All K–12 teachers can register for free to attend via Zoom any live lecture at the Reframing Lincoln: Myth, Memory, and Changing Narratives Symposium. You can find dates, times, and guest lecturers below.
Jonathan W. White, the symposium’s director, is an associate professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University and the author or editor of more than ten books, including A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House (2021), I Address You As My Friend: African American Letters to Abraham Lincoln (2021), Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln (2014), and Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil War: The Trials of John Merryman (2011).
Each lecture will be broadcast live from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Virtual participants will be able to pose questions using the Q&A function. Everyone who registers will be sent a Zoom meeting link and instructions in the confirmation email. Teachers who attend for the full two hours will be sent PD certificates to verify their attendance.
If you have any questions, please contact education@gilderlehrman.org.
Lecture Schedule
| Session Date and Time | Session Topic and Speakers |
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July 25, 2022 |
“The Amazing, Awe-Inspiring (and Possibly Salacious) Early Life of Abraham Lincoln” with Jonathan W. White This lecture and discussion will explore the early life of Abraham Lincoln, from his birth in a log cabin through meeting Mary Todd. It will explore the personal obstacles he overcame, including his lack of formal education and loss of loved ones. It will conclude with a discussion of his famous 1838 Lyceum Address. The lecture will begin with a welcome from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum staff. |
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July 26, 2022 |
“Lincoln and the Dred Scott Decision” with Jonathan W. White This lecture and discussion will explore the infamous Dred Scott decision to see how Lincoln’s response to it helped push his Springfield neighbors toward a greater understanding of equality. |
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July 27, 2022
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“Lincoln and Civil Liberties” with Jonathan W. White This lecture and discussion will explore Lincoln’s suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Attendees will read and discuss critiques from wartime Democrats as well as Lincoln’s most famous defense of his controversial actions. |
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July 28, 2022 |
“Lincoln and Emancipation” with Jonathan W. White The Emancipation Proclamation is one of the most important and yet most misunderstood documents in American history. In this session, attendees will explore Lincoln’s path to emancipation and discuss that edict’s significance. |
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July 28, 2022 |
“Lincoln and the Confiscation Acts” with Silvana R. Siddali At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the U.S. Constitution still protected southern property rights in human beings. This lecture and Q&A will explore how President Abraham Lincoln confronted this constitutional problem when Congress passed legislation that confiscated the wartime property of rebellious southerners – property that included enslaved people. His messages to political and military leaders helped to transform the legal status of enslaved persons from chattel property to citizens with rights. The wartime confiscation of slave labor forever changed the way Americans thought about property rights in human beings. Silvana R. Siddali is a professor of history at Saint Louis University where she specializes in nineteenth-century American political and constitutional history. She has written two books, Frontier Democracy: Constitutional Conventions in the Old Northwest (2015) and From Property to Person: Slavery and the Confiscation Acts, 1861–1862 (2005). |
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July 28, 2022 |
“Lincoln and African Americans in Springfield, Illinois” with guest lecturer Kathryn Harris It was once mistakenly believed that Lincoln did not interact or have close relationships with African Americans until he arrived in Washington, D.C. This lecture and Q&A will refute that notion, exploring the longer history of Lincoln’s ties with African Americans in Springfield, Illinois, where the future president lived for seventeen years. Kathryn Harris served as the director of library services at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield from 1990 to 2015. Prior to that, her experience included periods at the Illinois State Library and Southern Illinois University. |
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July 29, 2022 |
“The Election That Saved America: Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1864” with Jonathan W. White November 8, 1864, stands out as one of the most remarkable days in American history. Never before—nor since—had the nation held a presidential election in the midst of a terrible civil war. This lecture and discussion will explore the momentous steps that took place in the lead-up to this pivotal election, ranging from the battlefield to the nominating conventions to the creation of mechanisms for absentee voting. |