Recent Posts
Jerry Rescue Monument Syracuse, New York
One of the most publicized acts of resistance to slavery took place in Syracuse, New York on October 1, 1851. On that date, William “Jerry”…
The Immigrant Story Behind Twelve Years a Slave
The new film Twelve Years a Slave is a narrative of a real slave’s life. Last year’s Django Unchained was a fantasy of a slave’s…
Soldiers’ Monument in Marion, New York
Marion, New York is a very small rural town about twenty miles east of Rochester. In 1860, at the start of the Civil War, the…
Trump Administration Denies Report That President Is Looking at Renaming Ford’s Theatre
Several reports appeared in national news sources claiming that the Trump Administration is considering renaming Ford’s Theater after Donald Trump. The story originally appeared on…
The Testimony of Henry Adams, Freedman: Hope, Terror, and Exodus in the Post-Civil War South Introduction by Steven Hahn
The Testimony of Henry Adams, Freedman: Hope, Terror, and Exodus in the Post-Civil War South Introduction by Steven Hahn published by Library of America (2026)…
True Valor at Gettysburg Monument in Lyons, New York
A new monument to a Civil War regiment, the 111th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, was unveiled on August 22, 2026 in Lyons, N.Y.. This…
Emancipation: “All men are created equal, whether black or white”
Karl Frick was in his early twenties when he arrived in the United States from Germany just six years before the Civil War. He married…
Historian Compares Resistance to ICE Raids with Resistance to Fugitive Slave Act
This article originally appeared on July, 2019. Kate Masur, associate professor of history at Northwestern University, is one of our country’s leading historians of the…
Drew Gilpin Faust Reviews Two Books on Political Education of Slaves and Interracial Relationships
The New York Review of Books has two reviews written by prominent Civil War historian Drew Gilpin Faust of new books on enslaved African Americans….
Preliminaries to Emancipation: Race, the Irish, and Lincoln
Lincoln’s September 22, 1862, Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery. It only announced that slavery would end in the Confederacy if the rebellion in the South…