Stories from the Civil War

Who Were the People?

On the eve of the American Civil War, North Carolina was a rural state with a total population of 992,622. Most citizens had been born in North Carolina and farmed for a living. Foreign-born people made up less than 1 percent of the state's population in 1860, and 72 percent of white families owned no slaves. Even so, African Americans accounted for approximately one-third of the total population, and the majority were slaves. Few urban commercial centers existed, and the largest town, Wilmington in New Hanover County, had fewer than 10,000 residents.


Population of North Carolina in 1860

Total	Urban	Percent Urban	Rural	Free Black	Slave
992,622	24,554	2.5	968,068	30,463	331,059

Yeoman Farmers

Cloudy, warm, and windy. Plowed. Planted the balance of our potatoes.

—Basil Armstrong Thomasson, Iredell County farmer, March 26, 1861

The majority of North Carolinians in 1860 came from white yeoman families who worked small farms, fifty to one hundred acres in size, and owned no slaves. They had more concern about rainfall, crops, and seasonal changes for planting and harvesting than about national politics. They produced much of what they consumed and relied on the sale of surplus crops for money to buy what they could not grow or make by hand on their farms. Men from these families would constitute the majority of North Carolina's Confederate soldiers in the coming war.

Planters

My wheat sold in New York for $1.30 & I suppose I have about 1000 bushels more for sail.

—Ebenezer Pettigrew, Tyrrell County planter, July 19, 1842

Individuals who owned twenty or more slaves were considered planters. Of the 34,658 families who owned slaves in North Carolina, only 4,065 owned twenty or more and qualified as planters. Although they made up a minority, these individuals exercised political influence far greater than their actual numbers would suggest, when compared to families with few or no slaves. Planters frequently served as elected members of the state assembly, and the laws they passed often protected their own interests. Many planters became active proponents or opponents of secession, and some became prominent military leaders.

African Americans

On one of these sale days, I saw a mother lead seven children to the auction-block. She knew that some of them would be taken from her; but they took all. The children were sold to a slave-trader, and their mother was bought by a man in her own town. Before night her children were all far away.

—Harriet Ann Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, 1861

African Americans made up approximately one-third of North Carolina's population in 1860. Although a large number of African Americans worked as unskilled laborers, many were skilled artisans with highly valued talents. Of the 361,522 blacks in North Carolina on the eve of the war, 30,463 were free. Among the Southern states, only Virginia had more free blacks. Enslaved or free, all African Americans lived in a society tightly controlled by strict social and legal codes. But regardless of their legal status, North Carolina's African Americans would play an active role in the coming war.

They Were There Throughout the workshop, you will read the stories of many people, see their personal belongings and photographs, and learn about their wartime experiences. But you will find even more information about the individuals highlighted here, and about their lives before and after the war. Look for each of these people once more within the next few sessions, and again in Session 5. You can also explore each person's complete story in the They Were There handout. Walker Brothers Brothers Henry J. and Levi Jasper Walker rushed to volunteer for the Confederate States Army on the very day that North Carolina seceded from the Union-May 20, 1861. They joined Company B (Ranaleburg Riflemen), Thirteenth Regiment North Carolina Troops (Third Regiment North Carolina Volunteers). In 1861 twenty-four-year-old Henry and nineteen-year-old Levi lived with their parents, Thomas Jefferson and Jane Walker, and three younger siblings, Rufus, Thomas, and Frances Walker. The Walkers were Presbyterians who resided in the Steele Creek area of northern Mecklenburg County. Before the war, Henry, Levi, and their father worked in a local woolen mill. John Wesley Armsworthy John Wesley Armsworthy was thirty-one years old when the war broke out in 1861. He and his wife, Edna, aged twenty-six, had three children under five years old-Branch, Ella, and Matthew. Armsworthy owned a 270-acre farm in Yadkin County, where he and his young family lived. He raised all the food the family needed, including wheat, corn, oats, and potatoes. He had two cows to provide milk and butter, and fifteen hogs for meat. Armsworthy had one mule to help him work the fields but did not raise any cash crops, such as tobacco or cotton, nor did he own any slaves. He and his family were Methodists. Armsworthy was a Democrat, although, like most North Carolinians, he probably did not favor secession before the war. But ultimately he supported the state's decision to leave the Union and join the Confederacy. Alfred May Alfred May, one of nine children of John and Elizabeth Tyson May, was born in Pitt County on March 24, 1843, in a home built by his father and the family slaves. The May land had been in family hands since before the American Revolution, and John had achieved success as a prosperous landholder. To work the land, he used both family and slave labor. The 1860 census indicated that John May owned twenty-eight slaves who ranged in age from four to fifty years. The census also listed Alfred, the youngest male in the family, as a student. No doubt John and Elizabeth May followed the secession crisis with close attention and concern, since they had sons of military age. John May died on May 25, 1861, just five days after North Carolina left the Union. Perhaps because of their father's death, the sons felt obligated to stay at home and care for their mother and sisters. However, in 1862 the war took the boys from the farm into Confederate service. First Robert enlisted on April 7, then Benjamin on May 6, and finally Alfred on August 25. Abraham H. Galloway Abraham H. Galloway was born into slavery on February 13, 1837, in Smithville (later renamed Southport), Brunswick County. His mother was a seventeen-year-old slave, and his white father, John Wesley Galloway, was the son of a wealthy Brunswick County planter. Marsden Milton Hankins, a railroad mechanic (skilled artisan) and prosperous citizen of Wilmington, owned Abraham Galloway from infancy. Galloway received training as a brick mason and was allowed to work independently, as long as he earned enough to give his owner fifteen dollars each month. Craving freedom, Galloway escaped from Wilmington on a ship going north and arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in June 1857. From there he journeyed to the safety of Ontario, Canada, and became a spokesman for abolition. He maintained close contacts with abolitionists in Massachusetts and probably helped other fugitive slaves reach the safety of Canada. After the outbreak of war, Galloway returned to North Carolina to work for the liberation of African Americans. Peter Peter was one of 158 slaves owned by Charles L. Pettigrew of Tyrrell County in 1860. As a slave, Peter did not have a last name. He was a mulatto, a person of mixed race, with a wife and at least six children. Peter and his family lived on the Pettigrew plantation Bonarva, located on the northeastern shore of Lake Scuppernong (later renamed Lake Phelps). The Pettigrews had owned Bonarva since the 1780s. They had also held slaves since that time, so it is possible that Peter's family had been Pettigrew property for several generations. In 1860 Bonarva had a value of $58,000, with an additional $120,240 invested in personal property, including the slaves. After 1858, however, Charles Pettigrew fell deeply into debt because of a business failure. This debt and the coming war left the Pettigrews anxious about future. When the war began, Peter's life changed in ways that he could have never have anticipated. John Thomas Jones John Thomas Jones was a twenty-one-year-old student at the University of North Carolina when the secession crisis came in 1861. He grew up in a Caldwell County slaveholding family that got its wealth by growing wheat and corn as cash crops on a 2,720-acre plantation. Jones, an Episcopalian, was known in the community as Knock because of the way he often settled disputes. John's father, Edmund W. Jones, was a pro-Union delegate to the state secession convention. John sent letters home from the university trying to convince his father to support North Carolina's secession movement and the formation of the Confederacy. Before the state seceded, John joined the Orange Light Infantry Company as a private on April 6, 1861. His company was assigned to the First Regiment North Carolina Volunteers and in June fought at the Battle of Bethel in Virginia. Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston In 1860 Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston and her husband, Patrick Muir Edmondston, lived in Halifax County on Looking Glass plantation and operated a smaller plantation, Hascosea, nearby. The Edmondstons owned eighty-eight slaves. Their total estate comprised 1,894 acres and had a value of $19,600. Both Catherine and Patrick were staunch secessionists. Catherine filled her diary, which she began keeping consistently in 1860 at the age of thirty-six, with praise for the Southern cause and Southerners in general, as well as scathing references to the "Yankees," whom she despised. The March 4, 1861, entry clearly expressed her opinion of the new Republican president: "Today was inaugurated that wretch Abraham Lincoln President of the US. We are told not to speak evil of Dignities, but it is hard to realize he is a Dignity. Ah! would that Jefferson Davis was our President. He is a man to whom a gentleman could look at without mortification as cheif of his nation." Sophia Partridge Sophia Partridge operated the Select School for Young Ladies at her home on East Hargett Street in Raleigh, Wake County, from 1846 until 1851 and again after 1858. Partridge offered academic subjects, including French and Latin, but was perhaps best known for her artistic talents. Her classes in drawing, watercolor and oil painting, and music were quite popular. Partridge, born May 15, 1817, in Vienna, New York, originally came to North Carolina to help nurse an ill sister. She adopted the state as her home and lived here for the remainder of her life. She became an ardent Confederate and actively supported the war, creating a painted flag for Company I (Cedar Fork Rifles), Sixth Regiment North Carolina State Troops and serving in the local aid society. Jesse Virgil Dobbins Jesse Virgil Dobbins was a thirty-one-year-old farmer in Yadkin County in 1861. He owned a 225-acre farm, where he lived with his wife, Sarah, aged twenty-one, and his one-year-old son, Daniel. Dobbins raised all his family needed to eat, including wheat, corn, oats, and potatoes, and had three cows for milk and butter, as well as two pigs. Dobbins also produced molasses and honey on his farm. He grew hay as food for the animals and flax to make linen for clothing. He did not raise the cash crops cotton and tobacco. His farm size and property ranked Dobbins as a typical farmer in his county. A member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), he opposed slavery and probably was a Whig before the war. Dobbins, a unionist, strongly opposed secession, which put him at odds with many North Carolina citizens, including members of his own family and community. Bartlett Yancy Clark The 1860 census listed Bartlett Yancy Clark as a twenty-seven-year-old mechanic living in Guilford County with his wife, Emily Stephenson Clark. The couple, who married on April 19, 1853, had two young sons, Greenville S. and Jonathan A. Clark. The Clarks were members of the Society of Friends, a religious group that believed in pacifism and opposed slavery. Presumably Clark, as a Quaker, did not support the war, which might explain why he did not volunteer for military service. However, service records indicate that his brothers Christopher (or Cristerfer) and John may have enlisted in the Confederate army as early as May 23, 1861. Parker D. Robbins In 1860 Parker D. Robbins was one of more than 30,000 free African Americans living in North Carolina. He was born in Bertie County in 1834, the son of John A. Robbins and a woman whose name is not known. Apparently Parker was a mulatto with Chowan Indian ancestors. Even though antebellum North Carolina law forbade the education of blacks, Parker was a literate man. He owned a 102-acre farm and supported himself as a successful carpenter and mechanic. Despite having his freedom and holding property, Robbins faced rigid social and legal restrictions as an African American. But events would soon present the opportunity for him to use his knowledge and talents in both war and peace. John Newland Maffitt Future Confederate naval commander John Newland Maffitt was, rather aptly, born at sea as his parents emigrated from Ireland to America in 1819. His uncle, Dr. William Maffitt, adopted him at age five, and John moved to Ellerslie, outside Fayetteville, Cumberland County. By the time he was thirteen, Maffitt had a commission as midshipman in the United States Navy. He held various positions, including the command of several ships. In 1842 the navy assigned him to the United States Coast Survey. The superintendent of the survey said that, as a surveying officer, Maffitt had "not been excelled by any one with whom I have come in contact." Maffitt spent fourteen years mapping and charting coastal areas, plotting depths, locating shoals and sandbars, and determining the velocity of currents-learning many skills that would serve him well in his future career commanding blockade-runners for the Confederacy. William Holland Thomas William Holland Thomas was born to Temperance Calvert Thomas on February 5, 1805, in rural Haywood County. He entered the world an orphan, as his father had drowned in the fall of 1804. An extremely intelligent boy, William worked in a trading store in the Cherokee territory of western North Carolina. There he learned the Cherokee language and was adopted into the clan of the chief Yonaguska. Thomas acquired property and became a respected businessman. A self-taught attorney, he represented the North Carolina Cherokee on many occasions and helped them secure the right to remain on their land during the Cherokee removal in 1838. In April 1839, the dying Yonaguska made William Holland Thomas the new Cherokee chief. Ambitious and successful, Thomas entered politics and served in the state senate from 1849 to 1861. A strong supporter of states' rights, he voted for secession at the May 1861 state convention and publicly denounced President Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant. Stephen Dodson Ramseur Stephen Dodson Ramseur graduated from West Point at age twenty-three in June 1860. He came from a slaveholding family in Lincoln County and was a devout Presbyterian and staunch Democrat. By 1860 Ramseur believed that secession was inevitable and justified. He resigned from the United States Army in April 1861, after seven southern states had seceded, and offered his services to the Confederacy. He returned to North Carolina to take command of the Ellis Light Artillery. On May 20, 1861, Ramseur's artillery was posted on the State Capitol grounds during North Carolina's secession debate. When the convention approved secession, Ramseur's battery announced the historic moment by firing its cannons.

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“Let It Be the Last Resort”: North Carolina and Secession

Reprinted from Tar Heel Junior Historian 26 (spring 1987), 1–3.

North Carolina was the last Southern state to secede from the Union. Why? The Southern states that seceded immediately after Abraham Lincoln’s election on November 6, 1860, generally were cotton-producing states that contained many large plantations using slave labor. The voters in these states viewed the Republican Party’s opposition to slavery as reason enough to withdraw from the United States. [See http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/al-nc.html  for a letter from Alabama to North Carolina, urging North Carolina to secede from the Union.]

North Carolina was different. It had only a few large plantations. Slaveholding families accounted for only 27.7 percent of the population in 1860. Instead, many nonslaveholders and small farmers lived in all sections of the state. They did not agree that Lincoln’s election justified taking North Carolina out of the Union they honored. They waited to see what the Republicans in the North would do and hoped for a peaceable solution to differences between the North and the South.

North Carolina's slave population in 1960. Click map for larger image, or go to http://www.waywelivednc.com/maps/historical/slave-population.pdf for an Adobe Acrobat version.
Map courtesy of Office of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

Gov. John W. Ellis

 

Governor John W. Ellis, a Democrat from Rowan County, disagreed with the watch-and-wait policy of his state and viewed Lincoln’s election with alarm. His attitude reflected the opinions of North Carolina’s slaveholders. In November, 1860, he addressed the state legislature and compared secessionists to the heroes of the American Revolution who resisted the tyranny of English laws. Ellis said that if Lincoln was “guilty of the folly and the wickedness of drawing the sword against any Southern State…then we of North Carolina would owe it to ourselves—to the liberties we have inherited from our fathers…to resist it to the last extremity.”

John H. Wheeler, a former state legislator and author, applauded Ellis’s message. Wheeler felt that Lincoln’s election made secession and war inevitable. Wheeler urged his fellow citizens to follow Ellis’s leadership in preparing for the future.

27th Nov., 1860.
[John H. Wheeler] to John W. Ellis.

I have just finished the reading of your Message to the General Assembly.…That portion which refers to our national affairs is deeply interesting and important.…It is no use to blink the question—the die is cast. Secession is forced.…We cannot stop the movement if we would, we should not if we could. The repeated wrongs suffered from a ruthless majority of the North, are to be continued. Submission will invite continued and more grievious aggressions.… Living under the Czar of Russia is preferable to such a dynasty. Every man of the South, who is not craven in his heart, will feel the truth of these sentiments and sooner or later adopt them. This movement can take “no backward step.” A revolution actually and morally has commenced—for the North have declared and will so declare by the administration that no property can exist in slaves, thus ignoring the very principles without which this Union could never have been formed, all the teachings of Judicial, Executive, Legislative and diplomatic usages, and with which this Union cannot exist.…

No great good is effected either in politics or religion without privation, trials, sufferings, dangers and want. We will have as our forefathers did in the Revolution, to abstain from the use of luxuries, to be economical and self-denying for a time, and out of this will come a glorious future. We have within us all the elements of National wealth and National greatness. Our friendship and alliance will be courted by foreign allies.…

Whatever fortune comes to my native State I entreat you to allow me to be a sharer. I have passed the age of the battle field, but if needed I am ready to—I may, in time of trial, stop the bullet from a younger and abler man.…

(The Weekly State Journal, January 9, 1861.)

The next document was written by Joseph P. Eller to United States Congressman Zebulon B. Vance. Eller reflected the concerns of a majority of North Carolinians in 1860 and early 1861. He did not want the Union to fail, and he placed the blame for the secession crisis on the South as well as the North. Vance agreed. In 1860 Vance wrote a friend that secessionists “are ‘precipitating’ the people into a revolution without giving them time to think—They fear lest the people shall think.…”

Jan 28 1861
Ivy Bend Madison Co. NC

Dear Sir it is with pleasure & Regret that I take this opertunity to Drop you A line In the first place I Am glad to let you no that the majority of the people in this country is for the union All the Countys West of the Blue Ridge is union By A large majority & my opinion is the state is from the [Best?] information that I can get ther it is set Down that North Carolina is cession. But if it is left to the people to say they Wull say Difrent Demagogs is A trying to so the seed of Duscord thruout this Country But they haved faild As yet secondly I Regret that I Am hunder the necesity of inqiring of you if nothing can Be done to setle this Mametus qestian that is convulsing the Country from center to circumference and threatining our pece & hapiness Do All you can if Acomplished it you Will Do A Greate Work. As A National Body if not All is lost if Di[s]unon is the Result And the south has to set up for its self this people is As tru to the south As Any people that ever trod the soil But let it Be the Last Resort I Would like to hear from you ocasionaly Rite soon the people Wants to hear your opinian As to the Probability of compromise if not the chanc of Arms for protection this Country is in A Defencless Condition Prived [Provided] War is the Result I Want to no Who is to Blame the south or the North it is Argued in this Country By the leeders that it is the North…But I Am of A Deferent opinion I Believe that Boath Sections is to Blame your Enemies in this Country is triing to make Capital of your Being A union man I hope you Are. it is Reported in this Country that At Burnsvill last Wake throu the influence General Edny & others they hung you in Efigy.…keepe strait on & take care of our interest & We will take care of you Pardan the length of my leter I must come to A Close.…

Your Friend
J. P. Eller

(Vance Papers, State Archives, Raleigh.)

When President Lincoln sent reinforcements to the federal garrison at Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor, the Southerners opened fire on April 12, 1861. Arguments over whether North Carolina should secede ceased. The war that many feared now was a reality. On April 15 Lincoln called on each state to send troops to suppress the rebellion. Ellis refused, stating, “You can get no troops from North Carolina.” Given a choice between fighting against Northerners or Southerners, North Carolina followed the South out of the Union on May 20, 1861.

Dates of Ordinances of Secession by State

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Audio Excerpts: North Carolina Leaves the Union Listen to and read primary source documents about the state's secession. Staff members from the museum and the Office of Archives and History, as well as members of the Twenty-sixth Regiment North Carolina Troops, Reactivated, read for the recordings. Letter from John T. Jones to Edmund E. Jones Letter from Governor John W. Ellis to Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown Broadside from State Senator Jonathan Worth Entitled "To my constituents of the counties of Randolph and Alamance" Letter from United States Representative Zebulon B. Vance of North Carolina to William Dickson of Caldwell County

 

Moving into Battle

We must show to the world that North Carolina will maintain her rights at all hazards.

—Robert F. Hoke, Lincoln County, April 20, 1861

In the spring and summer of 1861, thousands of North Carolina men left their families to join the Confederate army. Many North Carolina officers in the United States Army resigned their commissions and hurried home to offer their services to the Confederacy. [See http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/call/image.html for a promotional poster urging North Carolinian men to join the Confederacy; go to http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/oath/oath.html  to see the oath that North Carolina volunteers had to sign when joining the Confederate army.]

African Americans living in North Carolina, both free and enslaved, were to play an active role in the Civil War. Some African Americans voluntarily followed their owners into the Confederate army due to a strong emotional bond between them. Others were forced to work for the Confederacy, while some remained with slaveholders on the homefront. More than 5,000 African American men from North Carolina joined the Union army, serving in segregated regiments led by white officers. African American women worked as cooks, laundresses, and nurses. [See http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart4.html for more on African American soldiers in the Union army; go to http://www.rootsweb.com/ ~ncusct/regiment.htm for information on the four U. S. Colored Troop regiments formed in North Carolina.]

Parker D. Robbins, a free African American from Bertie County, enlisted in the Union Army in 1863. He served in the 2nd U.S. Colored Cavalry, achieving the rank of sergeant major.

North Carolina faced a huge task in equipping and arming the thousands of recruits pouring into training camps across the state. Many men initially used their own hunting rifles or were issued obsolete weapons seized from the United States Arsenal at Fayetteville. The state sent agents throughout the South and to Europe to procure arms and other military supplies. Prewar volunteer companies reported for duty in a variety of uniforms. In response, on May 23, 1861, Governor Ellis appointed a board of officers to select a uniform for North Carolina's volunteer and state troops. General Order No. 1, issued on May 27, specified the regulations for the new uniform.

Regulation for the Uniform Dress and Equipment of the Volunteers and State Troops of North Carolina, May 27, 1861
The uniform coat for all enlisted men shall be a sack coat of gray cloth (of North Carolina Manufacture) extending half way down the thigh, and made loose, with falling collar, and an inside pocket on each breast, six coat buttons down the front, commencing at the throat; a strip of cloth sewed on each shoulder, extending from the base of the collar to the shoulder seam, an inch and a half wide at the base of the collar, and two inches wide at the shoulder; this strip will be of black cloth for Infantry, red for Artillery and yellow for Cavalry.

Frock coat worn by Henry Clay Albright, Company G, Twenty-sixth Regiment North Carolina Troops, ca. 1862. The shoulder straps conform to 1861 regulations for officers' uniforms.

When North Carolina left the Union on May 20, 1861, a committee was appointed to recommend an official state flag. The state convention approved the flag design on June 22, 1861, and North Carolina began issuing state flags to its regiments.

An Ordinance In Relation To A State Flag
Be it ordained by this Convention, and it is hereby ordained by the authority of the same, That the Flag of North Carolina shall consist of a red field with a white star in the centre, and with the inscription, above the star, in a semi-circular form of “May 20th, 1775,” and below the star, in a semi-circular form, of “May 20th, 1861.” That there shall be two bars of equal width, and the length of the field shall be equal to the bar, the width of the field being equal to both bars: the first bar shall be blue, and the second shall be white; and the length of the flag shall be one-third more than its width. [Ratified the 22d day of June 1861.]

The North Carolina State Flag, issued to the Thirty-third North Carolina Regiment.

The First Regiment North Carolina Volunteers under the command of Colonel D. H. Hill was ordered to Yorktown, Virginia, to help defend the Virginia Peninsula. On the morning of June 10, 1861, the regiment marched out to meet advancing Union forces. At Big Bethel Church, a sharp engagement took place in which the North Carolina regiment routed the Federal forces. Private Henry Lawson Wyatt of Tarboro was the only Confederate casualty and the first North Carolinian to die in battle. The easy victory convinced many Confederates that Southern forces had superior fighting ability and that the war would end within a few weeks. [Go to http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/va003.htm for a description of the battle at Big Bethel; see http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/cr3054.jpg  for a map of the battefield.]

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Related Web Sites

Chronology of the Secession Crisis
http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/secesh.html
A time line of the secession movement from January 11, 1860, through April 12, 1861.

Civil War Letters from Western North Carolina
http://library.wcu.edu/DigitalColl/CIVILWAR/INDEX.HTM
A variety of letters written by soldiers and those on the homefront during the Civil War.

North Carolina Civil War Image Portfolio
http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/pcoll/civilwar/
Prints and photographs documenting the Civil War in North Carolina from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's North Carolina Collection.

Ordinances of Secession
http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/ordnces.html
The legal actions that the Southern states took to secede from the Union.

Proclamation Calling Militia and Convening Congress
http://www.historyplace.com:80/lincoln/proc-1.htm
Lincoln’s call for militia to suppress the Southern states that had seceded from the Union.

Selected Statistics on Slavery in the United States
http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/stat.html
Data from the South as a whole and from individual states on slaveholdings in 1860.

Teaching with Documents: The Fight for Equal Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/
Background information on African American soldiers in the Civil War, followed by teaching activities on this subject.

Time Line of African American History, 1852-1880
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aap/timeline.html
A time line detailing important events in African American history from 1852-1880.

Assignment 1

Complete one of the following assignments:

Option 1:
Individuals, groups, states, and nations join war efforts for many reasons. Some have concrete reasons, such as defense, politics, or economics. Others are motivated by more intangible concepts like principle, pride, or ideology. Outline the reasons that North Carolina joined the Civil War and compare them with reasons that the United States joined a war effort (World War I, World War II, Vietnam, etc.).

Option 2:
When and why should a country or faction become involved in a war? Create a lesson plan or informal activity to get your students to think about and discuss this issue. Optional: share your assignment on the workshop’s Bulletin Board.

Option 3: (If you are seeking reading credits for this course, choose this option.*)
Primary sources, like the letter and newspaper excerpts, diary entries, and documents in this session and throughout the workshop, can be fascinating items that make history come alive and make reading engaging. Using Civil War-related primary sources found in this workshop and/or elsewhere as examples, develop a lesson plan that (1) teaches your students the difference between primary and secondary sources and (2) demonstrates the personal feel of history that reading a diary entry, letter, oral history transcript, document, and/or period newspaper account can invoke. (The workshop's section on primary sources offers additional information and resources.)

Submit your completed assignments via e-mail to jessica.humphries@ncmail.net.

*We encourage you to contact your principal or LEA if you are interested in this option to receive prior approval. If questions arise, feel free to refer your LEA to Jessica Humphries(919-807-7971 or jessica.humphries@ncmail.net). If your LEA does allow reading credits for this workshop and you complete Option 3 of this session and the assignments from sessions 2 and 5, the museum will specify on your certificate of participation that you qualify for those credits. 

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