Why the faculty at Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio, adopted immediate abolitionism in 1832-33 and the college trustees, who were of similar background, remained colonizationists is examined. (RM)

John Brown's death did not cause the Civil War; it precipitated the conflict. Many ministers anticipated the war and hurried its outbreak by canonizing a fanatic. By 1859, the abolitionists needed a martyr to infuse new emotion into their cause and seized upon John Brown to fill this role. (Author/GC)

Illustrates the ways in which mobile framing and reframing (techniques used on the archival photographs used in the documentary film "The Civil War") constitute a visual argument. Suggests that these techniques lead viewers to analyze the photographs from the vantage point of both current and past ideologies, and proves especially…

This article presents an article by William Lloyd Garrison that criticize George Peabody, his wealth, his politics, and his motives for philanthropy. The article also presents a response by Franklin Parker which defends Peabody and explains the differences between his viewpoints, motives, and actions and those of Garrison. (SM)

Literature written for children is often an unselfconscious distillation of a national consensus or a national debate. The characterizations of African Americans in U.S. children's literature show how the white supremacy myth infected the mainstream collective consciousness and the degree to which features of the slavery era were retained. The…

Throughout the colonial period and after the Revolutionary War slavery was accepted by most U.S. citizens as a normal and inevitable aspect of their affairs. This book traces the history of U.S. slavery from 1820 until the beginning of the Civil War period. Chapter 1 addresses the early establishment and challenges of slavery, while chapters 2 and…

Many historians call the Civil War the central event in U.S. history. The formation of the U.S. Constitution corrected the autonomy of individual states that the Articles of Confederation did not harness. The young country struggled for 75 years to find a graceful balance between the power of the federal government and that of the states. The…

Examines the symbolic oppositions that structure the "Appeal," together with its strategy of crisis taken from Puritan jeremiads. Accounts for Chase's success in pulling together disparate forces of the free North. Explores events which laid the ground for the Republican party and civil war. (RAE)

This simulation for secondary students takes place in 1858 in Jackson, Mississippi. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the American abolitionist, has been apprehended. A street trial is convened to hear charges against her. Students role-play accusors and witnesses for the defense. (RM)

This unit deals with the struggle between proslavery and antislavery proponents which exacerbated sectional discord and culminated in secession of the southern states and the Civil War. The lessons would most appropriately be taught as a prelude to the Civil War and as a culmination of units on the heightened sectional conflict resulting from…

Uses Frederick Douglass' efforts to preserve the memory of the Civil War to illustrate the issue of memory in U.S. history. Illustrates the dangers of collective forgetting while giving deference to the healing function of forgetting on the personal level. (KO)

Explores the primary sources that document African and African American resistance to slavery (i.e., narratives, diaries, letters, travel accounts) and the issues of accuracy and interpretation that surround these sources. Sources prove the presence of resistance among enslaved Africans. "Eurocentric" views have denied or limited the…

Following the slave uprising led by Nat Turner in 1831, the change in public sentiment compelled Virginians to speak openly in public and in the legislature about the institution they had guarded long in silence. The effect of Turner's insurrection was further conditioned by the growing sectional antagonism between the eastern and western portions…

The cases of Henry Garnett and Moses Honner bookend the 1850s, a decade of intensifying political crisis that was deeply connected to the institution of slavery. In both court actions, which were tried in the Third Circuit Court, Eastern District, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the defendants were charged with being "fugitives from labor."…

Describes the process employed by one author in researching and writing a historical novel set during the Civil War. Identifies the issues that arose during the project. Asserts that the ultimate aim of historical fiction for young readers should be to show the heights to which humanity can reach. (SG)