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The Civil War and Reconstruction was a pivotal era in American history.

When a war was fought to save the Union and to free the slaves,

and when the work to rebuild the nation after that war was over

turned into a struggle to guarantee liberty and justice for all Americans. I'm

I'm Tracey and I'm rich and we want to invite you to join us as we take an in-depth look at this

pivotal era in American history.

Look for the Civil War and Reconstruction,

wherever you find your podcasts.

It is very natural that in a pop culture sense,

especially as piracy became much further removed, began to be looked upon

as a very romantic kind of sort of anti-establishment group of people. Thousands of schemes for privateering are afloat in American imaginations.

John Adams wrote in a hopeful letter to his wife Abigail.

Some are for taking the whole ships, with Wollands for Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Some are for the tin ships, some for the Irish linens, some for outward bound and others for

inward-bound India men, some for the Hudson Bay ships, and many for the West India sugar ships.

Out of these speculations, many fruitless and some profitable projects will grow.

John Adams was excited about a weapon, one that he knew that the fledgling American Continental

Congress could fling against its larger adversary, pirates.

Washington in the fall of 1775 unable to attack the British at Boston

because not enough cannons, not enough gunpowder.

He nonetheless observed that the British were well supplied there was a flow of enemy ships into Boston Harbor.

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