prof. varon: that is the investment in the idea that they are a redeemer race that will redeem america from the sin of slavery, but also a deep investment in the union victory in the moment where they had proven irrevocably that they had earned citizenship and that providence favored the righteous in the war. prof. brundage: to pick up on something ed said about the global implications, you could carry this further in the idea that african-americans have this providential role to play. it was not just america. it was world history. now, african-americans were going to lift up their brothers of color in africa and outside the united states. a kind of missionary impulse that we know about. you think about the white missionary impulse of the late 19th century to china and elsewhere. african-american star going to africa, especially south africa, and have a very important influence with this civilizing mission that they are going to bring the most modern christian values to people of color around the

prof. varon: wilson a great example of someone who is intervening in memory. i recently wrote a book about appomattox which i learned something i hadn't known before, that's that ct residents were present there and help to block lee's escape route as the confederacy tried to punch through a federal trap that have been laid. the men in those u.s. cg regiments, six altogether, a remarkable microcosm of african-american life in united states. it was southerners who had fled slavery, there were northern free blacks included in the ranks. there was a man named george washington williams, a brilliant historian. a baptist minister and educator named william j simmons was in the ranks of appomattox. he would go on to be the journalistic manner -- mentor to an antilynching crusader. there are -- the big numbers are important, but so are the individual lives. any other observations? let's segue to another theme that we touched on as we moved along and that we wanted to return to. that is the 13th amendment

prof varon: how about this question. if wife's excepted black involvement, how did they square that with their willingness to support jim crow? if people know they were active in the jr -- ga are? prof. gannon: it was politically powerful. they saw their job is getting pensions to help veterans. they had been political in the first few years of their life. they actually disappeared for a few years. people credited it to that. they were careful to stay out of partisanship. their view was their organization was fraternity, charity, loyalty. that it was within their purview of what they would do. if they got involved with politics, they virtually disappeared in the 1870's. did they occasionally fight? yes, occasionally. what they would stand up to his violence and lynching. they would rarely take it. that was outside of their organization. that didn't have anything -- that wasn't about the ga are. i found many prominent union veterans had been involved, did try to fight it outside. justice harlan who made the great dissent t

prof varon: for african-american soldiers allowed to be buried in the cemeteries? prof varon: yes. for the most part. one of the remarkable things is they are the first publicly funded integrated cemeteries. the part that is not always there is a soldiers were buried in separate sections. segregated sections. in mississippi they are buried with the unknown. there's a quarter of the ceremony -- cemetery they are buried with the unknown. prof varon: all right. this could have followed our american west question. did secession expedite the settlement of the american west? >> the answer is yes. all you have to do is look at a map on when were admitted into the union in the west after the war. the almost all were. it was a stunning development. the planes and prairie states had roughly one million people. by 1890, 11 million. streams from europe, and the country itself, to get manage of the homestead act. to get manage of the railroads to bring them there, the transcontinental railroad. it was an explosion of settlement, and with the states the territories becoming states, they were add