Reconstruction Era | From the Ashes of War | 1

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the spring of 1865, the United States celebrated the end of four years of Civil War. As American soldiers laid down their weapons, four million formerly enslaved Black people in the South grappled with the daunting task of building new lives as free citizens in a nation still deeply divided over race.

With the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the challenges of healing the nation unexpectedly fell to his successor: President Andrew Johnson. Soon, Johnson’s policies toward former Confederates would draw battle lines between those who saw Reconstruction as an opportunity for radical change, and those desperate to preserve the status quo.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:10.0	Imagine it's May 1865, a warm evening in Western Tennessee.
0:24.0	You recently mustered out of service in the Union Army, and returned to the abandoned
0:28.0	plantation where you once were enslaved.
0:30.8	You're now living in your former owner's house, and you and your wife are eating dinner
0:34.7	in the dining room after a long day planting a new apple orchard.
0:40.0	Who could that be?
0:43.3	You walk out of the dining room into the entryway.
0:47.2	You open the front door to find your former owner, Mr. Nelson, standing outside in a
0:51.8	tattered and stained Confederate uniform.
0:54.7	It's been two years since you last saw him.
0:57.0	Mr. Nelson, I would have thought the Yankers got you long ago.
1:01.6	Nelson's face is weathered and thin, showing the toll of war.
1:05.9	He narrows his gaze.
1:07.6	Why has this lock been changed?
1:09.6	What kind of homecoming is this?
1:11.8	Homecoming.
1:12.8	You won't be getting one of those.
1:15.2	This is our home now.
1:16.8	My family and I have taken up residence.
1:19.4	We're in the dining room, Esther and her children are in the parlour.
	...

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