The Jefferson Davis Trial That Wasn't (1867)

This Day

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2024

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's May 12th. This day in 1867, Jefferson Davis, the former President of the Confederacy, left a courthouse in Richmond after waiting in jail on treason charges for two years. His trial would never take place.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why Davis was brought up on charges in the first place, and the way in which his trial got delayed and eventually cancelled mirrored the overall progress of Reconstruction throughout the South.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:09.0	This day, May 1867, the jailing and release of Jefferson Davis.
0:16.0	On this day, the former president of the Confederate States of America
0:20.0	posted a $100,000 bail and leaves prison in Richmond, Virginia.
0:25.0	He'd been there for two years awaiting a trial for treason, and now the case was moving forward with a grand jury.
0:31.6	The trial was set to take place in the very courthouse
0:34.1	that Davis had used as headquarters of the Confederacy. But Davis would never
0:39.2	go on trial, would never set foot back into that courtroom after posting bail and walking out of the
0:44.8	building. The case would be mired by delays and missteps by the prosecution and then in due time
0:50.4	President Johnson would grant amnesty to all former Confederates, and Jefferson
0:55.4	Davis was free to go about his business.
0:58.0	So let's talk about the U.S. versus Jefferson Davis, the big post-civil war trial that never was.
1:04.0	Here, as always, Nicole Hammer Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
1:08.8	Hello there.
1:09.8	Hello, Jody.
1:10.8	Hey there. Jody, I feel like I need to start this with it.
1:13.0	Yep.
1:14.0	Yeah.
1:16.0	No justice.
1:18.0	Like there's no justice.
1:20.0	Yeah.
	...

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