In 1858 the upstart Abraham Lincoln ran against incumbent Stephen Douglas for senator of Illinois. Both were champion orators and the two held a series of debates across the nation. The most important debate was held in Freeport, IL. At Freeport, Lincoln asked Douglas how he could support the idea of popular sovereignty (the idea … Continue reading Class Notes
Author: James Finck
Dr. James W. Finck was raised in the shadows of history in the great state of Virginia. Growing up it was difficult to travel too far without running into a monument or battlefield from the Revolutionary or Civil War. In this environment, Finck developed a love for studying the past and from his youth knew that he wanted to make it his life’s work. Finck received a B.A. from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He then studied under James I. Robertson and William C. Davis at Virginia Tech, while earning a Master’s degree. Finally, he received his Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas, under the direction of Daniel Sutherland. For five years, Finck taught at the University of Texas-Pan American before accepting his current position as American Historian at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in 2011. At a small liberal arts institution, Finck considers himself a generalist in history, but his specialties are the Civil War and American Politics. Finck has established himself in Oklahoma with the creation of the Oklahoma Civil War Symposium, which has brought in leading Civil War scholars for the past eight years, and he has spoken at many venues around Oklahoma, especially working with the Honey Spring Battlefield. Finck is the author of Divided Loyalties: Kentucky’s Struggle for Armed Neutrality in the Civil War, as well as Images of America: Chickasha. Finck is also the author of the syndicated newspaper column “Historically Speaking.”
Class Notes
One law that helped build the west was the Homestead Act. In order to build towns, they needed population and money and the Homestead Act did both. It brought in new people and those people had to pay property taxes. Homestead basically gave anyone 160 acres of land. You were expected to develop the land, … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
One area in which the 19th Century was superior to us was in compromises. Whereas today compromise means do what I want, in the 19th Century, especially with Henry Clay there were gains for both sides. A good example of this was the 1850 Compromise. When California had the population required for statehood it opened … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
In the years after the Civil War, towns and cities in the great plains had to convince settlers to move in. They needed the sale of land to fund the current towns. One way to convince settlement was to create cleaver ads that would convince people of the fertility of these areas. In the Oklahoma … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
With the growth of abolitionism, southern slave holders found the need to protect slavery more than they ever had before. They used history, religion, and biology to make a defense of slavery, but their most important weapon was paternalism. The idea of paternalism was that slaves were basically children. Just as plantation masters had to … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
In the Election of 1876, the Democrat candidate Samuel Tilden was one vote shy of winning the Electoral College. The problem was that four states were not being counted because of electoral disputes. Three of those states were in the south, LA, SC and FL (why is it always Florida), and the Democrats had taken … Continue reading Class Notes
The Abortion Decision II
As I said in my last article, few decisions have been as controversial as the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade. As such I could not cover everything in one article. Last time I discussed the courts and politicians, but the new ruling has also set off the Internet warriors who have spewed their hatred … Continue reading The Abortion Decision II
Class Notes
There were several ways in which slaves could protest their enslavement. They could work slowly, pretend illness, break tools, burn down barns or homes, poison food, run away or finally they could revolt. While the consequences grew in severity as the protests did, all forms of protest had negative effects. Even if not caught, most … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
After the death of Lincoln, Congress reasserted itself as top-dog and passed the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. In this amendment citizenship was defined as anyone born in the U.S. who is not subject to another jurisdiction. It imposed penalties on any state that denied citizens voting rights. Finally, it prohibited former Confederate leaders from … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
With the death of Lincoln, Andrew Johnson took over the presidency at a time when the government was trying to establish a reconstruction policy. Lincoln and Congress had been debating different approaches to allowing the southern states full membership. Johnson, however, brought his own ideas to the argument. Everyone expected he would be hard on … Continue reading Class Notes
Historically Speaking 