U.S. History (Antebellum)
Horace Mann: The Visionary Pioneer of Free Public Education in America
TweetShareShareIn the history of American public education few persons were more influential than its pioneering founder Horace Mann. Born on May 4, 1796 in Franklin, MA, Mann grew up in poverty. His dad was a farmer who produced little income for his family. Between his tenth and twentieth birthdays, the teen Mann received about six…
Read MoreJohn Quincy Adams: The Hell Hound of Slavery
TweetShareShareIt’s one thing to be a “career politician.” It’s quite another to be so influential that your very presence commands respect, honor and adoration. But John Quincy Adams was a “cut above the rest” type of man. In fact, few American leaders have exceeded the contributions of John Quincy Adams, the lawyer son of Founding…
Read MoreDred Scott: The Man Behind the U.S. Supreme Court’s Worst Decision
TweetShareShareMany legal scholars believe the Dred Scott decision was the worst by a U.S. Supreme Court. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes called it the Supreme Court’s “greatest self-inflicted wound.” But why did it happen? Who was Dred Scott? And why should we know his story? DRED SCOTT was born a slave in Virginia (1799). His…
Read MoreThe Oregon Trail: How Christianity Carved a New Path West
TweetShareShareOregon. Washington. Idaho. Parts of Montana and Wyoming. It’s nearly 300,000 acres of majestic, rugged land known as the Oregon Territory, a portion of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The infamous Oregon Trail snakes through this vast estate, connecting the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean. Thousands of westward wagons once traveled its corridors and…
Read MoreSuicide or Murder? The Mysterious Death of Meriwether Lewis
TweetShareShareHe led one of America’s greatest expeditions and proved the apple of Thomas Jefferson’s eye. To this day the name Meriwether Lewis sells books, inspires audiences and provokes pride. His leadership of the Corps of Discovery, along with William Clark, remains one our nation’s most enduring tales. In his post-expedition years he enjoyed fame and…
Read MoreAlexis de Tocqueville: The French Man Who Saw America’s Past, Present and Future
TweetShareShare “[It’s] the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America that has ever been written.” That’s how one historian described Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America; a work considered among the most influential books of the 19th century. Published in two volumes between 1835 and 1840, Alexis de…
Read MoreLewis and Clark: How Two Women Saved the Corps of Discovery
TweetShareShare In May of 1804 the Corps of Discovery, led by captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark went on pursuit of a fabled Northwest passage. They’d be gone over two years. Along the way they’d meet dozens of Indian tribes, including the fierce Sioux and Blackfoot. They’d traverse on keelboat, canoe, horseback and by foot through…
Read MoreOh Say Can You See?: How a Divine Miracle Created our National Anthem
TweetShareShareThe late summer of 1814 was one of America’s darkest moments. The British-American War of 1812 raged into its third year. On July 25 the Battle of Lundy’s Lane near Niagara Falls proved a bloodbath victory for the British. On August 12 the USS Somers and Ontario warships were captured. Two weeks later Washington D.C…
Read MoreJohn Marrant: America’s First Black Preacher
TweetShareShareHe was among America’s first black preachers. A fiery Methodist who converted thousands—blacks, Indians, whites—to Christianity in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His life story–of only 35 years–has inspired millions. John Marrant was born a free black June 15, 1755 in New York City. When his father died, at four, his mother moved…
Read MoreHiram R. Revels: The Tar Heel Who Became America’s First Black U.S. Senator
TweetShareShare Some people make things happen. Some people watch things happen. And some people wonder what happened. And then there are people like Hiram Rhodes Revels (1827-1901). He’s a cut above. A leader’s leader. A highly-accomplished man. One of black history’s dusty and oft-forgotten heroes. Rhodes was a freeborn black in North Carolina.…
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