Latest

Nov
09
High Stakes, High Drama at the 1860 Democratic Convention

High Stakes, High Drama at the 1860 Democratic Convention

Continuing our biographical series on William Lowndes Yancey, this week's episode tracks his evolution from Unionist to full-blown
5 min read
Nov
03
William Lowndes Yancey and the Southern Honor Code

William Lowndes Yancey and the Southern Honor Code

This week's video kicks off a series on the life of William Lowndes Yancey, the Alabama fire-eater best
6 min read
Oct
27
Lincoln's Rigidity and Partisanship in the Sectional Crisis

Lincoln's Rigidity and Partisanship in the Sectional Crisis

In this week's video we look at President-Elect Abraham Lincoln's eerie silence throughout most of the
7 min read
Oct
20
Secession Precipitationists Force the Upper South's Hand

Secession Precipitationists Force the Upper South's Hand

Southern fire-eaters who had long dreamed of secession knew that anxieties stirred by the election of Abraham Lincoln gave them
2 min read
Oct
14
Sparks to the Tinder of Black Revolt and White Hysteria

Sparks to the Tinder of Black Revolt and White Hysteria

The handful of readers who have followed these posts from the beginning will get a bit of deja vu from
5 min read
Oct
07
Paranoia and Diversity of Thought in South Carolina

Paranoia and Diversity of Thought in South Carolina

November 1860, as news of Abraham Lincoln's election was spreading and South Carolina was preparing to secede, was
3 min read
Sep
30
Jackson Arrives to Defend a Divided Louisiana

Jackson Arrives to Defend a Divided Louisiana

The Louisiana in which a young Yankee transplant named John Windship found himself in 1813-14 had only recently been admitted
7 min read
Sep
23
The Culture Shock of Presidential Backcountry Politics

The Culture Shock of Presidential Backcountry Politics

This week's video looks at some early episodes of Andrew Jackson's life in the Carolina and
4 min read
Sep
16
Webster, Calhoun, and the Nullification Crisis

Webster, Calhoun, and the Nullification Crisis

This week's video covers Daniel Webster's apparent change of opinion on the compact theory of the
5 min read
Sep
09
A Bostonian's Dystopian Vision of the Fate of American Republicanism

A Bostonian's Dystopian Vision of the Fate of American Republicanism

In 1808, a Boston Congregationalist minister named William Jenks wrote a pamphlet of speculative fiction, purportedly written in 1872 and
5 min read