Cotton Revolution, The
Historian and author Ira Berlin explains that with the advent of cotton as the most important crop during the nineteenth century, many slaves were uprooted from the seaboard states and transported to the deep south. This forced migration broke apart...
Theodore Roosevelt and San Juan Hill
Professor of history Gary Gerstle talks about the significant role of Black soldiers in the Battle of San Juan Hill. Professor Gerstle explains that presidential aspirant Theodore Roosevelt downplayed the importance of the Black soldiers, because th...
Laws of Slavery, The
Historian and author Ira Berlin explains that the laws pertaining to slavery were written so as to give slave owners virtually unlimited power over their slaves, while the slaves themselves had no power. In some cases, slaves were allowed to carve o...
Process of Enslavement, The
Historian and author Ira Berlin explains that the process by which African were enslaved was much more complicated than the stereotypical notion that, "...Europeans placed a few beads....on the coast of Africa, and Africans came out and somebody bop...
Professor Gerstle says: Theodore Roosevelt and Reform (Part One)
but was only willing to go so far with certain groups
Racial Politics and War
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson talks about the evolution of attitudes towards African-Americans in the United States, as well as the growth of the civil rights movement. Professor Jacobson links both in part to chang...
Impact of Slavery, The
Historian and author Ira Berlin argues that slavery was vile, hideous and obscene, but also an institution which became, "...the seed bed of so much creativity, and so much we...appreciate and love about American life."
Role of the Plantation, The
Historian and author Ira Berlin explains that it was cotton and sugar, in the nineteenth century, which, "...transformed the United States from a minor player in the plantation game to the largest slave society in the world."
Struggle in the Border States
Historian and author Ira Berlin talks about the challenge of convincing the border states to emancipate. Professor Berlin explains that the enlistment of African-American men helped speed the process and began to erode slavery in Maryland, Kentucky,...
Fueling the Abolition Movement
Historian and author Ira Berlin explains that the key event in the abolition of slavery was the Revolutionary War. "The ideology of the American Revolution--the notion that all men are created equal--is every corrosive to the institution of slavery,...