"History is the Future"

“History is the future.” This statement may seem somewhat strange, but history would not exist if the people making the history did not look towards the future. For instance, the Civil War would have never occurred if the southern slaveholders thought that, in the future, slavery would not be abolished. In this primary document, J. M. Martin writes a great quantity about what the future holds for him and his family after the war ends. Martin writes about such things as his family’s lives, education, and religion.
Martin writes this letter to his family trying to imagine that the wars around Jackson and Vicksburg have not interfered much with their lives since he has been gone. He writes, “I often wonder what you are all doing, but try to imagine favorable. Sometimes I imagine you children are romping about picking flowers, hunting hens nest, etc.” Martin remembers the things his family enjoyed before the war began. He tries to look into the future and picture th...