History

For much of the past five centuries, the history of the European continent has been a history of chaos, its civilization thrown into turmoil by ferocious wars or bitter religious conflicts—sometimes in combination—that have made and remade borders, created and eliminated entire nations, and left a legacy that is still influencing our world.

Key Points of Learning: 01. How British Anglicanism came to be replaced in the South by evangelical Christianity. 02. Trace the rise of abolitionism and antislavery societies, and the violent backlash of anti-abolitionists. 03. Investigate the vibrant musical culture of the postbellum South and the African musical elements that converged in the birth of ragtime and jazz, as well as the evolution of blues, country music, and gospel. The American South holds a special place in the minds of people around the world. The South’s extraordinarily colorful and dramatic history, its competing narratives of prosperity and cruelty, its role in the American Civil War, and its influence on the emerging conception of human rights are, for many, the stuff of legend.