Michael Bernath

<i>The First Cotton-gin, </i>by William L. Sheppard, published in<i> Harper&rsquo;s,</i> December 18, 1869, shows slaves at work&mdash;and masters who profited from their labor.

Arts & Culture |

Harvard's Walter Johnson on the slave South

The capitalist economy and dark dreams of the slaveholding South

The entry of Major Anderson’s command into Fort Sumter, as depicted in <i>Harper’s Weekly</i>

Books & Literary Life |

Michael Bernath reviews Adam Goodheart's book "1861: The Civil War Awakening"

At its sesquicentennial, a fresh, revealing narrative of the advent of the Civil War