Power from Above

In class we have been learning about the events leading up to the abolition of slavery. A major point of this lesson was to determine if the acts of freedom were granted by powers from above or below. Power from above is change made by someone in authority, often a reaction to the slaves. Power from below is just the opposite. It is when a group of people without power create change.

In terms of the civil war and abolition of slavery, this change was granted by power from above. When Union troops moved through Southern cities the slaves would flock in. The slaves crowded the city streets enough to make the troops complain to higher powers. These complaints made their way to the president and from there he spoke the emancipation proclamation. This stated that slaves in rebelling states were free. Later on the 13th amendment was declared by congress. From this slavery was abolished.

Although power from above was used in the civil war, I do not believe that it is the only way to achieve things. People when they come together have the power to accomplish great things.

Civil War Scavenger Hunt

This previous week in history class, we participated in a civil war battle scavenger hunt. We were given a list with short summaries of the civil war battles, from there we chose one of the descriptions and had to research the information we were given to name to battle. Next, we made a google document with the name of the battle, it's theater (east,west, or naval), the victor and the reasons for their success. We made a QR code to direct our classmates to the document. These QR codes were hidden around the school, each with a clue to where the next code was located. While hunting around our school we took notes on the documents and answered the questions, Who was the ultimate victor in each of the theaters of war: East, West, naval? And What are some commonalities identifying the reasons for the results of the battles?

I found that in the Eastern theater the confederate states were the primary victors. A majority of the battles were won by them including the battles of  the bull run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Cold Harbor. In the Eastern battles the union proved to have a lack of reinforcement where the confederacy had strong initial counter attacks. Although the Confederacy was able to dominate in the East the union was champion in the western theater. The union won the battles of Fort Henry, Shiloh, Fort Donelson, Vicksburg and many more. In the eastern theater the union was able to outnumber the confederacy and they proven to have a superior strategy. In accordance with the naval theater, the union was again the victor. The confederate armies had outdated weaponry compared to the union armies. The union had previously developed naval army and therefore their naval forces were stronger than the confederate's. The union's superior navy aided them into victory of the battles of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Hampton Roads, and Baton Rouge,

This activity, though tiring, was very fun! It was a good break from what we usually do in class, and it helped wake me up in the morning. I enjoyed being able to work together with my classmates to create the scavenger hunt and still being able to enjoy it myself.

Here is a padlet my class made today in class to show who the victor was in each of the civil war theaters.

Created with Padlet