June 5-9

During the first week of the program, my primary accomplishments were rather simple. Firstly, I am able to navigate the USM campus enough to get to all the places I need to be (classrooms, dining hall, etc.) without trouble. Secondly, I have met and socialized with all my peers in the program, mainly at mealtimes. I typically have trouble making friends, so having people to sit with during mealtimes has been amazing. Finally, my third accomplishment for the week has been creating this site, which allows my audience to see who I am and what I am working on in regards to the Mapping Freedom project.

The primary thing that prevented me from doing my best work this week is not understanding what exactly we are doing with this project. There seem to be both indiviudual and group components, but I do not understand which is which nor how they go together. Additionally, not having any real assignments limited the work I could do. This ultimately led to confusion on if I was supposed to be doing work, and if so what should I be working on. Finally, and less importantly, I was prevented from doing my best work in the first couple days by not realizing just how well the air conditioning worked. Being cold during the first lecture made it hard to focus at times, but was easily remedied the next day by bringing a jacket.

Already this week I have learned a myriad of things. The historical context lectures have been of particular interest. I vaguely knew about Reconstruction, but learned that there were actually three different phases to Reconstruction and what makes each phase distinct. I also learned that not all the Southern states seceded from the Union at once. Many seceded after Lincoln was elected president, but 4 states did not secede until after the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Finally, I learned what the Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi project is and how to navigate the digital collection. The CWRGM archive is a collection of letters written to the Governor(s) of Mississippi through the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the letters come a variety of peoples about a wide range of topics and concerns.