Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to episode 201 of our Civil War

Podcast. I'm Rich. And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast. In December

1860, Frederick Douglass, the former slave and America's most prominent black

abolitionist, welcomed the news of South Carolina's secession from the union.

While heaping scorn upon the Palmetto States reckless act, Douglass all but

thanked the secessionist for the opportunity that their madness offered the

north, the opportunity to confront the evil of slavery. Frederick Douglass

believed, even hoped, that the secessionist headlong rush toward disunion and

the resulting political crisis would lead the federal government to take some

form of military action against the rebellious states of the South, and that

military action would inevitably result in the end of slavery. By the beginning of

1863, Douglass's hopes would be realized, but only after two years that were

both disappointing and astonishing. Few events in American history matched the

drama and significance of emancipation in the midst of the Civil War. In April

1861, Ohio Congressman Joshua Giddings would write to his abolitionist

comrade in the Senate, Charles Sumner, and declare with certainty that quote,

the first gun fired at Fort Sumter rang out the death knell of slavery. But

equally vehement opposition came from conservative Democrats, as well as many

moderate Republicans. Representative Aaron Harding of Kentucky spoke for many

when he insisted that the federal government had no power to take anyone's

quote unquote property. Harding maintained that quote, the war should have

nothing to do with the institution of slavery. Let slavery alone, it will take

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