Ep. 66 Uncivil: How Lack of Punishment for Confederate Leaders Set a Dangerous Precedent

I recently stumbled across a photograph of Confederate president Jefferson Davis with his family. He is sitting on the porch of his Mississippi home bouncing his granddaughter on his knee while a Black woman stands behind him in a servants uniform. I was somewhat shocked to learn that this photo was taken in 1885... 20 years after the Civil War. Davis had been the president of the Confederacy. He had waged war on the United States, a war that cost the lives of 700,000 Americans. He had committed the highest form of  treason. And yet, here he was, relaxing on his porch as if nothing had changed. Join me this week to uncover what happened. Why weren't Confederate leaders punished for their crimes? What repercussions has that had? What precedent did it set? And how it's all affecting us now much more than you probably realize!

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Sources:

• https://www.nps.gov/rich/learn/historyculture/the-trial-of-jefferson-davis-cancelled-february-15-1869.htm
• https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/historian-explores-how-civil-war-northerners-reconciled-treason-leniency/ 
• https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/post-war-lives 
• https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth 
• https://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/about-jefferson-davis 
• https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/jefferson-davis 
• https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/what-happened-when-the-us-failed-to-proseute-an-ex-president 

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