HIST 376 - Destroying Slavery in the US Civil War

Units: 3 ; Breadth Area: GE-UD-C
Examination of the Civil War and Reconstruction with a focus upon ethical perspectives in policy and warfare; expectations and agency among enslaved and free African Americans; relations with Native Americans.

Strongly Recommended Preparation: Upper division status (greater than 60 earned semester units) and completion of lower division Area C requirements.
Prerequisites: Completion of GE Areas A1, A2, A3 and B4 with grade C- (CR) or better.
Equivalent Quarter Course: HIST 3414.
Possible Instructional Methods: Entirely On-ground.
Grading: A-F or CR/NC (student choice).
Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-UD-C - Upper Division Arts or Humanities
Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

To demonstrate their developing understanding of course concepts and themes, students in this course will: Review the origins of the Civil War in contests over the moral problem of slavery;
Analyze soldiers’ shifting understandings of their service to Union and Confederate Armies over time;
Assess enslaved people’s roles and agency in defining emancipation;
Chart the history of the Emancipation Proclamation as a political, military, and moral policy and assess its historical significance;
Compare rules of war and actual military conduct in key battlefield engagements, while setting in larger context of European warfare;
Compare military engagements in the US West, with native peoples, with traditional conceptions of the Civil War’s scope;
Compare and contrast plans for Reconstruction with their actual implementation;
Analyze freed people’s expectations for their freedom and the new definitions of citizenship;
Chart the use of violence to undermine the Civil Rights amendments of the Reconstruction era.
To demonstrate their advanced writing, critical thinking, oral communication, and collaborative skills, students in this course will: Develop original interpretations and support arguments based on primary source evidence.
Evaluate the evidence and arguments of leading scholars in the field of Civil War and Reconstruction history.
Contribute constructively to discussions and debates on major questions about the larger meaning of the Civil War era and its legacies for our current political and cultural landscape;
Evaluate history as an act of persuasion, both in writing and orally.

UD-C. Upper-division Arts or Humanities Learning Outcomes

demonstrate an understanding of and ability to apply the principles, methodologies, value systems, and thought processes employed in the arts and humanities;
analyze cultural production as an expression of, or reflection upon, what it means to be human; and
demonstrate how the perspectives of the arts and humanities are used by informed, engaged, and reflective citizens to benefit local and global communities.