Nantucket During the Civil War

On Nantucket, thirty miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, it is oftentimes easy to forget about the ravages of wartime violence, and the American Civil War is no exception to that.  There are no battlefields on Nantucket to walk through, and no Union Army barracks to tour.  But that lack of physical reminders does not mean that Nantucketers weren’t intimately involved with this pivotal time in American history.

On Saturday, September 17 at 7 p.m. at the Whaling Museum, Ira Berlin, Professor of History at the University of Maryland and world-renowned scholar, will provide insights into the economic changes, social divisions, and political turmoil that sparked the deadliest war in American history.

With the Civil War's end, the debate over its origins began.  Professor Berlin re-engages the philosophical and political debates that agitated the nation – and Nantucket – in the years leading up to the American Civil War in a lecture entitled “Slavery and the Coming of the Civil War.”  This conversation about the origins of the war is as important today as it was in 1860.

The Civil War remade the nation's economy, rewrote the Constitution, and redefined the meaning of American nationality.  In observation of the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, the Nantucket Historical Association will be bringing to Nantucket a distinguished group of scholars, artists and historians to provide insight into life during that time in American History.

Dr. Berlin’s credentials include several award-winning books and multiple grants from distinguished national organizations.  He has served as the president of the Organization of American Historians, and in 2004 he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Tickets for this special lecture are free for NHA members and $10 for nonmembers, and may be purchased at the door beginning at 6:30 P.M., inside the Whaling Museum at 13 Broad Street.  For details contact Melissa Kershaw, the NHA’s Outreach and Public Programs Coordinator, at 508-228-1894, xt. 117.