Expert on African-American textiles Gladys-Marie Fry looks at the symbolism found in quilts made by African-American men in slavery. She examines two quilts in particular, one a wedding present for an owner, containing African religious and mythological symbols, and the second a quilt depicting medicinal herbs.

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This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces David Wilmot, a Democratic Representative from Pennsylvania, who, in 1848, insisted that slavery be banned in any new states acquired from Mexico.

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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the social situation in the South prior to the Civil War, in which white society was divided between the wealthy class known as the Planter Aristocracy, and the poor yeoman farmers of the backcountry.

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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the 1831 rebellion started by the slave Nat Turner. The brutal aftermath sent shock waves throughout the South.

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Josh Brown of the American Social History Project explains a political cartoon from 1839 in which the enforcement of the "gag-rule," which prohibited discussion about slavery in the House of Representatives, is satirized.

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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes how, in their quest for independence from the Mexican government, the men who took part in the Texas Revolution saw themselves as freedom fighters.

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David S. Reynolds, author of Walt Whitman's America, says that Whitman had an almost utopian hope that his poetry could unite a country torn apart by the conflict over slavery.

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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the entrance of Missouri into the Union in 1819 and the compromise reached about whether Missouri should be a slave or free state.

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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the wave of thousands of German immigrants that arrived in America between 1820 and 1860. These immigrants contributed to many early reform movements, and made cultural contributions as well.

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Historian Carroll Gibbs discusses African American life in Georgetown prior to and just after the Civil War, looking at laws that discriminated against and segregated African Americans, at historic churches in the area, at records that suggest African Americans escaped from Georgetown by the Underground Railroad, and at reactions to African Americans' gaining the right to vote.

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