Today in History Class

Today in history class, we went over the condition of the south post-civil war era. First, we looked at statistics that gave us an accurate view of the destruction caused by Sherman and other Union forces in the South.
From here, we did a worksheet where we thought about how the southerners felt after the destruction of the south.

Finally, we looked at the Black Codes, a group of rules devised by a town in Louisiana, which told us how the southerners treated the newly freed slaves and basically re-created slavery without using the term slavery.

History Class update (1/3/2013)

In the last two days of History, we approached the turning point of the Civil War. On Wednesday, we got into the Emancipation Proclamation and the effects of which it had upon the country. At the time of its initiation into US law, the document didn't do what most people now think it did. In reality, the Emancipation Proclamation didn't free a single slave. The Proclamation didn't apply to the Border states which were still loyal to the Union or to the territories captured by the Union before the Emancipation Proclamation took place. And in the Confederacy, the people were pro-slavery and at the time considered themselves an Independent country from the US, so the US government, and therefore The Emancipation Proclamation had no power there. But in today's class, we learned there is still a reason to celebrate it. The document won over African-Americans and soon the first all African-American unit, the 54th Massachusetts regiment was formed. At first, all the African-American soldiers were considered a massive Show-piece, as they were not used in combat. But per the request of the leader of the 54th Richard Gould Shaw and other abolitionists, the 54th Regiment went into battle, fighting to take Fort Wagner. And while the base remained in Confederate hands for the entire duration of the war, troops gained more respect for the African-American soldiers, as they had now joined the fight to free their people, and were no longer show-pieces. And that is what I learned in History Class.