On November 19, 1863, while America was locked in the grip of a bloody Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln gave a short speech which sought, in surprisingly simple yet powerful words, to sever the nation from a past tainted by the tolerance of slavery and turn the country toward a future rededicated to the ideals of freedom and democracy.

The Civil War ended slavery but it did not settle the debate over what the ideals of the American Revolution meant or how the concepts of liberty and justice should be expressed in civil institutions and in daily life. Are all men created equal? That question continued to resonate throughout national politics and social life in the decades following the Civil War. There is no better place to begin the study of America’s second century--our nation’s modern era-- than with the words Abraham Lincoln spoke that November afternoon.

Before we begin, take a moment to listen to the Gettysburg Address. Click on the audio file to the left of the screen, underneath the photograph of Lincoln, to hear the actor Sam Watterson read the address.