Pre-Civil War Tensions

1824-1860. During this time period, also known as the Antebellum period, the explosion of the cotton economy made the way for the expansion of slavery and the move towards westward expansion. Abolitionists like the Grimke sisters started to speak about slavery and many slaves tried to escape using established routes like the Underground Railroad. The tensions that arise between the South and North about class difference, land and slavery eventually lead to Civil War.
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The Planter at the Gate, Part 2 2
The Planter at the Gate, Part 2
Episode 2

Video

Grades: 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Thomas Lamar farms cotton on the family land granted by the King of England. Thomas’ brother, Charles, makes a bold move to reopen the African slave trade in defiance of a federal ban. Talk of...
Unionists | South Carolina Public Radio
Unionists | South Carolina Public Radio

Audio

Grades: 6 7 8

“U” is for Unionists. Unionists in South Carolina were anti-scessionists and supporters of the federal Union in the decades prior to the Civil War—especially during the Nullification Crisis of the...
The Shift In Cultural Weather | Walter Edgar's Journal
The Shift In Cultural Weather | Walter Edgar's Journal
Episode 3

Audio

Grades: 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Dr. Stern goes into the South’s reaction to the Witherspoon Murder, and how people in the South were cautious regarding the threat of slave rebellions. She then analyzes Mary Chesnut’s use of the...
Waddy Thompson, Jr. | History of SC Slide Collection
Waddy Thompson, Jr. | History of SC Slide Collection
Episode 136

Photo

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Waddy Thompson (1798-1868), Jr., served as a Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the backcountry from 1835 to 1841. Born in Pickens, in Ninety-Six District, he graduated from South...
James Reid Pringle | History of SC Slide Collection
James Reid Pringle | History of SC Slide Collection
Episode 119

Photo

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

James Reid Pringle (1782-1840) was President of the South Carolina Senate from 1814-1818, and Collector of the Port of Charleston. During the Nullification Controversy, he was a Unionist. This...
James Louis Petigru | History of SC Slide Collection
James Louis Petigru | History of SC Slide Collection
Episode 110

Photo

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

James Louis Petigru (1789-1865) was a noted South Carolina lawyer (he was head of the South Carolina Bar for forty years), and a leading Unionist in the period leading up to the Civil War. Born in...