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

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, March 11, 1861, the Constitution of the Confederate States is adopted.

The Southern states, of course, were fighting to succeed, set up their own country, and,

well, they needed a Constitution constitution and we're going to

get into this but the CSA constitution is a really interesting document in terms of

what values it puts at its core the very things that were tearing the country apart at that time, but it's also a bit of a constitutional do-over.

Many of the changes in the CSA Constitution were just relatively neutral updates and clarifications and new ideas about how government could run.

It's a weird thing to say, but maybe there are some things in the Constitution of the Confederate

States of America that we may want to think about these days.

So let's do that. here to discuss as always is

Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello

Jody. Hey there. So Kelly let's actually start with a big question, which is if we consider a constitution to be, in a sense, an expression of values, it obviously sets out a lot of rules and norms, but if we think of it as an expression of values,

what in the CSA Constitution is being expressed as core values as you see it.

Well, I think the underlying message is always

white supremacy.

I mean, that's first and foremost.

But I also think that this is a much more religious document

as well, that God is sort of dropped in into different

aspects of the Constitution that weren't included in the United States Constitution.

I also think that slavery plays more of a stronger

role in this as well instead of talking about you know free or non-free persons

...