Lecture 2. Dawn of Freedom (continued)

American History: From Emancipation to the Present (AFAM 162)

In this lecture, Professor Holloway gives a brief summary of what was happening in the decades leading up to the Civil War, including the Missouri Compromise, the Dred Scott decision, and John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry. He discusses the Civil War, focusing specifically on the Emancipation Proclamation and the Conscription Acts of 1863. Professor Holloway spends the duration of the lecture focusing on the labor and racial tensions that led to the New York City draft riots and their aftermath. The crucible of the Civil War, he argues, gives a very clear picture of what it means to be a citizen and what it means to be American. Professor Holloway then gives specific examples of how citizenship was linked to freedom, how freedom was linked to race, and how the tensions between these linkages produced extreme violence.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction and Recap of Last Class
01:48 - Chapter 2. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Poem: "Bury Me in a Free Land"
04:30 - Chapter 3. The Missouri Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska Act
18:01 - Chapter 4. Abraham Lincoln and Slavery
23:42 - Chapter 5. New York City, the Irish and the Freed Slaves

Complete course materials are available at the Yale Online website: online.yale.edu


This course was recorded in Spring 2010.