Project Contract via blog post on Monday, February 13th
March 27th rough draft of website due
Project due by April 24th
Required in contract:
Project Description
Tools planned to use (Timeline, StoryMap, WordPress)
Work to be completed by each person
Milestone schedule
For this project we will be researching the secession of Western Virginia from Virginia during the early American Civil War. West Virginia secession took place both as a result of pro-Union sentiment and a strong opposition to taking part in a war advocated by elite Virginians. Over the previous fifty years, Western Virginians increasingly felt that they lacked fair taxation and representation in proportion to their contributions to the state. This included suppression not only of industry but expansion of the franchise for poor white males and increased access to education. One of the most pressing grievances was $20 million in debt for the state of Virginia, where associated improvements were felt mainly in the Tidewater region. With tensions building higher, the people from the Western region of the state took a call to action. As a result, the Richmond and the Wheeling Conventions were held. After Wheeling, the decision to secede was put to a vote that was backed by the Union Army. Those with Confederate sentiments retorted with violence with events such as the Jones-Imboden Raid. Through all the mayhem, West Virginia was eventually granted statehood on June 20, 1863.
This project will include the background and information of secessionists and the immediate aftereffects of the secession. Our goal is to provide accessible resources for West Virginians seeking to learn more about their state’s origins. To accomplish this goal, we intend to build an easy-to-use website with multiple pages outlining the causes of the secession, the event itself, and the consequences of it. There will be a homepage which provides an introduction to the event. It will also include a citation page to ensure our resources are properly cited, and a page explaining the origins and intentions of the project. We intend to use WordPress, StoryMap, and Timeline JS in building our website.
-Every Wednesday before class we will meet in person to discuss how the project is going-
Monday, February 13: Contract Draft Due (Abi + Kendall)
Thursday February 23: Contact to Archivists (Abi + Kendall)
Monday, February 27: StoryMap (Abi) and Timeline Due (Kendall)
Monday, March 1: Final draft of project Contract due (Abi + Kendall)
Monday, March 13-14: Intensive online archival research (Abi+Kendall)
Saturday, March 18- Monday March 27: Causes (Abi), Event (Kendall), and Effects (Kendall) Pages Due, About Page and Homepage Completed (Kendall), Citation Page Completed (Abi)
Monday, March 27: Rough Draft of Website Due (Abi + Kendall)
Wednesday, March 29: Meeting to refine the website (Abi + Kendall)
Wednesday, April 5: Make changes Based on Feedback from class (Abi + Kendall)
Thursday, April 6: Ask people outside the class to look at the website and give feedback (Abi + Kendall)
Wednesday, April 12: Finalize Changes Based on Feedback from Unfamiliar Users (Abi + Kendall)
Monday, April 24: Final Project Due
Each of us will be responsible for either the StoryMap or the Timeline. Each of us are responsible for constructing half of the pages for our website.