Slavery and the Civil War

For this assignment, discuss the connection of slavery to the Civil War. Was slavery at the core of why the Civil War was fought? What impact did the war have on slavery, and conversely, what impact did slavery have on the war? I am deliberately leaving this assignment open-ended to allow you flexibility to address whatever you think is significant AS LONG AS your posting addresses some aspect of slavery and the Civil War based on what you learned in this class.

If you choose to write a traditional essay, your posting should be a minimum of THREE SUBSTANTIVE PARAGRAPHS (each paragraph should be a minimum of 6-7 sentences). You can also choose to be creative and use PowerPoint. But like with a traditional paragraph posting, you need to make sure that your creative posting comprehensively identifies and explains your chosen topic and meets the same minimum content requirements as if you had written an essay. If you bring up key points, be sure to explain them in depth, and you should have the same kind of depth as you would find in a traditional essay/written posting.

At least one paragraph must discuss the assigned document How Slavery Really Ended (this article must be incorporated into your answer). In addition to the article, make references to textbook chapters and other primary sources that are relevant to your answer. You must support your posting with evidence from the sources — this is not a subjective opinion piece that reflects on your feelings (yes, I care about your feelings, but the goal here is for you to be a historian and write a posting supported by evidence).

The key here is effort: minimal effort = low grade. I want your posting to be insightful and reflect your critical thinking about the connection of slavery to the Civil War. Most of your posting should be in your own words (quotes and exact wording from your sources must make up less than 15% of your posting). If you do use the exact wording from a particular source, please be sure to put the quoted words in quotations and include the page number where it is taken from. Example of quote: (How Slavery Really Ended, 2).

As always, use only the materials assigned for this class — do not use any outside sources as this will result in a “0” for the assignment. And remember, doing the minimum for your posting and response normally merit a C or low B grade so expect to go beyond the minimum for a higher grade.