The Wide Awakes

They carried torches and marched at night. Their goal: defend free speech in America. What started as a small group of young men demonstrating during the 1860 election, snowballed into a mass movement of working-class Americans marching to end slavery. They called themselves the Wide Awakes. And they are widely seen as the political force that helped elect Abraham Lincoln and spur the Civil War. So why has their story gone untold? And why is now the time to tell it? 

Transcript

Guests:

• Jon Grinspan, Curator of Political History at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Author of Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War
• Kevin Waite, Associate Professor of History at Durham University. Author of West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire

Smithsonian Links:

• Read about how the Wide Awakes and other groups brought young people to the polls from 1840-1900.
• The gripping narrative Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force That Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War by Jon Grinspan, Curator of Political History at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, bears witness to the power of protest, the fight for majority rule, and the defense of free speech.
• Listen to Grinspan's account of the Wide Awakes in Baltimore and beyond.
• Read an adapted excerpt of Wide Awake in the Smithsonian Magazine accompanied by photos and images. And if you're in the D.C. area, you can see an authentic Wide Awake torch at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.