Kathryn Kish Sklar of SUNY-Binghamton describes women's rise in political and social power and activism in response to encouragement by antebellum churches. Sklar looks particularly at women's actions in forming anti-slavery societies and circulating petitions.

To view this clip, select "Women Churches and the Development of Antebellum Social Reform Movement" under "Religion and Culture Video."

Michael F. Holt of the University of Virginia looks at the development of a second two-party political system in antebellum U.S. and the role the system played in balancing and unifying the nation. Holt also looks at the dissolution of this second system through loss of public faith in the Democratic and Whig parties as they stood and in the development of the Republican and Know Nothing parties in response to new social forces (such as immigration and the rise of Roman Catholicism).

To view this clip, select "The Second Party System in American Politics" under "Political Development Video."

Edward L. Ayers of the University of Virginia looks at Northern and Southern responses to John Brown's Raid and John Brown's execution, focusing on the regional differences the responses brought to the fore and media manipulation of these responses.

To view this clip, select "John Brown's Raid and the American Sectional Crisis" under "Political Development Video."

Michael F. Holt of the University of Virginia outlines Stephen Douglas's creation of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the repercussions of Congress's passing the Act.

To view this clip, select "Stephen Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act" under "Frontier Settlement Video."

Michael F. Holt of the University of Virginia discusses the struggle to resolve disputes over territory acquired during the Mexican-American War, particularly the dispute over how (and whether) slavery should spread into the new territories.

To view this clip, select "Origins of the Compromise of 1850" under "Frontier Settlement Video."

Michael Johnson of Johns Hopkins University discusses the reasons antebellum Midwestern settlers, including those in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, excluded slavery from their states. Johnson considers racism and fear of competition as two possible reasons.

To view this clip, select "The Expansion of Slavery, White Racial Attitudes, and the Settlement of Illinois" under "Frontier Settlement Video."

John Mack Faragher of Yale University outlines the patterns of antebellum settlement in Illinois, looking also at ideas of family and an American desire for mobility as forces behind settlement.

Too view this clip, select "The Settlement of Illinois" under "Frontier Settlement Video."

Edward L. Ayers of the University of Virginia looks at the early antebellum support of African colonization as an answer to U.S. racial tensions, and considers it as a possible root of the later abolitionist movement.

To listen to this lecture, select "The Movement of African-American Colonization" under "African-American Experience 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."

Charles McCurdy of the University of Virginia outlines the legal cases that preceded the U.S. Supreme Court Case Dred Scott v. Sandford. McCurdy looks at the support, until the 1830s, of the master's side of cases involving slaves suing for freedom following time spent in a free state; the support, beginning in the 1830s, of the slave's side of such cases in free states; the life of Dred Scott prior to the case; and the climbing of the case up the U.S. court system.