Pre-Civil War America

THE TOWN & THE CITY: LOWELL BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR

A National leader of the Abolitionist Movement in Massachusetts and New York

Images of Douglass and people in his circle of correspondence
A list of Douglass' correspondents
A list and images of all the letters in the collection arranged by date and by correspondent
Essays by undergraduate Douglass Interns with transcriptions and images of the letters they used
Lesson plans and document-based-questions for elementary and high school teachers
Selected writings of Douglass and others
Links to other Douglass-related websites

Middle School Resources

Username: saugus, Password: patriot

For Pre-Civil War Whaling click here

eBook Summaries

Virtual Tour with Narration – Walk through Boston to the sea and experience the remarkable transformation of a small hilly peninsula into a great modern city.

White supremacy has a history in Rochester, NY
There are no Confederate monuments in Monroe County, and no white supremacist rallies are scheduled. But the Rochester New York area, proud as it is of its role in the anti-slavery movement, does have a history of racist groups and gatherings.
It dates at least to 1872, when the local hero of that anti-slavery movement, Frederick Douglass, had his South Avenue house burned down while he was out of town. Read the whole story click here.

Why Schools Fail To Teach Slavery's 'Hard History'

By the time George Washington died, more than 300 enslaved people lived and toiled on his Mount Vernon farm. Painting by Junius Brutus Stearns, 19th Century.

"In the ways that we teach and learn about the history of American slavery," write the authors of a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), "the nation needs an intervention." This new report, titled Teaching Hard History: American Slavery, is meant to be that intervention: a resource for teachers who are eager to help their students better understand slavery — not as some "peculiar institution" but as the blood-soaked bedrock on which the United States was built. To read more click here...

Ralph Waldo Emerson, circa 1857. (George Eastman House Collection)

Too Much Self-Reliance?
“Self-Reliance.” Did the great Ralph Waldo Emerson get it wrong? Have we? Have we turned self-reliance into self-centeredness?
Early in the heart of the 19th Century, young America was in trouble. A brutal economic bust. Banks collapsing all over. Confidence, wavering. And here came the brilliant transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, like a blazing star.
Trust yourselves, he said. Look inside. Speak what you think in hard words. Above all, embrace self-reliance. And boy did that go deep. It’s American bedrock. Maybe too deep, says my guest today. It’s become self-centeredness. Polarizing rigidity.
This hour, On Point: Emerson, and the most American debate – can you have too much self-reliance?
Too Much Self-Reliance?“Self-Reliance.” Did the great Ralph Waldo Emerson get it wrong? Have we? Have we turned self-reliance into self-centeredness? To read more click here..

Emerson's home in Concord, MA

'What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?' Frederick Douglass, Revisited

"What to the slave is the Fourth of July?" posed Frederick Douglass to a gathering of 500-600 abolitionists in Rochester, N.Y., in 1852. Admission to the speech was 12 cents, and the crowd at the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society was enthusiastic, voting unanimously to endorse the speech at its end. This speech would be remembered as one of the most poignant addresses by Douglass, a former slave turned statesman. Douglass gave it on July 5, refusing to celebrate the Fourth of July until all slaves were emancipated.

On July 3, 165 years later, the same question was posed on a stage in the basement of the National Archives, in Washington, D.C. This time by an actor, dressed like Frederick Douglass and wearing a wig, speaking to a 100 or so people, plus the livestream audience, in the William G. McGowan Theater. The event was put on with the help of the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, which hosts an annual reading of the speech, entitled The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.

Works Cited
Ferrar, E. A. View of Lowell, MA. Lithograph. 1834. uml.beta.libguides.com/early_lowell/imagesoflowell. Accessed 11 May 2017.