Seton Hall Lincoln Scholar Addresses NJ Historical Commission

As scholars gather on Nov. 19 at Princeton University, they'll join the New Jersey Historical Commission in marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. This 28th annual conference "New Jersey in the Crucible of the Civil War," will include an address by Seton Hall professor and Lincoln scholar Larry Greene. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Eric Foner will deliver the keynote address on his book The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. The lecture will focus on the evolution of Lincoln's ideas and policies relating to slavery and race, the pressures that led to emancipation, and his thinking toward the end of his life on the place of blacks in American society.  Foner is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University.

Greene will deliver a talk titled The Role of Race and Slavery in New Jersey Elections.Greene has previously discussed this topic at the South Orange Public Library, noting that Lincoln's influence, in particular, is still felt.

In terms of politics today, Greene explained that, after Lincoln, 90 percent of African-Americans voted Republican until the Depression. Today’s patterns are heavily Democratic. In neither of his races for president did Lincoln carry New Jersey.

The conference's panel sessions include: The Homefront which will examine the divided loyalties and painful sacrifices that fractured families, communities and towns.  Women, Medicine, and the Civil War will explore medicine and Newark's Civil War hospital and examine the impact that some of the nation’s most prominent women had on Civil War-era New Jersey; and, The Soldier Experience will capture the psychological impact and trauma suffered by both northern and southern soldiers and will survey the leadership style of the state's officers and generals.

Historian Clement Alexander Price of Rutgers University will deliver a plenary titled, Break Every Yoke, Let the Oppressed Go Free: African Americans and the Civil War.

Registration and program information is available on the Commission’s web site at www.newjerseyhistory.org.