Browse Items (916 total)

In the East, Confederates enjoyed springtime victories in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, but federal movements elsewhere in the Old Dominion gave cause for alarm. The Union General George McClellan's elaborately planned Peninsula Campaign involved…

The Civil War has been so plagued by misinterpretation that it has made the period an arduous time to study for historians. The first and most obvious way is how the causes of the Civil War have changed depending on the interpreter. For example,…

The Sons of Confederate Veterans--in their published literature, in the pages of this newspaper, and at the fictional "Battle of Zachary Hill" held in Snow Camp three weeks ago--have argued that the Civil War was not primarily about slavery. They…

Many whites, particularly in the Upper South, did not support secession. Here in Alamance County, in fact, most voters did not think that Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 was sufficient cause to secede from the Union. While statesmen from…

"Cooke's new map of the state of North Carolina: constructed from actual surveys, private contributions & authentic public documents procured for the purpose under a special resolution of the General Assembly of the state. William D. Cooke, A.M.,…

In May of 1861, delegates from North Carolina voted to secede from the United States of America and join the Confederacy. But, a closer examination of antebellum North Carolina reveals a more complex story. For the decade leading up to the Civil War,…

In antebellum North Carolina, there were six distinct social classes. The gentry, or planter class, were those few people who owned more than twenty slaves, or well-to-do professionals like high-level public officials or lawyers. The middle class…

Levi Coffin, self-proclaimed “President of the Underground Railroad,” was born in Guilford County, North Carolina (near Greensboro). Coffin, a Quaker and abolitionist, grew weary of living in a slave state surrounded by the brutality of…

In the mid-19th Century, an elite southern white man’s reputation could make him or break him. He worked to demonstrate honor through honest dealings, activity in church and community life, respect for white women, generosity to lower classes, and…

Many of North Carolina’s enslaved communities participated in a Christmas season celebration called Jonkonnu (Johnkannaus, John Coonah, John Canoe). Outside of North Carolina, Jonkonnu was primarily seen in the Caribbean. Though Jonkonnu…