Empire and Liberty is the first major museum exhibition to illuminate the causes and legacies of the American Civil War from the vantage point of Westward expansion. Visitors are invited to explore the conflicts and connections of a growing nation through an astonishing array of more than 200 significant artifacts, including Texas slave sale documents, Andrés Pico’s war drum, the battle flag carried by soldiers of the California Hundred, a Buffalo Soldier’s revolver, and Cherokee General Stand Watie’s bowie knife. This exhibition shows how the Civil War was more than a clash between the North and South; it was part of a history of debate over how America would expand, and who, within that expanding nation, might claim freedom.