lincoln as you well know was not an abolitionist. lincoln never claimed to be an abolitionist. before the war lincoln had said as you say he was strongly opposed to the western expansion of slavery but he never called for a violation of the fugitive slave law. lincoln was a lawyer, a man who believed in the rule of law. in a famous letter in 1855 to his friend joshua. >> a slaveowner in kentucky lincoln said about fugitives i hate to see them hunted down but i bite my lip and keep silent. why did he keep silent? because this was in the constitution. this was federal law. unlike the abolitionist he said i don't believe in a higher law. i don't believe they can abide by the moral law rather than the actual law on the books. in the secession crisis he said i don't care what we do about fugitive slaves. i'm willing to give concessions on that not on expansion of slavery although he said i would like the fugitive slave law to be amended so that a free person would not be caught up. given the way the fugitive slave law operates free people could easily be grabbed brought before commi

the 1st is created by a black abolitionist. but there were white abolitionists involved. interracial organizations and much of the money came from whites. whites. most free black people rather poor. money was raised among them but in new york they went to lewes to penn well-to-do merchant who was a dedicated abolitionist contributed a lot of money they went to jared smith. whites were contributing money and taking part in activities, but mostly activity is by free blacks in many are anonymous or unknown to us. black dockworkers. fugitives who came in hidden on ships dockworkers would notify. blacks worked at the railroad depots for blacks who worked in hotels as cooks for domestic workers for seven or came to the hotel with this way they would say, look, you you can become free if you want. their activity there activity was important. why don't we hear more about it? after the civil war the white abolitionist wrote the long histories. they wrote their memoirs the underground railroad and there's a lot of valuable information but they tended to make it a white into price g

lincoln as you on it was not an abolitionist lincoln never claimed to be an abolitionist. before the war lincoln had said as you say he was strongly opposed to the western expansion of slavery but he never called for violation of the future slave law. lincoln was a lawyer, a man who believed in the rule of law. inand a famous letter in 1855 to his friend joshua speed, slave owning kentucky lincoln said about fugitives, he said i hate to see them hunted down but i bite my lip and keep silent. why did he keep silent? because this is in the constitution, ma federal law. unlike the abolitionists he said i don't believe in a higher law. i don't believe that you can abide by the moral law rather than the actual law on the books. and in the secession crisis he says i don't care what we do about fugitives list. i'm willing to give them concessions on that, not on the expansion of slavery. slavery. although he's set out like the fugitive slave law to be amended so that if a person could not be caught up. given what the fugitive slave law operate a free people could be grabbed, prop

lee supported that come and he was put forward as a sort of proto-abolitionist because of that. no no, no. [laughter] lee's argument there was if we lose the war, the republicans set the terms, they will destroy us, our slaveholding social system entirely. if by arming a few black man we established -- professor varon: save what is left of it. professor gallagher: right. i think it is a fascinating debate -- no one knows how great wars range the on. mr. holzer: doesn't the talk of black and lisman, even if it is no more than talk, doesn't that suggest a degree of nationalism or national spirit i continued? it is not -- it is let's find one more desperate, nationalistic way -- professor gallagher: then you accept taxes, and they accepted a central governments, the states rights of society, the central government that proved more obstructive by far and told even the 20th century, so that suggests -- professor varon: it calls into question the overwhelming numbers of resources that confederates could crunch the numbers, the union had more men and more of everything than the confede

those were the days as lee saw it before abolitionists had views african-americans with false hopes and freedom and equality. and indeed the word "restoration" which he uses in letters with grant would become his political key word in the post-war period. we see it crop up again and again. for example, six months after the sur rend he he wrote to his friend mori about what had been and what might yet again be. he wrote quote as long as virtue was dominant in the republic, so long was the happiness of the people secure may an ever merciful god save us from reconstruction and restore us to the past. this was a fundamentally nostalgic view of the peace, nostalgic for the long gone days. lee moved at appomattox to cast the surrender terms in the best possible light. he believed and those in his inner circle believed it was a negotiation in which he had extracted concessions from grant and they believed that the peace was contingent on the north's good behavior. eager to help his troops against any possible reprisals of yankees, he requested a grant at appomattox on the meeting of horseback

in which the evangelicals withdrew from the major abolitionist society.the major abolitionist society aligned abolitionism with women's rights. evangelicals were opposed to that alignment precisely because they thought, you are making abolition about individual rights. it is not about individual rights. it is about corporate morality. what we are trying to do is eradicate the sin of slavery. there were large sections of the abolitionist movement that were quite hostile to women's rights, and there were equally large sections of the abolitionist movement that were quicker or free thought that detested evangelicals because they thought, they just don't get the individual rights program of abolitionism. >> we will move to the easiest question of the morning. was the united states founded as a christian nation? we are now going to settle this question once and for all. [laughter] >> i want to go back to the previous question if i can just for a moment. will try to be brief on this one, too. for most native peoples who occupied the territory east of the missis

this cautious suggestion irritated abolitionist. the same suggestion struck as entirely too revolutionary. that same even one of the conspirators attacked william bed. he lived while the news of president lincoln's death spread through the telegraph wires and across the nation and the world. now suddenly new questions became pressing. what would president andrew johnson do? what would happen the next day? trepidation for the future, i found, was particularly acute for african-americans. lincoln had been deeply influenced. one 6-year-old boy down south echoing the fear of grown ups around him. asked would he have to be a slave again. i knew the principal responses would be shock and grief. people were astonished astoundsed stewupefied. people wrote word of lincoln's death was like a thunder clap from a clear, blue sky. it was a dreadful dream a play on a stage. today we would say i felt like i was in a movie. it was a joke, a hoax, a lie and in particularly for former slaves it was a successionist lie. clergymen struggled to make it

>> hickok continues his abolitionist ways working in the union army.mes to the rescue of one of his fellow scouts, a 12-year-old named william cody. the two would remain lifelong friends. >> you all right, son? >> yeah. >> you two fellas like picking on children? >> hickok's sense of justice, greatly influenced by his parents, caused him to get into situations where he should always stand up for right. he was a defender of the down trodden and those who could not help themselves. >> the restless hickok makes his way west and finds work with the pony express. >> the pony express is the fastest means of communication. so what towns are doing are setting up stations along the way and it's at one of the relay stations that wild bill heck ic has his brush with violence and pain. >> the owners of the rock creek station are in debt to dave mccanles and he wants his money or the deed to the property. >> we don't have it. >> he's right. we ain't got it. >> horace, there's someone coming. >> dave is here with his son james. >> ladies, you better go to the cellar

it was founded by a group of young abolitionists in 1865.ts focus on issues such as civil rights, income inequality and corporate power has made it a leader of the american left. katrina vanden heuvel had been the magazine's editor for 20 years. she started there as an intern. i'm pleased to have her back at this table. what has it meant to you, the nation. >> the nation has meant, the nation was where i learned about journal subpoena where -- journalism, it was a boot camp it was a school what you don't learn in a university. it's a a an america that you don't learn about in school but a sense of coming in at age 19 and there was the great andy copkind, christopher hitchens had just arrived from london in an exchange. the pulitzer prize winning, christopher came to the office. and there was just a lot of whirling discussion and argument. and it was a place where you learned about debate, civil, uncivil. and you learned about dissent and you learned about rebellious voices. it was a space, literally a physical space for such. for three think

"this war is eating my life out," he wants to to prominent abolitionist congressman owen lovejoy.ong impression that i shall not live to see the end. " we know what happened next. lincoln's triumphant arrival at ford's theater. at the screen moment of victory, the audience went wild and cheered their father abraham the man who after a shaky start in office learned how to command armies, grew in vision and eloquence, brought down slavery, and who just six weeks ago have given the most graceful and emotionally stunning inaugural address in the history of the presidency. and, as he had promised he would, he saved the union. lincoln stood in the box and bowed to the audience. the band played "hail to the chief," then the sound of a single gunshot, the gleaming knife flourished by the murderer, the leap to the stage, the cry of sic semper tyrannis his escape into the wings, a galloping horse and the president of the united states on the floor of a theater gone mad. and then here to the peterson house where began the long death vigil for midnight to dawn, to transcend him from mortal ma

it grew out of the abolitionists movement.ts charter was to follow the plight of the newly freed slaves. simultaneous with that was a journalistic ideal that it would tell the truth. wherever it led. you have this double legacy. my two favorite sentences in connection with this are the first sentence in the first issue of the first story, the week were singularly barren of events. as a launching sentence imagine tina brown launching her new magazine. singularly barren of significant events. what that says as we are not going to be a part of the buzz and hype. we are one to tell the truth wherever it leads. charlie: you include some pieces which turn out to be less than prophetic. katrina: one was, we have henry james writing a scathing review of walt whitman. i think he later came to regret that. whitman survived. of course, the nation at a different point tracks the arc of liberalism. "the nation" was part of the new york post. charlie: then there are people like christopher hitchens. katrina: we have the historian a piece ab

lots of black people worried lots of abolitionists worried. hundreds of thousands of northerners sent petitions to congress. they signed their names and saying we want a constitutional amendments. and congress did finally come up with an amendment. no one was quite happy with the wording, it was revised several times until we got to the point where we got the one that we do have. the getting that amendment passed was very difficult. but very important. prof. varon: you make an important point, when we look at any of these changes, whether that's the enlistment of african-american troops or the 13th amendment, there are actions on the ground in the south, mainly this mass exodus that are driving those big decisions. they are also lobbying from northerners and free blacks in the north for these policies like enlistment. that's another source of pressure moving lincoln. prof. brundage: the ratification of the 13th amendment is part of this drawnout process of cleaning up the mess, if you will inherited in part by the civil war, but also the dred

abolitionist. so when he constructed this, you know when he was trying to make a statement. they may not have shoes like you, but they want the same things. could you even imagine a more pay tree-- patriarchal scene than this? he's always trying to needle in a political point and in this case it's right between by jeff davis in the doorway is the table upon which the surrender of general lee that's now the photographic pride. one of the other things that i enjoy is look at the girl. look at daddy's knee and mother's chair. she is locked in. she is not going to move. she's not going anywhere. something else that kind of intrigues me. look at the preoccupation. i don't understand this gesture. i really got nothing here for you folks. look how they solve the problem of keeping the little girl still in this one. put your head on daddy's shoulder. so charming. here he is with his staff. the staff looks off in all different directions. then you'll find a slightly different shot. oh, yeah, we got a movie

abolitionist. so when he constructed this, you know when he was trying to make a statement. they may not have shoes like you, but they want the same things. could you even imagine a more pay tree-- patriarchal scene than this? he's always trying to needle in a political point and in this case it's right between by jeff davis in the doorway is the table upon which the surrender of general lee that's now the photographic pride. one of the other things that i enjoy is look at the girl. look at daddy's knee and mother's chair. she is locked in. she is not going to move. she's not going anywhere. something else that kind of intrigues me. look at the preoccupation. i don't understand this gesture. i really got nothing here for you folks. look how they solve the problem of keeping the little girl still in this one. put your head on daddy's shoulder. so charming. here he is with his staff. the staff looks off in all different directions. then you'll find a slightly different shot. oh, yeah, we got a movie

they understood that that counterargument to a long-standing anti-abolitionists argument. that was the argument you could not have emancipation because if you did, you would have been just an race war and social chaos. abolitionists have been saying for decades that you would have your first chance of harmony because slavery, not, is the source of vision. diffuse emancipation memories with peace and harmony, those are not necessarily agendas that are at odds. prof. brundage: let me offer one anecdote. i was thinking in savannah, there were a group of so-called -- african-american men meeting. in their circle, many of them affiliated with booker t. washington. many were also founders of the local chapter of the naacp when a chapter was opened in many of them were also supporters of marquise barbie's organization, the pan africanist of the late late 19th century. we would see that as being a blue state-red state divide. these men were members sometimes of all three simultaneously. prof. varon: let's talk a little bit about, and it came up in the earlier panels, about this se

gardner was politically active and an abolitionist. when he constructed this image he is definitely making a statement. look at this. are you going to say he is not a man? that the family around his feet are somehow less than yours? they may not have shoes like you, but they want the same things. could you even imagine a more patriarchal scene than this? i would love to have my family like that. he is giving it to him, but he is also pointing at the northern people, saying, this is what it has been about. from an abolitionist point of view, this is powerful. that is why gardner's images are particularly interesting because he is always trying to needle in a political point and in this case it is right between the eyes. coming to the end, the white house of the confederacy. which i'm sure some of you have visited. it is open to the public. you can only really shoot it from this angle. that is a problem now, because if you match it up, all you see are the hospital buildings. it is rather depressing. in 1865, you can see that he has const

abolitionist. so when he constructed this, you know when he was trying to make a statement. they may not

it was started by republican abolitionists who were concerned about the state of the freedom.ke to gloss over the first 50 years. "the nation" was against workers right, immigrants, and it did not break free of the republican party until world war i. we think of it now as a version of the left of the democratic party. i hope it is much more than that, but you could caricature it that way and some circles. "the nation" that we know now really took off in the 1930's. that is because of the new deal. that was one of the apogee's of the influence, it's flourishing, and its power. >> we give thanks that the economic disaster that confronts us has made men and women think has made multitudes realized that our institutions are not perfect, that there is something radically wrong with the situation under which even at the height of prosperity, many are on the ragged edge of starvation, while others literally roll in wealth. we believe the republic to be in jeopardy, but we have not lost faith that it can be rescued and set upon the right path to meet the needs of the situation. amy: t

in the eyes of the northern press covering events here, that is a political statement, as one abolitionistaper put it, it's a slap in the face to loyal union soldiers. every detail is politicized postop -- every detail is politicized. caller: thank you for your work on appomattox. i want to tell everybody on your chapter on defeat, you give more coverage of the u.s. colored troops and their reaction of the former slaves, people who were enslaved right there in appomattox and i wanted to ask you to talk about where are the u.s. colored troops today? i don't see them there and this is my second time watching the program. where are they represented where are the people of appomattox represented? you talk about william harrison who says he was with grant at appomattox, a former slave that had all load his owner as a servant. could you please talk more about the role of u.s. colored troops and why we don't see them here today? elizabeth: it is a fascinating story. there has been in the course of this commemoration at the park service, there has been a great deal of acknowledgment about this vit

there you should not make the mistake of thinking he was an abolitionist. he certainly was not. he he prayed for the day the government and slavery though it may surprise you know that he thought slavery was worse for whites that it was with the slaves themselves which is an attitude that is probably hard for us to understand today. basically he just wanted nothing to do with the system tuition. try his hardest to avoided as much as possible. but what ultimately entangles them is that his father dies in 1857 and he leaves a we will naming robert ely as executor other states that actually include slaves who are descended from mount vernon. so on the eve of the civil war robert e. lee is managing his states that include slaves that george washington had wanted to but cannot free. and so and so it was very much the unresolved question of slavery one of the personal legacies that robert e. lee received from george washington. and to see how this unresolved question of slavery began turning to violence, you have to just had about 60 miles of river 60 miles of the potomac river and co

he is speaking at one gar post gathering after another, one abolitionist meeting or eulogy after another, all the time trying to preserve and struggle for in times of abolition emancipation, the memory of the civil war against that evolving lost cause ideology. i wrote a chapter at the end of that first book decades ago called douglas in the memory of the civil war. i did not know there was supposed to be a trend out there about -- honest to god, i did not know. when i was about to get the book ready for publication, i thought maybe the last chapter might be the only original thing in the book. maybe i will send this last chapter to the journal of american history and see if i can get an article published. i was young scholar. i sent this piece on memory to the editor of the journal of american history. the most amazing thing -- you sometimes wait months to hear anything. i got a phone call from him within two weeks. i did not know him. he said fascinating piece you have written. he said what's going on out there with this study of memory question mark i said i have no idea. i did not kn

was it northern abolitionists. who's memory do we pick?nnial that was an easy question. because history to some degree always reflects those who possess who are in power. of course since the beginning of the centennial the dynamics of our political conversation, the dynamics of power within our society changed dramatically. women's rights movement. i think most of us are glad. it's an important part of the story. the civil rights movement of course. so it goes on. new scholarship. scholarships with job of academics is to agitate us all and provoke us, and they do. they challenge us. they ask questions. some of it we don't like. some of it makes us feel a little bit uncomfortable or unstable. have pretty convincingly shown us that many the cultural assumptions about the war, the simplities that we cherish were purposely shaped in order to help the nation achieve reconciliation. slavery was not benign. we treated our slaves well. we often heard that. i've heard that in my career. we've all heard that but we know that simply not true nor was

in march, he helped organize a symposium on "the tsarnaev trial: the federal death penalty in abolitionist massachusetts." welcome to democracy now! first, can you respond to the verdict? guilty on all 30 counts. >> i guess i'm not surprised. when the lead defense counsel in her opening statement says, my client did the acts he is been charged with, it makes the jury's task is easy. so even though there are 30 counts, it wasn't really that surprising that they would find an issue of james rooney -- and the issue, james rooney, of the death penalty possibility in the state of massachusetts? >> well, obviously, that is of a concern to us since we have worked long and hard to keep the death penalty out of this state. but as i'm sure you're well aware, the federal government is a different sovereignty and can charge death cases, whether or not the state where the act took place, has the death penalty or not. in massachusetts, we assume the federal government bring a number of death multi-cases. 10 years or so ago, it charged a nurse with killing some patients. that went to trial. it also charg

it's because the abolitionists have rendered it impossible to get did 100% sure drugs.d annie lowry. mike, does justice scalia have a point? is his contention about the provision of these drugs besides the point or exactly the point? >> sort of in between. if you think something is wrong, like the death penalty is by any means, try to get it abolished. it's not a terrible point that i won't get in too much depth and you probably know this but the only reason they do a three drug cocktail animals are killed with a two drug cocktail but there's a paralyzing agent. without that the bodies thrashed around. some in executions say it's a safety thing. you don't want when they inject but probably doesn't disturb witnesses. there are so many complications with this that the opponents of the death penalty just want the whole thing banned based on the procedure. is that the way we're going to get the death penalty banned. any nation that banned the death penalty because there's not an efficient way to kill people? probably not. >> and now we're talking about going back to firing

former first lady eleanor roosevelt, abolitionist harriet tubman, rosa parks and the first female chief of the cherokee nation. final voting is happening now. you'll find a link on our website. >>> if your bracket is busted going into tonight's college basketball championship, maybe follow mitt romney's lead next year. romney is reportedly in the top 99.8 percentile of those who filled out a bracket on espn's website. a big change from when he was running for president in 2012 when he said he wasn't plugged in enough to fill one out. president obama's bracket, by the way, totally busted. >>> more than 35,000 guests gathered today for the annual white house easter egg roll. backed up by the easter bunny, president and first lady welcomed them all to the grounds. mrs. obama busted out some of her dance moves while her husband shot some hoops. beautiful day for it with just a few hiccups like when a bee stirred up the kids while the president was reading to them. >>> when we come back, the hillside's painted blue. one of nature's greatest displays is back. >>> contrary to popular belief, i

. >>> also, harriet tubman, the abolitionist who led hundreds of people to freedom. >> the longest servingt lady, eleanor roosevelt. >> and rounding out the top four, wilma mankiller, the first female chief of the cherokee nation. >> one more fabulous we can get in? look at that. that's my vote. that's my vote. that one right there. >> the 20 was the best you could do? >> well, we got to start somewhere, reena. >> all right, all right i'll take it. i'm not going to complain. >> very humble. >>> finally you might say a mom in north carolina had an epic reaction when she found out the gender of her baby she's carrying. watch and listen. >> oh, my god! >> that's her, cher lair. finding out her first daughter is on the way thanks to the pink in her gender revealed cake. the girl will have six older brothers. doctors say the new little princess should arrive in august. momma looks forward to watching "cinderella" with her. hold it! come with me. new dannon oikos triple zero is my go to protein snack. cam, protein from yogurt? yup, this greek nonfat yogurt packs 15 grams of protein punch. but wh

it was conceived of initially by an abolitionist congregation and minister named john w out for who was richly from new england. during general tecumseh sherman's march through georgia john alfred accompanied the troops as a chaplain, serving the soldiers. as sherman marched through georgia, most of us are familiar with the special field order number 15 in which after seeing the conditions of the reek -- recently freed population, he felt that these human beings along the coast of the carolinas in florida, he felt that they legitimately preserved ownership of that land that they had lived on for generations. so special order number 15 generated the concept of 40 acres and a mule. as you know, after president lincoln was assassinated and andrew young became -- i'm sorry. [laughter] president andrew johnson basically a lot of the initiatives were overturned by andrew johnson. so he rescinded special order number 15 and since the 40 acres and a mule was no longer a promise, that was a severe disappointment to many of these recently freed african-americans, because they felt they deserved t

it was conceived initially by an abolitionist minister who was originally from new england. his name was john w alfred. during sherman's march, he was a chaplain. he served the soldiers. as sherman marched through georgia, most of us are familiar with sherman's special field order 15, which, after seeing the conditions of the recently free proclamation, since these -- population, he felt that since these human beings had tilled the soil, very legitimately deserved ownership of the land they had lived on for generations. so, special order 15 generated the concept of 40 acres and a mule. as you know, after president lincoln was assassinated and a -- sorry. [laughter] president andrew johnson basically a lot of these initiatives were overturned by andrew johnson. he rescinded special order number 15. and since 40 acres and a mule was no longer a promise, that was a severe disappointment to many of these recently freed african-americans, because they felt they deserved to the land -- they felt they deserved the land but they had to move on. , as they moved into the position of w

justice antonin scalia says that's because of the abolitionist movement, putting pressure on the companies that manufacture drugs to stop making them available for executions. and that's what happened in this case. a drug company stopped providing two other sedatives, which forced oklahoma to use this alternative. or it could do, scott like utah recently did and bring back the firing squad. >> pelley: jan crawford at the supreme court. jan, thank you. now, have a look at this. >> yesterday december 7 1941 ... >> pelley: f.d.r. the day after pearl harbor asking congress to declare war on japan. today nearly three-quarters of a century later, the prime minister of japan stood in the very same spot and expressed condolences for america's war losses but shinzo abe stopped short of an outright apology. the death toll from saturday's catastrophic earthquake in nepal topped 5,200 today. more than 10,000 were hurt and the u.n. estimates that 2.8 million have lost their homes. we have two reports first seth doane in cat man due. >> reporter: frustration is mounting. clean water power and fuel are s

face off against abolitionists. >> these were men on both sides of the union-rebel divide fighting at local level using brutal tactics. >> on the james family farm busy shaping the next generation. she sees it as her special duty. >> don't take anything from those yankees. you hear me? every man's responsibility to hold on to what they got. if somebody ain't holding on to what is theirs you just take it. >> her coaching is the beginning of what criminologists call violence conditioning. >> jesse has a mother who is saying nobody is going to tell me what to do. we own the slaves and nobody is going to take that away from us. being violent is his way of life. he absorbs that attitude. >> over the next six years the james family farm transforms into a confederate stronghold. they are a force the north will have to reckon with. on april 12, 1861 the south fires on fort sumter. the civil war begins. fighting in the militia with the confederate army. >> knows that jesse will soon join and both her sons will be at war for the cause. >> you. you are going to fight the confederacy. your way of