The following is an adapted excerpt from The Slaveholding Crisis: Fear of Insurrection and the Coming of the Civil War, used with the author’s permission. On August 30, 1800, a storm likely changed the course of the United States forever when an enslaved blacksmith named…
Read MoreOn July 24, 1824, The Harrisburg Pennsylvanian, a local newspaper from the capital of Pennsylvania, changed poltical reporting forever. The newspaper conducted a survey in Wilmington, Delaware, asking their opinions on the presidential election due that November. That year, President James Monroe decided to retire,…
Read MoreOn December 2, 1823, President James Monroe established his defining legacy. Delivering a message to Congress, the fifth president of the United States announced a foreign policy that would make America the predominant actor in the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine was born. At…
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