From the Gilder Lehrman Institute:
Historian Philip D. Morgan explores the core experiences of slavery itself, including life on the African coast and on sugar plantations in the new world. He discusses the wide range of experiences that an enslaved person might experience in different countries during the height of the transatlantic slave trade.
From the Gilder Lehrman Institute:
Charles Mann's most recent book, 1491, won the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Keck Award for the best book of the year. In this lecture he looks at new research on pre-Columbian America. He concludes that the Americas had actually been heavily populated and developed before the arrival of Columbus but then were rapidly depopulated by the introduction of numerous European and African diseases, giving Europeans the mistaken idea that their new land was a vast, empty wilderness.
History is complicated and in our attempts to simplify it for young children we often change it, sometimes drastically. The story of Christopher Columbus is one example. For generations we have passed down myths about this man. We have taught children that he alone believed the world was round, when, in truth, many if not most people of his time understood that the world is round. We have taught that he discovered a new world. How could he discover it if people were already living there? We have also taught that he died not realizing what he had 'discovered.'
Elementary school teachers have a unique challenge: they teach all subjects rather than focus on one. Not surprisingly, it is difficult to be experts in everything.
One way to address this challenge is to allow students to recognize the questions. We don't have to have all the answers. In fact, when it comes to history it is not possible to know all the answers. Historians continue to study a wide range of primary sources and to disagree with previous assertions and with each other. It is important that students be allowed to wrestle with this uncertainty rather than to blindly accept what we state as fact. Even the youngest children can understand that adults are still learning, and can enjoy learning along with us.
If you are interested in tackling the complexities of Christopher Columbus, there are some great places to start. James Loewen's book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, is a good one and helpful for subjects far beyond Columbus. The Library of Congress has an exhibit entitled 1492: An Ongoing Voyage that includes interesting information on Columbus's coat of arms. An examination and discussion of his coat of arms can encompass quite a bit of information about the man and his achievements. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History's June 2007 History Now includes an article detailing the benefits and difficulties faced by both Columbus and his men and those people already living in the New World. If you are interested in the geography of Columbus's journeys or his logs, one individual has created a site which includes maps and information about the logs, navigation, the ships, and the crew.
One thing children can understand about Columbus and what he achieved was that he did so by "standing on the shoulders of giants" (a phrase from Isaac Newton). Columbus learned from those who came before him, about navigation, geography, and other cultures. Learning from others and building on that knowledge are strategies we should be helping our students develop. That is a worthy lesson to take from Columbus.
Try our quiz on Christoper Columbus's portraits!
George Washington struggled to win battles in New York in 1776. What steps were taken in order to have him removed as Commander-in-Chief and who were behind the actions to get him removed?
You might not think that the father of our country had any detractors, but he did, especially in the wake of so many military setbacks—not only in New York, but later in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Starting with the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, British General William Howe drove the Continental Army back to Brooklyn Heights. Though told by Congress to hold the city, Washington decided he had to abandon New York. He then lost at Harlem Heights, suffered defeat at White Plains, lost Fort Washington along with 3,000 prisoners, and shortly after evacuated Fort Lee.
Luckily, Howe’s attention to Fort Washington gave the Continental Army a chance to escape across the Hudson and into New Jersey. But Washington’s struggles continued. At the end of 1776, General Charles Lee lost 4000 Americans covering Washington’s retreat through New Jersey. In December Congress abandoned Philadelphia for Baltimore. Fortune favored Washington again when Howe went into winter quarters. His army capitalized, striking hard on Christmas night, crossing the Delaware River, raiding Trenton and capturing 1000 Hessians along with arms and ammunition. In January, Washington’s men defeated British reinforcements at Princeton before escaping to Morristown, NJ.
Though Washington and his army showed pluck and resilience, such triumphs were pretty rare. His army was again defeated at Brandywine in September 1777 and later that month, General Howe occupied Philadelphia. In early October, Washington lost at Germantown. By contrast, just a few weeks later, General Horatio Gates shocked the world by defeating General Burgoyne at Saratoga on the Hudson River. With Gates’s star on the ascent, some wondered whether Washington was the right man to fill the role of Commander-in-Chief. Though no formal steps ever took place, by the end of 1777 there was a “whispering campaign” underway to have Washington removed —a movement that historian Joseph Ellis suggests was probably “simmering beneath the surface ever since the debacle at Fort Washington.”
One of the central figures in the matter was Brigadier General Thomas Conway, an ambitious Irishman who left the French Army to join the Continental Army, making the anti-Washington movement commonly referred to as the “Conway Cabal.” Conway actively lobbied Congress for a promotion that Washington virulently opposed in a letter to fellow Virginian and Congressman Richard Henry Lee. When Conway caught wind of this slight, he dashed off some pointed criticisms of Washington to Gates. Conway’s dislike for Washington attracted a loose “coterie of grumblers,” including Gates himself, Brigadier General Thomas Mifflin, General Charles Lee, and Congressional figures such as John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Rush, and Richard Henry Lee.
A gossip network through private correspondence might have remained the extent of the “coterie of grumblers'” influence, except that Washington, ever sensitive to the sanctity of his reputation, had his own network of loyal informants who had a keen ear for loose talk. Washington supporter General William Alexander reported that Gates’s aide General James Wilkinson, had drunkenly divulged the contents of anti-Washington correspondence between Conway and Gates, including this remark by Conway: “Heaven has been determined to save your Country; or a weak General and bad Counselors would have ruined it." When Washington penned a terse note to Gates, he openly challenged him by sending a copy of his correspondence to Congress. This skillful tactic deferred the matter to his civilian masters, while placing the matter in the public sphere, where direct criticism of Washington was still almost sacrilegious.
Washington survived the challenge to his leadership, and some of his most ardent supporters, such as Major General Nathanael Greene, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Alexander Hamilton, went on to distinguish themselves throughout the war. Washington’s two most prominent critics fared less well. Though Conway eventually got his promotion and subsequent assignment as Inspector General, Washington marginalized him when he reported for duty at Valley Forge. Later, a number of general officers petitioned Congress, protesting Conway’s promotion. Conway was further discredited after a fellow officer questioned his courage at Germantown. After challenging his accuser to a duel, Conway was shot in the mouth. Thinking he was dying, Conway wrote a letter of apology to General Washington, but he survived his wounds and eventually returned to France. Gates was never able to hold on to the stature he gained at Saratoga, and in 1780 found himself fleeing with his militia at the Battle of Camden, SC in 1780.
Abbot, WW., Twohig, Dorothy, and Chase, Philander D., The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series, 12 vols. Charlottesville, VA, 1985.
Cowley, Robert and Parker, Geoffrey, eds. The Reader’s Companion to Military History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.
Fischer, David Hackett. Washington’s Crossing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Higginbotham, Don. War of American Independence. Northeastern University Press, 1983.
McCullough, David. 1776. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Royster, Charles. A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1775-1783. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency George Washington. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
Heydt, Bruce. “Vexatious Evils: George Washington and the Conway Cabal,” American History, December 2005.
From the History Faculty website:
"In 1924 Congress passed the Johnson-Reed, or National Origins, Act, declaring racial and ethnic background as the most important determinant in gaining American citizenship. Those with Asian backgrounds were barred altogether. This session examines both the run-up to this crucial legislation and its impact on immigration up until it was superseded in 1966."
Dr. Kevin Yuill, Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Sunderland, presents this lecture. To access part two of this lecture, click here.
Free registration is required to view the video. Audio and video options are available.
Janea Whitacre, Colonial Williamsburg's mistress of the millinery and mantua-making trades, examines the business of female fashion in the colonial era.
In this lecture, historian Philip D. Morgan compares the Lowcountry and Chesapeake slave cultures and reveals much about the way of life of some of the earliest African Americans. Although South Carolina in the 18th century was built by slave labor, Virginia only began to "recruit" slaves in large numbers at the beginning of that century. Consequently, there were substantial differences in the black cultures that emerged in the two regions.
Most Americans know George Washington's December 1776 crossing of the Delaware from the famous painting by Emmanuel Gottlieb Leutze, which depicts Washington standing bravely in a rowboat on stormy waters. David Hackett Fischer, author of Washington's Crossing, looks beyond the famous painting to the events of that tumultuous month. One of Washington's great strengths was his ability to lead men from different regions and walks of life. He was also known for his humane treatment of British prisoners—treatment that the British did not reciprocate with American prisoners.
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes Five Indian nations' formation of the Iroquois Confederacy in an effort to protect themselves against European settlers. The confederacy successfully maintained its strength through decades of colonization and warfare.
According to the Gilder Lehrman website:
"Distinguished American historian and counselor to presidents, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. had a ringside seat to the most pivotal moments of the 20th century. Schlesinger's Journals: 1952-2000, the second volume of his journals, were published in 2007 to great acclaim. The Gilder Lehrman Institute presents a 2001 Historians' Forum that he delivered on the first volume of his journals, A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950. Schlesinger focuses particularly on how perceptions of progress, government, and human nature changed in the face of the two World Wars and the rise of government forms that challenged democracy."