Richard Newman, a history professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, teaches a course on American slavery and freedom. His class details the struggle of African Americans against a history of oppression. In today’s class, Professor Newman focuses on the topic of “black founders” and abolitionism.

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Author William Dobak discusses his book, "Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862-1867," which examines how African American troops were used to improve Union intelligence and the varying attitudes of Union leaders towards black soldiers.

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Harvard University professor John Stauffer discusses African Americans and the Civil War.  Professor Stauffer examines Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, focusing on the president's claim that secession was unconstitutional.  He also teaches about President Lincoln’s efforts to keep the border states in the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the involvement of black soldiers in both the Union and Confederate Armies.

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Hari Jones, curator and assistant director of the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, talks about the contributions of African American Women during the War.

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Each week American Artifacts takes viewers into archives, museums and historic sites around the country. At the outbreak of the Civil War in the spring of 1861, Washington, DC, was lightly defended and vulnerable to attack, with only one fort located 12 miles south of the city and the Confederate state of Virginia just across the Potomac River. By 1865, the nation’s capital arguably had become the most fortified city in the world, with about 70 armed forts and batteries encircling the city. We visited three of the surviving forts with Dale Floyd, author of a study on the Civil War Defenses of Washington for the National Park Service.

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Yale history professor Joanne Freeman and University of Chicago political science professor William Howell are interviewed about acts of violence in the U.S. Congress leading up to the Civil War, and congressional checks on war powers in the modern era. Professor Freeman is working on a book titled "Field of Blood: Congressional Violence in Antebellum America." Professor Howell has written about congressional checks on presidential war powers. The interview was recorded at the Organization of American Historians meeting in Milwaukee.

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Dr. Ira Rutkow discusses how the Civil War changed medicine and surgery.  Dr. Rutkow is the author of "Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine."

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The Civil War Battle of Chancellorsville was fought April 30 to May 6, 1863, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Many historians consider the battle to be Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory. Facing a Union Army more than twice the size of his own, Lee divided his forces, sending 27,000 men under “Stonewall” Jackson on a 12-mile march to deliver a flank attack. In this program, we follow two National Park Service historians on a tour as they walk the same ground exactly 150 years after Jackson launched his attack.

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Historians John Marszalek and James McPherson examine the Battle of Gettysburg, with a focus on the second and third days of the fighting. The three-day battle fought in Pennsylvania from July 1-3, 1863, was the bloodiest of the war -- resulting in an estimated 51,000 total casualties -- and many historians consider it to be the turning point of the Civil War. Harold Holzer, chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation Chairman, moderates the discussion. This is the second in a two-part series on the battle hosted by the New-York Historical Society.
 

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Author Catherine Clinton discusses how both President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis suffered the loss of a child while in office and how it impacted their wives. In 1862, the Lincolns lost their 11-year old son, Willie, from what was believed to be typhoid fever. In1864, the Davises lost their four-year old son, Joseph, in a fatal fall at the Confederate White House in Richmond. Professor Clinton also explores mid-19th century mourning practices and etiquette. The National Archives in Washington, DC, hosted this event.
 

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