1815-1861

Examines events that led to the Civil War in the United States, beginning in 1815, and includes discussion of how Abraham Lincoln fought to preserve the Union, and how the South battled to retain slaves and its way of life.

Uses archival films, photos and recollections to tell of the efforts made by slaves to escape the South into the North and Canada prior to the Civil War.

Ninteen-year-old Nicole, raised in a St. Louis orphanage, sets off on a cross-country trek with a trapper to discover her roots.

A selection of two speeches and seven debates originally published in The political debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in the senatorial campaign of 1858 in Illinois.

Presents primary source documents and explanatory text that covers United States history from 1816 to 1850.

Discusses the factors that lead to the division of the North and the South in the years following the War of 1812.

Discusses the period of growth in American history prior to the Civil War, describing the lives of people from a variety of backgrounds, including Jedediah Smith, Emily Dickinson, John James Audubon, and Sojourner Truth.

Uses a variety of contemporary materials to describe and illustrate the political and personal lives of the United States presidents from John Quincy Adams to James Buchanan.