Why did slavery exist in the United States, and how did it get that way? To better understand America leading up to the Civil War, it’s vital to trace its roots back to its origins and how its British history morphed into the Southern society, politics, and economy. As the US grew, every increase strained against the uneasy tension between the pragmatic and the moral perspectives on the South’s “peculiar institution.” How would the country deal with this tension and the sparks that began to light the path towards war?

Be sure to also listen to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History BLITZ episode “Human Resources.”
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dan-carlins-hardcore-history/id173001861?i=1000553133741

Recommended Booklist

Beckert, Sven. Empire of Cotton: A Global History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.

Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans: The National Experience. New York: Vintage Books, 1965.

Ellis, Joseph J. American Creation. New York: Vintage Books, 2007.

Johnson, Walter. River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.

Kilmeade, Brian. The President and the Freedom Fighter: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Their Battle to Save America’s Soul. New York: Sentinel, 2021.

Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave. 1854. New York: Penguin, 2013.

Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. New York: Random House, 2020.

Wood, Gordon S. Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Season 1 Episode 3 – American Slavery

Breaking Nation: A Civil War Podcast is a production of Waveland Creative.
Host: Scott Holmgren
Check out our website at http://www.breakingnation.com