I am excited for the fall semester to begin this year. It has been over five months since I have been in a classroom. We are opening up live instruction with several safety precautions in place. The University has done everything it possibly can to try to keep the campus open. This should be a fun year I am teaching an American History class that goes from Reconstruction to WWII and a class on the modern Middle East.
As the Civil War was coming to an end Lincoln had to make a decision on what to do. Unlike other wars, Lincoln could not negotiate a peace treaty because he had never officially recognized that the Confederacy was a separate nation. He was fighting against a rebellion. Yet at the same time he needed to do something and not just allow the country to function as it had before the War. His goals were to prevent previous southern leaders from becoming the new leaders again and taking back their seats in the Federal Government. He had to find a way to deal with the millions of slaves who were now free, but had no property or way to live. Possibly the most difficult task was how to fix the animosity that had grown on both sides and somehow come back together and become a nation again.
Historically Speaking 