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What is a house divided about?
Why did Abraham Lincoln say a house divided against itself cannot stand?
Why is 'a house divided' so important?
Who is the producer of a house divided?
A common misconception about the House Divided speech is that Lincoln believed the Union would destroy itself as a result of its inability to regulate the spread of slavery. This is not the case ...
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- HISTORY Vault: Abraham Lincoln
At a time when many white politicians wanted to compromise on slavery, Abraham Lincoln said that wasn't possible.
When Abraham Lincoln said “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” he wasn’t talking about the kind of political divisions common today. Americans may differ sharply on issues like immigration and abortion, but there is no single issue that geographically and economically divides the country in the same way that slavery did in the 1850s. Back then, the U.S. was so divided that many feared it would break out in civil war—a fear that Lincoln unwittingly stoked.
Lincoln’s now-famous “house divided” line, which is drawn from the Bible, was actually part of a campaign speech he delivered at the 1858 Illinois Republican State Convention. Lincoln, then a relatively unknown politician, had just won the nomination to run for U.S. Senate against one of the most important politicians in the country, Stephen A. Douglas.
Stephen A. Douglas
In general, Democrats then were the party of the slave-holding south and Republicans were the party of the free north that opposed slavery’s expansion. Yet Republicans weren’t too concerned about Lincoln’s race because they thought Senator Douglas, a Democrat, might be open to working with them against expanding slavery.
“Douglas had been seeking a middle ground between North and South, some way of comprising on the slavery issue,” says Eric Foner, a history professor at Columbia University who has written several books about slavery and the Civil War.
A definitive biography of the 16th U.S. president, the man who led the country during its bloodiest war and greatest crisis.
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- Becky Little
Feb 19, 2001 · As the first dual biography, A House Divided does much more than explore the personal story of one of the most intriguing couples to have lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it also reflects...
Jul 23, 2000 · TV. Reviews. Jul 23, 2000 12:00am PT. A House Divided. Based on a true story, "A House Divided" explores the legal battle over a black woman's inheritance of her white father's estate in...
- Laura Fries
Jan 5, 2023 · Jade Sacker’s new documentary, “A House Divided,” will explore the story of two brothers interracially adopted at birth by a white Morman family, who grew up to become bitter ideological...
Jul 29, 2000 · Racial Issues Run Deep in ‘House Divided’. Though it’s set in a Civil War-era household that is struggling to overcome slaveryand family secrets, the Showtime movie “A House Divided” can ...
House Divided Speech. Springfield, Illinois June 16, 1858. On June 16, 1858 more than 1,000 delegates met in the Springfield, Illinois, statehouse for the Republican State Convention. At 5:00 p.m. they chose Abraham Lincoln as their candidate for the U.S. Senate, running against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas.
