really continued, i want as many rebels is possible to live to see the south rejuvenated and transferred by the influence of free labor. but fitter fate for the likes of leap into bear witness to the unfolding social revolution. this is how greeley saw things here at ms since coming northerners who embrace grants term set to the south, we don't want to inflict punishment. we want you to change in confederates responded to demands for change with a form of punishment. this contest over the surrenders meany did not simply pick this up again the north or even the confederacy against the union. instead, it pitted those who have a thorough transformation of the south against those who rejected such transformation. here we have the theme of divisions within each side. the north-south conservatives, peace democrats copperheads were loathed for their political rival of the republican party of lincoln to treat the surrenders of vindication and mandate.

these democrats rallied behind the confederate interpretation of appomattox. in their valor, endurance and skill to copperhead neoprobe insisted southerners were equal to the north to the confederacy was subdued by overwhelming numbers. here's lee's interpretation lock stock and barrel. the south to is divided. by southern unionists opposed confederacy during the war rally behind grant's interpretation and reveled in the fact that the noble grant and his army had broadly sushil. surrender was a vindication for white southerners. americans held markie maher asserted more fervently that the surrender margin of error than african-americans. vivendi victory vindicated the cause of black freedom and racial justice. at appomattox, both liberators had liberated. the last clash of granted me across the virginia countryside from petersburg to appomattox, my stomach tried on april 9 to break free of a federal trap

only to find last escape route blocked by black soldiers and the six regiments of the united states colored troops with one another in the wings. when they heard of lee's capitulation come in black troops knew no bounds. they danced and sang and embraced each other with exuberant joy. the black regiments at appomattox numbering 2000 men in all for a microcosm of black life in america. they included xbase train at kentucky's camp dawson and free blacks at philadelphia's camp william penn. included men who became race leaders in the postwar era searches are not destroying destroyed george washington williams of the baptist editor william demint does the journalistic mentor to none other than ip laws. regardless of their background, the presence of the battlefield with a felt the culmination of a long struggle. if you know, federal or returned with black volunteers, claiming african american men did not possess attributes of patriotism

and courage and kept it the worst difficult moment. when you stt regiments got the chance to fight, they proved their mettle with dozens of engagements. the u. s. e. t. a bad appomattox seemed considerable action. dh survived a bloody initiation into combat in florida february february 1860 for joining the granting warfare of the overland campaign in virginia and then the trenches through the siege of petersburg entering the city in triumph when it fell in april 2nd. african-american soldiers were keenly aware that even after getting all this proof of their courage, their march to a quality could be turned excellent powerful confederate army surrender field. the confederate government viewed soldiers as so many rebellious ways. black soldiers were aware that many white northerners spewed there must does a socialist government, testing capacity of blacks for citizenship in some of those white northerners hoped and expected the experiment within and fail. not surprisingly given the

context, black soldiers quickly seized on the u.s. critical role as a vindication. as william macarthur put it at a may 1865 letter, we the color soldiers are fairly one are loyalty and bravery. thomas worchester correspondent embedded with the army for james reveled in the fact the regiments had participated in the victories came paying they gave lease versus s. trophies to the union army as he put it. many of these white officers and comrades share the conviction that the role in the last battle had indecisive. the cauvery recounted the scene for his mother and sisters in a letter. the morning of the night came to the cauvery was being pushed back rapidly towards the station. the boys were fine, scores of them. over the hill a dark column was spied coming down the road to quicktime. what a relief from the office spent. the colored race of those men so

long as they brought relief to espey saw courage and determination in the polls like faces. moreover, african-american troops understood themselves to be an army of liberation whose defeat of flavors that nailed the coffin the coffin of slavery itself. abundant evidence exists that slaves sought appomattox is a freedom day. it was the very moment of emancipation, the moment the fact to the lincoln's proclamation had long since been passed. virginia saves for the first year the tidings of the surrender of thought on this against a defense. none other than booker t. washington is classic autobiography from slavery remember someone that were closed from the day of freedom came to southwestern virginia. the union officers pleaded reading of the emancipation proclamation at the april surrender had brought the long-awaited moment of deliverance. interviews connect in the 20th century with african-americans who had been slaves in virginia echoes such published

reminiscences. danny berry remembers slaves in tamblyn, virginia burst into spontaneous song when they learned the head gabe with the wi-fi fret that moment she knew they were free. as news of the surrender travel through the south, slaves far away from the events at appomattox six is grants final tribe as the end of their enslavement. for example, james h. johnson of south carolina lamented after president lincoln's freedom proclamation in 1863, the status quo kept unread if it had. there's a limit generally surrendered in his interview that we learned we were free. for some former slaves to date of the surrender structure their very sense of time in history allies of washington told her interviewer conducted by the federal writers object in the new deal agency in the 1930s. unless the washington told her interviewer from the first thing i remember was living with my mother about six miles from crossing american about the year

1866. i know it was 1866 week as it is the year surrender of the surrender was 1865. at appomattox persistent memory of many say is it was in turn presence of the commemorative calendar of the free people. surrender day festivities began in southern virginia as early as they can 66. blacks and the north carolina border commemorated april 9 because they saw it if they had never been beaten emancipation proclamation would have been to no avail. african-american soldiers pivotal role as agents of liberation would long remain a point of pride within black communities. george washington williams himself a veteran of the appomattox came came noted in his landmark history published in 1883 at appomattox in the last arab slaveholders rebellion the brilliant fighting of black troops have ensured the salvation of the union. the fact that african-american soldiers had defeated lee lent additional symbolic meaning to

the surrender for me and his army of northern virginia typified the ice of the u.s. ct slaveholding elites and its racial superiority. thomas morris chester confederate capitulation was especially sweet cousins are reviewed to the first families of virginia who he do after the virginians. in short, men such as williams and chester made and sustained the bold claim that defeat u.s. army african-american troops have dealt a death blow to all that army stood for, including favorite old. they insisted not only the union armies at jury emanated from superior virtue of the black troops in particular exemplified by virtue. most important, african-american soldiers interpretations of the surrender of described the civil rights message into the mud animist terms of the sprecher, emphasizing the promise of appomattox, depicted the free people and black soldiers in particular as agents of national

healing. the williams 1880 history of the troops in the war of the rebellion praised like soldiers for treating the confederates with quiet dignity and christian humility. those were his words. hero, after the confederate army had been paroled, the troops cheerfully and cordially divided rations of the late enemy and welcomed them at their campfires of march 2 st. petersburg. forgiveness is expressed in the attacks rebel soldiers who freely mingled with the plakon verse. as a spectacle of magnanimity never before witnessed. lien sought, african-american magnanimity at appomattox is the exercise of moral authority come a conscious effort as purposeful as grandson act of clemency to leave to break the cycle of violence the slaveholders had so long perpetuated. in the year after the surrender, each of the interpretations about the income emphasis on restoration from a vindication of liberation aquinas and others came to incorporate an argument about the last promise of

appomattox. adherents of each interpretation argued their political opponents had betrayed the true spirit of green's magnanimity. everyone embraces magnanimity, but they invest with different meanings. for lee and his followers from the radical republicans for the arch betrayers that the appomattox covenant for imposing a regime and black suffrage in political representation that contravene the promise and parole terms of southerners would not be disturbed. for granted and his followers coming into johnson was the arch betrayers were capitulating to these ideas that the piece must bring the restoration of power to southerners. confronted with the foolhardiness of the far too lenient johnson and planets of the southern people to their own interest, grant had adapted. he would write, i gradually worked up to the point where i see the immediate enfranchisement for african-americans. this is the only way to dispel the confederates pretension they

would be able to control the nation and were entitled to do so as he put it. grant was deeply disappointed by lee's refusal to give that the cursor do. in a may 1866 interview, cryptically to pass, saintly was he hating badly. setting an example of source acquiesces so grudging and pernicious in its effect as to hardly be realized. representative lee for denigrating the union victory is a mere show of force and encouraging confederates to resist changing the name of restoration. grant learned after appomattox said he would need to enter the political arena to finish the work he began in april 191865. hindi has african-americans, not only those who rejected black citizenship of right, but those who during the long retreat from reconstruction would give up the fight for it, all of these people at the moment of promise at the appomattox moment state unfulfilled. however compelling and

comforting the image of the surrender is a gentleman's agreement if he doesn't begin to capture the complex legacy of appomattox peer deep into the 19 century, appomattox is at the heart of the politics of race reunion and that's why it's so important people come here and walk the national park to visit the museum and try to understand its artifacts that we can recover and appreciate that this moment meant in that turbulent era of the civil war. thank you. [applause] >> dear sometime? >> yeah, sure. i'm happy to take any questions people have. >> i knew i could count on you. yes, sir. [inaudible]

>> in your view, what changed in what didn't change because of lincoln's assassination? >> is a great question anyone who knows civil war literature does the assassination when we get the impression of books on shelves of libraries and bookstores, the assassination eclipses the surrender. scores of books on the assassination of very few on the surrender. there's been an assumption that's gone on with the notion the assassination surrender but at that moment the northern impulse to magnanimity evaporates under his calls for vengeance. the drowning of the imposter's magnanimity. i found something quite different. northerners are absolutely embittered by the assassination and we do see calls for vengeance against those who perpetrated it. but we see a calling response. we see some northerners say we have been too lenient.

lincoln would've been too lenient. grant was too lenient. now johnson, they initially believe is going to be an enforcer of richard duchenne inventions. johnson is the right man to correct our course. but we see just as many people saying, upholding the notion of magnanimity and the idea of magnanimity confers moral authority and is an emblem of its moral superiority. we see just as many sticking with the argument but let's not make of these people. let's stick with what lincoln wanted, bp is characterized by lenient than the union are the best rates one of lincoln's memory is to uphold the spirit of the magnanimity. i find this interpretive lines hold. there's a sort of moment of uncertainty. to a surprising degree, they hold. the other thing i found is we know john wilkes booth was in the audience when lincoln gives

his less famous speech in which he gestures he made it back black suffrage and modern day say well, booth at this moment since i'm going to run lincoln through and this is a lashing out against the possibility of black civil rights. all of that's true, but americans at the time is they receive the news of lincoln's assassination didn't know about the details. so what they assumed was the assassination was a response to the surrender. who's had been infuriated by the south's defeat and he was lashing out against lincoln to rob lincoln of the fruits of his victory. what happened here at appomattox is the context for the assassination in the eyes of almost all northerners. if a site of that. the connection between the surrender of the assassination. they believe booth was trying to undo the union victory at that moment. any other questions?