Timothy O’Sullivan, A Harvest of Death, 1863, albumen print, 17.2 × 22.5 cm, illustration in Alexander Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the War, 1866 (Library of Congress) A conversation between Dr. Kimberly Kutz Elliott and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Steven Zucker, Smarthistory, and Kimberly Kutz.

Plessy v. Ferguson was an 1896 Supreme Court case concerning whether "separate but equal" railway cars for black and white Americans violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In this video, Kim discusses the case with scholars Jamal Greene and Earl Maltz.

Although the New England colonies differed from the Chesapeake colonies in their economies and environments, both regions shared forms of government that were unusually democratic for the time period, as well as a policy of excluding Native Americans from their societies.

The early twentieth century saw a huge number of Progressive reform movements, which aimed to improve labor, sanitation, conservation, voting rights, and morality. With so many different avenues of reform, how can we define who the Progressives really were? In this video, Kim compares the goals and effects of the Progressive reform movement.

How and why did the Northern and Southern parts of the United States begin to develop distinctive regional attitudes about the institution of slavery? In this video, Kim discusses how the economic systems and ideas of each region evolved over time, leading to two very different societies.

Changes in work, geography, and economics influenced the emergence of the Second Great Awakening. In this video Kim explores some of the social and economic factors in the early nineteenth century that may have led to the religious revival.

What was the Second Great Awakening? Kim discusses the origins and major ideas behind this period of religious revival in the early nineteenth century in the United States.

The Second Great Awakening played a role in major reform movements of the nineteenth century, including temperance and abolition. In the last video in this series, Kim discusses some of the new religious movements and reform movements that grew out of the Second Great Awakening.

How did regional differences between the North and South related to slavery lead to tensions in the years leading up to the Civil War? Kim compares the economic and ideological differences that drove the sections apart.

The Seven Years' War (known in North America as the French and Indian War) was the first truly global war, in which the British and the French competed to be the world's foremost imperial power. In this video, Kim discusses the background to the conflict and what each combatant wished to achieve.

The first years of the Seven Years' War didn't go well for the British (even though 22 year old George Washington was in command!). Then they decided to spend a lot of money on winning the war -- and they succeeded! The only problem was how to pay back their debt . . . maybe some new taxes on the American colonists?

Which events of the first half of the twentieth century had the greatest impact on shaping national identity between 1890 and 1945? In this video, Kim compares the effect of major developments like the Great Depression and World II on American core beliefs about individualism, culture, and the proper US role in the world.

Why was Antietam such an important battle in the Civil War? Kim discusses the international effects of the battle of Antietam.

How did westward expansion exacerbate tensions over the institution of slavery? Sal and Kim discuss how slavery was an issue at the birth of the United States and how the issue became more and more central as the country expanded.

In all of the British colonies in North America and the Caribbean, slavery was a staple of the economy during the period from 1607-1754. In this video, Kim discusses the ties between the environment and slavery, the rise of increasingly restrictive slave codes, and the overt and covert methods by which enslaved people resisted the dehumanizing nature of slavery.

The rhetoric of the American Revolution, which emphasized that "all men are created equal," led many to question existing social norms in the years after the Revolution. The ideals expressed by the Founders influenced the expansion of voting rights, the gradual abolition of slavery in the North, and a new role for women through republican motherhood.

The New England colonies organized society around the Puritan religion and family farming. In this video, Kim explores New England settlers' reasons for immigrating to North America and their farming and fishing economy.

In the years after Columbus's first voyage, Spanish adventurers known as conquistadores began to colonize the surrounding areas of the Caribbean and the Americas. In this video, Kim explores the social changes that Spanish colonization created in the New World.

The strategy of the Civil War for the Confederacy (the South) was to outlast the political will of the United States (the North) to continue the fighting the war by demonstrating that the war would be long and costly. The Confederacy also hoped to entice European powers such as the United Kingdom to assist them against the United States in order to protect their cotton supply. The strategy for the United States was to surround the territory of the South in the Anaconda Plan, blockading the Atlantic Ocean and controlling the Mississippi, to keep goods from going into or out of the South and forcing them to surrender.