purpose. one other related one, those who said never let to your morality to get and the way of what is right. we failed to achieve the objective because we did let to our morality get away. let's go after the bad guys that is a danger. >> day keogh richard sandor for your insightful comments [applause]

>> university of chicago students and faculty, but thank you. >> host: professor chandra manning at the author of "what this cruel war was over" soldiers, slavery, and the civil war" what was your

approach to this book? >> guest: the book is not what i thought it would write when i started. i started with civil war soldiers but absolutely no intention at all about writing about soldiers and slavery. i was a busted regular shopkeepers and farmers and the grain growers who i did not think would care about slavery. i was interested in their war and how they differed. boston different from somebody from ohio or the chesapeake from apple asia. i was interested in how the

18th-century connected to the patient, good to be an american from different parts. that was my plan. how did they talk about the united states, the union, confederacy, the south that it would be substantially different i went to to the archives. >> host: which ones? >> guest: i visited from every state that fought. 45 archives. some are huge like the library of congress like in pennsylvania has an enormous army history collection but state historical association

, alabama, of vermont, jackson county but i did not want to read about grant and who was in the back of the allied by really wanted the soldiers to say i look at the flag and think of my farm or my wife or my mother. they would not do what i wanted them to do. >> host: did you find a similar theme? >> guest: i was less interested in you did and confederate mostly east and west very little of that difference that i was looking for. midwest they thought that

east coast was proceed. you could predict that. they would not stop talking about slavery. they were not supposed to care. are not ensure the center of their world. i spent a long time and no weight with them but then i woke up and realized there is a story. i did not think they should be talking about slavery but they are broken what difference does that make if slavery survived or if they grew wheat and illinois or made shoes and massachusetts? and once i figured out the question then that was my

approach. i did not know what i was doing. it took me two years of days in the archives to figure out. >> host: professor, as you went through the letters from the north what did you find those soldiers say about slavery? >> guest: i was struck by the wide range of opinions. in the beginning it is about to the union. most of them were convince the estates has to survive to show the world that representatives could work and a series of revolutions they failed they see the united states "this is it."

so if they think they could destroy the government because they don't like who got elected so we have to prove this can survive. they're not there long before they think how did we get into this? they are struck by how we got into thisproblem because of the institution of slavery so you have to root out the cause. it began december 1861 to say if we want to win the

war we have to get rid of the problem or we will be back at square number one. get rid of the problem. is the first reaction but then as they say interact with real life slaves and people and suddenly it is harder to dismiss the slaves as the abstraction. it is hard to think of them that way we do have families in your camp.

those who are quite instrumental a budget attended in the south humanizes african american people and it is not just inconvenient you only when no war went god is on your side. so a practical response is july and by a rigid then it -- religious reckoning. >> across the board? >> yes. harris is differences opinion with everything but they all agreed the food is bad. what is straight gain how

weighted the opinion is. there is a big range but i want nothing to do with slavery. one character named john c. from ohio they're quite close and very active or enthusiastic with the faraway of the democratic party. those for race baiting and those most opposed to emancipation. the then through 1863 he is not sure this is a day good idea. he stays in the south and he

is the biggest abolitionist i have found but then to reeducate he writes to his father to say i think you are mistaken inconsiderable he bounce off to his father and explains why the borat pass to take down slavery. how he treats the ending is yes we are free free free from the plights of slavery we are free. that is 180-degree turnaround. by the end of the war it has narrowed and a lot of people

are shifting. >> host: word number soldiers letters censored? >> no. good question. that is part of the charm. 3 million bet most never would have left us their personal thoughts. but four years they are away from home so they have to use writing that is what true me to the project. because they don't leave papers like george washington does. they are completely uncensored data look at an

interesting type of publication these are our release and -- interesting. they have to amuse themselves with some of the enlisted soldiers start newspapers. summer handwritten burma sometimes they occupy the printing press the conservatory editor was setting the type one day and in march is first minnesota the newspaper exist with one page of local news the worst

days the other is a first minnesota news. some traveled with a printing press. they're almost exclusively peat in this did men. right for themselves and circulate for themselves and not censored officially that if you write a letter to your mom, i would not want to know my son did not have a decent meal. but other soldiers know that. they are especially uncensored. it is hard to a mad 10 anything like that today.

>> when did you get interested? >> i cannot remember not being interested particularly u.s. history. i the fifth law house on a prairie. also my grandmother she taught me to read when i was two and was fascinated by the civil war. it is not genealogical connections but i would be just like her and became interested in best of all war at 2849. i was reading works from 1943 and 52 better very descriptive. if you want to know what the

buttons looked like or where he marched, they will never be surpassed about the day the life. the bug bit me. here at georgetown i teach 19th century history also civil war it is total version because we play music every class, my supplier went out of business also baseball and other topics. >> host: what did you find in this southern soldiers letters? >> guest: they surprised me more. i was convinced they would not talk about slavery.

why would they? to add a three families did not contain slaves. i thought it would be what is in it for me? i went into the project this clears succession have been i did not think the regular guy with the process of disillusionment and that this is not my war after all. first and foremost, about being respected but i was

unprepared for how closely they link those things to the institution of slavery. if you don't own any slaves you know, it. there are structural waves come otherwise spread process of slave hiring or red team. you can rent one from your slave holding a her. -- neighbor. that helps with harvest. you know, the wealth of your region is dependent on a viable source of property. they are not dumb.

but they go down to a gut level. if you are a white southern man use still enjoy a certain position if it values the equality that we are just as good as one another, it is the high mobility and people are on the move. if i a live in the shack and you live on a plantation what makes us equal? neither of us can be slaves. also husbands, fathers, brothers and protectors. what is the greatest danger or threat? emancipation. it is 40% brac -- 40% black. what happens and they have

good reason and to be upset to is if read? they believe their loved ones are in danger. so there is the safety issue. also zero the final reason that i talk about is religious. slaves are in the bible. not even in the new testament to talk about the institution of slavery. who are the northerners that think they know better than god? that is dangerous. in everything that you know, breasts on this foundation

you just feel like the whole world is rattled. so right from the outset i found white southerners deny at abbott direct economic interest with that puts them in the field. >> host: how easy was it to find that drove of letters? >> the letters tended to be so they went to the state or county there are hundreds of thousands i did not have the problem i did not have

sources but how do i choose? my stock with in listed they would become a junior officers. i wanted ordinary people i want my army to look like their real army. ratio of rural and urban urban, farmers and teachers, east and west so by a dead demographic data i try hard not to over represent any group. one representation is illiterate soldiers.

there are few of those they knew think overt 90% and 80% could read and write. but there are in both. there are people in regiments that did write for those that were in a letter it. the black soldiers were the least likely than those of the voices that are the hardest to get that. there are a couple of ways. the other is for the black newspapers sometimes black soldiers would hold public meetings had come up with a

series of revolutions -- resolutions they would write to those found. it is not the same as retained to lourdes sister plant his voice is the least likely to be captured looking at the soldiers that they had i would only make it through half of the alphabet. early alphabet names are early represented but i did try hard to not to over the

rate anybody. >> host: did you look at the return letters? >> i did but they exist far fewer some of that have some do with practicality. they could put your letter in the floor so they have an incentive to hide it. confederates were more likely to survive if you are on the front you have a knapsack. it gets cold, wet, muddy, it makes those letters harder to get that. i did not make best systematic but some people

are beginning at work. it could be interesting. >> host: talking with chandra manning professor at georgetown and co-director of the georgetown workshop of 19 century u.s. history. "what this cruel war was over" soldiers, slavery, and the civil war" professor, thank you for your time. >> guest: it was nice to talk to you. >> the b-52 everybody thinks

the anon, the history, cold war, a different kind of power associated. >> these are two friends who knew each other prior to the civil war and fought against each other now they sit on the porch talky about the old days. >> now we have them gate to the east and to the west that reflect the moment of the bomb at 92:00 a.m..

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