The Civil War: Division Between the North and South

Process Paper Senior Division Group Website NICOLA BOUTLER, NIKKI GRABOWSKI, GABRIELLE KORN AND KAREN YU

The Civil War was a very broad and compelling time in our history. We had all learned about this topic thoroughly in 8th grade, and knew there was a lot of information on it. However, we needed to get much more specific, and that's when the challenges started. we ultimately decided to research the last battle of the Civil War, Battle of Palmito Ranch. as our main idea because it easily led to the end of the war itself. Then we could connect it to reformation of our nation, or a number of reforms created in America, all which pertained to the theme of this year. The reaction and reform is incorporated into the theme of "Reform, Reconstruction, and Reaction". The reform that we will include will be the changes that started to occur when the Civil War was completely over. It will consist of describing the Emancipation Proclamation and the new amendments which gave slaves rights. The reaction portion will take into account the South's, North's and freed slaves reactions to the different documents and the end of the war. Overall, the Civil War called for a huge reform, and different reactions from specific groups of people, and our project will depict this. Since our project has quite a few different topics, we believed a website would be the best way to get our thoughts across to people. We realized that this would be the most organized way we could create the project Starting off, we mainly used the internet as a way to process different aspects of our topic, and gain insight on people, politics, and events that took place. We also relied on many primary as well as secondary sources for a more realistic feel to the historical context. After, we all put in the information that we had gathered, and added pictures to make it more interesting. The first part of research that was due was general information on our topic, and each time after resulted in a more specific search for information. We focused on many key aspects, including causes, effects and background of the Civil War. The final research had to be very specific and have three primary documents, such as documents of the newly established amendments and the Emancipation Proclamation to prove reform in the north and south due to the laws giving African American civil rights. Recognized shortly after the war, the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery in the United States while the Fourteenth gave equal rights to African Americans. The Fifteenth, added in 1870, protected African American's voting rights. The aftermath and reactions however, varied by location. While the North rejoiced over victory, the South nearly crumbled due to the new lifestyles they would have to adopt. This war and its aftermath impacted the way our country governs and inspired many other movements in history. Because of the Civil War, America was never the same.