Module 8: Civil War Perspective

Open Ended

Take a second to look over the Civil War timeline with your group. What is something from the timeline you already knew, and what is something you did not know before?

Open Ended

Discuss with your group: How does Lincoln’s interpretation of the war differ from how soldiers or enslaved people might have experienced it?

Open Ended

Discuss with your group: In what ways does Douglass’s critique predict the coming conflict? How does he define true freedom compared to the Founders?

Open Ended

Discuss with your group: How does Stephens’s vision of America differ from Lincoln’s or Douglass’s? What does this tell us about the causes of the war?

Open Ended

Discuss with your group: What do Chesnut’s changing attitudes show about the internal contradictions of the Confederate home front?

Try and place this perspective in the timeline of the war. According to your sheets, when do you think this diary was set down?