Taking learning outside the Classroom Walls

By Shanae WilliamsCollege is about challenging yourself and going beyond your own ability. When I first went to my History 110 class, I expected to learn about the past, take a test or two and be done. However, this was not the case in Judge Michael Gregorek’s class. He pushes his students to go even farther than what they learn in the classroom. This semester some of the students took part in replying to a letter to the editor of The News-Journal in Daytona Beach, FL about incorrect information.The subject was the cause of the Civil War and whether or not it was really about ending slavery. The argument in the letter to the editor was that the North was not fighting to end slavery, and that the slaves were fighting with the South to defend their owners. Anyone can look up the historical facts and tell that this wasn’t true. Looking for these facts and giving their own opinion was the challenge to the students. The reason Judge Gregorek chose this article was so that we could have a better understanding of the events.In most classes, students are told what to believe by their teacher. In Judge Gregorek’s history class, the students are encouraged to learn something on their own, and to not blindly believe in what others say is true. So the most important lesson I learned is that when someone tells you something and you don’t think that it’s true, do your own research.—————Suggesting that the Civil War was not about slavery because black men fought with the South against the North is misleading.First, the Confederation thought that accepting slaves in the army meant tacitly admitting black equality and that would mean as Major General Howell Cobb saw it that slavery was wrong. Nevertheless, President Davis did use black soldiers as a last effort to save the Confederation, but they served as noncombatants. On the other hand, Frederick Douglass encouraged black men to become Union soldiers to ensure eventual full citizenship. The most famous of these units was the 54th Regiment that valiantly fought the white Confederate army at Fort Wagner, SC on July 18, 1863. Two of Frederick’s sons served in this regiment. The Confederacy announced that any black who was captured fighting for the Union would be enslaved.Second, slavery was the basic cause of the war. President Lincoln sought to compensate owners of border states if they would emancipate their slaves. Twenty-one of the twenty-eight border Congressmen turn down Lincoln’s compensated emancipation. So, only war could free the slaves.Finally, the South did not enlist free black men versus the North, as is evident by the North having to enact the Second Confiscation and Militia Act on July 17, 1862 fleeing slaves who had masters in the Confederate army.Myriam Escobar4th year student ofNew York Institute of Technology—————Dear Editor,General Benjamin F. Butler in this article was in fact correct in saying that the war being fought to end slavery is a great motivation for the troops at war to fight harder and bring home a win. This is what the editor wrote in this article. Although in the article he also stated that the war is not about slavery but then at the end he says to the president that he should say the war is being fought to free slaves. It was the 54th regiment which was organized in March 1863 and was made up of free men. The 54th’s heroic sacrifice was recorded in history as one of the many that gave there lives for the cause which was to end slavery. During the Civil war against the south they stood together, a band of men against an army of guns with the American flag held high to represent all which the north stood for which was to free all slaves. Abraham Lincoln who issued the emancipation proclamation did so to free the slaves and thus many slaves that where freed from the plantations joined the war to abolish slavery all around because the emancipation proclamation only applied to the states that were under the union. Thus the only way to truly free all slaves including those in the south was to go to war and beat the south because the emancipation proclamation promised freedom to states that have been taken over by the union.Sign,Christopher Lopez