1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:17,639 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy Vie Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Holly, this 4 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:21,120 Speaker 1: has been a weird year. What show that's a totally 5 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:25,680 Speaker 1: normal I live in a closet. I mean, it's been 6 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:28,240 Speaker 1: a weird year in general, has been a really weird 7 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 1: year to work on this podcast. We recorded an episode 8 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:34,159 Speaker 1: back in March where we talked about some of that 9 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: and how just strange it was to be working on 10 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: the show and living in this moment that was clearly 11 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:44,760 Speaker 1: historically significant, that moment being the pandemic at that time, 12 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:47,480 Speaker 1: and that sense of strangeness has really continued. It also, 13 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:50,720 Speaker 1: i think escalated with the other things that have also 14 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:56,880 Speaker 1: happened since then. Yes, future historians will have quite a 15 00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:00,680 Speaker 1: lot of layers to peel on this onion that is. Yeah, 16 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:05,320 Speaker 1: So like this whole sense of very surreal uh, stuff 17 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:09,959 Speaker 1: like that went on through the widespread protests against police 18 00:01:09,959 --> 00:01:12,720 Speaker 1: brutality and racism that started in the late spring and summer, 19 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:18,640 Speaker 1: and now as we're recording this, the truly bizarre afterlife 20 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:23,480 Speaker 1: of the presidential election. For most of this year has 21 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:26,320 Speaker 1: really felt like either we just wrote an episode that's 22 00:01:26,319 --> 00:01:31,080 Speaker 1: suddenly not relevant anymore, or we've been working on episodes 23 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:33,760 Speaker 1: feeling like they're just gonna come out in this black hole. 24 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:35,600 Speaker 1: If we don't know what the world is going to 25 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:38,800 Speaker 1: be like, then is this gonna seem really tone deaf 26 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: when it publishes in a week and a half. Yeah, so, um, 27 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:46,080 Speaker 1: we're recording this on December one. Who knows what the 28 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:48,560 Speaker 1: world is going to be like when it actually gets 29 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 1: to people's feeds. In a way, with all this just bizarre, strange, 30 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:56,800 Speaker 1: disorienting chaos that we have all been living through, the 31 00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: election has felt uniquely disord orienting because there are clear 32 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:06,680 Speaker 1: historical precedents for the pandemic and the protests and the 33 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:09,480 Speaker 1: conditions that led to the protests, and we have talked 34 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: about a lot of those things on the show before. 35 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:17,320 Speaker 1: But while there have been disputed elections in the United States, 36 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:21,520 Speaker 1: we don't really have a one to one comparison to 37 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:27,160 Speaker 1: a sitting president having clearly lost the election making all 38 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:33,160 Speaker 1: kinds of baseless and often verifiably false claims about having 39 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:40,920 Speaker 1: actually won it in all caps yes. However, another piece 40 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:45,400 Speaker 1: of this very strange post election season is this attempt 41 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:48,720 Speaker 1: to just promote the idea that the election was somehow 42 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:52,560 Speaker 1: rigged in favor of President elect Joe Biden. And so 43 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,440 Speaker 1: if we look at things more generally and we talk 44 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:59,640 Speaker 1: about attempts to create a narrative to reframe a loss 45 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:02,160 Speaker 1: so that it will be more favorable to the losing side, 46 00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:06,760 Speaker 1: there are definite precedents for that in history, and one 47 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: of them is the subject of today's episode, which is 48 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:12,440 Speaker 1: the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, which 49 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:15,080 Speaker 1: was a distortion of the history of the US Civil 50 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:18,720 Speaker 1: War that is still affecting the world today. Just a 51 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:22,760 Speaker 1: heads up that we cannot possibly delve into every conceivable 52 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:26,880 Speaker 1: nuance of this in an episode. UH. One of the 53 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,800 Speaker 1: many books about how the Civil War is remembered is 54 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:34,520 Speaker 1: called Race and Reunion The Civil War in American Memory. 55 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:38,280 Speaker 1: That's by David W. Blight. And not counting the notes 56 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,520 Speaker 1: and the index of that book, it is almost four 57 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:46,280 Speaker 1: hundred pages long, and the author describes that as a 58 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:50,560 Speaker 1: quote synthetic and selective work on a vast topic. So 59 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:53,400 Speaker 1: we are kind of looking at the big picture overview 60 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:57,720 Speaker 1: of this and not every conceivable facet of it. So 61 00:03:57,840 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 1: the Lost Cause was part ideology, part social movement. Since 62 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: its purpose was to promote an a historical interpretation of 63 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:08,400 Speaker 1: the U. S. Civil War, we gotta start with a 64 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:12,360 Speaker 1: recap of what exactly the Lost Cause was trying to undermine. 65 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 1: Although there were other factors that played a much smaller role, 66 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:18,440 Speaker 1: the primary issue that drove the U. S. Civil War was, 67 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:21,880 Speaker 1: of course slavery. You can certainly make the argument that 68 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:24,679 Speaker 1: the North went toward to preserve the union, but under 69 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,720 Speaker 1: that argument, the reason the Union was in jeopardy in 70 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:30,919 Speaker 1: the first place was still slavery. And this was not 71 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: a new division. Disagreements over slavery and efforts to accommodate 72 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:38,520 Speaker 1: slave states for the sake of keeping the union together. 73 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:41,320 Speaker 1: Let's go all the way back to before the drafting 74 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: of the U. S. Constitution, and they're represented in the 75 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:48,359 Speaker 1: Constitution itself. So all the language that we're about to 76 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: talk about still exists in the Constitution today, although the 77 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 1: thirteenth and fourteenth Amendments supersedes some of it. Article one, 78 00:04:56,760 --> 00:04:59,279 Speaker 1: Section two sets up the framework for the House of 79 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,680 Speaker 1: Representatives and how members of that body will be apportioned. 80 00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:07,120 Speaker 1: It reads, in part quote, Representatives and directs taxes shall 81 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:10,480 Speaker 1: be apportioned among the several states which may be included 82 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:14,320 Speaker 1: within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall 83 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:17,920 Speaker 1: be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, 84 00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:21,200 Speaker 1: including those bound to service for a term of years, 85 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:26,160 Speaker 1: and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons. 86 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:29,919 Speaker 1: So this is known as the three fifths Compromise. And 87 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:35,000 Speaker 1: even though it doesn't specifically mention slavery, everyone understood that 88 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:40,600 Speaker 1: other persons here met enslaved Africans. Southern states wanted their 89 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 1: enslaved population to count for the purpose of apportionment, and 90 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: that would give those states more legislative power and help 91 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 1: protect the institution of slavery. They did not want their 92 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,200 Speaker 1: tax burden to increase by that amount, though, so this 93 00:05:53,480 --> 00:05:57,040 Speaker 1: solution was to count three fifths of the enslaved population. 94 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,760 Speaker 1: Article one, section nine address us the international slave trade, 95 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:05,520 Speaker 1: though again without using that language, it reads quote, the 96 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:09,000 Speaker 1: migration or importation of such persons as any of the 97 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:12,760 Speaker 1: states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not 98 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:16,480 Speaker 1: be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand, 99 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:19,640 Speaker 1: eight hundred and eight, But attacks or duty may be 100 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:24,520 Speaker 1: imposed on such importation not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 101 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:28,359 Speaker 1: In other words, while the government could impose attacks or 102 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:31,719 Speaker 1: a duty on enslaved people brought into the country, it 103 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:36,400 Speaker 1: could not ban the international slave trade. Before eight and then, 104 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:40,440 Speaker 1: Article four came to be known as the fugitive slave clause. Quote. 105 00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:44,240 Speaker 1: No person held to service or labor in one state 106 00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 1: under the laws thereof escaping into another, shall, and consequence 107 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such 108 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:55,920 Speaker 1: service or labor, but shall be delivered up on the 109 00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:59,280 Speaker 1: claim of the party to whom such service or labor 110 00:06:59,400 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: maybe do Delegates from the slaveholding states would not have 111 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:07,039 Speaker 1: accepted the Constitution without these provisions, each of which protected 112 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: slavery and the interests of enslavers and slave states, And 113 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:15,160 Speaker 1: over time, the growth of anti slavery sentiments and abolition 114 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:18,880 Speaker 1: movements in the northern states became increasingly threatening to the 115 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:22,120 Speaker 1: slave states of the South. To be clear, there were 116 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:26,600 Speaker 1: also abolitionists in the South, including enslaved people advocating for 117 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:30,920 Speaker 1: their own liberation and liberating themselves, but the national balance 118 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 1: of power between North and South is what we're really 119 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 1: focused on here. Beginning in about eighteen twelve, the United 120 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:42,200 Speaker 1: States started intentionally admitting new states into the Union in 121 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:46,440 Speaker 1: pairs one slave and one free state to maintain this 122 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:51,119 Speaker 1: purported balance, and this continued until eighteen fifty, when California 123 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:55,119 Speaker 1: became the first free state admitted without a corresponding slave state. 124 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:58,880 Speaker 1: The Compromise of eighteen fifty was a collection of laws 125 00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:01,680 Speaker 1: meant to diffuse some of the tension from this shift, 126 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:05,600 Speaker 1: one of those being a much stronger Fugitive Slave Act. 127 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:09,360 Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty four, the Republican Party was established to 128 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:12,480 Speaker 1: try to resist the expansion of slavery into the western 129 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:16,640 Speaker 1: territories of the United States. By the election of eighteen sixty, 130 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:19,560 Speaker 1: it was widely believed that the election of a Republican 131 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:23,040 Speaker 1: president would spell the end of slavery and would prompt 132 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:26,720 Speaker 1: slave states to secede from the Union. This came to 133 00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:30,240 Speaker 1: pass after Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected as president on 134 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:35,240 Speaker 1: November six, eighteen sixty. After Lincoln's election, Senator John J. 135 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:40,040 Speaker 1: Crittenden of Kentucky proposed a collection of constitutional amendments and 136 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:44,040 Speaker 1: Senate resolutions, some of which would make slavery permanent and 137 00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:46,520 Speaker 1: part of the country, to try to head off a 138 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:51,520 Speaker 1: secession crisis. Unsurprisingly, this proposal was supported by the slave 139 00:08:51,559 --> 00:08:55,080 Speaker 1: states but denounced by the free states, so it failed. 140 00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:59,320 Speaker 1: And then on December eighteen sixty, South Carolina became the 141 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,480 Speaker 1: first eight to announce that it was seceding from the Union. 142 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:07,199 Speaker 1: South Carolina issued a declaration of the immediate Causes which 143 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:10,800 Speaker 1: induce and justify the Secession of South Carolina from the 144 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:14,960 Speaker 1: Federal Union. This document read, in part quote, an increasing 145 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:18,200 Speaker 1: hostility on the part of the non slaveholding states to 146 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:21,520 Speaker 1: the institution of slavery has led to a disregard of 147 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:25,080 Speaker 1: their obligations, and the laws of the general Government have 148 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:29,600 Speaker 1: ceased to affect the objects of the Constitution. Other states 149 00:09:29,679 --> 00:09:32,760 Speaker 1: issued similar documents when they succeeded. They're going to have 150 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,160 Speaker 1: a couple of examples. This one's from Georgia. Quote. For 151 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:39,439 Speaker 1: the last ten years, we have had numerous and serious 152 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:43,800 Speaker 1: causes of complaint against our non slaveholding Confederate states with 153 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:47,880 Speaker 1: reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored 154 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:52,199 Speaker 1: to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, 155 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:57,599 Speaker 1: and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations 156 00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:01,160 Speaker 1: to us in reference to that property and by the 157 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:04,680 Speaker 1: use of their power in the federal government have striven 158 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,400 Speaker 1: to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common 159 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 1: territories of the Republic. This is from Mississippi quote. Our 160 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:15,960 Speaker 1: position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery. The 161 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:20,120 Speaker 1: greatest material interest in the world. Its labor supplies the 162 00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:23,600 Speaker 1: product which constitutes by far the largest and most important 163 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:27,559 Speaker 1: portions of commerce on the earth. These products are peculiar 164 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:30,559 Speaker 1: to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by 165 00:10:30,559 --> 00:10:33,760 Speaker 1: an imperious law of nature, none but the black race 166 00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:37,600 Speaker 1: can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have 167 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:41,040 Speaker 1: become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery 168 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:45,720 Speaker 1: is a blow at commerce and civilization. Texas and Virginia 169 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:50,200 Speaker 1: issued similar documents containing similar sentiments as well, and while 170 00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:53,880 Speaker 1: some of these documents did also spend a significant amount 171 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:57,439 Speaker 1: of space discussing states rights in general, the rights that 172 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:01,120 Speaker 1: were being discussed all circled back to slavery. They included 173 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:03,720 Speaker 1: things like the right to take enslaved people into free 174 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 1: states without there being freed as a consequence. So these 175 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:11,640 Speaker 1: documents supported the slave states rights to maintain slavery, but 176 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:15,280 Speaker 1: not really the free states rights to outlaw or restrict it. 177 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:19,360 Speaker 1: A Constitution of the Confederate States was adopted on March eleventh, 178 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:24,960 Speaker 1: nineteen one. Unlike the US Constitution, this one made several direct, 179 00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:29,600 Speaker 1: specific references to slavery and enslaved people. Ten days later, 180 00:11:29,679 --> 00:11:33,200 Speaker 1: Alexander Stephens, vice President of the Confederate States of America, 181 00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:36,560 Speaker 1: delivered what came to be known as the Cornerstone Speech. 182 00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:40,360 Speaker 1: It said that this new constitution had quote put at 183 00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:45,479 Speaker 1: rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution, 184 00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:50,679 Speaker 1: African slavery as it exists amongst us, the proper status 185 00:11:50,679 --> 00:11:54,360 Speaker 1: of the Negro in our form of civilization. This was 186 00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:57,719 Speaker 1: the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. 187 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:02,760 Speaker 1: So yeah, there were, of course cultural and economic differences 188 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:05,480 Speaker 1: between the North and the South, and other issues that 189 00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:07,840 Speaker 1: you can cite as contributing factors in all of this, 190 00:12:08,960 --> 00:12:13,320 Speaker 1: but there is overwhelming documented evidence that the biggest issue, 191 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:16,480 Speaker 1: and the one that was the most important, was slavery. 192 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:19,960 Speaker 1: It seems unlikely that the Confederate States would have shied 193 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:23,200 Speaker 1: away from that stance had they won the war. Slavery 194 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:26,200 Speaker 1: was right there in the Confederate States Constitution, including the 195 00:12:26,240 --> 00:12:29,960 Speaker 1: clause quote no bill of attainder ex post facto law 196 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:32,920 Speaker 1: or law denying or impairing the right of property in 197 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:37,960 Speaker 1: negro slaves shall be passed. But instead the Confederacy suffered 198 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:41,679 Speaker 1: a humiliating defeat that left the question of how the 199 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:45,120 Speaker 1: nation could possibly be whole again and how the South 200 00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:48,440 Speaker 1: could envision itself after this turn of events, And we're 201 00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:50,440 Speaker 1: going to talk about that after we pause for a 202 00:12:50,440 --> 00:13:01,319 Speaker 1: sponsor break. After the US of A War, there were 203 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:04,520 Speaker 1: a lot of questions about how to reunite the country, 204 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:08,240 Speaker 1: like what would states have to do to be readmitted 205 00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:11,600 Speaker 1: into the Union? What would former confederates have to do 206 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:15,040 Speaker 1: to earn some kind of pardon, How could the places 207 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:17,680 Speaker 1: that had suffered material damage as a result of the 208 00:13:17,720 --> 00:13:21,320 Speaker 1: war be rebuilt? And how could the social, economic, and 209 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 1: political injustice that had both enabled and grown from the 210 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:29,400 Speaker 1: existence of slavery be addressed and rectified. We have talked 211 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:31,920 Speaker 1: about a lot of this in previous episodes of the 212 00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:34,560 Speaker 1: show that relate to the period of U s history 213 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:38,200 Speaker 1: known as Reconstruction, and those episodes include our two part 214 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:40,840 Speaker 1: on Robert Small's that we put out as a Saturday 215 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:43,920 Speaker 1: Classic this summer, and our two part on the Wilmington's 216 00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:47,480 Speaker 1: coup that came out in a lot of these questions 217 00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:51,560 Speaker 1: were practical, like would former Confederate leaders have to stand trial? 218 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:56,040 Speaker 1: What kind of services would be provided for formerly enslaved people? 219 00:13:56,880 --> 00:13:59,760 Speaker 1: Where would the money come from to pay for those services? 220 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:02,600 Speaker 1: But some of these questions were a little bit more abstract, 221 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:06,160 Speaker 1: like what did this mean for white Southern identity? How 222 00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:09,520 Speaker 1: could the Southern States defend themselves from mockery, shame, and 223 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:13,439 Speaker 1: accusations of treason from the white Southern point of view. 224 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:17,280 Speaker 1: Answers to a lot of these more nebulous questions rested 225 00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:19,440 Speaker 1: on a set of ideas that came to be known 226 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:23,400 Speaker 1: as the Lost Cause. That's a term that was popularized 227 00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:26,080 Speaker 1: by the eighteen sixties six book of the same name 228 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:30,240 Speaker 1: by Edward Pollard of Virginia. The biggest and most important 229 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:32,800 Speaker 1: piece of the Lost Cause myth was that the Civil 230 00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 1: War had not been about slavery. Southern States had succeeded 231 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:39,560 Speaker 1: over the issue of states rights, and that had been 232 00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:42,720 Speaker 1: the cause of the war. According to this idea, still 233 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:45,520 Speaker 1: here it on occasion. I don't know if on occasion 234 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:50,600 Speaker 1: is even strong enough. And being super polite, even though 235 00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:53,280 Speaker 1: the Lost Cause narrative claimed that the Civil War was 236 00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:58,640 Speaker 1: not about slavery. It also reimagined slavery itself. According to 237 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:03,560 Speaker 1: Lost Cause proponents, slavery was not an evil institution. Enslavers 238 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:06,400 Speaker 1: in this version of the story are benevolent. They looked 239 00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:09,960 Speaker 1: after their enslaved workforce, providing housing, clothing, and food, and 240 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,360 Speaker 1: generally giving enslaved people a better life than they would 241 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:18,040 Speaker 1: have had otherwise. Also, according to this narrative, enslaved people 242 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:23,400 Speaker 1: were happy, grateful, loyal, dedicated to their enslavers. Folded into 243 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,200 Speaker 1: all of this was the idea that people of African 244 00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:29,640 Speaker 1: descent weren't capable of handling their own affairs, that they 245 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:34,600 Speaker 1: somehow needed the guidance and supervision of their enslavers. Even 246 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:38,080 Speaker 1: though the Lost Cause took great pains to minimize the 247 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:42,720 Speaker 1: documented horrors of slavery, it also contended that slavery was 248 00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:45,120 Speaker 1: well on its way to dying out on its own. 249 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:50,120 Speaker 1: Sort of a corollary to this reimagining of slavery was 250 00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:53,680 Speaker 1: the myth of the Black Confederate, which became way more 251 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:58,200 Speaker 1: popular later on, uh in the nineteen seventies in particular, 252 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:00,680 Speaker 1: like it had kind of a heyday. This was the 253 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:04,800 Speaker 1: idea that enslaved black people were so loyal and cared 254 00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:08,440 Speaker 1: for that they willingly volunteered to fight for the Confederacy, 255 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:12,640 Speaker 1: and enormous numbers estimates for how many Black Confederates they're 256 00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:16,360 Speaker 1: supposedly were are all over the place. There anywhere from 257 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:19,920 Speaker 1: five hundred to a hundred thousands such soldiers, depending on 258 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:23,720 Speaker 1: who you read. The reality is that enslaved Africans were 259 00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:27,400 Speaker 1: a massive source of labor within the Confederate army. They 260 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:31,480 Speaker 1: worked as body servants, cooks, and manual laborers. But they 261 00:16:31,480 --> 00:16:35,040 Speaker 1: weren't soldiers and they were not volunteers. They were enslaved. 262 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:39,320 Speaker 1: Confederate forces also captured and enslaved free black people in 263 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:42,160 Speaker 1: the places they moved through or occupied during the war. 264 00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:46,280 Speaker 1: Historian Kevin m Levin has written a whole book about 265 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:49,840 Speaker 1: this called Searching for Black Confederates. The Civil Wars most 266 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:54,240 Speaker 1: persistent myths. Yeah, people like to use photos of soldiers 267 00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:58,400 Speaker 1: posing with their enslaved servants as like some kind of 268 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:01,000 Speaker 1: evidence that there were a whole lot of soldiers and 269 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:05,840 Speaker 1: that the person the picture is really depicting is enslaving. 270 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:07,760 Speaker 1: The person next to them like that is not a 271 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:12,520 Speaker 1: volunteer soldier who went with him. So the lost cause 272 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:17,320 Speaker 1: ideology also framed the South's defeat as something that was inevitable. 273 00:17:17,840 --> 00:17:21,760 Speaker 1: Under this ideology, Confederate generals were brilliant, they were gifted 274 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:24,720 Speaker 1: in their strategy and their tactics, and the South was 275 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:28,760 Speaker 1: defeated only because the North had superior numbers and resources. 276 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:32,240 Speaker 1: So the ideas the South was just overwhelmed. So it 277 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:35,720 Speaker 1: wasn't that Robert E. Lee and other Confederate leaders failed 278 00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:38,840 Speaker 1: to develop an effective strategy to offset the fact that 279 00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:42,680 Speaker 1: the Northern states were more industrialized and more densely populated. 280 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:45,440 Speaker 1: It was just that there was no strategy that ever 281 00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:49,560 Speaker 1: would have been enough. This idea that the Confederate war 282 00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:52,199 Speaker 1: effort was doomed from the beginning is the source of 283 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:57,560 Speaker 1: that lost cause Moniker. Within this reframing, Confederate generals were 284 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:03,080 Speaker 1: universally gentlemen. All of the soldiers were noble and gallant. 285 00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:08,000 Speaker 1: White women were also perfect examples of Southern femininity. They 286 00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:11,040 Speaker 1: had sacrificed for the cause of freedom and had borne 287 00:18:11,119 --> 00:18:15,240 Speaker 1: up under immense struggle. More broadly, Antebellum life in the 288 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:20,359 Speaker 1: South was described as universally genteel and refined, with plantations 289 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:25,720 Speaker 1: romanticized as idyllic, expansive homes and fields rather than the reality, 290 00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:28,520 Speaker 1: which was that they were slave labor camps. Yes, so 291 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:29,920 Speaker 1: I want to take a minute for like a more 292 00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:32,600 Speaker 1: personal note. I understand that for a lot of people 293 00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:35,679 Speaker 1: this this history is very personally important to them and 294 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:39,120 Speaker 1: their families. If you're about to write us an angry 295 00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:42,479 Speaker 1: email about your second or third great grandfather who served 296 00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:46,360 Speaker 1: for the South, I have second and third great grandfathers too, 297 00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:49,320 Speaker 1: So I get it. Like you want to think that 298 00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:52,560 Speaker 1: your ancestors were on the right side of history, but 299 00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:57,399 Speaker 1: they really just were not in this case. Eventually, proponents 300 00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:00,720 Speaker 1: of the Lost Cause ideology started to read frame the 301 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:05,080 Speaker 1: period of reconstruction as well, and under this idea, reconstruction 302 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:07,679 Speaker 1: was not an attempt to repair the damage of the 303 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:11,000 Speaker 1: war and to address injustice. It was an effort to 304 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:15,560 Speaker 1: just punish the South and exact retribution. And Northerners who 305 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:18,119 Speaker 1: came to the South to assist with this whole process, 306 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:22,680 Speaker 1: We're not, according to Lost Cause proponents, motivated by altruism 307 00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:26,960 Speaker 1: or philanthropy. According to the Lost Cause, they were unscrupulous, 308 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:30,320 Speaker 1: corrupt carpetbaggers who were only in it for the money, 309 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:34,040 Speaker 1: money that they were going to get illegitimately. So we 310 00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:37,680 Speaker 1: referenced Edward Pollard's book The Lost Cause earlier, and while 311 00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:41,600 Speaker 1: that book did popularize this term, the movement itself is 312 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:44,359 Speaker 1: not something that just started and ended with one book. 313 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:47,919 Speaker 1: It was much bigger. Glimmers of the Lost Cause ideology 314 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:50,959 Speaker 1: were present at least as early as General Robert Elie's 315 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:55,240 Speaker 1: farewell address, also called General Order Number nine, delivered the 316 00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:58,439 Speaker 1: day before he surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, and that 317 00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:02,439 Speaker 1: began quote, after four years of arduous service, marked by 318 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:06,640 Speaker 1: unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has 319 00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:11,119 Speaker 1: been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I 320 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 1: need not tell the brave survivors of so many hard 321 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:17,520 Speaker 1: fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that 322 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:21,440 Speaker 1: I have consented to this result from no distrust of them, 323 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,680 Speaker 1: but feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that 324 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:27,399 Speaker 1: would compensate for the loss that would have attended the 325 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:31,359 Speaker 1: continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless 326 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:35,159 Speaker 1: sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to 327 00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:39,160 Speaker 1: their countrymen. After the war was over. White Southern women's 328 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:42,359 Speaker 1: groups that had been focused on providing aid during the 329 00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:47,400 Speaker 1: war started instead focusing on memorializing the fallen and honoring 330 00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:52,000 Speaker 1: returning soldiers. And some of this certainly included absolutely legitimate 331 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:55,960 Speaker 1: work like burying the dead and holding funerals and helping 332 00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:58,480 Speaker 1: to care for women and children who had lost their 333 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:03,160 Speaker 1: husbands and fathers. But running alongside all of that work 334 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:06,640 Speaker 1: were efforts to reinforce the idea of the Southern War 335 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:12,680 Speaker 1: Effort as this noble, doomed endeavor that was not about slavery. 336 00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:16,120 Speaker 1: In the late eighteen sixties, men's veterans groups became part 337 00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:19,840 Speaker 1: of this effort as well. The Southern Historical Society was 338 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:23,800 Speaker 1: established in April of eighteen sixty nine to ensure that 339 00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:27,879 Speaker 1: this version of Civil War history would be remembered. Former 340 00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:32,359 Speaker 1: Confederate General Jubil A. Early was the Southern Historical Society's 341 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:35,840 Speaker 1: first president and was a major proponent of the Lost Cause. 342 00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:40,359 Speaker 1: Although many Confederate memorials were built much later, which we 343 00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:44,040 Speaker 1: will talk about, some were raised in the years immediately 344 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:47,400 Speaker 1: after the war was over. In April of eighteen sixty six, 345 00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:50,439 Speaker 1: Jefferson Davis, who had been president of the Confederate States 346 00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:54,040 Speaker 1: went on a tour to dedicate memorials and multiple cities, 347 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:59,840 Speaker 1: including Montgomery, Alabama, in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia. Prominent Confederate 348 00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:04,000 Speaker 1: years were also lionized after their death, depicted as noble, 349 00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:09,440 Speaker 1: nearly flawless heroes and eulogies and early biographies. This included 350 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:13,280 Speaker 1: Robert E. Lee, who died on October twelfth, eighteen seventy. 351 00:22:13,280 --> 00:22:17,199 Speaker 1: Biographies written shortly after his death characterized him as a 352 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:21,919 Speaker 1: devout Christian who hated slavery, even though his cruelty to 353 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:25,560 Speaker 1: his own enslaved workforce, including breaking up their families in 354 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:29,520 Speaker 1: either ordering or carrying out the whipping of people who escaped, 355 00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:33,720 Speaker 1: was documented. His opinions on the supremacy of the white 356 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:37,880 Speaker 1: race were also very well documented. Yeah, he was definitely 357 00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:41,240 Speaker 1: a Christian, but that did not somehow undo the other part. 358 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:45,960 Speaker 1: Jefferson Davis was similarly eulogized after his death on December 359 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:50,280 Speaker 1: six nine. More than a hundred thousand mourners paid their 360 00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:53,560 Speaker 1: respects as his body lay in state in New Orleans, Louisiana, 361 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:56,879 Speaker 1: and then from there his remains were taken by train 362 00:22:57,040 --> 00:22:59,760 Speaker 1: to their final resting place in Richmond, Virginia, and in 363 00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:03,240 Speaker 1: the train made stops along the way, with the crowds 364 00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,880 Speaker 1: honoring his passing by laying magnolia blossoms on the tracks 365 00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:10,320 Speaker 1: and firing their guns into the air. At Sometimes these 366 00:23:10,359 --> 00:23:13,879 Speaker 1: crowds were so large the train had to stop so 367 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:17,879 Speaker 1: they could be cleared away. Not every former Confederate figure 368 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:21,879 Speaker 1: was similarly treated, though. For example, after the war, former 369 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,080 Speaker 1: Confederate General William Mahone became one of the leaders of 370 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:28,919 Speaker 1: the Readjuster Party in Virginia. This party was a coalition 371 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:32,919 Speaker 1: of black and white political leaders that dominated Virginia politics 372 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:36,800 Speaker 1: from eighteen seventy nine to eighty three, with many black 373 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:40,320 Speaker 1: members of the coalition being elected into state and federal office. 374 00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:44,520 Speaker 1: Mahones presence at Confederate reunions had to be sort of 375 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:48,800 Speaker 1: explained away, with organizers stressing that everyone should remember his 376 00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:53,440 Speaker 1: wartime service rather than focusing on his political career. By 377 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:57,800 Speaker 1: the eighteen nineties, the Lost Cause ideology was immensely popular 378 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:00,200 Speaker 1: in the South, and it was gaining traction else are. 379 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,320 Speaker 1: The magazine Confederate Veteran was launched in eighteen ninety three, 380 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:08,040 Speaker 1: and by nineteen hundred it had more than twenty thousand subscribers, 381 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:10,680 Speaker 1: and it was by far the most popular and widely 382 00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:14,080 Speaker 1: read journal in the South. The United Daughters of the 383 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,840 Speaker 1: Confederacy was established in eighteen ninety four and was heavily 384 00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:21,960 Speaker 1: involved in promoting the Lost Cause myth. In eighteen ninety six, 385 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:25,520 Speaker 1: the Confederate Museum, which was initially focused on a Lost 386 00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:29,360 Speaker 1: Cause interpretation of the war, was opened in Richmond, Virginia. 387 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:34,359 Speaker 1: Historians and commentators criticized the Lost Cause ideology. Throughout all 388 00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,560 Speaker 1: of this, there were grains of truth to it, such 389 00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:40,040 Speaker 1: as that there were white women who had made huge 390 00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,920 Speaker 1: sacrifices during the war and soldiers who had volunteered out 391 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:46,800 Speaker 1: of a sense of patriotic duty, but a lot of 392 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:50,159 Speaker 1: it was just flatly false. Critics pointed out that the 393 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:53,520 Speaker 1: Lost Cause narrative tried to erase all kinds of horrors, 394 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,720 Speaker 1: including the existence of the Ku Klux Klan and the 395 00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:00,600 Speaker 1: practice of lynching, while also leaning on racist depictions of 396 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:04,320 Speaker 1: black people that allowed the clan and lynching to flourish. 397 00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:08,119 Speaker 1: Black leaders and their white allies also noted that accepting 398 00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:11,680 Speaker 1: the false tenets of the Lost Cause meant abandoning Black 399 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:15,560 Speaker 1: Americans in the work of reconstruction and erasing the horrors 400 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:20,760 Speaker 1: and ongoing destructive legacy of slavery. Abolitionists and other reformers 401 00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:24,800 Speaker 1: called for the rejection of this entire narrative. At the 402 00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:27,199 Speaker 1: same time, though in a lot of the North and 403 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:29,879 Speaker 1: at the federal level, there was also this sense that 404 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:34,200 Speaker 1: accepting the Lost Cause narrative, or at least not pushing 405 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,879 Speaker 1: back against it too hard, might help unify the nation 406 00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:41,199 Speaker 1: and allow it to heal from the war. However, this 407 00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:45,560 Speaker 1: purported reunification but the emotional healing of white people ahead 408 00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:49,800 Speaker 1: of everyone else, particularly black Americans. So in terms of 409 00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:53,919 Speaker 1: national politics, the Northern States were complicit and allowing this 410 00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:56,399 Speaker 1: fiction to stand for the sake of the Union at 411 00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:00,200 Speaker 1: the expense of some of the Union's most marginalized citizens. 412 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:03,879 Speaker 1: I see this as a continuation of all those earlier 413 00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:07,040 Speaker 1: concessions and appeasements that go all the way back to 414 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,480 Speaker 1: the drafting of the Constitution, and the Lost Cause was 415 00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:14,080 Speaker 1: still being reinforced well into the twentieth century. And we're 416 00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:24,520 Speaker 1: going to get into that after a sponsor break. Much 417 00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:27,800 Speaker 1: of the national dialogue following the US Civil War had 418 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:33,000 Speaker 1: been about reunification and reconciliation and coming together, and eventually 419 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:36,680 Speaker 1: this included soldiers who had been on opposite sides of 420 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,720 Speaker 1: the war. Although there had been smaller events earlier on, 421 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:45,240 Speaker 1: the first major Civil War reunion involving soldiers from both 422 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:49,760 Speaker 1: sides was the Manassas Piece Jubilee in July of nineteen eleven. 423 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:52,880 Speaker 1: This happened at the start of a series of fiftieth 424 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:57,440 Speaker 1: anniversary remembrances that would go on until nineteen fifteen. About 425 00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:01,560 Speaker 1: ten thousand people attended this event, including about three hundred 426 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:05,320 Speaker 1: Confederate and about a hundred and twenty five United States veterans. 427 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,239 Speaker 1: A much larger event took place in nineteen thirteen, with 428 00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:13,640 Speaker 1: more than fifty three thousand veterans assembling at Gettysburg. This 429 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:16,520 Speaker 1: was a massive event, with states in the federal government 430 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:20,520 Speaker 1: providing funding for everything from getting veterans to Gettysburg to 431 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,960 Speaker 1: feeding them and providing emergency medical care while they were there. 432 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,560 Speaker 1: Most of the veterans attending this were very elderly, and 433 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:29,840 Speaker 1: the weather was brutally hot, so that medical care was 434 00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:32,439 Speaker 1: a vital part of the plan. Yeah, and even with it, 435 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:34,919 Speaker 1: there were there were people who died on the scene 436 00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:39,000 Speaker 1: at the reunion because they were in their advanced years 437 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:43,040 Speaker 1: and the weather was just punishing again. The theme with 438 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:47,480 Speaker 1: all this was reconciliation and healing, but again for white 439 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:50,160 Speaker 1: people at the expense of black people who had been 440 00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,920 Speaker 1: harmed by slavery in the war and their descendants who 441 00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:56,960 Speaker 1: were still being harmed by ongoing racism and violence. And 442 00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,679 Speaker 1: the words of the Washington b which is a newspaper 443 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:03,320 Speaker 1: with a pre dominantly black readership based in Washington, d c. Quote, 444 00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,960 Speaker 1: the occasion is to be called a reunion, a reunion 445 00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:10,480 Speaker 1: of whom only those who fought for the preservation of 446 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,800 Speaker 1: the Union and the extinction of human slavery. Is it 447 00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:16,719 Speaker 1: to be an assemblage of those who fought to destroy 448 00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:20,560 Speaker 1: the Union and perpetuate slavery, and who are now employing 449 00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:24,919 Speaker 1: every artifice and argument known to deceit and sophistry to 450 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,720 Speaker 1: propagate a national sentiment in favor of their nefarious contention 451 00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:35,359 Speaker 1: that emancipation, reconstruction, and enfranchisement are dismal failures. Some of 452 00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:38,840 Speaker 1: the most visible remnants of the Lost Cause ideology came 453 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:42,160 Speaker 1: about during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. He came into 454 00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:46,440 Speaker 1: office in n The first film screening at the White 455 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:50,080 Speaker 1: House happened during his presidency. It was the film Birth 456 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:53,640 Speaker 1: of a Nation, originally known as The Klansman, which included 457 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:56,800 Speaker 1: quotes from one of Wilson's history books, A History of 458 00:28:56,800 --> 00:29:00,720 Speaker 1: the American People. Wilson was a proponent of the Lost 459 00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:04,480 Speaker 1: Cause and the Dunning School, named for historian William A. Dunning, 460 00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:08,880 Speaker 1: who interpreted reconstruction as a failure. Birth of a Nation 461 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,840 Speaker 1: embraced the Lost Cause ideology, using racist depictions of black 462 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:16,920 Speaker 1: Americans to frame reconstruction as deeply damaging to white people. 463 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:20,280 Speaker 1: It is also credited with a resurgence in the Ku 464 00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:23,560 Speaker 1: Klux Klan, which is depicted in the film, saving the 465 00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:27,720 Speaker 1: South from the horrors of reconstruction. By the time Wilson 466 00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:31,600 Speaker 1: became president, Reconstruction was long over and many of the 467 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:34,560 Speaker 1: gains and civil rights for black Americans that had been 468 00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:38,760 Speaker 1: implemented during that time had already been lost. Wilson was 469 00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:43,000 Speaker 1: the first Southern president elected since Reconstruction, and he continued 470 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:47,480 Speaker 1: that trend of rolling back civil rights, including segregating or 471 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:51,080 Speaker 1: allowing his cabinet to segregate a number of federal bureaus 472 00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:54,840 Speaker 1: and offices, as well as the U. S. Navy. Wilson 473 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,719 Speaker 1: ran for a second term as president on a platform 474 00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:01,440 Speaker 1: that included keeping the United States out of World War One, 475 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:04,920 Speaker 1: but after he was elected, he began preparing to go 476 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:09,120 Speaker 1: to war, including constructing new camps for training newly recruited 477 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:13,200 Speaker 1: military personnel. This is when U. S. Military bases started 478 00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:17,080 Speaker 1: to be named after Confederate leaders, even though those leaders 479 00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:19,960 Speaker 1: fought against the U. S. Military during the Civil War. 480 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:24,360 Speaker 1: So after the end of the Civil War, the U. S. 481 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:29,200 Speaker 1: Army had occupied eleven Southern states, with troops being removed 482 00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:32,680 Speaker 1: after the state had met with requirements to rejoin the Union. 483 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:36,280 Speaker 1: The last of these troops were removed after the eighteen 484 00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:39,240 Speaker 1: seventy six presidential election, and that was one of the 485 00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,000 Speaker 1: disputed elections that we nodded to at the start of 486 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:46,200 Speaker 1: the show. The candidates in this election were Democrat Samuel 487 00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:50,360 Speaker 1: Tilden and Republican Rutherford be Hayes. Tilden had won the 488 00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:53,160 Speaker 1: popular vote, but didn't have enough votes to be declared 489 00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:56,040 Speaker 1: the winner, and the Electoral College and then the electoral 490 00:30:56,080 --> 00:31:00,400 Speaker 1: College votes from three states were disputed. There were result 491 00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:05,000 Speaker 1: was the Compromise of eighteen seventy seven. Hayes would become president, 492 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,960 Speaker 1: and in exchange, among other concessions, he agreed to place 493 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,880 Speaker 1: a Democrat in his cabinet and to withdraw the federal 494 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:15,440 Speaker 1: troops that were still occupying parts of the South. This 495 00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,760 Speaker 1: is generally seen as the end of Reconstruction, and for 496 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,960 Speaker 1: decades there wasn't a large military presence in the South. 497 00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:25,320 Speaker 1: Because of the legacy of Reconstruction, the idea of sending 498 00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,280 Speaker 1: troops to the South had become something of a taboo. 499 00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:32,040 Speaker 1: But less than forty years later, the expansion of the 500 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:36,520 Speaker 1: military and preparation for World War One meant that camps 501 00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:40,160 Speaker 1: had to be built in the South. We needed a 502 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,000 Speaker 1: lot of camps. We had to put them somewhere. So 503 00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:45,920 Speaker 1: as part of the effort to make these encampments more 504 00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,040 Speaker 1: palatable in the places where they were being built, they 505 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:53,880 Speaker 1: were named for former Confederate generals and other Confederate military figures, 506 00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:58,440 Speaker 1: including camps named for Robert E. Lee and Pierre G. T. Beauregard, which, 507 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:02,640 Speaker 1: along with others, were built in nineteen seventeen. Encampment's name 508 00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:06,880 Speaker 1: for General Braxton Bragg and General Henry Lewis Benning followed 509 00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:10,840 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen. It really became a standard practice for 510 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:13,920 Speaker 1: new encampments and forts built in the South to be 511 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:18,840 Speaker 1: named after Confederate military leaders, even though again these were 512 00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:21,600 Speaker 1: the enemy of the U. S. Army during the Civil War. 513 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:26,000 Speaker 1: As these bases were being built, another trend was developing, 514 00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:30,760 Speaker 1: that of erecting statues to honor Confederate soldiers, many of 515 00:32:30,800 --> 00:32:33,880 Speaker 1: which were arranged and funded by the United Daughters of 516 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:38,040 Speaker 1: the Confederacy. Although as we said earlier, some memorials were 517 00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:41,760 Speaker 1: built just after the Civil War, their number really started 518 00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:45,240 Speaker 1: to grow after about eighteen ninety, with the first Surgeon 519 00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:50,560 Speaker 1: statues peaking between nineteen ten and nineteen thirty. As we've 520 00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:53,280 Speaker 1: talked about in our previous episodes on the Harlem hell 521 00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:56,920 Speaker 1: Fighters and read Summer, there was an intense backlash against 522 00:32:56,960 --> 00:33:00,000 Speaker 1: the great migration of Black Americans to more northern states 523 00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:04,959 Speaker 1: and against Black Americans advocacy for equal rights. These newly 524 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:08,960 Speaker 1: erected statues were part of that backlash by the white majority, 525 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:12,760 Speaker 1: and another smaller surge in their installations happened during the 526 00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:16,800 Speaker 1: civil rights movement of the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties. YEA, 527 00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:20,600 Speaker 1: they were sort of part reminder of who's in charge 528 00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:28,040 Speaker 1: here and part ongoing whitewashing of the Civil War. Although 529 00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:31,840 Speaker 1: some cities could afford to hire a professional sculptor to 530 00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:34,920 Speaker 1: create the monument. A lot of these were mass produced 531 00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,840 Speaker 1: and ordered through the mail. One major supplier was Monumental 532 00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:43,240 Speaker 1: Bronze Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, whose US and Confederate soldier 533 00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:47,120 Speaker 1: statues were almost identical except for whether they had a 534 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:51,600 Speaker 1: US or a CS on the belt buckle. Meanwhile, one 535 00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:54,800 Speaker 1: of the most widely popular pieces of Lost Cause fiction 536 00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:58,160 Speaker 1: came into print, and then to the screen, Gone with 537 00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:00,840 Speaker 1: the Wind, which debuted in nineteenth d nine and was 538 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:03,280 Speaker 1: based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell that came out 539 00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:07,560 Speaker 1: three years earlier. So, as we have alluded to, we 540 00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:10,280 Speaker 1: still see glimpses of the city. But in the post 541 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,840 Speaker 1: World War two era, more historians started returning to the 542 00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:17,080 Speaker 1: subject of the Civil War and the Lost Cause, which 543 00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:19,600 Speaker 1: by this point had made its way into history textbooks 544 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:24,080 Speaker 1: all over the country. Historical sites and museums also started 545 00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:27,680 Speaker 1: re examining their collections and their missions after the war, 546 00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:31,360 Speaker 1: as these institutions started trying to more accurately represent the 547 00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:34,680 Speaker 1: war and its repercussions. This has really been an ongoing, 548 00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,640 Speaker 1: many year effort. The Museum of the Confederacy, which we 549 00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:42,279 Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, merged with the American Civil War Center in 550 00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:46,040 Speaker 1: twent thirteen to form the American Civil War Museum, and 551 00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:48,320 Speaker 1: that's a museum that tries to give a more honest 552 00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:51,279 Speaker 1: look at the Civil War. But you can still see 553 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:54,840 Speaker 1: glimpses of the Lost Cause narrative all over the place, 554 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:58,480 Speaker 1: And this decade's long failure to honestly reckon with the 555 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:02,520 Speaker 1: Civil War has done so much damage. Polls about how 556 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:05,239 Speaker 1: many Americans know or don't know that the Civil War 557 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:09,000 Speaker 1: was about slavery or regular occurrence. But it's not just 558 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:13,040 Speaker 1: whether people know a particular fact about history. The lost 559 00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:17,200 Speaker 1: Cause ideology contributed to racist violence and discrimination all over 560 00:35:17,239 --> 00:35:20,120 Speaker 1: the United States, and as we've already mentioned, it put 561 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,799 Speaker 1: the emotional healing of the idea of the nation and 562 00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:25,680 Speaker 1: of white people in the South ahead of justice for 563 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,640 Speaker 1: formerly enslaved people and their descendants. So this is a 564 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:32,640 Speaker 1: great example about how this kind of false narrative is 565 00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,880 Speaker 1: not just about whether people know a particular intangible truth. 566 00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:39,759 Speaker 1: It also has real and ongoing consequences that we still 567 00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:43,920 Speaker 1: feel today. Yeah, we still see them in our inbox 568 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,520 Speaker 1: in response to episodes. From time to time, I have 569 00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:51,360 Speaker 1: gotten in arguments with friends about that whole state's rights 570 00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:58,680 Speaker 1: business and I'm like to own slaves, That's what I can't. Yeah, 571 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:02,680 Speaker 1: they're so we weard to me, I will say, it 572 00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:07,359 Speaker 1: is weird. The romanticism of that is strange to me 573 00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:09,840 Speaker 1: because I don't as much as I love history, I 574 00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:13,279 Speaker 1: don't tend to romanticize it in that way. Um, you 575 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:15,360 Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like, it's not part of my 576 00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,360 Speaker 1: cultural identity that I am from lines of this or that, 577 00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:21,839 Speaker 1: and I you know, I don't have that investment, So 578 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,120 Speaker 1: it's a little hard sometimes for me to understand the 579 00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:27,960 Speaker 1: attachment to it. Yeah, I am pretty sure, Like I 580 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,480 Speaker 1: have not looked at every single person in the entire 581 00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:36,440 Speaker 1: family tree, but pretty sure on both sides of my 582 00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:41,239 Speaker 1: family in the eighteen sixties, everyone in the family tree 583 00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:44,680 Speaker 1: was living in North Carolina. There are definitely people in 584 00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:47,600 Speaker 1: my family tree and direct ancestors of mine who served 585 00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:51,480 Speaker 1: for the Confederacy. And like, I totally understand, as I 586 00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:54,879 Speaker 1: said earlier that like people don't want to imagine bad 587 00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:59,080 Speaker 1: things about their ancestors. But to me, regardless of any 588 00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:03,279 Speaker 1: of those in the visual people's reasons for serving, they 589 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:07,919 Speaker 1: were still serving as part of, you know, a group 590 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:12,320 Speaker 1: of states that had established themselves as a slave nation 591 00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:16,320 Speaker 1: in an army that was fighting a lord to extend 592 00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:21,200 Speaker 1: and protect slavery. Like, whatever your personal reasons for that, 593 00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:24,520 Speaker 1: that's still a side that you were on. Yeah. Yeah, 594 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:26,439 Speaker 1: uh well, and it's one of those things I don't 595 00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:29,120 Speaker 1: know if it will help people reconcile it. Right, the 596 00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:32,560 Speaker 1: the nuance of the individual versus the individual's part in 597 00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:37,879 Speaker 1: a larger group, how much they're influenced by what they 598 00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:40,359 Speaker 1: grew up with, and how that has probably you know, 599 00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:44,239 Speaker 1: had probably warped their perception of right and wrong, particularly 600 00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:46,399 Speaker 1: in regard to this issue. I mean, it's still as 601 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:48,359 Speaker 1: you said, it comes down to that is the side 602 00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:52,439 Speaker 1: you were on. Um, yeah, I don't it's a little 603 00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:56,960 Speaker 1: it's it's hard for people to to accept even now. Um, 604 00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:00,160 Speaker 1: And I don't know the way through that. I think 605 00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:01,600 Speaker 1: there are a lot of groups doing a lot of 606 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:04,439 Speaker 1: good effort, and some of the stuff that we talked 607 00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:06,319 Speaker 1: about right there at the end of like trying to 608 00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:09,240 Speaker 1: really take an honest look at things and and reckon 609 00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:12,040 Speaker 1: with it is a big part of that. But yeah, 610 00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:16,160 Speaker 1: it's a weird it's a weird thing. Um. There's a 611 00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:19,759 Speaker 1: lot of psychology to it to be unraveled. Yeah, you 612 00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:22,200 Speaker 1: and I were talking about something totally different earlier this week, 613 00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:25,399 Speaker 1: and I was saying, how a lot of times when 614 00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:27,280 Speaker 1: we look at things, we have to sort of hold 615 00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:31,920 Speaker 1: multiple contradictory truths about things in our heads at the 616 00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:35,239 Speaker 1: same time. Uh. And I think that's the case for 617 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:38,680 Speaker 1: a lot of folks here. Yeah, And it's it's difficult 618 00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:42,400 Speaker 1: but doable and important to It's an important skill to 619 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:45,839 Speaker 1: learn to be able to see multiple facets that are 620 00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:50,719 Speaker 1: not always comfortable. I mean, it's kind of what we're 621 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,480 Speaker 1: working on all the time, right, Like, no one person 622 00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:58,400 Speaker 1: is simple and easily summated. They all had problems. We 623 00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:06,080 Speaker 1: all do. They're all humans and fallible. Yeah. So, uh, 624 00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:10,480 Speaker 1: before I read listener mail, I just want to shout 625 00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:15,040 Speaker 1: out to all of the people that have sent really, 626 00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:19,279 Speaker 1: really lovely emails after our episodes on Vivian Thomas and 627 00:39:20,239 --> 00:39:24,320 Speaker 1: Helen tausig Um. I did those episodes in part because 628 00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:27,560 Speaker 1: I just needed an episode about saving babies. We have 629 00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:29,719 Speaker 1: talked before about how a lot of times I'll they'll 630 00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:32,000 Speaker 1: have a point in working on the show where I'm like, 631 00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:35,200 Speaker 1: time to save some babies. So I kind of forgot 632 00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:37,160 Speaker 1: that every time we do that. We then hear from 633 00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:40,560 Speaker 1: people who either they were saved or their babies were saved, 634 00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:44,360 Speaker 1: and I just kind of, uh, I forgot about that pattern. 635 00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:49,000 Speaker 1: So anyway, we got a ton of really lovely emails 636 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,759 Speaker 1: from heart moms and other parents, and then people who 637 00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:56,520 Speaker 1: were born with a congenital heart condition who had one 638 00:39:56,560 --> 00:40:01,040 Speaker 1: of these procedures, or who had other relatives who were 639 00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:05,719 Speaker 1: affected and whose lives were saved or extended thanks to 640 00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:11,080 Speaker 1: surgeries that were We're pioneered by by Thomas and tausigin Blaylocks. 641 00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:15,560 Speaker 1: So I need to send thank you notes and replies 642 00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:17,480 Speaker 1: to all these folks I think still so thank you 643 00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:21,680 Speaker 1: so much to Jen, Kelsey, Kyle, Timmy, Sarah Asaki, a 644 00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:26,240 Speaker 1: different Sarah, and Nicole. Jen also asked us to remember 645 00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:29,040 Speaker 1: her aunt, Barbara Linda, who died from a congenital heart 646 00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:32,279 Speaker 1: condition as a baby in the nineteen fifties. Um, thank 647 00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:33,919 Speaker 1: you so much to everybody who has sent all those 648 00:40:34,280 --> 00:40:37,320 Speaker 1: email letters. I had. I had a hard time figuring 649 00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:39,680 Speaker 1: out which of them to read, and so I just 650 00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:42,120 Speaker 1: wanted to thank everyone for sending them. And then I'm 651 00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:45,640 Speaker 1: gonna read an episode on a related topic but slightly 652 00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:48,120 Speaker 1: different because it's about the listener mail that was on 653 00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:50,799 Speaker 1: our Vivian Thomas episode. This is from Carrie, and Carrie says, 654 00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:53,319 Speaker 1: I have a possible solution to what your listener sean 655 00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:56,120 Speaker 1: Or was referring to at the end of your eleven 656 00:40:56,200 --> 00:41:00,439 Speaker 1: eighteen episode on Vivian Thomas concerning how she had heard 657 00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:03,440 Speaker 1: of incubator babies but couldn't find anything in your archive. 658 00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:07,279 Speaker 1: In your fort show Indian School Basketball Champions Part two 659 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:11,560 Speaker 1: podcast from eleven fifteen seventeen, you gave a description of 660 00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:14,160 Speaker 1: the St. Louis World's Fair in which you mentioned that 661 00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:17,960 Speaker 1: babies and incubators were on display there. In response, I 662 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:21,640 Speaker 1: wrote to you on eleven seventeen with information from an 663 00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:25,280 Speaker 1: article I had written about the incubator baby custody case 664 00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:28,080 Speaker 1: that made national news on and off for ten years 665 00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:31,040 Speaker 1: beginning in nineteen o four. You read my email at 666 00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:35,960 Speaker 1: the end of your twelve eleven podcast. Perhaps your reference 667 00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:37,839 Speaker 1: to the St. Louis World's Fair and my email are 668 00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:40,480 Speaker 1: at least part of what Seanna remembered. In addition, you 669 00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:42,880 Speaker 1: had mistakenly referred to me as she. I wrote to 670 00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:45,520 Speaker 1: you on twelve twelve seventeen pointing this out. You wrote 671 00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:48,920 Speaker 1: back and apologized, but the show's production had already wrapped 672 00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:51,759 Speaker 1: until mid January, and you were not able to make 673 00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:54,560 Speaker 1: a public correction anyway. I thought this might help clear 674 00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:58,359 Speaker 1: things up. Keep up the good work, Mr Carrie. I'll 675 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:01,640 Speaker 1: leave out the last name for privacy. So let's talk 676 00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:05,799 Speaker 1: about mistakes I made three years ago and still remember. Uh, 677 00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:08,879 Speaker 1: that is exactly what happened. Um. We had gotten this 678 00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:12,800 Speaker 1: email from Carrie immediately after we did our last recording 679 00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:16,919 Speaker 1: session for and because of the way our time off 680 00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,400 Speaker 1: schedule was following, and then immediately after I came back 681 00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:23,840 Speaker 1: from being away, you Holly were going to be away 682 00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:28,080 Speaker 1: recording drawn and so we had something like a month 683 00:42:28,239 --> 00:42:31,040 Speaker 1: of episodes already in the can and we were not 684 00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:32,840 Speaker 1: going to be in this studio again for three or 685 00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:36,560 Speaker 1: four weeks. UM. And I was very embarrassed and felt 686 00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:38,120 Speaker 1: very bad about it, and also it was like, I 687 00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:41,000 Speaker 1: don't know how to fix this. So I'm glad Carrie 688 00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:46,640 Speaker 1: that you sent this email. UM. Carrie had even noted 689 00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:49,360 Speaker 1: that he was a Mr. In the email that he 690 00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:51,359 Speaker 1: originally sent him. I just overlooked it. So I am 691 00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:53,480 Speaker 1: sorry for that. I am sorry that three years ago 692 00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:55,279 Speaker 1: I did not find a way to publicly correct that 693 00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:58,239 Speaker 1: and thank you again for sending this note. UM, we 694 00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:04,360 Speaker 1: have gotten a few hypotheses about what folks might be remembering. UM. 695 00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:07,120 Speaker 1: Some of them are related to different podcasts, and some 696 00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:09,080 Speaker 1: of them are related to things that were on the 697 00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:14,279 Speaker 1: radio or on television theories. I'm not really sure if 698 00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:16,120 Speaker 1: you would like to write to us about this any 699 00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:19,759 Speaker 1: other podcast or history podcast. At i heart radio dot com. 700 00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:22,200 Speaker 1: We're also all over social media ad missed in History 701 00:43:22,239 --> 00:43:25,080 Speaker 1: and that's where you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. 702 00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:27,319 Speaker 1: And you can subscribe to our show on the I 703 00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:30,160 Speaker 1: heart radio app and Apple podcasts and anywhere else you 704 00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:38,000 Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is 705 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:41,200 Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from 706 00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:44,560 Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 707 00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:46,720 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.