Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, December 16, 1862.

We are, of course, in the middle of the Civil War as the Union Army is trying to capture parts of Mississippi

and Tennessee Union Major General Ulysses S. issues an order general order number 11.

Well what did general order number 11 do?

Let me read from the proclamation I'm quoting here.

The Jews as a class violating every regulation of trade

established by the Treasury Department and also department orders are hereby

expelled from the department.

In planar language, the department is the military district that Grant is currently overseeing.

So Grant is expelling Jews from this area which covered parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.

So a fascinating moment, a Union General deep in the South, issuing a proclamation targeting

a class of people.

Let's talk about it with as always Nicole Hammer of Columbia and

Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there. Hi Jody. Hey there.

So obviously grants motivations are the sort of big question here to figure out but I do maybe let's start

with just some of the specific stories I mean this proclamation gets issued there

are Jewish communities in a lot of towns throughout the South,

and just some of the stories you hear about people basically

having to pack up their lives and leave their towns,

obviously already in the context of a civil war. You know, it know it's yeah it's heartbreaking it's reminiscent in

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