Category Archives: antebellum

Civil War Podcast, Episode 20

In which we discuss the importance of John Brown’s assault on the federal arsenal & armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in October 1859.

Our book recommendation for this episode is Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz.

“With his customary blend of rich archival research, on-location color, and lyrical prose, Tony Horwitz has delivered a John Brown book for our time. Part biography, part historical narrative, Midnight Rising is a riveting re-creation of the Harper’s Ferry raid, told with an unblinking sense of Brown’s tragic place in American history. Writing with enveloping detail and a storyteller’s verve, Horwitz shows why Brown was- and still is- so troubling and important to our culture.” ~ David W. Blight

Listen to Episode 20: JohnBrownPartFirst

Civil War Podcast, Episode 19

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES (Part the Second)

In which we continue our coverage of the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates in 1858.

Our book recommendations for this episode are:

Stephen A. Douglas by Robert Johannsen. About this book, Lincoln scholar David Herbert Donald said, “At once a work of enormous scholarship and of deep insight. Here, for the first time, is the full story of a great career, told with such skill that we can now understand why Abraham Lincoln found the ‘Little Giant’ the most formidable political rival he ever faced.”

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald. About this book, Pulitzer-Prize winning Lincoln historian Mark E. Neely Jr said, “The best biography of Lincoln I have ever read.”

Listen to Episode 19: LincolnDouglasDebatesPartSecond

Civil War Podcast, Episode 18

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES (Part the First)

In which we give the background to the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, and then we start in on our coverage of the debates.

Our book recommendation for this episode is Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America by Allen C. Guelzo.

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln was known as a successful Illinois lawyer. Two years later, he was elected president. What carried this one-term congressman from obscurity to fame was the campaign he mounted for the United States Senate against the country’s most formidable politician. As this brilliant narrative by the prize-winning Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo dramatizes, Lincoln would emerge a predominant national figure, the leader of his party, and the man who would bear the burden of the national confrontation.

Listen to Episode 18: LincolnDouglasDebatesPartFirst

Civil War Podcast, Episode 15

In which we talk about the results of the Dred Scott case in 1857 & the fiasco over the Lecompton Constitution in 1858, and we show how the snowballing negative consequences of those events finally caused the Democratic Party to split, once & for all, along sectional lines. A unified Republican Party will take advantage of that split & win the presidency in 1860.

Our book recommendation for this episode is The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics by Don E. Fehrenbacher.

On March 6, 1857 Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the Supreme Court’s decision against Dred Scott. Scott, a slave, maintained he had been emancipated as a result of having lived with his master in territory where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise. The decision did much more than resolve the fate of an elderly black man and his family, however; Dred Scott vs Sanford was the first instance in which the Supreme Court invalidated a major piece of federal legislation. the decision declared that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the federal territories, thereby intensifying the sectional conflict over slavery.

Listen to Episode 15: DredScott

Civil War Podcast, Episode 14

In which we discuss the three-way presidential contest of 1856 & its importance in the stunning rise of the Republican Party. Plus, we see Abraham Lincoln start to position himself to be a leading national figure in the party.

Our book recommendation for this episode is James Buchanan by Jean H Baker.

Almost no president was as well trained and well prepared for the office as James Buchanan. he had served in the Pennsylvania state legislature, the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate; he was Secretary of State and was even offered a seat on the Supreme Court. And yet, by every measure except his own, James Buchanan was a miserable failure as president. Historian Jean H. Baker explains that we have rightly placed Buchanan at the bottom of the presidential rankings, but that is no excuse to forget him. To study Buchanan is to consider the implications of weak leadership in a time of national crisis. Elegantly written, Baker’s book offers a balanced look at a crucial moment in our nation’s history and explores a man who, when given the opportunity, failed to rise to the challenge.

** This episode of the podcast contains explicit language. **

Listen to Episode 14: Election1856

Civil War Podcast, Episode 13

In which we look at the caning of Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts by Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina on May 22, 1856.

Our book recommendation for this episode is The Caning: The Assault That Drove America To Civil War by Stephen Puleo.

One of the most shocking and provocative events in American history, the caning of Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks destroyed any pretense of civility between North and South. Puleo’s book tells the incredible story of this pivotal event. While Sumner eventually recovered after a lengthy convalescence, sectional compromise had suffered a mortal blow. Moderate voices were drowned out completely, extremist views became intractable, and both sides were locked on a tragic collision course.

Listen to Episode 13: CaningSumner

Civil War Podcast, Episode 12

In which we talk about Stephen Douglas’ sponsorship of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the ensuing violence in “Bleeding Kansas,” and the rise of the Republican Party as a result of Northern outrage over the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Our book recommendation this time is Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era by Nicole Etcheson.

Few people would have expected bloodshed in the Kansas Territory. But civil war tore this territory apart in the 1850s, and “Bleeding Kansas” became a forbidding symbol for the national crisis over the expansion of slavery. Etcheson seeks to revise our understanding of this era by focusing on whites’ concerns over their political liberties. The first comprehensive account of the conflict in Kansas in more than thirty years, her study emphasizes the issue of popular sovereignty rather than slavery’s moral or economic dimensions. As Etcheson demonstrates, the struggle over the political liberties of whites may have heightened the territory’s turmoil, but it led eventually to a broadening of the definition of freedom to include African-Americans. Her insightful re-examination sheds new light on this era and is essential reading for anyone interested in the ideological origins of the Civil War.

** This episode of the podcast contains explicit language **

Listen to Episode 12: BleedingKansas

Civil War Podcast, Episode 11

In which we discuss the Northern reaction to the new Fugitive Slave Law, which was part of the Compromise of 1850. Plus, we look at the incredible impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Our book recommendation for this episode is Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly. With its publication in 1852, this book changed forever how Americans viewed slavery. It was a runaway bestseller, selling 300,000 copies in its first year.

Listen to Episode 11: FugitiveSlaveLaw

Civil War Podcast, Episode 10

In which we take a fast pass through the abolitionist movement in the United States, and show how it made a significant contribution to the sectional unraveling that led to the Civil War.

Our book recommendation for this episode is The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics by James Oakes. “The perennial tension between principle and pragmatism in politics frames this engaging account of two Civil War Era icons. Oakes charts the course by which Douglass and Lincoln, initially far apart on the antislavery spectrum, gravitated toward each other… Douglass’s views on race were essentially modern; the book is really a study through his eyes of the more complex figure of Lincoln.”

Listen to Episode 10: AntiSlaveryMovement

Civil War Podcast, Episode 9

In which we take a look at some pro-slavery arguments (which we don’t endorse in any way, shape, or form) to see why Seward’s “Higher Law” speech in March 1850 made southerners so very angry.

Our book recommendation for this episode is Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of the Civil War by Bruce Levine. “Half Slave and Half Free is a succinct and persuasive treatment of the basic issues that precipitated the Civil War. Now, in a revised edition that includes a new preface and afterword and a revised and expanded bibliographic essay, Bruce Levine’s impressive work is brought completely up to date. Its argument is still compelling: that a popular basis for the Civil War developed out of the far-reaching and divisive changes in American life that came with the incomplete Revolution of 1776… changes that led to two very distinct social systems, one based on slavery, the other on free labor, which eventually made sectional differences within the framework of the Union irreconcilable.”

Listen to Episode 9: ProSlaveryArguments