The beating of Sen. Charles Sumner in 1856 by Rep. Preston Brooks over a speech against slavery sparked a nationwide debate over free speech, political violence and the relationship between the two.
Articles on US Civil War
Displaying 1 - 20 of 116 articles
From the very earliest days of independence, the struggle of African Americans for their rights has defined the idea of freedom in the United States.
Enslaved people were not just enslaved physically, but mentally as well. as widespread laws in the South barred enslaved people from receiving an education.
Decades before the United States, France outlawed slavery during the French Revolution – only to see it reimposed by Napoleon within a decade.
By resurrecting statues toppled in protests during his first term, Donald Trump wants to reverse attempts to ‘erase history’. But history is never that simple.
As anger about the presence of ICE in Minneapolis divided the nation, Americans turned to the American Civil War for metaphors.
Abolitionists used hard facts to counter pro-slavery propaganda, forcing indifferent Americans to face ugly realities.
From grave robbing to road construction, a cemetery in Richmond, Va., reveals the long pattern of Black Americans burying their dead in spaces that received few protections.
As one critic asked, has Juneteenth devolved ‘into an exploitative and profit-driven enterprise for companies that disregard the true significance of this day to the Black community?’
Does Donald Trump have the power to suspend a foundational legal right to challenge a person’s arrest and detention? Americans have long debated whether the president or Congress can do this.
In this interview, Cheryl Thompson, author of ‘Canada and the Blackface Atlantic: Performing Slavery, Conflict and Freedom, 1812-1897’ reveals some of the surprising truths of her research.
It’s not yet clear whether Trump’s pardons will herald a period of national harmony – as past presidents hoped for – or more incidents of violence, as actually resulted.
Donald Trump’s measures ending government diversity efforts are part of a much broader effort to reverse civil rights gains for all Americans. It’s not the first time such a backlash has happened.
The mechanics of upending American democracy would entail surmounting a thick tangle of constitutional, bureaucratic, legal and political obstacles.
Lacking formal training in medicine or nursing, Walt Whitman nonetheless realized ‘the simple matter of personal presence, and emanating ordinary cheer and magnetism’ could go a long way.
Researchers measured lawmakers’ wealth and found that those whose Southern ancestors owned slaves before abolition have a higher net worth today.
The most politically divided time in US democracy coincided with a boom in new communications technologies, confrontational political influencers and widespread disinformation. It wasn’t 2024.
Historically allowing opt outs of conscription has created tension in the population.
Born enslaved, John Andrew Jackson spent his life fighting for freedom as a fugitive, abolitionist, lecturer and writer. Along the way, he met an aspiring writer.
The secret recordings of two Supreme Court justices reveal dramatic differences in how they see American political life.
Top contributors
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Professor and Chair of History Department, Colorado State University
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Associate professor emeritus, Journalism, Virginia Commonwealth University
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Senior Lecturer in History, Heritage and Classics, Swansea University
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Professor of History, Arizona State University
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Assistant Professor of US History, Durham University
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Professor of Literature and Director of Irish and Irish American Studies, College of Charleston
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Williams Memorial Professor of Law, Northwestern University
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Professor of History and Michael Douglas Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts, University of California, Santa Barbara
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Anthropologist, Sterling Prof Political Science; Acting Dir Agrarian Studies, Yale University
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Associate Professor of Business, Boston University
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PhD Student, Department of History, University of Liverpool
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Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, Penn State
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Maître de conférences, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne (UPEC)
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Professeure en sciences de l’information et de la communication, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne (UPEC)
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Associate Professor of English, Virginia Tech