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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 …
4 months, 3 weeks 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’ …
4 months, 4 weeks 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…
5 months 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 …
5 months 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…
5 months 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 …
5 months, 1 week 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…
5 months, 1 week 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…
5 months, 1 week 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…
5 months, 2 weeks ago
The Tyranny and Triumph of the Majority
Season 3
American culture of the 1830s reflected the rise of democracy. The majority exercised a new type of power that went well beyond politics, leading Ale…
5 months, 2 weeks ago