The document discusses several perspectives on the American Civil War, including slavery, education, music, religion, and art. It provides background on how slavery was introduced and eventually abolished, how education differed for wealthy and poor children in the North and South, the role of music in building morale among soldiers, how both sides used the Bible to justify their positions, and how art forms including photography, paintings and poetry documented and shaped understanding of the war.

1. Perspectives of
the Civil War

2. Civil War - Slavery
Slaves worked the large farms where labor intensive cash crops,
such as tobacco and cotton, were grown.

3. Slavery was introduced to the European colonist, as a
solution to help them work the land for food and
wealth. (Civil War Trust)
There were tension among the states as to the economic
benefits and the moral issues.
After many years of cruel an inhumane treatment, slavery
was outlawed on December 6, 1865. (Civil War Trust)

4. Civil War - Education
Public education did not exist at this time.
Schools were formed by:
 Churches
 Civic minded groups
Half of the school aged children attended.
Mostly the white native American born attended.
Fewer Immigrant and black children attended. (Civil War
Trust)

5. Attendance in the southern states was
affected more by the war, than the
attendance in the northern schools.
Children attended fewer years, because
they worked in the fields to help the
family. Agricultural economy dictated the
school schedules, and most textbooks
came from the northern states.

6. School’s conditions for the common child:
one room * many ages * memorization and recitation *
corporal punishment
School’s condition for the wealthier child:
segregated by female and male * boarding schools *
intensive curriculum * variety of offerings in languages,
sciences and philosophy (History Central)

7. Education of the black children
Generals Sherman and Grant helped
establish and supported education for
the freed African American people
Literacy was the tool for
empowerment and social
Advancement. (Blassingame)

8. Civil War - Music
How music affected the soldiers
 sang mostly hymns due to the Christian faith and practice
in antebellum culture
 War and death brought the soldier’s faith, belief and
behavior into clearer focus
 built community among the soldiers
 distracted themselves by singing and playing instruments

9. Composers and Songwriters
Louis Gotschalk was a popular American composer during
1829-1869. His main work was a commemorative hymn
for those lost at war – “They who seek the Throne of
Grace” (Lowens/Starr)
Stephen Foster was known as America’s best 19th century
songwriter. He had many famous recordings which
included “Oh Sussanna”. (song writers hall of fame)

10. Music reflected various themes of the Civil War.
It told the stories of American temperature, river
life and work, conditions on the battlefield, slavery
and plantation life. Some songs were written about
local heros. One folk hero During the civil war was
John Brown. He was an abolitionist and an extremist.
The song in the link below, was an anthem Of his
fight against slavery.
John Brown ‘s body
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSSn3NddwFQ

11. Civil War – The Bible and Religion
American Bible Society was formed to
provide and to share the scriptures with all
people and to the soldiers of the war.
Distribution of Bibles:
Soldiers in North and in the South
Over 5,297,832 Bibles handed out (Sun Herold)

12. The Bible was used as a weapon, by both the North and South,
to support their own battle cries.
The Bible was used to promote their stance on Slavery.
 Southern preachers defended by using scripture such as
Ephesians 6:5 and Titus 2:9. (Brinton)
 The Northern shared their thoughts through a well
known song, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which talked
of dying to make all men free.

13. Bible reading and religion was highly esteemed
by the Generals
They felt that a devoted religious man made a better soldier.
Bible was used to create fervor to fight the battle.
Bible was used to create self-discipline and help the soldiers
to think of the “higher calling” to come.

14. The Bible and religion played a role as a tool for
the black south in rallying for the freedom fighters
and the cause for equality.
The Bible influenced the black south by
empowering them in culture and language, which
in return led them to leadership,
civil rights, arts and education.

15. Civil War - Art
Many different forms of art that came from the Civil War era.
The Museum of Biblical Arts exhibition is an expression of art, that
allows history to come alive. This exhibit showcases Bibles that
were given to the soldiers from the 19th century to current times.
The exhibit also includes stories from the men and women that
read the Bibles; their struggles with hardship and the place of
religion in their lives. (Civil War Trust/Harvey)

16. Photography and Paintings were the storytellers
of the Civil War.
The landscape paintings of Homer and
Johnson went from being beautiful
countryside and the symbol of American
Nationalism, to trampled crops, burned
trees and devastation.

17. Poetry came alive during the Civil War
Walt Whitman and Herman Melville were popular in their art forms.
Walt Whitman served as a nurse in the military hospitals and
journalized his findings. These inscriptions led to many famous
poems including the writing “Specimen Days.”
Herman Melville was known for his knotty, passionate poems of the
war. He was known for the writing of “Browns Execution” which
summarized the repercussions after the Harpers Ferry raid.
(Cotter)

19. Battlefield photos taken by Brady, Gardner and O’Sullivan were
distorted by the liberties taken to move the corpses and to
stage the photos for dramatic effect.
Art was the form where their feelings and patriotic issues could
be released and citied.

20. http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/slavery.html
Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War edited by Patricia L. Faust (Harper Perennial, 1991), Encyclopedia of the Civil War
edited by John S. Bowman (Dorset Press, 1992), and The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War by Bruce Catton (Bonanza
Books, 1982).
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/on-the-homefront/culture/education.html
Adapted from An Introduction to Civil War Civilians by Juanita Leisch (Thomas Publications, 1994)
www.historycentral.com/CivilWar/AMERICA/education.html
http://markrhoads.com/soldiershymns/index.htm
Singing the Songs of Zion. Soldiers' Hymn Collections and Hymn Singing in the American Civil War .Mark D. Rhoads
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/bio/C10
/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/arts/design/the-civil-war-and-american-art-smithsonian-american-art.html?pagewanted=all
By Holland Cotter, ‘The Civil War and American Art,’ Smithsonian American Art Published: January 10, 2013,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Moreau_Gottschalk
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-and-american-art/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_of_freed_people_during_the_Civil_War
Blassingame, John W. (1965). The Union Army as an Educational Institution for Negroes, 1862-1865. In The Journal of Negro Education,
Vol. 34, No. 2. pp. 152–159.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-02-28-column28_ST_N.htm
religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/12/how-the-bible-was-used-to-justify-slavery-abolitionism
http://wordoftruthradio.org/2011/12/the-bible-played-a-role-on-the-civil-wars-battlefields
The Bible Played a Role on the Civil War’s Battlefields by KDS on DECEMBER 20, 2011