Where you live matters. Where you are born and raised is the biggest factor that shapes your beliefs and ideals. This is one of the things I feel we need to understand when looking at maps in the context of historical analysis. I am going to focus on the hypercities link  because to me it was really fascinating to see the evolution of a city such as New York City. I went as far back as the 1600’s and slowly made my way through the years until present day. It was like watching history unfold right before my eyes. Looking at other cities such as Berlin go through such dramatic changes really showed how resilient human beings are. Along with that the Thomas and Ayers readings coincide with evolution of cities. They argue that “slavery and modernity need to be seen as parts of the same process in the United States.  Rather than a fight of modernity against slavery, the American Civil War could be seen as a fight between variants of modernity, not as the inevitable clash of the future against past.”. This is a very interesting point that I am starting to agree with. I try to look at this topic removing my own personal beliefs and can I that the Civil War was more about the direction of the country than it was the morality of slavery itself. I do still feel like morality and ethics had a part of it, but the logistics and economic factors I believed overshadowed those of the heart. Based on where people lived at that time, they’re opinion on slavery differed because slavery directly impacted their income. Southerners depended on slave labor for their economic stability, northerners did not. It was an issue of money rather than morals. To see how location can play a role in the opinions of people really fascinated and I am looking forward to how we will further examine this in class.