Master and Slave: Power of the Planter Aristocracy
The South in the mid nineteenth century is one of the few areas in the Western world where slavery still exists. The countryside is often portrayed as a society replete with great plantations and wealthy landowners, but more typical is a landscape p...
Master and Slave: Slave Resistance
From the time they leave Africa; slaves resist their captive state. Actual rebellions are rare, in part because the vast majority of the population is white and free. In a one-year time frame in the early 1830s two significant events occur: the init...
Master and Slave: Typical White Southerner, a Modest Farmer, The
The typical white Southerner is not a great planter and slaveholder but a modest farmer. No doubt some non-slaveowning whites resent the planter elite, but overt opposition is rare because of the financial assistance they get from plantation owners ...
House Divided: United States Comes Apart, The
Bitterness marks aftermath of 1860 election. Southern states fear that the election of Abraham Lincoln and Republican dominance of Congress means that their way of life based on slavery will be violated. The legislature of South Carolina quickly cal...
He Brought the People with Him: Jackson 's Violent Tendencies Feared by Washington Insiders
Some people view Andrew Jackson as a dangerous backwoodsman, a "hick with power." It is true that Jackson was involved in a duel prior to his election as president. The confrontation was related to two separate incidents that called into question bo...
What Price Freedom: Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, The
Just a few days into his second term in office, Lincoln's life comes to an abrupt end. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln and his wife are attending a play at Ford's Theater when actor John Wilkes Booth slips into the presidential box and shoot...
Voices of Reform: Abolitionist Movement, The
The first major abolitionist voice in the United States is William Lloyd Garrison who begins publishing The Liberator in 1831. He gathers around him a society of men and women, white and black, who advocate the immediate abolition of slavery in the ...
Voices of Reform: Temperance Movement, The
One of the most influential reform movements of the era is the crusade against drunkenness. Among the working class, people sign pledges not to drink alcohol. Some social elites push temperance as a kind of social control, a way to cut down on socia...