Historical Documents

Charleston Mercury Article
The Insurrection
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Broadside of John Brown's Last Speech
John Brown's Speech to the Court at his Trial
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
John Brown Entrance Into Hell Song
John Brown's Entrance Into Hell.
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Sam Waterson
Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address, as read by Sam Waterston May 23, 2004
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877), ERA 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)
This political cartoon illustrates James Buchanan beset by figures who employ quotes from the Ostend Manifesto to legitimize their criminal acts.
Ostend Manifesto
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Lincoln First Inaugural Address
First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on Lincoln, The Movie and Man- Excerpt
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877), ERA 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)
Amendments Proposed by the Peace Conference, February 8-27, 1861
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Title Page
The Confessions of Nat Turner- Excerpt
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Liberator
The Liberator Comments on Nat Turner’s Insurrection
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Texas Revolution
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Rail Splitter
“The Last Race of the Rail-Splitter,” Broadside, ca. 1861
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Democratic National Convention 1860
Democratic Party Platform, June 18, 1860.
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Lincoln as They Saw Him by Herbert Mitgang- Excerpt
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Black Code
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Poem
Nat Turner by T. Thomas Fortune
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), ERA 6: The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)
Pamphlet
Democratic ticket. Our principals the Constitution. For President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky For Vice President Joseph Lane of Oregon
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

Historical Images

Secession Movement Political Cartoon
The "Secession Movement"
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Horrid Massacre in Virginia- Composite of scenes of Nat Turner’s rebellion
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
James Buchanan surrounded by criminal quoting the Ostend Manifesto
The Ostend Doctrine
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
John Brown Cartoon
John Brown. Meeting the slave-mother and her child on the steps of Charlestown jail on his way to execution
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Harvest of Death
Pennsylvania, Gettysburg. A Harvest of Death
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
William Sherman
Gen. William T. Sherman
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Political Cartoon
A Family Quarrel, or the Reason Why.
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
The Freedmen's Bureau Cartoon
"The Freedman's Bureau"
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Lincoln cartoon
The National Game. Three "Outs" and One "Run" – Abraham Winning the Ball
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Stonewall Jackson
General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Jefferson Davis captured
[Jefferson Davis dressed in women's clothing being captured in a tent by two Union soldiers as two women and an African American man look on] / Francis Hacker.
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

Collections

Lincoln at the Time of the Cooper Union Speech
Lincoln, the Orator by Harold Holzer
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Nat Turner
Children of Darkness, by Stephen B. Oates
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Nat Turner
Nat Turner Revisited, by William Styron
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), ERA 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)
John Brown
The Father of American Terrorism, by Ken Chowder
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
The Statue of the Freed Slave
The Slaves Freed, by Stephen Oates
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
John Brown, the Abolitionist
The Father of American Terrorism, by Ken Chowder
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)