HIST 119: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877 artwork

Lecture 5 - Telling a Free Story: Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in Myth and Reality

HIST 119: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877

English - August 19, 2017 02:34 - ★★★★★ - 381 ratings
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Previous Episode: Lecture 4 - A Northern World View: Yankee Society, Antislavery Ideology and the Abolition Movement
Next Episode: Lecture 6 - Expansion and Slavery: Legacies of the Mexican War and the Compromise of 1850





Professor Blight offers an introduction to the course. He summarizes some of the course readings, and discusses the organization of the course. Professor Blight offers some thoughts on the nature of history and the study of history, before moving into a discussion of the reasons for Americans' enduring fascination with the Civil War. The reasons include: the human passion for epics, Americans' fondness for redemption narratives, the Civil War as a moment of "racial reckoning," the fascination with loss and lost causes, interest in military history, and the search for the origins of the modern United States.


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