Chapter 7

America in Conflict: 1830–1865

William Cullen Bryant, Thanatopsis

•   Tom O’Bedlam reads “Thanatopsis.”

•   A thorough biography of Bryant excerpted from Frank Gado’s William Cullen Bryant: An American Voice.

Thomas Cole, View from Mt. Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm – The Oxbow (painting)

•   An interactive tour of View provided by the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.

•   A discussion of Cole and his painting on the Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site. Includes close-ups and links to scholarship about the painting.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, My Kinsman, Major Molineux

•   Tom O’ Bedlam reads “A Psalm of Life.”

•   “Famous Once Again” discusses the renewed interest in and popularity of Longfellow’s poetry.

Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher

Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Self-Reliance

•   The entry on Emerson in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, including an analysis of the themes in his work.

•   A Web site designed to help students understand “Self-Reliance.” It includes links to a number of other online resources.

Margaret Fuller, from Woman in the Nineteenth Century

•   “A Double Inheritance: On Margaret Fuller,” published in the Nation, examines the significance not only of Woman in the Nineteenth Century but Fuller’s life more generally. 

•   A page dedicated to Fuller on the American Transcendentalism Web. It includes a brief biography and links to other biographical readings, texts, and criticism.

Frederick Douglass, from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself

•   An exhibition on abolitionism from the Cornell University Library with information and images of original documents. It discusses slave narratives and Frederick Douglass as a prominent abolitionist.

•   James Horton discusses the “human quality” that slave narratives lent to the abolitionist movement.

•   This site provides links to primary resources, such as scans of Douglass’s Narrative and text of some of his other speeches, collected by the Library of Southern Literature.

•   An in-depth discussion of slave narratives and the context in which they were written.

Sojourner Truth, Ain’t I a Woman?

•   Kerry Washington performs “Ain’t I a Woman?”

Harriet Beecher Stowe, from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life among the Lowly

•   Articles about Stowe’s life, Stowe’s writing, and the impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, produced by the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center.

•   An exhibition of various primary sources (original book cover, newspaper review, etc.) related to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Auction Block Monument (photograph)

•   A collection of images from various sources gathered under the title “The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record.”

Herman Melville, from Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

•   Tilda Swinton reads Chapter 1 of Moby-Dick.

William Stafford, At the Un-National Monument along the Canadian Border

•   John Gorka performs “Where No Monuments Stand,” inspired by Stafford’s poem.

Chief Seattle, Message to President Franklin Pierce

•   In "Thus Spoke Chief Seattle: The Story of An Undocumented Speech,” Jerry L. Clark examines the literary and historical origins of Chief Seattle’s most famous speech.

•   Timothy Egan discusses how much in Chief Seattle’s “Message” is probably apocryphal, despite the Chief’s popularity.

Walt Whitman, There Was a Child Went Forth; O Captain! My Captain!; Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

•   An online archive containing many resources related to Whitman including an audio recording, manuscripts, portraits, criticism, and more.
•   Poet Galway Kinnell reads “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.”

Jefferson Davis, Inaugural Address

•   An opinion piece in the New York Times argues that Davis’s speech was “hastily composed.” It includes a photograph of Davis’s inauguration.

Anonymous, No More Auction Block for Me or, Many Thousands Gone

•   Performed by Paul Robeson.

•   Performed by Bob Dylan.

•   An alternate version performed by Tom Kitching and Gren Barley.

Harriet Jacobs, from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself

•   A clip from The American Place Theatre’s stage adaptation of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Alexander Gardner, Confederate Dead before the Dunker Church (photograph)

•   The Center for Civil War Photography presents a number of online photographic exhibits.

•   The Library of Congress exhibits its collection of 1,118 Civil War photographs.

Timothy O’Sullivan, A Harvest of Death (photograph)

•   The photo essay “Gettysburg in Color,” on the Civil War Monitor Web site, uses the oil paintings of Edwin Forbes to walk readers through the Battle of Gettysburg.

Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, Come and Join Us Brothers (advertisement)

•   An essay examining the original “Come and Join Us Brothers” photograph and arguing that it has recently been manipulated by Neo-Confederates.

•   A copy of another black recruiting poster, this one provided by the Civil War Monitor.

Conversation | Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator

•   James McPherson lectures on the legacy of Lincoln.

•   This article from the Associated Press includes an interview with historian Philip Magness and discusses Abraham Lincoln's support for relocating black Americans.

Conversation | John Brown: Patriot or Terrorist?

•   Orson Welles reads John Brown’s “Last Speech.”

•   “Harper’s Ferry and John Brown,” produced by WV Public Broadcasting, explores the history of Harper’s Ferry and the legacy of John Brown.

•   The song “John Brown’s Body,” set to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” performed by Pete Seeger.

Conversation | The Legacy of Henry David Thoreau

•   In “Move Over, Thoreau,” Johann Hari explores the divide between “romantic” and “rationalist” environmentalism, ultimately advocating the latter.