Compromise of 1850 — Bunk History

A lithograph of Daniel Webster from William H. Brown’s 1845 series “Portrait Gallery of Distinguished American Citizens”

We Fought Over American National Identity During the Antebellum Period. The Fight Should Be Ongoing.

A new work of history finds the best antidote to today’s authoritarian politics in Daniel Webster’s 19th-century civic nationalism.

by David Marques via The New Republic on November 15, 2022

Wooden cross in the Eli Jackson Methodist Church cemetery in San Juan, Texas.

When Slaves Fled to Mexico

A new book tells the forgotten story of fugitive slaves who found freedom south of the border.

by David S. Reynolds via New York Review of Books on May 13, 2021

America’s Struggle for Moral Coherence

The problem of how to reconcile irreconcilable values is what led to the Civil War. It hasn’t gone away.

by Andrew Delbanco via The Atlantic on November 12, 2018

A political cartoon showing two figures leading donkeys in opposite directions. The donkeys are depicted with the faces of Zachary Taylor and Henry Clay.

Prospects for Partisan Realignment: Lessons from the Demise of the Whigs

What America’s last major party crack-up in the 1850s tells us about the 2010s.

by Philip Wallach via Brookings on March 6, 2017

Thomas Nast’s 1874 elephant illustration.

What History Tells Us Might Happen to the Republican Party

The signs that precede the crumbling of American political parties and the creation of new ones.

by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via The Bulwark on July 31, 2024

Watercolor portrait of Bronson Alcott, a 19th century American philosopher and educator.

New England Ecstasies

The transcendentalists thought all human inspiration was divine, all nature a miracle.

by Brenda Wineapple via New York Review of Books on February 16, 2022

A bronze statue of Civil War soldiers on horseback, in front of the U.S. Capitol building.

How Twitter Explains the Civil War (and Vice Versa)

The proliferation of antebellum print is analogous to our own tectonic shifts in how people communicate and what they communicate about.

by Ariel Ron via The Strong Paw Of Reason on January 6, 2022

Side-by-side of Josh Hawley and David Atchison

Josh Hawley Is Not the First Missouri Senator with Blood on His Hands

The Bleeding Kansas parallels with our current moment get weirder and darker.

by Steven Lubet via Tropics of Meta on January 13, 2021

Calhoun Monument, Marion Square, Charleston.

A Crashing Monument and the Echoes of War

The collapse of John C. Calhoun's statue created a sound not unlike artillery in the war he influenced.

by Justin Bristol via Muster on October 20, 2020

One Week to Save Democracy

Lessons from Frederick Douglass on the tortured relationship between protest and change.

by David W. Blight via The Atlantic on June 5, 2020

How a Humble Stone Carries the Memory of an African American Uprising Against the Fugitive Slave Law

Stories about the past can help communities create an identity of which they can be proud. This was certainly the case at Christiana.

by James Delle via Zócalo Public Square on January 16, 2020

‘A Doubtful Freedom’

Andrew Delbanco's new book positions the debate over fugitive slaves as a central factor in the nation's slide toward disunion.

by David W. Blight via New York Review of Books on January 14, 2020

Campaign Unveils Hidden History of Slavery in California

California entered the Union as a free state, but there are hidden stories of slavery to be told.

by Emily Nonko via Next City on January 8, 2020

When Kansas Was Bleeding

How the territory became the frontline of the battle for abolition.

by Tristan J. Tarwater, Chelsea Saunders via The Nib on April 22, 2019

The Question Without a Solution

The horrors of the fugitive slave laws, the costs of union, and the value of comity.

by Alan Jacobs via Weekly Standard on November 24, 2018

The Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862

While a far cry from full emancipation, it was an important step towards the abolition of slavery.

by Jessica Parr via We're History on April 16, 2018

The North Tried Compromise. The South Chose War.

The South's insistence upon protecting and spreading slavery caused the Civil War.

by Carole Emberton via Made By History on November 1, 2017

We Legitimize the ‘So-Called’ Confederacy With Our Vocabulary, and That’s a Problem

Tearing down monuments is only the beginning to understanding the false narrative of Jim Crow.

by Christopher Wilson via Smithsonian on September 12, 2017

Why There Was a Civil War

Some issues aren’t amenable to deal making; some principles don’t lend themselves to compromise.

by Yoni Appelbaum via The Atlantic on May 1, 2017

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