http://www.historyteachersattic.com/2011/03/civil-war-alternate-reality-game-in-may/

Seems rather interesting.

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/042011/04192011/1303241343fls

His blog, Interpretive Challenges, has a post entitled, “Poignant, disturbing object in the Kinsey Collection,” which discusses a letter dated 1854 that reads as follows:

Charlottesvill [sic] April the 3d 1854

Messers Dickenson & Hill

This will be handed you by my servant Frances. I am told that it is useless to give the capabilities of a servant, that it depends altogather [sic] on there [sic] personal appearance; be that as it may, I say positively that she is the finest chamber-maid I have ever seen in my life, she is a good washer, but at house cleaning she has perfect slight of hand [sic]. She is 17 teens years old the eleventh of this month.

She does not know that she is to be sold. I could not tell her; I own all her family, and the leave taking would be so distressing that I could not.Plese say to her that that was my reason, and that I was compelled to sell her to pay for the horses that I have baught [sic] and to build my stable. I believe I have said all that is necessary, but I am so nervous that i hardly know what I have writen [sic] Respectfully yours

A M F Crawford

It is difficult for us today to comprehend a way of life that justifies selling a human being to purchase a few animals and a barn. Such is the reality of a slave culture, that a human being come with a price tag equivalent to an animal. It illustrates to me how far we’ve come in just 150 years, and how much work is still left to do.

http://interpretivechallenges.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/poignant-disturbing-object-in-the-kinsey-collection/

My source for this week is from the Culpeper Star Exponent.  This weekend the town held its Remembrance Days’ events of the Civil War. Some of the events included tours of the Museum of Culpeper History, the Little Fork Church, and the Graffiti house. This gives an interesting perspective about how small southern towns remember the Civil War.

I stumbled upon this website by the Georgia Heritage Council.  They claim that  “The Georgia Heritage Council is a group of Georgia citizens taking action to correct the recent abuses of trust by our State government with respect to our heritage.  We cannot stand by as public officials trample our liberties, deny our history, and malign our symbols and our religious faith.” There are some interesting things on this site, including a section dedicated to watching ‘hate groups’.  I thought it fit well with the Shackel reading for the week because he talks about different heritage groups and the way in which they work to promote the Confederacy and challenge state legislatures (Shackel uses VA as an example) today.  Overall, I think the site is worth taking a look at.

The above is a link to a NewsHour piece about the difference between public and scholarly opinion on the causes of the Civil War. They discuss why the difference exists, and cover many of the reasons that we have discussed this semester in class.

http://www.nps.gov/fosu/planyourvisit/civil-war-sesquicentennial.htm

I received this from a buddy I reenact with a few months ago. I thinks its says a lot about Civil War memory. Its says a lot about where Civil War reenacting is going. It explains why Civil War reenacting might be dying out in the next few years. I think it says a lot about what’s wrong with capitalism and the way it’s used in this country.

This is the link to President Obama’s proclamation to kick off the sesquicentennial. Obviously, it avoids all sensitive issues and essentially just says that everyone who fought in the war was a hero and we are all free now so that is what is important. It also kind of makes it sound like one day the war ended and everything was immediately better and happy. Sort of strange. Anyways, I thought it was interesting because the other day we were discussing the question of would it just be better to sort of gloss over the war and not talk about the issues (NO!) but this definitely does that.