding so much more interesting.

To help me learn this semester I am going to try to keep up with the reading and the assignments. The main thing is to understand what you are reading and taking notes and to note the main point and turning points that occur in history.

History is not that bad, it is just a lot of memorizing events and dates. Although I don't favor history over other subjects, it is important to know how things changed to make them the way they are today. Without that understanding we, as a nation, cannot move forward. Also knowing what mistakes happen in the past, we can learn from them and avoid letting them happen again, and grow and expand more. What we have today would not be possible without the industrial revolution, The Civil War, the World Wars, the involvement of weapons, the ending of slavery, involvement of other countries, and the list goes on. Looking back and thinking: "If this did not happen, what would it be like today?", is very important and although some things were bad at the time, they happened for a reason and now we learn to not let them happen again.