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An Awakening of Religion and Individualism
Season 3
Evangelical Protestantism pervaded American culture in the antebellum era and fueled a belief in the possibility of changing society for the better. …
12 hours ago
The Filibuster and the Quest for New Slave States
Season 3
The decade of the 1850s witnessed various schemes to expand the American empire of slavery. The Ostend Manifesto articulated the right of the United …
2 days, 12 hours ago
Wealth and Culture in the South
Season 3
Although a small White elite owned the vast majority of enslaved people in the South, and most other White people could only aspire to slaveholders’ …
5 days, 12 hours ago
African Americans in the Antebellum United States
Season 3
Slave labor in the antebellum South generated great wealth for plantation owners. Enslaved people, in contrast, endured daily traumas as human proper…
1 week ago
The Economics of Cotton
Season 3
In the years before the Civil War, the South produced the bulk of the world’s supply of cotton. The Mississippi River Valley slave states became the …
1 week, 2 days ago
Free or Slave Soil? The Dilemma of the West
Season 3
The acquisition of lands from Mexico in 1848 reawakened debates regarding slavery. The suggestion that slavery be barred from the Mexican Cession cau…
1 week, 5 days ago
The Mexican American War, 1846 - 1848
Season 3
President James K. Polk’s administration was a period of intensive expansion for the United States. After overseeing the final details regarding the …
2 weeks ago
Independence for Texas
Season 3
The establishment of the Lone Star Republic formed a new chapter in the history of U.S. westward expansion. In contrast to the addition of the Louisi…
2 weeks, 2 days ago
The Missouri Crisis
Season 3
The Missouri Crisis created a division over slavery that profoundly and ominously shaped sectional identities and rivalries as never before. Conflict…
2 weeks, 5 days ago
Lewis and Clark
Season 3
In 1803, Thomas Jefferson appointed Meriwether Lewis to organize an expedition into the Louisiana Territory to explore and map the area but also to f…
3 weeks ago