History 390 blog

Class this week was a little different in subject matter, but I understand why it was necessary. It was a interesting subject matter to me at least. The subject matter that was talked about was the Civil War, and within the conversation I was shocked to learn a few things that I wasn’t aware of. In my opinion I do believe slavery was the cause of the war, and facts prove that this is the case, but what I didn’t realize was though the North/ the union didn’t agree with slavery, most didn’t believe or want people of color to be equal to them. In most historical accounts, and documentaries i’ve seen on slavery it seemed as though once slaves crossed the Mason Dixon they were safe, and free unless of course their owner sent catchers out to get them. It’s just the fact that I didn’t realize they had that type of thought process towards people of color especially sense it seemed as though in the account that I’ve seen that most northerners were alright with blacks. This isn’t to say that all Northerners felt this way, but it was surprising to me that it was how most northerners felt towards blacks. I knew how President Lincoln felt already so that wasn’t as much of a surprise.

The main point of the class was to look at the documents and how they were heavily biased and untrustworthy. The biggest example was from Steiner who claimed that there were 50,000 slaves who fought with the confederate which was a huge lie. No doubt there were slaves who did fight for the confederacy, most more than likely against their will, but for sure it wasn’t 50,000 slaves. Examples like this is why you have to be careful with the information you intake, and where it comes from because it could be untrustworthy information. Another example of it comes from Frederick Douglas, and Butler in which the outcome was that they forced Lincoln’s hand in allowing blacks to fight.in the Union army because it was already happening, and would help the Union win the war. Frederick had to do what he had to do in his document which influenced Lincoln to do what he did. Butler was explaining what was happening with his army so he didn’t really stretch the truth, but still shows how effective his document was in influencing Lincoln’s decision. It’s just interesting to see the photos, and how everything wasn’t as it seemed in some of the documents, and it really makes you think about what you’re reading, and who wrote it before believing what you may see at face value.