American History Tellers - Reconstruction Era | From the Ashes of War | 1

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

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.Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App. https://wondery.app.link/historytellersSupport us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Imagine it's May 1865, a warm evening in western Tennessee. You recently mustered out of service in the Union Army and returned to the abandoned plantation where you once were enslaved. You're now living in your former owner's house, and you and your wife are eating dinner in the dining room after a long day planting a new apple orchard.

Who could that be? You walk out of the dining room into the entryway. You open the front door to find your former owner, Mr. Nelson, standing outside in a tattered and stained Confederate uniform. It's been two years since you last saw him. Mr. Nelson? I would have thought the Yankees got you long ago. Nelson's face is weathered and thin, showing the toll of war. He narrows his gaze. Why has this lock been changed? What kind of homecoming is this? Homecoming?

You won't be getting one of those. This is our home now. My family and I have taken up residence. We're in the dining room. Esther and her children are in the parlor. Lee and Mary have got the large bedroom upstairs. Nelson's jaw tightens as he processes what you've told him. You all have some nerve. You have no right to my property. This house has been in my family for three generations. And how have you paid for its upkeep? By selling our mothers,

our brothers and sisters, our children over and over again. That doesn't make it yours. We figure we earned it. By the sweat of our brows. Year after year we tilled the soil and planted the crops. I even cut the timber that built that porch you're standing on. Enough with this nonsense. You square your shoulders, pulling yourself up to your full height.

Listen here. I consider this plantation fairly won. I served in the Union Army's 61st United States Colored Infantry Regiment. Let's consider it the spoils of war. Nelson tries to shove his way past you, but you throw out your arm to block his way. Let me in. Not a chance. You push Nelson back onto the porch and slam the door shut. As Nelson bangs on the door for you to open it again, you drag a chair from the corner and place it under the doorknob to barricade it. Then you smile as you walk back to the parlor and rejoin your wife for dinner. You don't know what the future holds, but for

the moment, you're going to relish the feeling of finally claiming what you're owed. With Audible, there's more to imagine when you listen. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking. And Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as a part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time. As an Audible member, you choose one title a month to keep from their ever-growing catalog. Explore themes of friendship, loss, and hope with Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Find what piques your imagination. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial,

and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca to sign up. I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. And we're the hosts of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims, and what's left once the facade falls away. Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story. On our show, we take you to the events, the times, and the people that shaped America and Americans. Our values, our struggles, and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday people as history was being made.

And we'll show you how the events of the times affected them, their families, and affects you now. In the spring of 1865, Union and Confederate soldiers laid down their weapons. In some parts of the South, rebel soldiers returned home to find their plantations occupied by the men and women they had once enslaved. For the white planter class, the end of the Civil War sparked feelings of fear and uncertainty. But for black Southerners, it was a time of hope and radical possibility. After two and a half centuries of bondage, the world's largest slave system was destroyed, and four million enslaved people were free. As the guns fell silent,

Americans embarked on the extraordinary challenges of building a new nation from the wreckage of slavery. The complex period of rebuilding that followed the Civil War was known as Reconstruction. For twelve years, Americans fought over a host of painful questions. How would the South be brought back into the Union? What would freedom look like for the formerly enslaved? And who would control Reconstruction? Congress, the President, or the Southern states themselves? In his Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln declared that the Civil War would give rise to a new birth of freedom. The tumultuous struggle to define that freedom brought the nation closer to its founding

creed, but it also left a legacy of betrayal and failure that haunts America to this day. To help tell this story, we've enlisted actors Ace Anderson and Cat Peoples to voice the characters you'll hear throughout the series. This is Episode 1 in our six-part series, Reconstruction from the Ashes of War. On New Year's Day, 1863, thousands gathered on South Carolina's Port Royal Island to hear the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in the South. One year had passed since Union forces captured Port Royal and the surrounding sea islands, freeing 10,000 enslaved men, women, and children. After white planters fled, freed people began to farm the land, embracing a life independent from white

control. The effort, known as the Port Royal Experiment, became an example of what reconstruction could look like. What was once a cotton plantation on Port Royal Island was now Camp Saxton, the home of the first South Carolina volunteer regiment, one of the first black units in the Union Army. On that sunny January day, black soldiers joined thousands of former slaves and a handful of white northerners to hear the words that would change America forever. The Emancipation Proclamation declared all enslaved people in Confederate territory to be freed. Standing under the shade of moss-covered oak trees, they celebrated with prayers and speeches and feasted

on barbecued oxen. After the proclamation was read, the crowd spontaneously broke out in song, singing, My country, tis of thee, sweet land of liberty. The patriotic words suddenly held new meaning for those in attendance. A northern missionary reflected on the day, writing, They never could have truly sung My country till that day. In 1863, America was about to enter its third year of civil war, and it was military necessity rather than moral conviction that motivated President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln framed the proclamation as a war measure that would weaken the Confederacy by depriving it of its labor force. The proclamation applied

to enslave people in Confederate states in rebellion against the United States, but left slavery untouched in the loyal border states of the Union. Despite its limitations, the Emancipation Proclamation changed the purpose of the war. What began as a struggle to preserve the Union transformed into an effort to end slavery and reshape the Southern social and economic system. It also meant that when the war was over, the broken nation would not just be reunited, it would need to be reconstructed and rebuilt from the ground up. Even as the war raged, President Lincoln began making plans for this reconstruction of the Union. Nearly a year after issuing the Emancipation

Proclamation, on December 8, 1863, he announced what was known as his Ten Percent Plan. Lincoln declared he would pardon Southern whites who agreed to take an oath of allegiance to the United States and pledged to accept emancipation. When ten percent of the voters in a state had sworn their loyalty, this minority could then set up a new state government. Some abolitionists criticized Lincoln for being too lenient and failing to mandate new rights for freed people. But his proposal was a short-term plan, not a comprehensive program for remaking the South.

Lincoln's goal was to shorten the war and build white support for emancipation. He feared that punishing the South would only alienate it further. Because the war was still ongoing, Lincoln's policy could only be carried out in states where Union troops controlled large amounts of territory. In 1864, pro-Union forces in Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana took steps to create loyal governments, despite portions of those states still remaining under Confederate control. Lincoln had especially high hopes for Louisiana. Though it lay in the heart of the slave-powered Cotton Belt,

New Orleans was home to many reluctant Confederates, immigrants, and free black people. And by the spring of 1864, enough loyal voters in Louisiana had sworn allegiance to the Union to satisfy Lincoln's conditions. The next step was to hold a constitutional convention. Loyal residents in Louisiana mainly fell into two camps, conservatives who accepted abolition but not black equality and radicals who wanted the new Constitution to advance black rights. In March 1864, two representatives from the New Orleans black community traveled to Washington to press Lincoln on the issue of black voting rights. They handed him a petition with 1,000 signatures in support of black suffrage,

declaring, we are men, treat us as such. Soon after, Lincoln wrote Louisiana's new governor, suggesting that black men who were literate or who had fought in the union ranks be granted suffrage. Then a few months later, in May of 1864, the convention officially adopted a new constitution abolishing slavery. But despite Lincoln's appeal, it stopped short of granting black men the vote. Lawmakers in Washington paid close attention to the events in Louisiana. Like most Republicans, Lincoln was a moderate who favored a speedy and straightforward reintegration of the southern states. But a minority faction of radical Republicans wanted to transform the South by granting Black men the vote and denying political power to ex-Confederates.

One of the most vocal and influential radicals was Ohio Senator Benjamin Wade, chairman of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. A colleague described Wade as a man of violent passions, extreme opinions, and narrow views. Wade had long doubted the strength of Lincoln's anti-slavery convictions and criticized his slowness to accept black military recruitment. Now he wanted to ensure that black suffrage was a major outcome of the war. Despite their differences, both radical and moderate Republicans were troubled by the proceedings in New Orleans. Not only had the convention rejected black suffrage, but it had also asked Congress to compensate planters who had remained loyal to the Union for the loss of their slaves. Some delegates even proposed expelling all black people from the state.

Congressional Republicans felt that Lincoln's 10% plan was insufficient to protect freed people in new state governments. Senator Wade and fellow Radical Republican Henry Winter Davis began devising their own plan for Reconstruction. In July 1864, Republicans in the House and Senate passed the Wade-Davis Bill, which demanded that 50% of a state's voters swear allegiance to be readmitted to the Union. The bill also barred former Confederates from public office. But President Lincoln killed it with a so-called pocket veto. He refused to sign the bill into law, letting it languish on his desk. He feared that if he approved Congress's harsher plan, he would have to repudiate the new Louisiana government

and slow down the progress of Reconstruction. As a result, Republicans were furious. Radicals Wade and Davis published a blistering attack known as the Wade-Davis Manifesto, which accused Lincoln of dictatorial usurpation and trying to wrest power from Congress. In December 1864, Republicans refused to seat the representatives from Louisiana elected under Lincoln's plan. The impasse revealed the emerging battle lines over the purpose of Reconstruction. For some, Reconstruction meant reuniting the nation as quickly as possible. For others, it demanded nothing less than a radical overhaul of the southern economy and social systems. Debate would persist over whether or not to pursue a far-reaching transformation of the South.

But in the meantime, the war was rapidly nearing its end. In December 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman blazed a trail of destruction across Georgia in his notorious March to the Sea. Just before Christmas, Sherman's army captured Savannah. Union victory was closer than ever, but there was still no clear policy for the fate of freed people after slavery. Imagine it's the evening of January 12, 1865. You're in a stately home in Savannah, Georgia that's serving as General Sherman's headquarters. You and 19 other Black ministers have just taken your seats in the parlor. You're here to meet with Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton about the growing problem of displaced free people.

You've been appointed spokesman, and you're feeling the weight of the responsibility on your shoulders. Good evening. Sherman and Stanton take their seats in two carved mahogany chairs in front of the marble fireplace. Thank you all for agreeing to meet with me and the Secretary. I understand one of you is acting as spokesman? You sit up straighter on the sofa and raise a hand in acknowledgement.

That would be me, General. Sherman fixes you with a shrewd gaze. Reverend, what is your understanding of the freedom promised by President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation? You've heard rumors that Sherman resents the burden of the thousands of freed people following his army. Staring at the aide transcribing your conversation, you form your words carefully. As I see it, the freedom promised by the proclamation is taking us from under the yoke of bondage, allowing us to reap the fruit of our own labor, take care of ourselves, and assist the government in maintaining our freedom. Could you elaborate?

How do you plan to take care of yourselves? You lock eyes with a fellow minister who was enslaved until the Union Army freed him. He gives you an encouraging nod. By having our own land and tilling it by our own labor. We want to be placed on land until we are able to buy it and make it our own. Sherman's eyes widen. He scratches his bristly beard. That's it. You want land. Yes. Nothing is more important than land if freed people are going to secure genuine, lasting freedom. Without it, we'll just continue to be exploited. But we're not asking for it for free. We want to work the land until we can save enough

to purchase it ourselves. I see. And do you think the slaves of the South are intelligent enough to take care of themselves? You take a deep breath, suppressing your frustration with a question. Sherman may be one of the leaders of the Union Army, but it doesn't mean that he's any less prejudiced than the average white man. Sherman exchanges a glance with Secretary Stanton. Freed people are no longer slaves. And yes, there is sufficient intelligence among us to not only care for our own basic needs, but to thrive if given the opportunity.

You nod as the minister beside you claps you on your back. You harbor doubts that your words will change anything, but you can't help but be surprised by Sherman and Stanton's willingness to listen. Thank you, Reverend. The Secretary and I will take your thoughts into consideration. On January 12, 1865, General Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton held a meeting with 20 of Savannah's Black ministers. Sixteen were formerly enslaved, including their spokesman, Reverend Garrison Frazier, a 67-year-old Baptist minister who had purchased his freedom eight years earlier. Frazier spoke persuasively about the importance of land ownership to Black freedom and self-reliance.

And Sherman took Frazier's words to heart. Just days later, he issued Special Order No. 15, reserving 400,000 acres of abandoned plantation land in coastal Georgia and South Carolina for black settlement. Each family would receive a 40-acre plot. Later on, Sherman authorized the Army to loan out mules. The promise of land would become known by the phrase, 40 acres and a mule. But the war was not over yet. Republicans in Congress were still fighting for the votes they needed to make emancipation permanent. On January 31st, the House approved the 13th Amendment and sent it to the states for ratification. This amendment officially

outlawed slavery throughout the Union. When the vote was tallied, the House galleries erupted in cheers, and cannons outside the Capitol boomed a hundred-gun salute. But America's leading Black abolitionist and spokesman Frederick Douglass believed the struggle for Black freedom was far from over. He declared, As Douglass and other activists continued to fight for Black political power, the government put measures in place for peacetime. In March, Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau, a temporary government agency to oversee the complex transition from slavery to freedom. This bureau was staffed by Army officers, and it was charged with providing four million freed people with food, shelter, and medical

services. Then, on April 9th, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union forces in Appomattox, Virginia. At long last, the Civil War was over. Two days later, Lincoln stood on the White House balcony before a large crowd and declared that the future was fraught with great difficulty, but he would not live long enough to see it. On the evening of April 14, 1865, Lincoln was watching a play at Ford's Theater when John Wilkes Booth, an actor and sympathizer for the Southern cause, stepped into Lincoln's private box, raised a pistol, and pulled the trigger. Lincoln died the next morning. And as a stunned nation mourned their fallen president, the challenges of Reconstruction now fell to his successor, then-Vice President Andrew Johnson. The nation also had to reckon with the staggering destruction and chaos the war had wrought.

As many as 750,000 Americans were dead. Across the war-ravaged southern landscape, railroads, factories, and entire cities have been reduced to charred ruins, and neglected farms were overgrown with weeds. The southern economy was in shambles, and the future were overgrown with weeds. The southern economy was in shambles, and the future of four million free people was very uncertain. An entire social and economic order had been destroyed, and a new one needed to be created out of the ashes of the old. The war-torn nation stepped into the unknown, without its leader, to grapple with the question of whether former slaves could secure true and lasting freedom in a society built on centuries of racial injustice.

I'm Tristan Redmond, and as a journalist, I've never believed in ghosts. But when I discovered that my wife's great-grandmother was murdered in the house next door to where I grew up, I started wondering about the inexplicable things that happened in my childhood bedroom. When I tried to find out more, I discovered that someone who slept in my room after me, someone I'd never met, was visited by the ghost of a faceless woman. So I started digging into the murder in my wife's family, and I unearthed family secrets nobody could have imagined.

Ghost Story won Best Documentary Podcast at the 2024 Ambees and is a Best True Crime nominee at the British Podcast Awards 2024. Ghost Story is now the first ever Apple Podcast Series Essential. Each month, Apple Podcast editors spotlight one series that has captivated listeners with masterful storytelling, creative excellence and a unique creative voice and vision. To recognize Ghost Story being chosen as the first series essential, Wondery has made it ad-free for a limited time only on Apple Podcasts. If you haven't listened yet, head over to Apple Podcasts to hear for yourself. For more than two centuries, The White House has been the stage for some of the most dramatic scenes in American history. Inspired by the hit podcast American History Tellers,

Wondery and William Morrow present the new book, The Hidden History of the White House. Each chapter will bring you inside the fierce power struggles, the world-altering decisions, and shocking scandals that have shaped our nation. You'll be there when the very foundations of the White House are laid in 1792,

and you'll watch as the British burn it down in 1814. Then you'll hear the intimate conversations between FDR and Winston Churchill as they make plans to defeat Nazi forces in 1941. And you'll be in the Situation Room when President Barack Obama approves the raid to bring down the most infamous terrorist in American history. Order The Hidden History of the White House now in hardcover or digital edition, wherever you get your books. On the cold and dreary morning of April 15, 1865, Andrew Johnson took the presidential oath of office in a Washington hotel room. Like his predecessor, Johnson's humble origins made him an unlikely person to become president.

Born in a log cabin in North Carolina in 1808, he grew up in poverty and had no formal education. When he was 17, he moved to eastern Tennessee and started a tailoring business. But by the 1830s, Johnson had become active in local politics. His gift for public speaking helped him claw his way up the political ladder, and after serving in the Tennessee state legislature, he was elected to Congress in 1843, then won the Tennessee governorship a decade later. Throughout his political career, Johnson fashioned himself as a champion of poor whites. In speeches, he railed against wealthy, slave-holding planters, branding them stuck-up aristocrats.

Even so, Johnson became wealthy enough himself to own at least eight men and women during his lifetime. But he distinguished his slaveholding from that of the elites, saying in 1858, I have not got many slaves. I have got a few. But I made them by the industry of these hands. What I own cost me more labor and toil than some of those who owned thousands, and got them because they were the sons of moneyed people. Johnson was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in the 1850s, as national debate over slavery escalated. When Tennessee seceded in 1861, Johnson broke with his state and remained loyal to the Union. He was the only Southern senator to remain in his seat,

and his stand made him a hero in the North. In recognition of his loyalty, President Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee after most of the state had been retaken by Union forces. And while Lincoln was drafting the Emancipation Proclamation, Johnson convinced him to exempt Tennessee, arguing that the measure would alienate loyal residents who owned slaves. It was not until August 1863 that he freed his personal slaves after finally embracing emancipation for its military value. And when Lincoln ran for re-election in 1864, he crossed party lines and chose Johnson as his running mate, hoping that selecting a Democrat would help him attract Democratic votes. But the Republicans who supported

Lincoln's choice of running mate never expected that Johnson would be elevated to the White House in just a few short months. He was ill-suited for the job of president. The role demanded flexibility, compromise, and creative vision, but he was stubborn, self-absorbed, and rigid. Johnson's views

on Reconstruction were not immediately obvious. Despite joining Lincoln's ticket, he was still a Democrat from the South who had once owned slaves. But his hatred of wealthy planters was well known. Soon after becoming president, he declared, Traitors must be impoverished. They must not only be punished, but their social power must be destroyed. This gave radical Republicans reason to hope that Johnson would be tough on the South. Radical Republican Senator Benjamin Wade gave him support, declaring, Johnson, we have faith in you. By the gods, there will be no trouble now in running the government.

But while Johnson wanted to punish white planters, he did not intend to empower black Southerners. Frederick Douglass held no illusions about Johnson's view toward black people. When the pair met at Lincoln's second inauguration, Johnson looked at him with what Douglass described as an expression of bitter contempt and aversion. Douglass turned to a friend and said, whatever else Andrew Johnson may be, he is certainly no friend of our race. Then in May 1865, Johnson officially recognized the new governments of Louisiana, Virginia, Arkansas, and Tennessee, established under Lincoln's 10% plan. Then on May 29th,

he issued his own plan for Reconstruction. Despite having denounced Southern aristocrats and traitors, Johnson offered blanket amnesty to most former Confederates, as long as they pledged their loyalty to the Union and their support for emancipation. He announced that high-ranking Confederates and wealthy landowners would have to write to him personally, asking for individual pardons. And he encouraged Southern states to stage conventions and quickly form new governments. Johnson's policy made it clear that he wanted a rapid restoration of the Union, with as little change to the Constitution as possible.

He believed in a limited federal government and had no interest in pursuing Black political rights. Speaking to a White House visitor, he declared, White men alone must manage the South. So former rebels, who just four years earlier had taken up arms against the United States, were pleasantly surprised by the leniency of Johnson's policy. And while moderate Republicans were cautiously optimistic, radical Republicans were disappointed that Johnson was excluding black Southerners from the Reconstruction process. Senator Wade realized his faith in Johnson had been misplaced. He wrote to a fellow radical declaring, all appears gloomy. The president is pursuing a course that can result

in nothing but consigning the great union to the tender mercy of the rebels we have so lately conquered. But there was little Republicans like Wade could do. Congress was out of session, and it would not meet again until December 1865. While Johnson was directing Reconstruction from the White House, Black Southerners were grappling with their newfound freedom. Off the coast of Georgia, thousands of freed people were settling on the Sea Islands, on land reserved under General Sherman's Special Order No. 15. They were led by Tunis Campbell, a 53-year-old black minister,

abolitionist, and political organizer from New Jersey who had participated in the Port Royal Experiment in 1863. Though most Freedmen's Bureau officials were white Northern Army officers, the government also hired civilians. In March 1865, the Bureau appointed Campbell to supervise black resettlement of five Georgia Sea Islands. As the war came to an end, Campbell and a few families boarded boats and sailed to St. Catherine's Island, a lush place about the size of Manhattan, located 10 miles off the Georgia coast. Campbell soon parceled out 40-acre plots to more than 300 settlers.

He opened schools, distributed farm tools and clothing, and issued marriage licenses. By June, the settlers had planted food crops in the ground. Taking lessons from the Port Royal experiment, Campbell envisioned an independent black community on St. Catharines. He used his skills as an organizer to set up a democratic system of self-government, modeled after the U.S. Constitution, complete with a Congress, a Senate, and a Supreme Court. And realizing the need for protection, he also created a militia. Campbell was determined to make sure that the settlers could defend their newfound freedom and property from white interference. Imagine it's June 1865, and the sun is beating down on St. Catherine's Island.

Until the war began, you owned a large plantation here with more than 250 enslaved laborers. You've just arrived from Savannah, and a pair of armed black men are escorting you to a building site. A half-dozen men are constructing a wooden fence under the supervision of a man you assume is Tunis Campbell, a black Freedmen's Bureau agent who has seized control of your land. Are you Reverend Campbell? Campbell turns around and frowns, his arms folded across his chest. Yes, I don't know who you are, but I'm afraid I must ask you to leave. Whites are barred from entry on St. Catherine's Island.

That's preposterous. I'm not leaving here until I get what's mine. I demand that you get these people off of my land. This isn't your land anymore. And I'd appreciate if you didn't try to order me around. You have no authority on St. Catharines. I'm the Freedmen's Bureau's superintendent here. See this? A deed to the land we're standing on, dated 1800. This island has been in my family

for 65 years. Campbell just shrugs. That may be true, but it isn't anymore. General Sherman saw to that. What Sherman did is irrelevant. Two days ago, a military provost court in Savannah reviewed my application and restored this land to my control. Campbell scowls. Then they acted in error. I'll straighten things out with the Freedmen's Bureau. Until you do, I'll consider you and all these people as squatters. The Bureau may be in charge of things right now, but it won't last forever. You're right. The Bureau is in charge. And that means I have the authority to tell you to leave. I don't want to see you here again.

He directs his gaze to the militiamen behind you. Please escort this man back to his boat. You clench your fists in anger as two soldiers grab you firmly by the elbows to escort you away. You brush them off and begin walking unassisted as the soldiers follow in your wake. In June 1865, a military court in Savannah, Georgia restored the land on St. Catharines to its former owner, a white planter named Jacob Wahlberg. But Tunis Campbell refused to leave.

The Freedmen's Bureau then decided that the court had acted in error, and agents intervened to prevent Wahlberg from reclaiming the land, leaving the area to Campbell and other black farmers. Campbell believed that for former slaves to flourish as independent citizens, they needed to settle on land of their own and live free from white control. To that end, he barred all white people from the islands he supervised. But St. Catharines was just one of hundreds of communities being created by freed people. All across the South, black men, women, and children were navigating their new freedom. They took to the roads, enjoying for the first time the

freedom to travel and reunite with loved ones who had been sold away during slavery. They built churches that soon became the bedrock of black communities. They organized mutual aid societies to help the needy, and they established schools to begin to gain the knowledge that had been denied them for generations. But deep challenges remained. Millions of freed people lacked money, property, and education. It fell to the government and the Freedmen's Bureau to help them build their new lives. Congress had created the Bureau as an agency within the War Department. It was led by General O. O. Howard, who faced the daunting challenge of providing aid, establishing schools,

and creating a system of labor to replace slavery. Never before had the federal government taken such an active role in social welfare. General Sherman warned Howard, It is not in your power to fulfill one-tenth of the expectations of those who frame the Bureau. I fear you have Hercules's task. But education was the Bureau's most successful venture. The Bureau brought Northern teachers to the South, many of them middle-class white women. Within four years, it would open nearly 3,000 schools, helping more than 150,000 Black Southerners

learn how to read and write. One classroom in North Carolina taught four generations of a single family all at once, ranging from a six-year-old child to their 75-year-old great-grandmother. The Bureau also took responsibility for negotiating labor contracts between freed people and employers, settling disputes, ensuring equal justice, and protecting Black people from white hostility and violence. Keeping the peace would prove challenging for the agency.

There were never more than 900 Bureau agents across the entire South. And while the Army assisted with distributing aid and maintaining law and order, its presence in the region was fast dwindling. Though Southerners accused the North of bayonet rule, the Union Army rapidly demobilized after the war. In June 1865, there were roughly 300,000 soldiers in the South, but only half that number remained by the end of the year. The Army held official political authority in the South, but only half that number remained by the end of the year. The Army held official political authority in most places, but troops were unevenly dispersed across the vast southern landscape. Few Bureau agents could rely on soldiers for assistance. General Howard was sympathetic to the struggles of freed people and their desire to own land.

In late July 1865, he issued Circular 13, fully authorizing Sherman's temporary wartime order that confiscated Confederate land for black resettlement. He instructed agents to distribute 40-acre plots of abandoned plantation land to freed people. At last, many freed people began to collect wages for the first time in their lives. To provide a place to store their money, the federal government chartered a private bank known as the Freedmen's Bank. This institution would open up branches across the South, helping tens of thousands of freed people start to gain financial stability. But freed people knew that economic independence meant little without political power. The summer of 1865 saw the blossoming of Black political organizing in

the South. Black men and women staged statewide conventions to give voice to their frustrations and push for the vote. But they faced an uphill battle. All across the South, the elite white planters and aristocrats who led the Confederacy were returning to power. And they resolved to take control of Reconstruction and reassert their authority. In November 1991, media tycoon Robert Maxwell mysteriously vanished from his luxury yacht in the Canary Islands. But it wasn't just his body that would come to the surface in the days that followed. It soon emerged that Robert's business was on the brink of collapse, and behind his facade of wealth and success was a litany of bad investments, mounting debt, and multi-million dollar fraud. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of

Wondery Show Business Movers. We tell the true stories of business leaders who risked it all, the critical moments that define their journey, and the ideas that transform the way we live our lives. In our latest series, a young refugee fleeing the Nazis arrives in Britain determined to make something of his life. Taking the name Robert Maxwell, he builds a publishing and newspaper empire that spans the globe. But ambition eventually curdles into desperation, and Robert's determination to succeed turns into a willingness to do anything to get ahead. Follow Business Movers wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free and Robert's determination to succeed turns into a willingness to do anything to get ahead. Follow Business Movers wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Dracula, the ancient vampire who terrorizes Victorian London. Blood and garlic, bats and crucifixes. Even if you haven't read the book, you think you know the story. One of the incredible things about Dracula is that not only is it this wonderful snapshot of the 19th century, but it also has so much resonance today. The vampire doesn't cast a reflection in a mirror. So when we look in the mirror, the only thing we see is our own monstrous abilities. From the host and producer of American History Tellers and History Daily

comes the new podcast, of American History Tellers and History Daily comes the new podcast, The Real History of Dracula. We'll reveal how author Bram Stoker raided ancient folklore, exploited Victorian fears around sex, science, and religion, and how even today we remain in thrall to his strange creatures of the night. You can binge all episodes of The Real History of Dracula exclusively with Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus and The Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. In the summer of 1865, President Andrew Johnson was granting hundreds of presidential pardons to former Confederate officials every day. The pardons restored their rights to vote, to hold office, and to own property.

Ordinary Confederate soldiers were covered under Johnson's blanket amnesty policy, but high-ranking Army officers and Confederate government officials needed to write the president directly to ask for a pardon. Despite his initial talk of punishing Southern traitors, Johnson quickly decided that cooperation would better help him advance two key goals, ensuring his political future and maintaining white supremacy. He was troubled by growing black independence in the South and felt that only wealthy planters could maintain order. He also knew that he would need the votes of Southern Democrats in the next presidential election. So fawning letters poured into the White House in which ex-Confederates confessed the error of their ways and begged Johnson for clemency. One North Carolinian described how he had voted for

secession reluctantly and with a bleeding heart. A Tennessean pledged to assist Johnson with his reconstruction policies, praising his generous, wise, and magnanimous efforts. Johnson pardoned so many ex-Confederates that he had to hire special clerks to process all the paperwork. He would eventually grant 13,500 pardons out of 15,000 who applied. In the summer of 1865, southern states staged conventions to organize new governments. Under Johnson's policy, states simply needed to ratify the 13th Amendment and renounce the right of secession by declaring it was never legal to begin with. But even these modest requirements were too much for many Southern delegates. South Carolina and Georgia conventions repudiated their 1861 secession

ordinances but refused to renounce the actual right of secession. Mississippi rejected the 13th Amendment, and Alabama rejected it in part. In the end, these states faced no consequences for their defiance. Johnson accepted the new constitutions and let states proceed with holding elections. In August 1865, Johnson continued his policy of leniency by allowing Mississippi to form state militia units comprised of Confederate veterans. Northern Republicans were horrified. A Republican newspaper declared, what can be hatched from such an egg but another rebellion? Johnson soon went a step further by returning confiscated land to its former owners. In September of 1865, he ordered the head of the Freedmen's Bureau, O.O. Howard, to rescind Circular 13.

The White House drafted a new policy, ordering the restoration of land to pardoned Confederates, even if the land had already been parceled out to freed people. General Rufus Saxton was the assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau in Georgia. Raised by Massachusetts abolitionists, he became a military governor in the South during the war. In this position, he enthusiastically directed the recruitment of the first Black Union Army regiments, describing how loyal Blacks had the cause of liberty in the Union in their hearts and muscles. A champion of the rights of freed people, Saxton refused to help planters take back their property. For now, the land Tunis Campbell oversaw on the Georgia Sea Islands remained in black hands.

But in the fall of 1865, thousands of black Southerners who had barely begun to gain an economic foothold felt that they had already been betrayed. Imagine it's October 1865, and you're in a church on Edisto Island, South Carolina. You're the head of the Freedmen's Bureau, and you're here to address 2,000 black men, women, and children. President Johnson has ordered you to deliver bad news, and you're dreading the task before you. Take a deep breath and steady your nerves. Good morning. I wish I had better tidings for you all. I've come here on behalf of President Johnson.

In accordance with his wishes, I need to come up with an agreement mutually satisfactory to both you and the planters. You gaze at the confused faces of the crowd. The truth is, I'm afraid you'll need to agree to sign contracts and work for the landowners or be evicted. A woman in the second row passes the toddler on her lap to the man beside her and then stands. How could you take away our land and give it to our worst enemies? We were always loyal to the government. They were not. Ma'am, I urge you to try to set aside your bitter feelings

and reconcile with your former owner. You're asking me to forgive the man who flogged me and my sister, who tied my brother to a tree and gave him 39 lashes? I cannot forgive that man. You nod sympathetically. Believe me, I don't relish this task, but I don't believe you have any other option. The rule means you are all occupying land that legally is no longer yours. You made a promise to us, and now you're breaking it. I'm sorry, but I urge you to make the best terms you possibly can with the landowners.

Why don't you all form a committee and consider the fairest way to restore their ownership? Put your requests on paper. The woman looks down at her child, then lifts her chin and gives you a steely-eyed gaze. We'll do that. But please, we don't want to sign contracts. We need the right to rent or purchase land. Land is the foundation of our freedom. Without it, we may as well still be enslaved. The woman then sits down.

As you take in the sad and disappointed faces of the freed people before you, you resolve to do everything in your power to plead their case in Washington. In October 1865, General Howard traveled to South Carolina's Edisto Island. He met with 2,000 freed people in the local church and reluctantly announced that their land was being returned to its former owners. They had put crops in the ground and invested all their hopes for the future in the island, but they were losing control of the land after just four short months. After making his announcement, Howard pledged to keep fighting for them when Congress reconvened in December.

In the meantime, fall elections propelled hundreds of former Confederates to state and federal office. And with President Johnson's pardons in hand, many ex-Confederate generals, colonels, congressmen, and cabinet officers ran for and won election to the U.S. House and Senate. Georgia voters even elected the former Confederate Vice President, Alexander Stevens, to the U.S. House and Senate. Georgia voters even elected the former Confederate Vice President Alexander Stevens to the Senate. Even Johnson worried that his Reconstruction policies had failed to replace the pre-war political elite. He called the nomination of Stevens exceedingly impolitic, adding, there seems in many of the elections something like defiance, which is all out of place at this time. In October, the Mississippi legislature enacted the South's first black code. States designed these draconian

laws to control freed people, reducing them to a status resembling slavery. Mississippi required all black residents to have written evidence of employment. Freed people who were found without proof of employment could be fined or forced into involuntary plantation labor. In South Carolina, black people were required to pay a hefty tax to perform certain jobs. States also passed so-called apprenticeship laws to force orphans and children of poor parents to work for planters without pay. Other black codes made it illegal for black people to buy or rent land, sit on juries, own guns, utter quote insulting language, or preach the gospel without a license. Nowhere were black residents allowed to vote. Beyond the legal restrictions on their day-to-day lives, black southerners faced an onslaught of violence.

Freed people were beaten by their former owners for trying to leave plantations or refusing to call them master. And the former owners rarely faced consequences. Local officials almost never prosecuted white residents accused of crimes against black people. In the fall of 1865, false rumors spread among white Southerners that freed people were planning to rise up in violent rebellion on Christmas Day. In what became known as the Christmas Insurrection Scare, a wave of anti-Black vigilante violence swept the South in the final months of 1865. White men, often still clad in their gray Confederate uniforms, targeted Black churches, schools, and political meetings. Reports on the Black Codes and escalating bloodshed infuriated

Northern Republicans, and not just radicals. The Chicago Tribune declared that Northerners would not sit back and allow such laws to disgrace one foot of the soil in which the bones of our soldiers sleep. One Republican congressman proclaimed that if Black Codes prevailed, I demand to know of what practical value is the amendment abolishing slavery. Northerners wanted tangible proof that the South had rejected slavery and secession. To many, Southern defiance made a mockery of emancipation, and all the blood spilled in the Civil War.

Soon, the Republican-dominated Congress would finally come back into session and face off against President Johnson. The stage was set for an epic showdown over the fate of Reconstruction. From Wondery, this is Episode 1 of our six-part series, Reconstruction from American History Tellers. On the next episode, Congressional Republicans seize control of Reconstruction and pass revolutionary legislation to advance Black rights. And on the streets of Memphis and New Orleans, deadly attacks on Black veterans shock the nation and reveal the dangerous cost of leniency toward the South.

If you like American History Tellers, you can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsey Graham for Airship. Sound design by Molly Bach. Music by Lindsey Graham. Voice acting by Cat Peoples and Ace Anderson. This episode is written by Ellie Stanton, edited by Dorian Marina. Series consultant, Ashley Lawrence Sanders.

Produced by Alita Rozanski. Our production coordinators are Desi Blaylock and Christian Banas. Managing producer, Matt Gant. Senior producer, Andy Herman. Executive producers, Jenny Lara Beckman and Marsha Louis for Wondery. Richard Bandler revolutionized the world of self-help all thanks to an approach he developed called neuro-linguistic programming.

Even though NLP worked for some, its methods have been criticized for being dangerous in the wrong hands. Throw in Richard's dark past as a cocaine addict and murder suspect, and you can't help but wonder what his true intentions were. I'm Saatchi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. And we're the hosts of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims, and what's left once the facade falls away. We recently dove into the story of the godfather of modern mental manipulation, Richard Bandler, whose methods inspired some of the most toxic and criminal self-help movements of the last two decades. Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Scamfluencers and more Exhibit C true crime shows like Morbid and Kill List early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

Check out Exhibit C in the Wondery app for all your true crime listening.