John Mack Faragher of Yale University discusses the institutions of the law and the maintenance of public peace in the antebellum frontier, particularly in Illinois. He focuses particularly on the role of local Justices of the Peace.
To view this clip, select "Law and Society in Frontier Illinois" under "Law and Society Video."
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."
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."
Charles McCurdy of the University of Virginia overviews the federal land law covering division, sale, rights to, and distribution of new lands and resources in the antebellum West and Midwest.
To view this clip, select "Public Land Law and the Settlement of the Frontier" 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."
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.
Charles McCurdy of the University of Virginia discusses the ways in which states originally legally established or abolished slavery. He discusses particularly the gradual abolition of slavery (based on age and date of birth of African Americans) in states including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.
James O. Horton of George Washington University discusses the "black codes" put in place to discourage free blacks settling in antebellum Illinois and also examines the thriving urban free black communities which sprang up regardless of these codes.
To view this clip, select "African Americans and Black Codes in the Antebellum North" under "African-American Experience Video."
James O. Horton of George Washington University contrasts the Eastern radical abolitionist views of slavery, epitomized by those of William Lloyd Garrison, with the more conservative views on race relations held in Illinois—from which Abraham Lincoln developed his own views.
To listen to this clip, select "Abolitionism in Antebellum Illinois" under "African-American Experience Video."