“Slavery, Secession and Treason: The Civil War in Washington Territory”
Wednesday, March 5, 7 p.m.
Dr. Lorraine McConaghy, MOHAI Historian

The bloody battles of the Civil War took place back east, but the issues that caused the conflict were as powerful in the Pacific Northwest as they were in Maine and Georgia. This provocative lecture will explore the three great constitutional issues of the Civil War, here, in Washington Territory. Though the territory was organized as free soil, the last fugitive slave fled from Olympia, in 1860. During the war, pro-Confederate sympathizers in Washington Territory were well-armed and well-organized in secret chapters, conducting their military drills by night. Nearly a dozen newspapers in the Pacific Northwest were shut down for opposing "Emperor Lincoln's war."

Dr. McConaghy has taught at the University of Washington and at Pacific Lutheran University and in 2005, she received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching History, the DAR National Heritage Medal, the AKCHO Charles Payton Award, and a research fellowship from the U.S. Naval History Center. In 2006, she received the Annual History Award, from the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild. She has published widely and is currently completing a book on the U.S. Sloop-of-War DECATUR, 1854-1859.

“We Cannot Escape History: Abraham Lincoln and the Halting Path to Emancipation”
Wednesday, March 19, 7 p.m.
Professor Tracy McKenzie, University of Washington

No individual did more to define the meaning of the American Civil War—both to contemporaries and to posterity—than President Abraham Lincoln. Yet as Lincoln framed it, the meaning of the tragic conflict changed. What began as a war exclusively to preserve the Union eventually became a war for black freedom as well. How are we to understand the halting path of “the Great Emancipator” to emancipation? How should this shape our understanding of the war’s larger meaning to Americans today?

McKenzie is associate professor in the UW Department of History, where he has served for the past eighteen years, earning the university's Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award in 1998. A specialist in the history of the American Civil War, his most recent publication is Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War.

“A House Divided: Civil Liberties and Civil War”
Wednesday, April 2, 7 p.m.
John McKay, Adjunct Professor, Seattle University School of Law
Former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington

Lincoln had to make significant decisions regarding the suspension of civil liberties during the Civil War. The choices he made contributed to the division occurring in the country. How did those decisions impact the shaping of the nation and how do they continue to influence contemporary times, when civil liberties have again become an issue of debate and concern.

McKay is an adjunct professor at Seattle University’s School of Law. He served as U.S. Attorney for Western Washington from October 2001 through December 2006. McKay was honored with the American Bar Association’s Award of Merit in 2001. In 1995, the Washington State Bar Association named him Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year. Both at a national and state level, McKay has held numerous leadership positions furthering the cause of access to equal justice for all.

Lecture tickets: MOHAI members $8. General Public $12.
Tickets are available from www.brownpapertickets.com 1-800-838-3006