All Episodes

33:11

The American Civil War: Pyrrhic Victory (Part 6)

Ford's Theatre, April 14th, 1865. Lincoln dies just as his political skill is most needed. Andrew Johnson catastrophically misunderstands what victory requires, allowing former Confederates to pass Black Codes recreating …

32:10

The American Civil War: Total War (Part 5)

The war enters its final, most brutal phase. Grant implements relentless attrition in Virginia while Sherman cuts a path of destruction through Georgia to the sea. "War is cruelty, and …

37:48

The American Civil War: A New Birth of Freedom (Part 4)

Five days after Antietam, Lincoln signs the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, transforming the war from a constitutional crisis to a moral crusade. "All persons held as slaves...shall be then, thenceforward, and …

41:27

The American Civil War: The Fire-Eaters Triumph (Part 3)

Lincoln's election triggers the unthinkable: South Carolina secedes as church bells ring across Charleston. Seven states form the Confederacy, convinced Northern merchants will choose profit over principle. They're catastrophically wrong. …

32:36

The American Civil War: The Widening Vortex (Part 2)

James Tallmadge's 1819 amendment on Missouri statehood splits the nation. For forty years, Americans try every compromise to avoid choosing between slavery and freedom. The Mexican-American War forces the territorial …

36:33

The American Civil War: Original Sin (Part 1)

Point Comfort, Virginia, 1619. Twenty Africans step off the White Lion onto American soil, beginning slavery's integration into the colonial economy. We trace how temporary bondage becomes permanent racial slavery …