reconstruction governments in the south were overturned and white supremeacy re-established it sel, then they hay platform from which to actually -- they had a platform from which to actually lobity federal go. and toward the end 67b919th -- 19th century, right around the turn of the century, it was decided that confederate sonalds could get federal hed -- headstones as well. i think it was 1906 when that legislation was passed and 1907 is when we see those c.s.a. gravestones appearing in the union lot for that reason. and that was of course very, very controversial, especially among the g.a.r. the g.a.r. hated this idea. >> i feel we would keep you hee for a very long time. we should perhaps allow the questions to continue outside the lecture hall but thank you

so much. [applause] and i want to remind up all that you are very welcome to join us for a reception in the garden court just to the right. people will show you the way if you don't know it. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national able satellite corp. 2015] >> you come into this house and there is so much to do, so much coming at you. you have no time to reflect. hi, everyone, we're here digging up soil because we're going to plant a garden. i won't be satisfied nor will my husband until every single veteran and military spouse has a job who wants one. at the end of the day, my most important title is still mom-in-chief. >> in 2008, michelle obama

became the first african-american first lady when her husband, barack obama, was elected or -- our 41st president. as first lady her focus has been on social issues such as poverty and healthy living, launching the let's moving initiative against childhood obesity sunday night, on c-span's original series, first ladies, examining the lives of first ladies and their influence. unday night on c-span 3. archeological excavation of a slaveship wrecked off the frican coast in 1874 is adding a new story -- chapter to the story of the trading the museum director lonny bunch and

curator pull gardullo talked with american history gve the saga of the ship. >> take us back to the day. >> december 7, 1794, a ship headed for mozambique island around the cape of good hope, for brazil, northeast brazil, south ose to capetown, africa. capetown was often a landing point for ships before they made their way across the long atlantic voyage and this ship came too close to shore, got caught in swells in the storm and struck rocks about 100

yards, 350 feet he could from the crew. they attempted a rescue from ship so -- to shore. he rescued himself and along with the crew he rescued about half the 400 enslaved months am eekans aboard. the other half who had been captured from the interior of africa and brought -- brought on board the ship in early december perished in those waves that night. >> recently the image of a young syrian boy who died, drowned, became the image of a migrant crisis taking place right now in europe. ts -- has humanized that crisis

happening. is that what you want to do with the slave trade? >> many in ways history museums tell the grand story and forget to humanize them. it struck us when you think of the millions of people taken via the middle passage to the new world, many of whom perished, you realize when you start talking numbers in the millions it's hard for the public to understand or care or even beturbed by it. our goal was to say how do we humanize this slave trade by focusing on a single ship, letting people understand what happened on that ship, who some of the people were on the ship and most importantly letting people realize that it's not about the millions, it's about, in this case, the 412. >> the slaves who survived that wreck, what happened to them after the wreck, after they came shore? >> well, after the wreck, two days later the ship captain had

to did -- testify in court. it was a dutch court at that time and testify to the loss of property. that included those human beings who were lost. the other 200 and some odd people were sold back into slavery in the western cape and there they lived out their lives, what remained of them. they're lost to us right now but our research is continuing to see if we can find decendant communities for them. >> do we know the names of any of the sleasks who survived or died? >> we don't know the names of anyone but we're very lucky to bring their spirits, in some ways, back into memory, into history, so we can begin to reclaim them. >> i've heard that what you are trying to do at the museum of african-american history and culture is find the right tension between sadness and resiliency.

>> obviously the story of slavery is a story of the loss of power, sometimes the loss of loss -- life, of family, so it's very sad in that regard. on the other hand, it's also a story of the resiliency of people to survive the one of 9 things that strikes me is often people, african-americans sometimes, are embarrassed by their slave ancestors. they want to talk about those who were free or who struck a blow for freedom. but for me, african-americans that survived the middle passage, that survived that sort of transition to this new, horrible, harsh world really were so strong that in some ways i want people to rethink about what slavery meant, that yes, it's not something to celebrate, but to celebrate the spirit of those who triumphed, who kept family and soul together the best they could. >> story of what happened before the wreck and after the wreck. can you talk about what life was like from december 3 when

the ship left mozambique to december 27? what would it have been like on that ship in >> well, you know, we have very if e recorded testimonies any of people who survived the middle passage that were written down. we do have the records of a variety of ships and the account that were given by both traders and the few who wrote about their experiences. you know that this is a long voyage, right? you are three weeks on a ship in the hold. if you're a man, you are likely shackled the whole time, your feet as well as your hands. you may be taken outside to exarbove deck maybe once a day, maybe by the light of the moon, right? you're still close to africa, o there's going to be a very close watch on what's going on

and on the opportunities for escape or rebellion or even in some cases suicide. if you are a woman, you may have a little bit more freedom. we need to remember that writ large, though we don't have the demographic break doup of this particular ship, but within the slave trade and the middle passage writ large you're going to be 25% of those who are carried across from africa were classified as children. so they are all below decks, tightly packed with other kinds of cargo. water casks, iron ballast barkss dunnage, material that would be used for trade and to help weigh things down. it was a horrendous experience. >> so in many ways the way to think about it is cargo. that in essence the goal here is to try to pack as many in

and make as many people survive as possible for the profit margins. so on the one hand when people are taken above deck it's an effort to keep them physically fit, keep them moving, try to encourage the will to survive. the thing that's powerful when you think about what it must have been like, first of all why you may have many members of tribes who speak similar languages, many didn't, so you've got people who don't know each other shackled together. you've also got this sense of disorientation, of where am i going? what does this mean? who are these people? so in some ways the ability to survive that is really one of great -- the great triumphs of human 4it679 >> and the fact that this particular ship was coming from east africa is important because up to that time most slave trade was wum -- coming from the west african c0e69

>> right. you're talking about 1794, the end of the century that ushered in so many rebel yons, revolutions for freedom in the century, right? also the end of that century that saw the largest single century of the slave trade. historians are estimating there's around 12 million people who were transported. more than seven million in that 100 years alone, right? o it's the end of a huge century in many respects. >> and where was the united states in its slave story in 1794? the president of the united states at that time, george washington, a slave owner. >> what you have is the 18th century you have about 600,000 enslaved africans, between 600,000 and 800,000 living in what became the united states

of america and what is many involved in sugar, rice, later cotton, but what you really have is an economy that is built on the slave trade, that so much of what made america work was built on the backs of the enslaved, the labor that was provided, not just to groat crops, but to transform the landscape, to take those swamps in south carolina and turn them into ricefields. the kind of labor that was involved. . and also what you also have is this amazing sense of creating the african-american. you've got all these different africans coming together, forming an african-american culture, beginning to learn a language, wrestling with christianity, so that you have this amazing moment of transformation and in some ways as americans we know slavery as a 19th century phenomenon. but so much of slavery, the patd -- patterns, the origins,

the large numbers of people, are really an 18th century phenomenon and that's why the ship is important because it helps us refocus our attention on the earlier period that laid the foundation on which so much of the rest of the slave environment was built upon. >> and what is more, i think that you are also looking at this period following the american revolution where all these principles of liberty are being established and being struck for. not just by propertied white men, they're being articulated and forwarded by free blarkss by women, and by enslaved peoples. a revolution begins in haiti, soon after, three years before this voyage in 1791, the inslaved -- enslaved and free blasks haiti strike for revel lution, right? it's the only successful

--trader, a traitor, and you understand the economic importance of slavery, you understand that the world is shifting underneath you. many of these people need to change. they begin to look to other markets. that is where mozambique comes in. it had been oriented toward the indian ocean. gets reorganized by the portuguese. and around the cape primarily over to brazil.

>> about a million people from mozambique are brought to brazil. well into the 19th century. slavery in brazil doesn't end until 1888. importantat this is is that it allows us to tell ist story of slave trade much more complicated than just west africa to the united states. people understand how large the impact of the slave trade was in the caribbean, in latin america. how small it was in the united states compared to that. >> when did the last slave ship land in the united states? with the trade being outlawed in 1808. you begin to see the numbers decline.

but you still see people smuggling in enslaved africans. the last slave ship that we know about was about 1862. near mobile alabama. the kind of smuggling that went on continued to bring in a trickle of new africans into the united states. at the same time what you see in the united states, a massive buildup of what historians call the internal slave trade, the domestic slave trade. the trading of slavery in the united states ramps up. you have many people moved from down tor south louisiana or mississippi or texas.

it is a massive trade. the largest slave trading company in the united states at that time was right here in alexandria virginia. >> we realize that the goal of this initially was to find iconic pieces of the slave ship. we didn't set out to find any specific ship. understand by to humanizing the slave trade. we looked around the world for ships. we looked in cuba. looking at ships and trying to there out if we begin exploration. we wanted to make sure we found some. the project is an amazing collaboration of scholars in the

united states and south africa and west africa. maritime archaeology traditionally didn't look for this. we needed to work with partners who would map the ocean floor. identify where other ships could be. we wanted to find a ship for the museum when we open. stimulate a to national and international theersation about finding hundreds of ships that are on the ocean floor. we wanted to make sure that people in senegal had the training of the interest in the resources to look in their waters. people in brazil. people in south africa.

the goal was, if this is the how frontier of knowledge, do we help countries around the world do this? it is about education, helping to train young people to become underwater archaeologists. so they can identify and bring up their own ships. this project will go on for many generations. helping us to learn more. >> that goes back to what we

talked about in the beginning, the importance of remembering these people. these people who survived these horrific journeys. the people whose names we might not ever remember. they never survived. that is one of the most incredibly moving components of this. to trace the route of the ship from mozambique past south africa. we also want to meet the people involved. those are people in the interior .

when we got to mozambique, the tribes took us to a spot where the enslaved were sold at an auction spot. dirt and theydig put dirt in this amazingly beautiful vessel. said to us in no uncertain terms you for this was your idea these are your ancestors. tell us what you need to do. for the first time since 1794 hour people sleep in their own land. it is more than a research endeavor.

really recognizing that the slave trade is not about yesterday. really gave us some new insights into how to help people really remember and understand the importance of this. we had planned to have a ceremony in cape town. we were hosted by an amazing man named albie sachs who was involved in the anti-apartheid movement. we thought we would have a ceremony where i would speak. it was pouring rain, the sea was angry. thisuddenly realize could've been the day the ship went down. it was that bad.

we couldn't get boats out. we had these divers get out as far as they could. they sprinkled the soil. as soon as the sun hit the water the sun came out. so you realize, don't mess with ancestors. this was a special moment. we stood there just unbelievably to these people whose names we will never know. a woman that was part of the ceremony was a descendent of the mozambican slaves. she read it in afrikaans and portuguese and english. the work we were doing was allowing people to sleep in their own soil. allowing them to be remembered. allowing us the living to

recognize how connected we are to this story. those of the things that make all the work that we do special. >> talk about the research effort and how you originally sao jose. >> this began long before our effort. that took time. look through ao variety of archival sources. you are looking at a combination of archival work and archaeological work and all sorts of detective work.

we're talking to fishing communities. where they know of wrecks. a variety of techniques and tools that you use. detective work. diagnostic testing. so you're not having some kind of confirmation bias. .his wreck we are ready to ourselves what this is. appear in about seven or eight years. sitecularly because this theyke a washing machine can't get onto it lets you are

there certain points of the year. to get to some of the material. the next dayback and it will be covered over by sand. when we began to realize what we had. we can just uncover a ship. we have covered this story that connected the world. our research had taken us to the netherlands, in portugal, in mozambique, in cape town, and over to brazil. it has defined something much more. that clearly depended on the expertise and the knowledge of

referenced.t lonnie no one small group of people could have done this. we are still diving on the ship. this is one of the telltale signs. to give thatast balance to the ship. we are going to bring up a couple of the ballast pieces. a pulley that talks about how ails were used. diving.ill

not a whole ship. but i want people to be able to where they can look at these pieces and think about what this means and who these people were. this is a chance to revel in and wrestle with this history in an evocative way. that is what our museum really strives to do. it succeeds in doing so well. the you think about importance of this story, the african-american story, and its centrality to the story of america and the world. findinggs we've been they are iconic.

sometimes they are incredibly beautiful. these are objects that have been cast away. they are remnants and ranks. to help people understand these objects things that are as to look atn iron bar them in a new light adds a whole new depth and knowledge to what we are doing. >> of the more than 200 slaves who didn't make it off the ship, is there any possibility of

finding any human remains? i would expect we probably will find some human remains. our commitment is to return those remains to mozambique to let them lay in their native soil. we haven't found any yet. saying, one of the real challenges of this site is that if you move the sand, there is work that has to be done. i think we will find human remains. we have found a chain that is .ncrusted we will find iron work like that. we will bring that to the museum. we would like to say that you

sao see the pieces from the jose. there is an amulet that was used to protect them from being taken as slaves. shackle designed for children, a small shackle. you will hear the voices describing what the slave trade was like during the middle passage. that theive space visitors will always remember. be near theto beginning of the history exhibitions. the museum has three floors of galleries. one is a historical narrative that takes you from africa well into the 21st century.

another floor looks at the role of culture. another floor looks at the role of community. this would be one of the iconic moments in the museum. in the fallill open of 2016. we promised president obama that he will get to cut the ribbon. we are about a year away from it. in some ways, this whole journey for me of more than 10 years has been unbelievably humbling journey. mean that the national the worldplace where comes to learn what it means to be an american, will have a museum that will enrich and possibly complete our notion of what it means to be american.

one of the joys of this process that the smithsonian is a place where people will come and wrestle with important questions that might they might not wrestle with in chicago or los angeles. they are coming to do the smithsonian, they trust the smithsonian. this gives us an amazing educational opportunity. of people who might not explore the subject anywhere else. we have a chance to educate the world. >> are all the exhibit is going to be ready? paul: i am one of the curators. that gives me extreme confidence that it will be ready. we have many collections people and project managers.

administrators. we are all working to ensure that we open on time and open with the best museum that the mall has. i say that with a smile. think what is crucial to remember. is that in addition to the national museum on the national will remain an ouredibly important site, work exists in communities all across the nation. chance tot gives us a talk about our work around the world. the impact that it has on helping develop capacity. but to bring these people and these conversations together.

for mozambique to charleston, s.c.. these of the kind of ways that assee our work as curators engaging in the world. on the national mall. we are also out in a variety of communities in a variety of important ways. that, yes this will be the first green museum on the national mall. there is an amazing collection that people will be amazed to see. people will be impressed and educated. job of the museum is to make america better. to create a safe space where difficult questions of race and poverty and the possibility of america are engaged. history people to use

as a tool to help them live their lives. it is great to be a good museum. be a good museum. we want to be a place that matters. helps them realize that we are still being divided and challenged and hurt by issues of race. unless we find the safe space to we will always be divided that way. sao jose, will be a permanent exhibit? my hope is that this will allow us to bring in newer discoveries. expanding our notions of these ships. things that may have left the west coast of africa.

is to use theis forjose as a launching pad a many year project to showcase the work of other people and help people begin to understand how complicated and how toential the slave trade is our understanding of who we are today. the recovery effort was kept under wraps for several years. at a fear of treasure hunters. projects thatr you are currently working on that are under wraps? paul: we are working in a number of areas around the world. we have the submerged resources center.

croix in the st. u.s. virgin islands. we have archival material that there.ts shipwrecks the smithsonian is coming in. not all of these sites may prove to have shipwrecks. contain potential and contain those crucial community and building elements to have these conversations around these ships

and around the slave trade. >> you have the names of any of these individuals slaves who either lived or died in this shipwreck? do you wish you had a name? themu wish you could honor by calling their name. as long as you can say someone's name, they are never gone. i wish we could say the names. we can honor their spirits by o jose.ring the sa our hope is that as we do this work we may find some names. but the reality is you are probably not going to. though they may be nameless,

they are alive in our spirits and they are crucial to our understanding of who we are. say the pastnce to matters. the way the folks in mozambique reacted to this helped us realize that what we are doing is more than looking back. we are helping people to find issues that have divided us. by shining a light in all these dark corners, we can find that reconciliation and healing that is so essential. paul: i know they will find it because of what we experienced this summer. experienced in terms of africans engaging with the story

evelatory.loped to will come to this with their own perspective. when we opennding the story up is that we can find a connection. for everyone. maybe not personally but through lineage and the story of humanity. the power of this ship is something that can touch anyone. >> you were told that this was

your ancestors telling you what you need to do? hope is that my ancestors are smiling. they are no longer forgotten. lives wasof their really an inspiration. hopefully smiling because finally they get to fill out the narratives. helping us all understand who we are and how we have been shaped by the slave trade. people forget that the slave trade is the first real international global business. so many nations of europe make their money providing the foundations for slavery. this is the economic engine of the united states, and brazil. understand the story through the eyes of those enslaved but also

recognize that even if you weren't enslaved, you were shaped by this experience. >> think you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> you are watching american history tv. all weekend every weekend. like us on facebook. c-span takes you on the road to the white house. our student cam documentary contest asked students to tell us what issues they want to hear. follow our road to the white house coverage.

>> elizabeth gray talks about the use and public opinions on opium.laudanum and they were usually upper-class women who were prescribed the drug by their doctors. it was more socially acceptable for them to drink. divideeated a gender between alcoholics and opium addicts. her classes 45 minutes. prof. gray: good morning. we are looking at the issue of in 19th-century, or habitual drug use. ofs is before the concept addiction had been understood. we will look at how that develops, a social meaning.