I teach to make a difference in student lives. I have a small window to accomplish that. Semesters last a mere sixteen weeks. In the Early American History survey course, how does one do this? From pre-landing to the Reconstruction Era, there is a lot of ground to cover.
As a historian, the study of colonial America and the antebellum period of the young United States, one discovers that one led into the other. Even from the seventeenth century, decisions made by England and its colonial leaders were foundational choices that led to America’s Civil War (1861-1865). Thus, what we learn about the Charter of Virginia (1607), or the 1656 Navigation Acts, or the Creation of the Board of Trade of Plantations (1696), held significant impacts that differentiated northern colonies from southern.
All that said, America’s Civil War exacted a heavy toll - some 600,000 to 800,000 military deaths depending on who you ask. The war was not only bloody, but it was everywhere. In other words, the war descended on upon Americans, northerners and southerners alike. What was life like then for individuals to navigate this uninvited war?
For students, this was the driving question as they were tasked to research, write, and produce podcasts based upon their findings. They used an incredible database hosted by the University of Virginia, Valley of the Shadow. Here they found family letters, census reports, newspaper items, tax records, land holdings, maps, photographs, military accounts, and much more. Two regions in one valley, the Shenandoah Valley, dissected by a borderline construct known as the Mason Dixon line. North of that line lay Franklin County, Pennsylvania. South of the line lay Augusta County, Virginia. One free. One slave. Both at war and both struggling to survive the conflict. Students were tasked with researching just one of these American families using the materials on the Valley of the Shadow database and elsewhere and create a podcast reflecting their findings.
Remarkable.
Here is one my favorites: four of my students; Brian Carrozza, Ethan Eriksen, David Ceja, and Chris Maderos take on “The Brooks Brothers,” four strapping young lads attending Washington College in Lexington, Virginia when the Civil War paid a visit in 1861.