Join us March 23 at 8pm eastern for our next happy hour with @jbrentmorris where he will discuss his new book Dismal Freedom: A History of the Maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp (@UNC_Press).
Dismal Freedom is the first book-length study that fully examines the lives of maroons (fugitive slaves) and their communities in the liminal world between slavery and freedom in the swamp along the North Carolina/Virginia border.
To sign up head over to our Patreon page and subscribe! You will also be eligible to attend all future happy hours. Patreon.com/thecivilwardoc
or
If you are a graduate student or contingent faculty member and would like to join, please DM us and we will provide the link for you!
Are you an educator, researcher, or scholar that is trying to create and promote #history content through social media? If so, join us April 11, at 8pm (est) to learn tips and tricks on how to increase your reach from historian @PhdRachel! This will be hosted by @KeriLeighMerrit
Dr. Gunter has grown a significant social media following (especially on #TikTok) by posting #historical#content. Despite its faults, #socialmedia can be a fantastic medium to help reach students and the public.
Join us Thursday, March 23 at 8pm eastern for our next happy hour with @jbrentmorris where he will discuss his new book Dismal Freedom: A History of the Maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp (@UNC_Press).
Dismal Freedom is the first book-length study that fully examines the lives of maroons (fugitive slaves) and their communities in the liminal world between slavery and freedom in the swamp along the North Carolina/Virginia border.
To sign up head over to our Patreon page and subscribe! You will also be eligible to attend all future happy hours. Patreon.com/thecivilwardoc
or
If you are a graduate student or contingent faculty member and would like to join, please DM us and we will provide the link for you!
#OTD in 1861 Confederate Vice President Alexander Stevens delivered what became known as the Cornerstone Speech. Stevens stated plainly that the sole purpose of the Confederacy was to create a slave republic and that any threat the institution of slavery justified secession.
He professed, "Our new government['s]...foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition."
Stevens continued, "This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."
Confederates fired on Ft. Sumter approximately three weeks later.
What is widely considered the founding meeting of the Republican Party occurred #OTD in 1854. Made up of mostly anti-slavery Whigs and Free Soilers, the Republican Party's main platform was not to abolish slavery, but to prevent its expansion.
Republican membership rose dramatically and quickly. It took them only 6 years to take the White House with Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860. After Lincoln's election the political system broke down over the issue of slavery.
After the war the Republican Party shaped Reconstruction policy, especially when they obtained a supermajority in the 1866 elections.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential book Uncle Tom's Cabin was published #OTD in 1852. Stowe's anti-slavery novel was a huge success and pushed many Americans to reassess their attitudes toward slavery. Only the Bible sold more copies than Uncle Tom's Cabin during the 19 century.
Although Uncle Tom's Cabin had a profound effect on the anti-slavery movement, it did have flaws. For instance, Stowe developed the characters around negative Black stereotypes that eventually became standard talking points for proslavery supporters and white supremacists.
#OTD in 1871 the US Senate passed a resolution creating the Select Committee to Investigate Alleged Outrages in the Southern States. The select committee investigated white supremacist violence in North Carolina and was pivotal to the passing of the Second Enforcement act.
The select committee was made up of five Republicans and two Democrats and held hearings in Washington D.C. to investigate Klan violence in North Carolina during the Kirk-Holden War.
The two Democrats concluded that the racial violence in NC was carried out by Northern "carpetbaggers" while the five Republicans rightfully determined that the Klan “sought to carry out its purpose by murders, whippings, intimidations, and violence, against its opponents.”