On November 18^th the US History class went on a field trip to Queen Creek, AZ, to gain a deeper understanding of America’s Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Each year the American Heritage Festival hosts a grand scale, highly interactive educational presentation of diverse civilian and military aspects of historic American life as portrayed by a large and experienced cast of historical interpreters in Queen Creek, just two hours north of our high school campus.

Included in this educational field trip were reenactments, dramatic portrayals of both famous and everyday men, women, children, musicians, artisans, craftsmen, singers, colonists, pioneers, mountain men, soldiers and more.  We listened to speeches by famous Americans of the past, heard live historic music, saw historic fashion worn by ladies and gentlemen around “camp,” and watched battle reenactments from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

After leaving the festival we happened across a cotton field. We stopped to look at the cotton, as this was a very important crop grown in the south and harvested by slaves. “King Cotton” became a source of contention during the Civil War as it was the foundation of southern economy, southern culture, and southern pride.