Eighth grade Humanities students have been considering the motivations for why people fought in the American Civil War. We began this multi-day lesson by thinking about what it means to enter an agreement, and when it might be okay to back out of it. Students participated in a “barometer” activity, where they were asked to evaluate and debate which circumstances would be acceptable to break a contract or promise. They moved along the “barometer” (hung on the walls of the classroom) to indicate whether they strongly agreed or strongly disagreed (or somewhere in between) with different scenarios. We tied this into President Lincoln’s argument about the perpetuity of the Union and the contractual agreement of the Constitution.

Then, eighth graders analyzed quotes from different historical figures on both sides of the Civil War in order to better understand what drove support for the Northern and Southern causes. Finally, they were asked to create hashtags that summarized each of these rationales. The students had a blast coming up with witty and revealing words and phrases to go along with each quote. Be sure to check out their work on the bulletin board by Humanities South! #honestabe #letsbecivil