What would I have done if I was African American and in the situation that the majority of African Americans were after the war?

From the beginning when our country was formed there were slaves.  I know for a fact I would not want to be a slave in the south.  If I had to be owned by someone I would want to be owned by President George Washington.  He was a slave owner but he was kind and probably the most thoughtful of slave owners.  If the slaves had families or were married he would not let them get separated.  Even if he didn’t need the slaves he would not sell them because he didn’t want to separate the families or the husband and wife.  George Washington also worked with Congress to allow slaves to work for their freedom by joining the army.  If they enlisted they could work off their freedom by fighting in wars. 

However, if I was a slave and the war was because of me and how some people still wanted to possess slaves, I would have tried to escape.  That is if I didn’t get my wish to be Washington’s slave.  I would want to run away and join a group of people and help with the war against slaves.  I would want to die trying instead of being owned and not have rights.  I don’t know if it would be worth the risk if I was caught but my situation might have been better to escape because I am a woman and who knows what type of treatment I was getting. 

What would have happened if the transcontinental railroad was never assembled?

They say the world got smaller when they completed the railroad.  California and the east coast were connected due to the railroad system.  The final touched on the completion were in Utah and it was completed in Promontory Point May 10^th 1869.  They needed the railroad for several different reasons; to replace oxen, the use of steamboats and stage coaches to help them transport goods or personal items. 

Now that the railroad was complete people could get on the train and travel from California and go all the way across the country to the east coast in about a week.  They no longer had to go by horse and camp or take the boat from the Panama Canal to get from one side of the country to the other.  People started to move and start up towns along the railroad to startup businesses and shops.  Moving was easy because you would load up your cargo and put it on the train. 

I believe that the railroad system change our world dramatically.  These times the world was inventing more and more things to industrialize the country.  I think it was a matter of time when the world would have come up with a way to move large amounts of cargo because taking the boat was far too long.  If the country is going to become a land of promise and a new start then they needed to find a way to move the products faster. 

I have enjoyed reading the introduction of the book.  I guess you can say I love to read about history.  My mom and I had a discussion last week about the time period when Lincoln was president, and we questioned what would have happened if he never got shot.  What would it be like today had he lived?  With the question we though about Kennedy and what would it have been like if he lived as well.  What would our government or our life as a country be like?  What would be different?
My second question was if I lived back in this time period, I wonder what I would have done and where I would have lived?  I know how my family came to this country but had I lived during this time I wonder would I have traveled to help with the railroad or would I have moved to Chicago to the booming city?  The bigger question is would I have lived in the north or in the south?  Would I have been fighting for the rights of all men or going against them?  These are questions I will never know the answer to but I could give you an answer as to what I would want to be or do in history, however, I would not be able to answer where we would be if the Lincoln lived.  What would you want to do back in that time?

                                                 Walt Whitman "Song of Myself"