Why Study the Civil War?
Students should study the U.S. Civil War because it was a period of significant change in our country. The biggest change is the abolition of slavery, which affected the South in ways that still have an impact today. Students should be exposed to the arguments for and against slavery from people in the North and the South to help them understand why an institution so at odds with the American ideal set forth in the Declaration of Independence was able to thrive in our country for so long. Was it inevitable that the conflict between pro-slavery forces and abolitionists should end in war? Slavery was not the only difference between North and South, and these factors also contributed to the outbreak of war. The Civil War also established that states do not have the right to secede from the Union, which marks an important shift in the balance of power between the federal and state governments. The Civil War was also the time of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. Students need to get to know Lincoln through his writings to truly understand why we revere him as one of the greatest presidents in the nation’s history. Students should also get a taste of what it was like fighting the war itself through letters to and from soldiers in both armies, black and white, and through photographs showing the world for the first time how destructive war is. Emancipation was an important result of the war, but the timing of the Proclamation and the road to get there reflects how the war changed the minds and hearts of the nation. This important time period in American history needs to be remembered for how it reshaped the United States.