Civil War Rank and File, Led by Robert Bonner, Dartmouth College

This course pursues an extended consideration of the personal letters, diaries, and drawings produced by Civil War soldiers and nurses.Such material provides unparalleled access to the vivid experiences of enlistees in Confederate and US armies and in the associated medical corps. Gripping testimony from this “People’s Contest,” supplemented by scholarly accounts, will introduce students to the rigors of war, the burdens of separation from loved ones, and the jolting experience of combat.

Additionally, the course offers a range of perspectives on the most revolutionary period of American history, as chattel slavery was overthrown, racial hierarchies were recast, and Americans witnessed a fundamental shift in the role of government and the meaning of citizenship. In reflecting on historians’ use of letters and diaries, the course raises broader questions about building life stories from self-authored evidence.

Lives of the Enslaved, Led by Daina Ramey Berry, University of Texas at Austin

This course is a study of enslaved people and the ways in which human beings coped with captivity. It is also a course that listens to their voices through audio files, diaries, letters, actions, and silences. Centering on the people of slavery rather than viewing them as objects shifts the focus to their commentary on slavery. In addition to listening to enslaved people, students will have the opportunity to engage some of the most cutting-edge scholarship on the subject. Although the early literature objectified enslaved people and hardly paid attention to their experiences, work published since the Civil Rights Movement and into the twenty-first century offers rich accounts of enslaved life. By approaching the institution of slavery in the United States from the enslaved perspective through firsthand accounts of their experiences, students will have the opportunity to engage a variety of sources, including narratives, plantation records, podcasts, short films, and other media. Some of the specific themes addressed include gender, sexuality, region, labor, resistance, pleasure, love, family, and community among the enslaved.
 

Reconstruction and Resistance: Constructing a Nation, Led by Kermit Roosevelt III, University of Pennsylvania 

Reconstruction is a neglected period in American education. This is not because it is unimportant—this course will make the case that it is perhaps the most important era in terms of the creation of modern America—but because it is divisive and contested. Resistance to Reconstruction began immediately, never ceased, and has over the years been quite successful. There is resistance to the ideals of Reconstruction, and there is resistance to the teaching of Reconstruction. This course will place Reconstruction and the resistance to it in historical context, illuminating how Reconstruction broke from America’s past, how its radicalism was undermined and its promise beaten down, and how the struggles of that era continue today.

America's First Civil Rights Movement, Led by Kate Masur, Northwestern University

This course explores the little-known movement for racial equality in the free states from the nation’s founding to the Civil War and Reconstruction. While the abolitionist movement is a familiar part of many history courses, we’ve known far less about activists’ fight for racial justice in the free states themselves. The course emphasizes African Americans’ leadership in this struggle; the interpenetration of race, class, and gender oppression; the complex history of citizenship; the changing political landscape of the antebellum United States, and the US Constitution.

We’ll explore both small-scale histories and large structural changes. For instance, we’ll look at free Black sailors from places like Boston and New York, whose work brought them to southern ports where they were incarcerated simply because they were Black. We’ll also delve into the movement against racist “black laws” in midwestern states like Ohio and Illinois, examining Black political mobilization and the work of White allies who fought for racial justice. Students will also emerge with an enhanced understanding of the US Constitution, American federalism (that is, the division of power among local, state, and national governments), and the Reconstruction amendments.

History Essentials: 

The Civil War

This course, part of the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s History Essentials series, focuses on the American Civil War, from the breakdown of the Union in the 1850s through the end of the war in 1865, all while examining how we remember the conflict today. Professor Waugh discusses why it is essential to study the Civil War and introduces major themes of the era, including abolition, leadership, conflict, and memory traditions. Those who take the course will gain insight into the political, social, and military issues that contributed to the war as well as learn perspectives of the common soldier, men and women on the home front, and enslaved people. This course examines significant events and major players of the Civil War by looking inward at the power dynamics of the era.

Reconstruction and Resistance: Constructing a Nation, Led by Kermit Roosevelt III, University of Pennsylvania 

This course is a study of enslaved people and the ways in which human beings coped with captivity. It is also a course that listens to their voices through audio files, diaries, letters, actions, and silences. Centering on the people of slavery rather than viewing them as objects shifts the focus to their commentary on slavery. In addition to listening to enslaved people, students will have the opportunity to engage some of the most cutting-edge scholarship on the subject. Although the early literature objectified enslaved people and hardly paid attention to their experiences, work published since the Civil Rights Movement and into the twenty-first century offers rich accounts of enslaved life. By approaching the institution of slavery in the United States from the enslaved perspective through firsthand accounts of their experiences, students will have the opportunity to engage a variety of sources, including narratives, plantation records, podcasts, short films, and other media. Some of the specific themes addressed include gender, sexuality, region, labor, resistance, pleasure, love, family, and community among the enslaved.