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Fighting Slavery in the Civil War Era: A Four-Part Course with Dr. Richard Bell
Learn with Dr. Richard Bell

Fighting Slavery in the Civil War Era: A Four-Part Course with Dr. Richard Bell

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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after each event.

The Civil War was the largest slave revolt in world history, a freedom war that lurched American history off its rails.
The great struggle would end with the destruction of American slavery and the passage of the 13th Amendment. But that glorious victory was the result of years of struggle and sacrifice by men and women who devoted their lives to advancing the freedom struggle in America. In the ten years before Lincoln’s unlikely election to the office of president, African American activists and their white allies had been building a national movement to focus northern attention on the plight of southern slaves. They used every tool at this disposal – polite persuasion, the call of Christian conscience, direct action to free the enslaved, and the threat of all-out race war to advance their cause, and when the Civil War began African Americans wasted no time fleeing their enslavers and rushing to the Union lines.
This four-part course explores the antislavery fight in the era of the Civil War. Lecture one explores John Brown’s doomed raid on Harpers’ Ferry, the most violent and provocative act of antislavery terrorism before the war. Lecture two pushes deep into the war itself to demonstrate the central role enslaved people played in turning Lincoln’s war to preserve the Union into a war to free the slaves. 

Lecture three tells the story of the United States Colored Troops, the 179,000 black men who pulled on Union uniforms and picked up Union muskets to sweep the Confederacy into the dustbin of history. Lecture four carries this story into the Reconstruction era—an era in which great hopes for post-war racial equality foundered against a rising tide of white supremacy.

Lecture 1: The Black Heart of John Brown
By almost any reasonable standard, John Brown 1859 raid on Harper’s Ferry was an act of terrorism; the work of a messianic fanatic, an ideological extremist. Yet as this first lecture argues, this sort of provocation was long overdue and it struck a blow at the Slave Power from which it never recovered.
Lecture 2: The Slaves’ War
Lincoln had been elected on a platform of stopping the spread of slavery into free territories in the northwest, not attacking slavery where it already existed. But, as this lecture demonstrates, enslaved people slowly and surely pushed the president and his commanders in the field to embrace emancipation as a war aim.
Lecture 3: Black and Blue
This third lecture explores the wartime experiences of tens of thousands of black men—from the free North, the border states, and the unfree South—who fought slavery while wearing Union blue. Despite harassment and racism in the ranks, they flocked to the Union lines casting themselves as liberators and turning the world upside down.
Lecture 4: Fighting Slavery After Emancipation
This last lecture examines a simple question: what is freedom in a world without slavery? For more than a decade after 1865 blacks and whites, northerners and southerners, struggled with this most pressing of questions, ultimately subordinating the prospect of racial justice to the job of rebuilding the union.

Dr. Richard Bell is Professor of History at the University of Maryland. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and has won more than a dozen teaching awards, including the University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has held major research fellowships at Yale, Cambridge, the Library of Congress and is the recipient of the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship and the National Endowment of the Humanities Public Scholar Award. Professor Bell is author of the new book "Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and their Astonishing Odyssey Home," which was shortlisted for the George Washington Prize and the Harriet Tubman Prize.

How does it work?
This is a four-part series held weekly and hosted on Zoom. Please check the schedule for the specific dates and times for each lecture. 

When will I receive the Zoom link?
Your link to enter the Zoom room will be the same for all sessions. It will be sent to the email address used to place your order 30 minutes prior to each lecture's start time.

Is there a reading list in advance?
Though the course is open to participants with no background on this topic, there are suggested readings for further investigation. These will be provided at the course's conclusion.

How long are the lectures?
Each lecture is 90 minutes long with time for Q&A.

How much is the course?
The course is $140 USD for four lectures.

Is a recording available?
Yes. All registered participants will be sent a recording link within 48 hours of each session's conclusion.

Are there additional seminars, courses, and in-person experiences being led on the topic of American History?
Yes!  Context Experts will be leading several virtual experiences in the coming weeks. Details are available here.

Our Context Tours of the United States are available to explore here. 

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 24 reviews
92%
(22)
4%
(1)
4%
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K
K.S. (London, GB)
Great course!

Guest did not leave comment

S
Sandra S -- Boston (Saugus, US)
Excellent Series About the Civil War

What an informative 4 part series about slavery and the civil war. Each session was outstanding! These added much more information than what I recall from past high school or college courses!!! Dr Bell provided unique views, explored controversies, presented both sides of the conflict. I truly learned so much. I took copious notes, re-watched each session to ensure that I absorbed all the information and retained it more. Love Dr Bell's style of teaching via zoom, like he is there in the classroom! One of the best series on Context Learning.

V
V. (San Diego, US)
Superb course

Starting with John Brown's raid in 1859, to the shift in objectives for the Union Army in the Civil War, to black soldiers in Union Blue, through to the promise and despair of Reconstruction, Dr. Bell took us through a powerful examination of what it meant to fight slavery in the Civil War era. Each of the four seminars was brilliantly thought out, clearly organized, presented with Dr. Bell's usual eloquence and passion, and enhanced with terrific slides. This is a great course. Because of that, I have taken it twice and highly recommend it.

j
j.t. (Houston, US)
John

Slavery as an integral element of the Civil War was incredibly well presented by Dr Bell

j
j.t. (Houston, US)
Superb historical course

Well taught and led as always by Dr Bell

123

Customer Reviews

Based on 24 reviews
92%
(22)
4%
(1)
4%
(1)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
K
K.S. (London, GB)
Great course!

Guest did not leave comment

S
Sandra S -- Boston (Saugus, US)
Excellent Series About the Civil War

What an informative 4 part series about slavery and the civil war. Each session was outstanding! These added much more information than what I recall from past high school or college courses!!! Dr Bell provided unique views, explored controversies, presented both sides of the conflict. I truly learned so much. I took copious notes, re-watched each session to ensure that I absorbed all the information and retained it more. Love Dr Bell's style of teaching via zoom, like he is there in the classroom! One of the best series on Context Learning.

V
V. (San Diego, US)
Superb course

Starting with John Brown's raid in 1859, to the shift in objectives for the Union Army in the Civil War, to black soldiers in Union Blue, through to the promise and despair of Reconstruction, Dr. Bell took us through a powerful examination of what it meant to fight slavery in the Civil War era. Each of the four seminars was brilliantly thought out, clearly organized, presented with Dr. Bell's usual eloquence and passion, and enhanced with terrific slides. This is a great course. Because of that, I have taken it twice and highly recommend it.

j
j.t. (Houston, US)
John

Slavery as an integral element of the Civil War was incredibly well presented by Dr Bell

j
j.t. (Houston, US)
Superb historical course

Well taught and led as always by Dr Bell

123