Reconstruction promised freedom and political equality, but how quickly did that promise begin to unravel? Why did white Southern resistance become so violent, and why did Northern support for Reconstruction begin to fade? In this episode, we explore the rise of Jim Crow, the ret ...Show more
Civil War Battle Of The Ironclads
In March 1862, wooden warships had dominated global warfare for centuries. In less than 48 hours off the coast of Virginia, two experimental metal monsters made every Navy on Earth obsolete overnight.Don Wildman is joined by Dr Howard Fuller reader in war studies at University of ...Show more
Reconstruction Era: A False Dawn of Freedom?
With the end of the Civil War, four million formerly enslaved people in the South were now free. It was the beginning of a remarkable experiment: rebuilding the South on the foundations of freedom and equal citizenship. For a brief moment, the United States of America begins its ...Show more
Plessy v. Ferguson: The Supreme Court Case That Enshrined Jim Crow
In 1896 the Supreme Court ruled that Jim Crow segregation laws were not unconstitutional in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. This is the case that Brown v. Board of Education would eventually overturn but not until six decades of Jim Crow laws had been endured. Who was Plessy? Who ...Show more
What Happened to the Confederates?
Across the defeated Confederacy, there had been an expectation that those who had taken up arms against their citizens would be punished. This did not happen however and instead ex-Confederates were gradually brought back into the fold. Decades later, they managed to cultivate a ...Show more