GALLERY LI
The House Divided
Secession was argued in the language of rights and decided on the arithmetic of property. Read the declarations of secession the states actually wrote and slavery is named, repeatedly, as the thing being protected.
ON THE FLOOR
Charles Horton Cooley
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“You learned who you are by watching what other people reflected back at you. The mirror, it turns out, was people all along.”
ON THE FLOOR
Edward Soja
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“Space is not the stage the story happens on - it is one of the actors. Ask WHERE, and half the mystery answers itself.”
ON THE FLOOR
George Herbert Mead
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“The self is a conversation: the I speaking, the Me listening with everyone else's ears. You rehearse society every time you think.”
AM3-061 · The House Divided — Open the drawer
The formal secession document adopted by Mississippi's convention, explicitly naming slavery as the central cause of separation and framing its defense as a matter of state sovereignty and property rights.
AM3-062 · The House Divided — What is this thing?
The formal secession document adopted by Mississippi's convention on January 9, 1861, written in elaborate calligraphy on parchment. It names slavery explicitly as the cause of separation and the right being defended.
AM3-063 · The House Divided — Read the source
Mississippi's official secession document of January 9, 1861, written by the state convention and adopted publicly. It names slavery repeatedly as the cause of separation and the right being defended against Northern encroachment.
AM3-064 · The House Divided — Map it / time it
A period cartographic representation showing the eleven Confederate states color-coded by secession date from December 1860 through June 1861, enabling visual comparison of geographic clustering, slave population density, and tariff exposure.
AM3-065 · The House Divided — Two sources disagree
Vice President Alexander Stephens' public address delivered in Savannah, Georgia, three weeks after Confederate secession, in which he explicitly named slavery as the foundation of the new nation's political and social order.
AM3-066 · The House Divided — State the claim
Mississippi's formal declaration withdrawing from the Union, explicitly naming slavery as the cause of secession and linking it directly to state sovereignty and property rights in human beings.
AM3-067 · The House Divided — Take the other side
Political broadside and legislative resolutions from South Carolina denouncing the Tariff of 1828 as unconstitutional federal overreach, framing secession debate in language of states' rights and economic sovereignty rather than slavery defense.
AM3-068 · The House Divided — Weigh it
The December 1860 document by which South Carolina's convention formally withdrew from the Union, citing specific grievances and constitutional justifications that students must evaluate against competing historical claims.
AM3-069 · The House Divided — Build the answer
The formal document by which South Carolina dissolved its union with the United States, naming the protection of slavery as the explicit cause and establishing the constitutional and rhetorical template for subsequent secessions.
AM3-070 · The House Divided — For the file
The formal declaration by which Mississippi withdrew from the Union, explicitly naming slavery's protection as the central cause and serving as primary evidence in debates over secession's true motivations.
AM3-071 · The House Divided — Go and look
The Mississippi secession convention's formal declaration, ratified January 9, 1861, explicitly naming slavery as the cause of separation and the North's threat to property rights in enslaved persons.
AM3-072 · The House Divided — Now, today
Official state document declaring Mississippi's withdrawal from the Union, naming slavery as the central cause of secession and articulating the property-rights argument that unified Southern states' departure.
AM3-073 · The House Divided — Teach it back
The state ordinance of secession adopted by Mississippi's convention in January 1861, explicitly naming the preservation of slavery as the cause of separation from the Union.
AM3-074 · The House Divided — The other place
A cartographic representation showing the 36°30′ parallel dividing slave and free territory across the expanding United States, embodying the arithmetic of property that structured sectional conflict within states and regions.
AM3-075 · The House Divided — One object, close
Official state declaration ratifying secession from the Union, written and adopted by Mississippi's convention. Names slavery and enslaved persons as the central grievance against Northern states.
From the gallery’s own wall — “AM3-061 · The House Divided — Open the drawer”.
🎧 A moment to consider
What will you carry out of this room?