Yeah, everyone, thanks for tuning in to the second episode of our Civil War podcast.

I'm Rich, and I'm Tracy. Hello, y'all. Welcome to the podcast. Previously, in our very first episode,

we gave you guys the introduction to the podcast, and throughout a few disclaimers, and basically

shared why we think the Civil War is still worthy of study and attention today. And you also

found out which one of us is a Yankee, and which one of us hails from South of the Mason-Dixon line.

But this week, we'll start in with the real history and whatnot. We're going to start off by

tracing how, from colonial times, the issue of slavery played a major part in shaping and defining

the political landscape of America. Starting with this episode, we'll show how slavery was at the

heart of the political battles and the sectional rift that culminated in secession and the Civil War.

We're going to zero in on the issue of slavery since, as Abraham Lincoln said,

in his second inaugural address, everyone back then knew that slavery, quote, was somehow the cause

of the war, end quote. And it wasn't only Lincoln who thought the South's peculiar institution

was the root cause of the Civil War. And peculiar institution is how slavery was sometimes referred

to in a roundabout way, since some people didn't like to actually use the term slavery.

Right. But anyway, besides Lincoln's statement in his second inaugural address,

there was also Alexander Stevens, the vice president of the Confederate States of America,

who gave a speech in Savannah in March 1861 in which he said that slavery was, quote,

the immediate cause of the late rupture and the present revolution, end quote.

Stevens went on to say that while the old confederation, known as the United States,

had been founded on the false idea that all men are created equal, the new Southern Nation, quote,

is founded upon exactly the opposite idea. Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests,

upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man. That slavery, subordination to

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