Featured Presentations
Dr. Michael Toomey, Emeritus Professor of History at Lincoln Memorial University and Dr. William E. Hardy, Assistant Professor of History and Lincoln Scholar gave a joint presentation entitled, "Lincoln's Dilemma: Slavery, Morality, and Politics," as part of the inaugural events of the Abraham Lincoln Center for Leadership and Public Policy. The joint presentation addresses the president's dilemma of bringing an end to slavery without doing irreparable damage to the United States Constitution and the foundations of the American Republic.
"That's the Last Speech He Will Ever Make: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" - Dr. William E. Hardy discusses the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and how John Wilkes Booth, who had assembled a band of willing conspirators to initially kidnap the President and to hold hostage to compel the federal government to sue for peace with the Confederacy, changed his mind on hearing Lincoln's vision for post-Civil War America, which he announced in what would be his final speech on April 11, 1865. Dr. Hardy delivered the following lecture along with a special public screening of Robert Redford’s film, The Conspirator as part of Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War Exhibit Lecture Series at the East Tennessee History Center, Knoxville, TN.
"We Have no Union to Hope For, no Constitution to Struggle For": East TN Unionists' House Dividing - President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was the entering wedge of dissension into the bedrock of Tennessee Unionism. Alarmed that Lincoln had broken his solemn promise not to interfere with slavery, a number of East Tennesseans rallied like-minded Unionists across the state to challenge those Unionists “radicalized” by the experience of persecution and hardship during the Civil War to adopt emancipation and other radical policies designed to punish the Rebels, thus foreshadowing the bitter postwar struggle for control over Reconstruction.
Steven Spielberg, Historian? Emancipating Lincoln - Steven Spielberg's historical drama, "Lincoln" (2012), chronicles President Abraham Lincoln's final months and the bitter political struggle for passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in the United States Congress. Spielberg's film seeks to find the man behind the monument. In doing so, Spielberg reveals President Lincoln's personal struggles as he confronts battlefield, constitutional, and moral decisions. How can the viewer separate history from creative license? Dr. William E. Hardy discusses the historical context and the role that Lincoln played in the passage of the amendment that brought about the emancipation of nearly four million enslaved peoples. Dr. Hardy delivered the following lecture as part of the Of Sword and Pen: Pivotal Moments in Civil War East Tennessee Exhibit Lecture Series at the East Tennessee History Center, Knoxville, TN.
"'A Perfect Mania': The Origins of 'Base Ball' in Knoxville, Tennessee" - The Abraham Lincoln Center Executive Director and LMU's Lincoln Scholar, Dr. William E. Hardy, recently appeared on C-SPAN's "American History TV" to discuss how baseball came to Knoxville, Tennessee after the American Civil War and shared stories about some of the early games, players, and leagues. The East Tennessee Historical Society hosted this lecture, which is based on Dr. Hardy's 2022 McClung Award-winning article of the same name that appeared in the Journal of East Tennessee History 94 (2022): 58-87.
Past Events
