John Mack Faragher of Yale University considers the importance of singing as a pastime for antebellum frontier families and the view of frontier life that surviving lyrics provide. He examines particularly the views of death and mortality presented in many lyrics.

To view this clip, select "Singing on the Illinois Frontier" under "Frontier Settlement Video."

Kathryn Kish Sklar of SUNY-Binghamton discusses the immigration of Germans and Irish to the U.S. during the antebellum period, to serve as members of the working class. Sklar considers immigrant labor as supporting the development of the new middle class, and also looks at the changing role of women in immigrant families.

To view this clip, select "Women's Changing Roles in Immigrant Families" under "Economic Development and Labor Video."

Kathryn Kish Sklar of SUNY-Binghamton discusses the change in family structure in the mid-19th century which heralded the institutionalization of the "Victorian family," in which the husband and the wife were seen as inhabiting separate "spheres" of work and home.

To listen to this lecture, select "Family Life and the Development of the Middle Classes in Antebellum America" under "Economic Development and Labor Video."

Edward L. Ayers of the University of Virginia discusses the movement of religions, ways of life, racial attitudes, and other cultural aspects into frontier areas. Ayers focuses specifically on the movement of race-related concepts into Illinois, including a general resistance to slaveholding and a general unfriendliness to free blacks. He also mentions how politicians, such as Abraham Lincoln, had to take care to tailor their political messages for particular regions.

To listen to this lecture, select "Southerners on the Frontier," and scroll to "African-American Experience Videos."

Eric Foner of Columbia University very briefly discusses the racism that characterized the antebellum American West, and its possible origins.

To view this clip, select "Frontier Settlement and the Vision of an All-White Society" under "African-American Experience Video."

Michael Johnson of the John Hopkins University discusses the lives and origins of free African Americans in the North prior to the Civil War, looking particularly at the Northern reaction to the Fugitive Slave Law.

To view this clip, scroll to "Free Blacks in the Antebellum North" under "African-American Experience Video."

Gerald Prokopowicz of the Lincoln Museum considers reasons Abraham Lincoln may have left rural frontier life for law and politics, including the influence of his female family members and a possible near-religious sense of being called to do great deeds.

To listen to this lecture, select "Lincoln's Ambitions and Attitudes Toward Frontier Life" under "Abraham Lincoln's Biography Video."

Eric Foner of Columbia University discusses the perception of abolitionism in central Illinois, where Lincoln grew up, and Lincoln's own perceptions of slavery and of abolitionism.

To view to this clip, select "Lincoln and Abolitionism" under "Abraham Lincoln's Biography Video."

James O. Horton of George Washington University describes Abraham Lincoln's reaction to first viewing slavery in action on plantations, and discusses his changing views on slavery and what that ability to change says about him as a man and a president.

To view this clip, select to "Abraham Lincoln's Changing Attitude Towards Slavery" under "Abraham Lincoln's Biography Video."

Julie Roy Jeffrey of Goucher College compares the lifestyle of Mary Todd Lincoln, accustomed to middle-class comfort and entertaining, to that of frontierswomen of the same time period.

To view this clip, select "Mary Todd Lincoln's Frontier Life" under "Abraham Lincoln's Biography Video."