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Speaker 1: Hey there, history fans, We're off today while I put

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Speaker 1: the finishing touches on some brand new episodes. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: Please enjoy these flashback shows from the TDI HC Vault

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Speaker 1: and be sure to meet me back here tomorrow to

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Speaker 1: kick off a new year. In History Class.

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Speaker 2: Hello again, it's Eves and you're listening to This Day

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Speaker 2: in History Class, a podcast that truly believes no day

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Speaker 2: is boring. The day was January eighth, eighteen eleven. One

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Speaker 2: of the largest slaver vaults in US history, known as

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Speaker 2: the German Coast Uprising, began in the territory of Orleans

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Speaker 2: or present day Louisiana. The German Coast was a region

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Speaker 2: in Louisiana named after the large number of German immigrants

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Speaker 2: who moved there beginning in the eighteenth century. The land

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Speaker 2: acquired in the louis Uziana Purchase in eighteen o three

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Speaker 2: included the territory of Orleans, which itself included much of

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Speaker 2: the present day state of Louisiana. I should note here

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Speaker 2: that the Louisiana Purchase was not simply a purchase of land.

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Speaker 2: The US actually paid France for the imperial rights to

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Speaker 2: land that was largely still owned and occupied by Native

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Speaker 2: Americans anyway, Sugar cane production was a major industry on

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Speaker 2: the German coast. There was a large number of enslaved

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Speaker 2: Africans and African Americans, and there were also many free

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Speaker 2: people of color in Louisiana. At the time of the

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Speaker 2: Louisiana Purchase, around one in six people in New Orleans

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Speaker 2: was a free person of color, and free people of

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Speaker 2: color in Louisiana were afforded a relatively high level of

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Speaker 2: acceptance and prosperity compared to the conditions free black people

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Speaker 2: lived under in other places in the US. At the

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Speaker 2: same time, the Haitian Revolution, which ended in eighteen oh

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Speaker 2: four with Haitian independence from France, resulted in an influx

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Speaker 2: of Haitian migrants. Fears of slave rebellion were already high

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Speaker 2: among Louisiana's white population, but the arrival of more free

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Speaker 2: people of color in the spread of revolutionary ideas via

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Speaker 2: the French in Haitian revolutions, heightened tension, and maroons, or

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Speaker 2: people who escaped slavery, still lived in communities around New

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Speaker 2: Orleans and other places in Louisiana. As it turns out,

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Speaker 2: some people were inspired enough by the Haitian Revolution to

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Speaker 2: take action. An enslaved man named Charles Delon was a

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Speaker 2: slave driver on a plantation owned by Manuel Andre near

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Speaker 2: New Orleans in Saint John the Baptist Parish. Around harvest time,

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Speaker 2: when enslaved people were given more free time, he organized

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Speaker 2: other people enslaved on the plantation and Maroons to plan

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Speaker 2: in uprising. On January eighth, eighteen eleven, the rebels wounded

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Speaker 2: Andrey and killed his son Jilbert. Gathering muskets and ammunition

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Speaker 2: at the plantation and putting on militia uniforms, the group

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Speaker 2: marched downriver on River Road toward New Orleans. Along the way,

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Speaker 2: they gathered people from other plantations. They planned to destroy

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Speaker 2: sugarcane plantations, to free enslaved people in Louisiana, and to

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Speaker 2: establish a black state along the Mississippi River. The uprising

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Speaker 2: was growing quickly, with somewhere between two hundred and five

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Speaker 2: hundred people joining the cause, though the exact number is unclear.

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Speaker 2: Many plantation owners fled at the conflict, escaping to New Orleans.

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Speaker 2: Others rounded up their own militia. The governor of the

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Speaker 2: Territory of Orleans, William C. C. Claiborne sent troops and

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Speaker 2: militia to suppress the uprising. Though the rebels fought against

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Speaker 2: the local militias with clubs, knives, guns, and other weapons,

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Speaker 2: and some were on horseback, the uprising was brutally quelled

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Speaker 2: by January tenth. Many of the leaders of the uprising,

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Speaker 2: including Delawn, were captured and killed. Childs were soon held

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Speaker 2: for people who have been captured, resulting in the execution

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Speaker 2: of more enslaved people. The heads of some of the

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Speaker 2: executed people were displayed on pikes. Other gruesome public displays

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Speaker 2: of bodies were put up as an attempt to deter

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Speaker 2: others from attempting and uprising. Nearly one hundred enslaved people

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Speaker 2: died in the uprising and subsequent executions. After the rebellion,

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Speaker 2: free people of color in Louisiana faced more restrictions, like

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Speaker 2: being required to observe curfews and have their racial status

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Speaker 2: designated in public records. I'm Eve Jefco and hopefully you

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Speaker 2: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 2: If you have any burning questions or comments, you can

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Speaker 2: leave us a note at TDIHC podcast on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 2: or Instagram, or you can go the old fashion route

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Speaker 2: and send us an email at this Day at iHeartMedia

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Speaker 2: dot com. Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you

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Speaker 2: tomorrow same place.

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that gives a quick look it's something that happened

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Speaker 1: a long time ago. Today I'm Gabe Blue Sier, and

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Speaker 1: in this episode, we're examining the day when members of

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Speaker 1: Congress took a notable first step toward black enfranchisement during

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Speaker 1: the Reconstruction era. The day was January eighth, eighteen sixty seven.

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Speaker 1: The US Congress passed the District of Columbia Suffrage Bill,

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Speaker 1: granting African American men the right to vote for the

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Speaker 1: first time in the nation's history. The bill's passage occurred

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Speaker 1: about two months before the Reconstruction Acts enfranchised black men

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Speaker 1: in the South, and three years before the Fifteenth Amendment

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Speaker 1: granted voting rights to all men regardless of race. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: black women, like all women in the United States, wouldn't

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Speaker 1: gain the right to vote until nineteen twenty. The DC

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Speaker 1: Bill may have been the first law to grant suffrage

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Speaker 1: to African American men, but it still came with plenty

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Speaker 1: of caveats. The exceptions were male residents under the age

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Speaker 1: of twenty one, as well as anyone on welfare, anyone

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Speaker 1: under someone else's guardianship, those who had been convicted of

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Speaker 1: a major crime, and those who had voluntarily sheltered Confederate

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Speaker 1: soldiers during the Civil War. At the time, the federal

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Speaker 1: government had direct control over the elections and voting rights

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Speaker 1: of the district. Citizens of DC were allowed to vote

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Speaker 1: for a local legislature a council, but they didn't have

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Speaker 1: any representation in Congress, and they weren't allowed to vote

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Speaker 1: in presidential elections. All of that eventually changed, but even today,

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Speaker 1: the district remains woefully underrepresented in Congress, and it's the

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Speaker 1: only city budget in the country that still requires Congressional approval.

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Speaker 1: Federal oversight certainly has its downsides, but in eighteen sixty seven,

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Speaker 1: it actually worked in the resident's favor for once. By

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Speaker 1: the time the Civil War ended in eighteen sixty five,

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Speaker 1: the secession of Southern States had cleared almost all of

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Speaker 1: the Democrats out of Congress. This put Lincoln's Republican Party

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Speaker 1: firmly in charge, and one of the first items on

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Speaker 1: their agenda was to enfranchise black men wherever they could.

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Speaker 1: This inevitably led them to focus on Washington, d C,

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Speaker 1: where Congress had the power to do away with racial

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Speaker 1: qualifications for voting. But there was still one obstacle to overcome,

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Speaker 1: and his name was President Andrew Johnson. He had assumed

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Speaker 1: the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty five, and unlike his predecessor, Johnson wasn't a Republican.

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Speaker 1: He was a Unionist Democrat. That means he hadn't favored secession,

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Speaker 1: but still sided with Southern states on many other matters.

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Speaker 1: Lincoln had chosen Johnson as his running mate in the

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty four election in order to promote the idea

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Speaker 1: of a newly unified nation. However, that bipartisan gesture backfired

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Speaker 1: when Johnson took over as president, setting the executive branch

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Speaker 1: at odds with the Republican legislature. As President, Johnson put

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Speaker 1: more importance on reconciling with the former Confederate States than

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Speaker 1: he did on securing equal rights for citizens. As a result,

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Speaker 1: when Congress first passed the d C suffrage bill in

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Speaker 1: early January of eighteen sixty seven, President Johnson issued a

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Speaker 1: veto to kill it. Still in the end, that was

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Speaker 1: just a feudal gesture. Congress reconvened three days later on

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Speaker 1: January eighth, and voted to override Johnson's veto. The measure

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Speaker 1: passed easily, with a vote of twenty nine to ten

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Speaker 1: in the Senate and one hundred and twelve to thirty

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Speaker 1: eight in the House. President Johnson would continue to fight

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Speaker 1: the so called radical Reconstructionists in Congress for the remainder

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Speaker 1: of his presidency. His constant opposition and frequent vetos eventually

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Speaker 1: led to him becoming the first US president ever to

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Speaker 1: be impeached, though he wasn't convicted of a crime or

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Speaker 1: removed from office. The first chance for black men in

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Speaker 1: the District of Columbia to exercise their new found right

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Speaker 1: came in the summer of that same year, when the

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Speaker 1: city's municipal elections were held. By the time time of

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Speaker 1: election day, black men accounted for a stunning fifty percent

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Speaker 1: of d C registered voters, despite being only thirty percent

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Speaker 1: of the city's population. They had finally won the right

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Speaker 1: to vote, and they intended to use it. The DC's

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Speaker 1: suffrage bill certainly had its limitations, but it was a

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Speaker 1: solid win for the early civil rights movement, and a

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Speaker 1: hard fought one at that. This particular victory hinged on

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Speaker 1: the actions of white leaders in the federal government, but

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Speaker 1: it's important to remember that African Americans had been fighting

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Speaker 1: for freedom and equal rights themselves since the earliest days

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Speaker 1: of the country. During the Civil War, black leaders used

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Speaker 1: the social upheaval of the moment to frame a strong

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Speaker 1: political argument in favor of blackmail suffrage. For example, during

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Speaker 1: an address in eighteen sixty three, Frederick Douglas argued that

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Speaker 1: extending the vote to formerly enslaved citizens would help preserve

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Speaker 1: the Union's victory in the Civil War. He said that

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Speaker 1: if given the right to vote, African Americans would become

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Speaker 1: the country's quote best protector against the traders and the

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Speaker 1: descendants of those traders, who will inherit the hate, the

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Speaker 1: bitter revenge, which shall crystallize all over the South and

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Speaker 1: seek to circumvent the government that they could not throw off.

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Speaker 1: You may need him to uphold in peace as he

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Speaker 1: is now upholding in war. The star Spangled banner Douglas

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Speaker 1: had hit upon a practical appeal for extending voting rights

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Speaker 1: to black citizens. The party that did so would likely

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Speaker 1: win their votes for some time to come. Republican members

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Speaker 1: of Congress seem to have gotten the memo and were

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Speaker 1: swayed by the argument. By eighteen sixty seven, they were

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Speaker 1: finally ready to get to work on the nationwide enfranchisement

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Speaker 1: of African American men, even if mainly for their own ends.

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Speaker 1: The district law was a precursor to the Reconstruction Acts

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Speaker 1: and constitutional amendments that would follow it. Today, it's remembered

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Speaker 1: as a small but critical step on the long winding

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Speaker 1: road to equal rights. Over a century and a half later,

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Speaker 1: that journey still has no end in sight. But with

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Speaker 1: so much on the line, the important thing is that

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Speaker 1: we just keep going. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you

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Speaker 1: did yesterday. If you enjoyed the show, consider following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at tdi AC Show. And

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Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestions, you can only

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Speaker 1: send them my way by writing to this Day at

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Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here

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Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another Day in History Class.

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Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

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Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.