Honor, Manhood, Slavery: Political Violence from Alexander Hamilton to John Brown

Violence Series, #2 of 4. Dueling seems crazy to us today. Two men take ten paces, turn to face each other, and stand still while they shoot to kill, all the while following strict rules. But while it’s easy to think of duels as simply evidence of a more violent age, dueling and other similar forms of violence offer an important window into the political, racial, and cultural history of the late 18th and early 19th century. Duels weren’t just about shooting at a guy you disliked – they were about masculinity, slavery, race, politics, honor, class status, and the sectional crisis. We're talking about all this in this episode about dueling and political violence in America in the first half of the nineteenth century. Get the full transcript at digpodcast.org Bibliography Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin Books, 2004. Earle, Jonathan. John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2008. Ellis, Joseph. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. New York: Vintage Books, 2000. Freeman, Joanne B. The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018. Freeman, Joanne B. Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. Greenberg, Kenneth S. Honor & Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, The Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. Hoffer, Williamjames Hull. The Caning of Charles Sumner: Honor, Idealism, and the Origins of the Civil War. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 2010. Letters from Alexander Hamilton to Aaron Burr, Founders Online, National Archives Online. Charles Sumner, “The Crime Against Kansas” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices