Civil War Era History Presentation - Antebellum American Politics and the Question of Enslavement

Khouri Evans-Dangerfield will give a presentation on Antebellum American Politics and the Question of Enslavement: Federal Policy on Expansion and Emancipation, 1820-1860.

Khouri’s talk will cover her paper, Antebellum American Politics and the Question of Enslavement, which won the 2025 Watchorn Prize in Civil War Studies. During the talk, she will discuss not only the content of her paper, but her research methods and sources analyzed. The bulk of her paper is structured around three major sectional crises (the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854) and the Dred Scott v Sanford (1857) court case in the search to find a legal precedent or definition of slavery during antebellum America. Through the discussion of research methods and sources, Khouri will explore the burden of historians and educators to conduct ethical and accurate research. This talk is open to anyone interested in Civil War history, as Khouri will be going over every necessary detail to explain the impact of the sectional crises and the Dred Scott court case on defining enslavement in antebellum America.

Khouri Evans-Dangerfield is a senior at the University of Redlands majoring in History, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Asian Studies. She plans to teach high school history after completing her Master’s in Learning and Teaching at the University of Redlands’ School of Education.