Movie Week: The Civil War

The American Civil War is long, confusing, and full of details and generals. There is so much scholarship available for all ages, learning styles, and interests. That said, however, it is a terribly complicated war that was fought over four years and spanned the physical distance of most of the middle and southern half of the country east of the Mississippi. There are no clear reasons or purpose to the war that make sense to our modern sentiments, particularly coming from the north, however, it is such an important and necessary part of our history education and I struggled with how best to teach the Civil War to Sophie.

We are preparing for our annual spring homeschool trip and this year we are "doing the Civil War," meaning as we travel south, we are stopping and visiting Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, the Shenandoah Valley, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, and will end up in Alabama. We have much to learn and visit on our 6 days of travel from Maine to Alabama and we know we will learn a lot, especially from the guides and museums associated with the National Parks and Historic Sites.

In Alabama we look forward to spending some time with Grandpa DC and Grandma Gayle, both of who were teachers and DC has a particular interest in the Civil War. I think it is important, especially for a student from the northeast, to learn about the war from the southern perspective. It's too easy for some schools and teachers in the north to exclude the south's story from the lessons of the Civil War and it's just too simple to say the war is about the south wanting to keep its slaves.

One of the lectures/ discussions Sophie and I had in reference to learning about the causes or reasons for the war was about the question of morality--what is right and what is wrong. I wanted to make it clear to her that there were three moral stances in the war:

1. Slavery: Northern Abolitionists and voters and citizens believed the time of slavery in the US was well over and no person had the moral right to own another person. Period. No further discussion. Slavery was wrong.

2. Separation: the idea of the "Union" was strong in the north, where the notion of nationalism was rooted in the identity of the the United States of America, rather than feeling patriotic to one's state first and country second. The Unionists believed absolutely that the southern states had no moral right to separate from the United States. They believed, as Lincoln said, that if you disagreed with the nation's policies or politics, the way for change was through democracy--that you voted for change and that separation and secession was NOT a option--that it was morally wrong to disengage from the United States.

3. Rights to home and property: The Confederate States of America were not fighting for separation because they were unwilling to give up their slaves. They were fighting for their right to decide how they would live and prosper in their own states and for the right to protect their property--their homes, their plantations, their slaves, and their way of life. The southerners believed themselves to be, for example, Sons of Virginia first and citizens of the United States second. They believed in their God-given right to own property legally and freely and to control and protect that property under any circumstance and when that property was threatened, it was their moral right and duty and honor to protect it at all costs.

To prepare Sophie for the visits to these monumentally brutal battle sites and for her to get to know some of the important figures in the war, I decided to teach broadly and generally and we have spent the week watching movies and documentaries about the Civil War. After reviewing all the available material, this approach seemed best to impart the overall sense of pride, honor, disaster, death, triumph, and sadness of this decisive part of American history.

We started our Movie Week with Gods and Generals, which focused on the Confederate Army led by Ge. Robert E. Lee and the southern early victories at Fredricksburg and Chancellorsville. This movie focused a lot of attention on the bravery of Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson and his victory and death.
Sophie worked on a version of her 6 x 6 as a movie worksheet.

On Tuesday we watched a good documentary as part of Maine Studies on Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine and their bravery in the battles of Fredricksburg and on Little Round Top at Gettysburg. Sophie feels very proud that Chamberlain came from Maine and that the 20th Maine fought so courageously and helped the Union to victory at Gettysburg. We also watched a few key clips from the PBS Ken Burns series about The Civil War and an episode from America: The Story of Us.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent watching the second movie of the Civil War trilogy, Gettysburg, which focuses a lot of attention on Chamberlain and the 20th Maine. Gettysburg will be the first stop on our Civil War trip.

Over the weekend Sophie will spend time at the farm and they'll watch Gone with the Wind and she will complete a long movie worksheet for that movie as well.

I am still considering if we will watch the movie Glory or not. It is rated R but Sophie has expressed interest in learning about the black soldiers during the war. This is a great movie and it is hard to watch--very brutal but realistic and an important story to know. I am planning to preview the movie this weekend and then decide.

On our trip we will also listen to an audiobook: Addy, an American Girl Story about the Civil War.

Sophie will keep a travel blog about her learning experiences and will also take many pictures and collect brochures and information from the visits we make in order to finish a scrapbook about the trip when we get home in May.