John Brown was passionate about achieving abolition. His determination was so strong that he sometimes took actions that were irrational and almost sure to fail. The most important of those activities was on October 16, 1859, when he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virg...

John Brown's raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859, involved only a handful of abolitionists, freed no slaves, and was over in two days. Although many Northerners condemned the raid, by 1863, John Brown had become a hero and martyr in the North. John Brown was a...

John Wilkes Booth, a name that conjures up America's most infamous assassin and killer of perhaps one of America's greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln. Born in 1838 on a farm near Bel Air, Maryland, John W. Booth grew up favoring the south and its way of life. Being a Southerner, Booth ...

A Conscience Full of Compassion "The Journal of John Woolman," and "Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes," by John Woolman, effectively portray his strong convictions and beliefs towards slavery and other controversial issues. His charisma helped open the gates for the ...

"The Portent" by Herman Melville Herman Melville's poem, "The Portent" is about the brutal death of the famous abolitionist, John Brown. A portent is an evil omen. Herman Melville and many others thought of John Brown as the portent of the Civil War. Melville was known as ...

Amistad Directed by Steven Spielberg Amistad, Steven Spielberg's drama about an 1839 slave ship uprising and its tough legal aftermath, begins with a dark, tight shot of a man who is struggling. This man is named Cinque and he is struggling for his f...

John C. Calhoun was a man of very high stature and intelligence. His ideas and thoughts were expressed very sternly and backed up with concrete evidence. Of course not everyone agreed with Calhoun's thoughts and procedures. The man knew himself and his ideas would somehow make a differ...

Biography Phillis Wheatley was born in West Africa around the year 1753. She was only a few years younger than Thomas Jefferson, yet her life was very different. Phillis Wheatley was kidnaped and sold into slavery at age seven to a wealthy Boston family, Mr. and Mrs. John Wheatley. Although she ...

Roger B. Taney Roger Taney lived from 1777-1864. He lived a great life and did many things during his lifetime. President Jackson named Taney chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1837. He served as chief justice from (1837- 1864) he remains the second longest in the courts history. Taney wa...

Dred Scott was the name of an African-American slave. He was taken by his master, an officer in the U.S. Army, from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois and then to the free territory of Wisconsin. He lived on free soil for a long period of time. When the Army ordered his ...

Harriet Tubman Harriet Ross Tubman was originally named Araminta Ross. She was born around the year 1820 and died in 1913. Harriet was born into a family of eleven children who were born to the slaves, Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, and lived on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Harr...

According to a survey taken on factmonster.com America has labeled Abraham Lincoln as one of our greatest presidents. As most of us learn in our primary education Lincoln is responsible for freeing the slaves. Celebrated as the "Great Emancipator," he is widely regarded as a backer of black fre...

It could be said that both Sectionalism and nationalism increased during the Era of Good Feelings. However, the Era of Good Feelings was, to a certain degree, misnamed. By the 1820's an "Era of Inflamed Feelings" was beginning to undermine the Era of Good Feelings. Political giants w...

Who was the founder of the colony in North America? Why did slavery have to start? Two interesting literature writers John Smith and Olaudah Equiano wrote in early colonial times. The New Land, by John Smith, and from The Interesting Narrative in the Life of a Slave, by Olaudah Equiano, are two amaz...

One Way (Middle) Passage - was a journey of 500 miles across the Atlantic to America. As many as 200 black men, women, and children were packed below decks, squeezed onto platforms built in tiers spaced so close that sitting upright was impossible. Maroons - were a group of runaway slaves that for...

THE LIFE OF A BLACK CIVIL WAR HERO: ROBERT SMALLS BY JIMMY K. A. CROSS 1 OCTOBER 1998 The United States of America was founded on the principles of equality and opportunity for all. In the 1800's these principles were not strictly adhered to by all and a ...

Did you know that the "Dred Scott Case" was one of the most important cases ever tried in the United States? It started when Scott's former master John Emerson had died and his wife Irene Sanford-Emerson hired out Scott and his family to work for other families. Since that h...

Elizabeth (Mumbet) Freeman Listen and Learn Elizabeth Freeman, an uneducated slave, is known to the world as Mumbet, a name apparently derived from Elizabeth. Lacking a surname, she adopted the name Freeman from the word freedom. In 1781, in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth obtained an att...

The book "Jubilee" by Margaret Walker, and the movie, "Gone with Wind", based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell, both take place during slavery, the Civil War, and reconstruction. The book and movie take place in the same time period, but show different views of those times. Four them...

The ¡°Era of Good Feelings¡± was the period in U.S. history when people were stimulated by two events of 1816, during the presidency of James Madison: the enactment of the first U.S. protective tariff and the establishment of the second National Bank. With the decline of the Federalists t...

By the time of the 1860 presidential election, the country was in a state of turmoil. There were profound differences in the views of citizens over the future of our nation. Many of these differences were strictly based along sectional lines. The division between North and South had never been so...

Many historians agree that the Harpers Ferry raid was to the Civil War what the Boston Massacre had been to the American Revolution. They were both incendiary events. Defenders of the union generally condemned Brown and called the raid "the work of a madman." Everywhere the threat of slave...

The Tests of the Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, one of Americas shining jewel. Created by the philoshophy of great minds, such as John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. How did it all play out in Americas' history? The test of time had shown ...

The Jacksonian Era The Jacksonian Era encompassed a period of massive changes. These changes, whether they be social, economic, or political, were embraced by Americans with a new found vigor. This enthusiasm, motivated by a new "common man" president, Andrew Jackson, gave Americans ...

he Life and Work of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass's writings reflected many American views that were influenced by national division. Douglass was a very successful abolitionist who changed America's views of slavery throug...