Kentucky and the Secession Crisis: A Documentary History

Join us virtually for our first Kentucky Military History Museum (KMHM) Speaker Series event! After the 1860 election, Americans faced civil war. While northern and southern states mobilized for a conflict that would determine the fate of slavery and the nation, the border state of Kentucky, riven by indecision, debated the future of the Union and its place within it. Join us as Dr. Dwight Pitcaithley discusses the political discourse that followed in the months after the election and how it illuminates Kentucky’s struggle toward a decision on whether to remain in the Union or to cast its lot with the slave-holding states of the Confederacy.

Dwight T. Pitcaithley worked for the National Park Service for three decades, the final decade as its chief historian. Following his retirement from the National Park Service in 2005, he was a professor of history at New Mexico State University. He is the author/editor of The U.S. Constitution and Secession: A Documentary Anthology of Slavery and White Supremacy and Tennessee Secedes: A Documentary History.

*TECHNOLOGY: This virtual event will take place via Zoom, an online meeting platform. For optimal experience, guests should connect using a device with a screen, a speaker, and a keyboard. (A web-enabled camera is also nice, but not necessary.) To accommodate guests who may not have access to this technology, a phone number will be provided at registration to dial into the event and listen to the presentation from any landline or mobile phone. Need help using Zoom? Check out this short video. You can also contact us at KHSeducation@ky.gov or call 502-782-8112.