The Declaration of Independence in Crisis: Dred Scott & Slavery
Reading Packet
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Reading Packet
The presidencies of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson established precedents and dealt with issues of executive power. This seminar will examine documents from the Washington, Adams and Jefferson administrations including topics like the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Louisiana Purchase. This program will be conducted as a discussion, utilizing primary source documents […]
The presidencies of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson established precedents and dealt with issues of executive power. This seminar will examine documents from the Washington, Adams and Jefferson […]
This seminar explores the crucial role of free speech in a democratic republic and the Court’s evolving standards of jurisprudence over the past hundred years. Indeed, the First Amendment has been aptly described by Justice Cardozo as the “matrix, the indispensable condition of every other form of freedom.” Although it now enjoys a preferred place […]
This seminar will focus on America’s westward expansion and its “Manifest Destiny” to expand from sea to shining sea. This seminar will consider the purposes for westward expansion, Jackson’s Indian Removal Policy and westward expansion’s impact on slavery. This program will be conducted as a discussion, utilizing primary source documents as the only readings, and […]
This seminar explores major themes in the African American tradition by considering speeches, essays, and literature at several key inflection points across history. Participants will reflect upon different forms of literary and political expression in order to learn how African Americans navigated the challenges posed by slavery, emancipation, modernity and civil rights. Throughout, the readings […]
The decade that preceded Abraham Lincoln’s presidential election and the onset of secession and civil war saw an America increasingly divided over the future of slavery in the United States. This seminar will explore the events and turmoil that ultimately led to the greatest conflict this nation endured. The readings that follow present a diversity […]
This seminar will examine Lincoln’s speeches and letters, as well as those of select contemporaries, on emancipation, civil war, and reconstruction. We will focus on Lincoln’s consistencies and inconsistencies on race, his changing war goals, and his vision for a postwar reconstructed nation rededicated to the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Historic Site: […]
In the wake of the Confederacy’s defeat, some white leaders of the South sought to modernize the region by promoting 1) sectional reconciliation, 2) a resolution to the region’s race problem, and 3) the creation of a new economic order based on industry, commerce, and a diversified agricultural system. In short, these leaders advocated for […]
Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. both argued that the proper foundation for civic education is the belief that America has a moral essence derived from the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and that America’s history and purpose—its past, present, and future—is the story of our struggle to live up to those principles. […]