Disunion Feed

Overview

Disunion Feed takes the real newspaper editorials, speeches, and letters of 1856–1861 and presents them as a scrollable social feed, so you can read the actual American discourse on the road to the Civil War the way it unfolded — voice by voice.

The site currently covers three events across 95 first-party-verified passages: John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, the caning of Charles Sumner, and the complete secession winter — from November 1860 through Fort Sumter in April 1861, told across five chapters. Every card links to its verified primary source, and a Method page documents how passages are verified. Each passage can be shared as an image with its citation and source domain baked in.

There is no login, no install, and nothing to pay — a static site built to make primary sources readable.

Why we built it

Most accounts of the road to the Civil War are summaries. The primary sources — what editors, senators, and citizens actually published at the time — are scattered across archives and hard to read in sequence. Styling them as a feed makes the era's discourse legible in the format we already know how to read, without editorializing on top of it.

Feature highlights

• Primary sources only — every card links to its verified first-party source
• Three events, 95 verified passages — Harpers Ferry, the Sumner caning, and the complete secession winter (November 1860 → April 1861, in five chapters)
• A documented method — the About page explains how each passage is verified
• Shareable cards — every passage exports as an image with its citation and source domain baked in
• No account, no install — free, responsive, works on any device

Notes

• Status: Live — free, no ads, no login.
• For Whom: History readers, teachers, students — anyone who'd rather read what people actually wrote than a summary of it.