The Slave Experience
In The Civil War
The purpose of this site
is to aquatint the user with the life of slaves during the American Civil
War. It will show a few of the paths that African Americans took
during the turbulent years from 1861-1865. The focus will be on slaves
who lived in cites at the outbreak of war as well as slaves who resided
on plantations. The paths open to each respective group will be examined
and, when possible, the life of an actual African American who took that
path will be presented.
This site will be structured
so that the user will have to imagine themselves as a slave during the
war between the states. The user will then proceed by making a series
of choices given as links at the bottom of each page. An each page
there will be a series of primary sources that are meant to help the user
become acquainted with what life would have been like for some who had
chosen the path they took.
This page does not attempt
to cover all experiences had by slaves during the civil war, but rather
provides a cross section of life. I have tried to represent the main
paths taken by slaves. In creating this page, it became clear ot
me that there were no preset paths that mass numbers followed, but rather
different journeys that are linked by a few connections.
Start
of Journey ~ Bibliography ~ Links
~ Lesson Plans ~ Terms