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Little Lecture: West Virginians and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

WVHC Event

Location/County: Charleston, Kanawha
March 22, 2015

Sunday, March 22 at 2:00 PM

West Virginians and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Michael Woods

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln in April 1865 shocked northerners and southerners, Unionists and Confederates alike. In the new and internally divided state of West Virginia, the assassination immediately challenged the process of reconciliation needed to rebuild communities that had been disrupted by the political and military conflict of the Civil War. More than most other Americans, West Virginians had to confront former foes on a daily basis – and the Lincoln assassination, which came at the very start of the period of Reconstruction, made this challenge even greater.

Marshall University history professor Michael Woods looks at the assassination and its effects nationally, highlighting the little-known roles played by several West Virginians in the story by such West Virginians as General Thomas M. Harris who served on the military commission that tried the assassination conspirators, and then focuses on how West Virginians coped with the traumatic and polarizing event as they tried to reconstruct their lives, families, and communities after a bitter war.

Michael Woods is Assistant Professor of History at Marshall University where he teaches courses on U.S. history, the Civil War era, and the U.S. South. He completed his BA at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, and his MA and PhD at the University of South Carolina. He has published articles in the Journal of Social History and the Journal of American History. His first book, Emotional and Sectional Conflict in the Antebellum United States, is under contract with Cambridge University Press.

The 2015 Little Lecture Series is sponsored by Robinson & McElwee PLLC. Founded in Charleston in 1983, the law firm serves clients throughout West Virginia and Ohio.

Admission to the lecture is $10 and includes a reception after the program. People interested in attending should call the Humanities Council at 304-346-8500.

Little Lecture Series is a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council.