Coming up next Howard University history professor discusses the experiences of free to slaves following the civil war. She discusses education and Political Rights. She talks about their struggle to achieve them. This program was part of a symposium of the Lincoln Group of the district of columbia. You may wonder why we have this pulpit here. This pulpit is one that the pastor would have used when preaching and lincoln would have seen the pastor from this hope it. It was in the old era. That is when you have this heirloom. I would like to bring up the editor of our lincolnian journal lindy swanson. Having heard that, i am very honored to be standing at this pulpit and to introduce our next speaker, edna greene medford, who many of you know. She is a very treasured friend of the Lincoln Group and one of our members. She always provides us with wellcrafted, meaningful remarks. She is an author, much published. The chair of the History Department at howard and coauthor of the publication the emancipation proclamation review. And editor of the price of freedom series, slavery and the civil war. We also have if you have not seen the series by Southern Illinois university press, she is the author of lincoln and emancipation. If you do not know the series, you should become acquainted with it. A series of articles publications, small books, really good Stocking Stuffers about lincoln, a variety of topics. Let me read you a little review from this publication. This is by john martzlack, the executive director of the grant president ial library. Medfords account does justice to the role of president Abraham Lincoln in the freeing of the slaves into the role of africanamericans and their self emancipation. Her research is the role and her insight. Medford had created the masterpiece that students of civil war and africanAmerican History must read. And if you do not have a copy, we have a publication table downstairs for you this publication is available to review and look at and to purchase. Professor medford is also a valued advisor to many boards and on the Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation board. Lincoln study center, Abraham Lincoln institute, she also has served as the scholar is Advisory Council for president lincolns year in washington d. C. She received a special award in 2009 from the state of illinois for her lincoln studies and last but not least, she received our own Lincoln Group award a few years ago. She is a respected historian and valued friend of the Lincoln Group. Today, she is going to be talking a one of the most important legacies of lincoln in the civil war era, the story of the african american. Please welcome edna greene medford. [applause] professor medford thank you for that fine introduction. I was wondering who you were talking about. I was given permission to close this because i am so short. I would like to thank the Lincoln Group of d. C. For the opportunity to present at this morning and especially to present at this pulpit. It is very special. I had no idea that this was so special. I am delighted to be one of the few to be able to present from this pulpit this morning. In august 1865, nearly four months after the civil war ended, Jordan Anderson 40yearold former property of Patrick Henry anderson sr. Of big spring, tennessee dictated a letter intended for delivery to his former owner. The slaveholder had requested anderson and his family return to big spring to work at the Old Plantation where his owner assured him he would be treated fairly. Then slave demand had received his freedom from the local Provost Marshal a year earlier. After working at a hospital in nashville had made his way to dayton, ohio. The letter he sent to his owner reflected the confidence and determination one would expect of a free man. I am doing terribly well here, he said. I get 25 a month including food and clothing. A comfortable home for mandy. The folks call her mrs. Anderson and the children go to school and are learning well. Although he maintained a respectful tone despite the dripping sarcasm you will note in a moment. Anderson did not hesitate to get down to business. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, he pressed, i will be able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again. Anderson pointed out he already had his freedom so there was no incentive to return to tennessee. As his former owner had suggested. As a test of patricks sincerity, jordan asked he and his wife receive the wages owed for the many years of uncompensated labor. I served you faithfully for 32 years, he recalled and mandy 20 years. 25 a month for me and two dollars a week for mandy, our earnings would amount to 11,680. Once interest is added and inductions made for clothing and occasional medical care, anderson believed the balance would show what we are entitled to. The freed man was interested in noting if schools had been established to teach children of color. His desire was to give my children an education and have them form virtuous habits. Since this letter was First Published by a local newspaper there has been much debate about the authenticity. Many doubt a former slave could have articulated his needs and desires so skillfully. Perhaps the skeptics are justified in their skepticism. The white man to whom anderson dictated a letter may have polished his words but the aspirations expressed, the expectation of pay for honest labor, the right to live a dignified life, education for ones children, and opportunity to guide the moral development reflected the sentiment of free black men and women. The formerly enslaved as well as freeborn. When the war began four years earlier, black men and women did not have the expectation. They had already suffered more than two centuries of exploitation and abuse in america. The nearly 4 million enslaved in 1860 could expect only continued drudgery and subjugation. While slavery had been eliminated from the north, it remained entrenched through the Southern Region and was characterized by uncompensated labor, separation of family, physical and psychological brutality and basic inhumanity. Even though those who were free could look forward only to secondclass status denied Voting Rights even in most of the northern states, relegated to the more menial occupations barred from an equal to public accommodations in school and physical abuse from even and especially actually newly arrived immigrants. They were treated as if they were a foreign entity in the land of their birth long before dred scott versus sanford made it official, free africanamericans recognized that they had no rights which white men were bound to respect. Lincolns actions during the war and the experiences of African Americans during those years helped to alter the trajectory of black life. The emancipation proclamation began the process of transforming people as human property into legally recognized human beings. Men accustomed to obeying that every command of white men and women were transformed into soldiers, fighting to secure their own freedom as well the serving as a Liberating Force for their people. Mothers and fathers were denied authority over their children cut now protect them from exploitation. Black women denied status of their white counterparts enjoy the respectability that came with legally sanctioned marriages. What those events did as well was to expand black aspirations. Just as antebellum slave holders insisted on keeping their enslaved property illiterate recognizing that the ability to read spoiled the slaves. Although it may not have in clearly defined, equality of opportunity became a principle focus for the newly emancipated as well as for the prewar freed. Their tradition of agitation and protest that had marked black efforts to secure justice and equality in the prewar years were strengthened as africanamericans encouraged by the possibility created by emancipation, pressed even more forcefully to achieve the rights of other americans. Africanamerican aspirations during the war and in the ensuing years centered around three essential ingredients of equality. Economic independence, education, and Political Rights. What the order of importance dictated by prewar status and geographic location. And i think i probably differ from many historians because i think economic independence was more important than anything else. Many historians think Political Rights were first and foremost and i do not think that in all. Maybe men in the north freed or born free had recognized that they were not considered citizens for Political Rights but what is happening in the south usually is a greater emphasis on economic independence. The pursuit of each threatened compromise social order that had been carefully constructed and maintained since before the founding of the nation. Former slave owners and former slaves envisioned a different future for america. Men and women would always been in control of a perceived inferior group could hardly had imagined equality with her former property. The former slave contrarily could hardly imagine anything else. They were well aware of what slavery had denied them and equally determine to seize upon whatever opportunity presented themselves that would mitigate adverse effects. That blackandwhite interests were destined to clash became immediately apparent in the former slaves quest for economic independence. Real freedom came from control over the terms and conditions of their labor. As former owners sought to return to the old system of cheap, if not uncompensated labor, the freed men and women resisted and refusing to sign contracts that were commonly negotiated after 1865 by the Freedmens Bureau agents. The rural environment of the 19th century, economic independence was achievable through Land Ownership which connoted status as well. One that extended beyond wealth. They had always had any emotional connection to the land where they lived. These were places that could be akin to hell where the slaves could find a sense of belonging. As a louisiana planter complained, the free people believed the plantations and everything on them belongs to them. It was because of their labor had produced the great wealth of these areas and this was home. Logic dictated then that with the Union Victory and black freedom, the former slave would inherit the land or share it with former owners. This is the logic as seen by people who had been enslaved in the south. This was the motivation for a group of black religious leaders who met in january 1864 with secretary of War Edwin Stanton and the general william t sherman. 20 men in age from 26yearold freeborn james lynch to 72yearold former slave taylor represented the aspirations of africanamericans who inhabited coastal island areas of South Carolina and georgia. Some of the group freed during the war and five had never known slavery. Two of the churches represented wouldve been comparable to the large institutions of today with congregations ranging from 1200 to 1800 worshipers. A big church during that time. The delegation selected 67yearold garrison fraser who had administered to the spiritual needs of his people for 35 years. They selected him as their official spokesman, bypassing the five freeborn men. It is interesting they turn to someone will had been enslaved rather than someone born free. Eight years earlier, fraser had purchased himself and his wife for 1000 in gold and silver. His precarious health prevented him from pastoring a church and one wonders where does a black man get 1000. Remember where he is. He is enslaved in the area coastal area South Carolina where there is a tax system and once you finish with what you need to do, you can be put out to work for somebody else. The owner is willing to give a small portion of the money back to the laborer and so over a lifetime, someone could actually save enough money to purchase his or her freedom if the owner with an agreement to that. Fraser tempted to assure the union man although former slaves loyalty to the government and capacity to provide for themselves. The way we can best take care of ourselves, he suggest, is to have a land and turn it until it by our own labor and maintain ourselves and have something to spare. We want to be placed on land until we are able to buy it and make it our own. For fraser and other free people, the acquisition of land was the most tangible evidence they had its eight some of the disabilities slavery had imposed. Not the ability to cast a ballot or hold Public Office or unimportant. Certainly Voting Rights mattered. Former slaves understood their rights as free men could not be maintained without the ability to determine what the laws would impact their lives. The thrust for the elected franchise emanated primarily from the freeborn and the prewar freed blacks had been denied the rights of citizenship as i indicated earlier. The recently emancipated freedom could only be achieved through economic independence. Other factors can be of secondary concern. Aspirations among freed men and women for possession of the land they had worked increased with the plight of the planters in the face of union advanced. Certain areas of the South Plantations and farms were confiscated for nonpayment of the direct tax levied on all of these. Such land was subject to sale. Prices that made purchase exceedingly difficult for the free people. Even when they pulled their meager resources, they really could gather enough funds to compete financially with white investors. Many of whom were from the north. Their inability to acquire the land through normal means led some to appeal to the man who had declared them free. One would be a landowner from the sea island, eloquent and sentiment pleaded with the whites to tell lincoln that we want the land. This very land rich with the sweat and blood. He explained they were born on the land and their parents were buried in its soil. Black men had fought with the union forces at fort wagner and in florida. Wherever the government had sent them, the man requested that lincoln instruct those in charge to apportion the lots in a way that would be more accessible to the local black population. A solution seemingly came in the form a general shermans special order number 15. Although its motivation was not so much inspired by the lament of black farmers but by the generals desire to rid himself of the burden presented by thousands of destitute former slaves who had attached themselves to an army, free people were given a whole. Within a few days of meeting with black religious leaders sherman issued that the islands from charleston to northern florida and the abandoned rice fields from the coastal regions, 30 miles inland would be reserved for settlement by black men and women who had been made free by the acts of war and president s proclamation. Sherman further stipulated with the exception of military personnel detailed for duty, no white person would be allowed to live on the island and in the settlements established by the order. Black people would have complete charge of the area, levied only by the authority of the u. S. Government. Land would be distributed and plots of not more than 40 acres. Each head of household would receive a possessory title and eventually what would happen was it would assumed they would acquire enough funds to purchase the land outright. Believing their future would be secured, the free people settled on the land but their hopes were dashed a few years later when the original owners were allowed to regain possession. This is after lincoln leaves the scene, after he is assassinated and andrew johnson, who hated southern planters, decided it is really interesting to rub elbows with these rich guys. He started doing them favors and pardon them one by one. They are able to get their land back. General oliver directed the Freed Men Bureau and had the task of notifying the freed men that the land they thought of their own would have to be surrendered and the freed men should make peace with their former masters. You asked us to forgive the landowners of the island, they responded bitterly in a petition to the civil war hero. You only lost your right arm in war. The man who tied me to a tree and gave me 39 lashes and who stripped and flogged my mother and my sister and who will not let me stay in his empty hut except i will do his planting and be satisfied with the price and combined with others to keep away land from well knowing i would not have anything to do with him if i had land of my own. That man i cannot forgive. Despite the ultimate loss, the free people were fortunate since most africanamericans never got the chance to possess the land even for a short time. Instead, they usually labored on government farms or lands leased against northerners and southern white men. Occasionally a group of africanamericans managed to rent some acreage and some the groups were black men who served and got bounties for their service. These lands were cultivated by the free people for wages but the arrangement resembled too closely what they had known under slavery. In louisiana, the system of free labor instituted by general banks allowed freed men to choose their place of employment but force them to sign labor contracts for the entire year. Any infraction of the rule enclosed by the land owner whether insolence or disobedience could result in forfeiture for pay or arrest. Every colored man would be a slave until he can raise his own bale of cotton and put his own and say this is mine suggested prince rivers, a sea island resident served with the South Carolina volunteers. In the post emancipation era most was sharecropping. Financially unable to rent the land for cash, they agreed to cultivate someone elses property in exchange for a portion of the harvest. Had the system operated fairly it might have been an acceptable solution to the problem of limited funds on both sides. Instead, dishonest bookkeeping and a culture of intimidation and exploitation diminished the economic independence. Recognitions of the benefits of literacy also shaped and expanded black aspirations in the postemancipation era. As soon as possible, the free people sought to learn to read and had moved quickly to establish schools for their children. Having been denied literacy because visibility to mentally liberate the enslaved, and freedom they recognize the practical and psychological value of education. In slavery, you cannot let your master see you read. One person testified that had convened in South Carolina in june of 1863. But now the colored people are fond of sending their children to school because the children in after years will be able to tell us ignorant ones how to do for ourselves. To take advantage of new literacy opportunities. More ever black men enlisted in military service, efforts arose. Similarly, the young and old took advantage of any opportunities made available to them to improve their minds. When the war ended and freed people settled in a new routine, they benefited from the schools established by the freed mens bureau and purchase books. Black men and women who owned land, usually the people who were freeborn and had land might contribute an acre of which a school could be built. Such efforts did not go unchallenged. Those opposed to black education destroyed schoolhouses or intimidated teachers for when black men were able to vote and serve in legislatures, they implemented Public School education. The segregated system in the south allocated fewer dollars for students to black schools and many were one room multilevel facilities. It was not unusual to find one teacher trying to deal with 85 students who were multiple ages. A range of ages and at Different Levels of advancement. In rural areas, local residents closed down the schools, the black schools for weeks so there would be nothing to keep black children from laboring in the fields during peak periods. This happened against the wishes of the parents. These are not black parents closing the schools but white landowners who are going to the authorities and closing the schools for black children so they could have workers. Lincoln had understood the importance of education for people constrained by previous conditions and crushing poverty. His own education had not prevented him from pursuing wealth and influence. He had enjoyed opportunities to make up for the deficiency that were not open to the average enslaved person. He issued his december 1863 proclamation of amnesty which outlined the conditions under which the defeated state could be readmitted to the union. He stipulated they would be required to recognize the freedom of the former slaves and should provide for their education as well. Just as africanamericans recognize the power of education, they understood that freedom could not be secured without a political voice. No Southern States permitted black men to vote at the beginning of the war even those who were freeborn. A couple of states extended the franchise to certain groups of black men and the decades after the revolution in the south. Generally they were denied access to polls since the mid1830s. The south was not alone. Free black men and the north shared the disadvantage and all but five states where they voted on an equal footing with white men. They were able to vote in new york but a property requirement and a residency requirement for black men that do not exist for white men in new york. It was this unjust law that agitated Frederick Douglas who was a resident of the state of new york in the period. Black men in places such as pennsylvania and new york had complained of the disadvantage for decades and continue to agitate against the injustice throughout the war. They tied the right to vote to the service like men were rendering to the union cause on the battlefield. Frederick douglass argument that the black man could not be denied a political voice was he had donned the union blue and have risked his all for the cause resonated with black men across the country. Southern black men freeborn and free did not wait for their right to vote. Indicative of their efforts is a petition signed by 1000 black men delivered to lincoln in 1864 requesting they be allowed to register. They were residents of new orleans and many members of the relatively prosperous free black community. Their wealth and education, the product of generations of freedom and privilege as a consequence of their intimate collection with a longestablished european families and i mean these were the sons of some of the most prominent planters in the area. Their backgrounds often rivaled the backgrounds of their white neighbors. Perhaps the president was influenced by their success and their apparent readiness for citizenship. In any case, he privately urged michael hawn, the governor of louisiana, to extend Voting Rights to some of the black residents. Although his private appeals were not successful, he publicly endorsed Voting Rights of black men in his last address three days before his assassination. The opportunity came two days after general lee surrendered virtually ending the war and his remarks to those gathered at the white house to congratulate him on Union Victory, lincoln had addressed the issue of louisianas failure to extend the vote. He plays that failure in the best light, suggesting even though the state had not chosen to grant the Voting Rights to black men it had made provisions to consider it at a later date. He was quick to add however that he personally would have preferred extending the vote to in his worse the very intelligent and those who serve as soldiers. He is talking about those guys in new orleans because they certainly are better educated, better informed than many other white men in the south who are allowed to vote and have no restrictions at all. Just a few months before in nashville, black residents of the city had petitioned the Union Convention about to their inability to vote. After thanking the government for the emancipation proclamation, they asked the state to abolish the last vestige of slavery by the express words of the organic law and reminded the state that free residents had voted for 39 years from 1796 to 1835 and they did so without embarrassment. They argued nearly 200,000 black men were fighting for preservation of the union and had thus earned citizenship rights. The government had asked the colored man told fight for its preservation and gladly has he done, its petitioners continue. It can afford to trust him with the vote as safely as entrusted him with the bayonet. The quest for Voting Rights continued after the war and culminated in the end of the decade in the 15th amendment. The extension of the elective franchise place africanamerican men not simply to vote for white candidates who championed issues important to black people but place themselves in nomination as well. Often to be disappointed. In certain states with large black populations, sometimes able to prevail at the local and state levels. Andrew johnson over the reconstruction process and able to more radical elements in congress to take charge and for a brief time, a few black men made it to the halls of congress. And in the meantime, black men and women over the nation challenge discriminatory legislation and practices that sanctioned disparate treatment on streetcars and polls, antiimmigration laws, banned people from carrying the mail and excluded witnesses for federal court based on race. The premier National Vehicle for the promotion of equal rights that attempted to attack these kinds of injustices during the war had been the National Convention of color citizens of the united states. One of the conventions were held in syracuse in 1864. After that convention, 144 delegates from 18 states arrived represented including seven from the south, including virginia, north carolina, South Carolina florida, mississippi, tennessee, home of everybody at the table. A similar declaration a demand for the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery. This was before the 13th amendment passed. The right to resist colonization outside the united states, something championed by lincoln for a while and the enjoyment of the rights of other citizens. Reclaimed we are by right entitled to respect the declaration. Before adjourning, they pledged for right of the color people as american citizens. A couple of weeks ago, i offered remarks on lincolns legacy of equality of opportunity and failure of a nation to support his belief the right of all people to enjoy the principles of the declaration of independence. Breaking with the practice of longstanding not to read other peoples reactions to my words i wrote a blog about the address that included comments about my remarks. As i suspected, the reaction was less than laudatory. One memorable comment read and i quote the libees always think equal opportunities equals equal rights. there were other remarks about how the asian population and latino population seems to have no problem with advancement because they have family values and they want to work and help each other and africanamericans do not. I will let that one slide for the moment. Actually, i agreed with the first commentator when he talks about equal opportunity not necessarily resulting does not end result in equal rights. But he misses a point. Results are shaped by ability and commitment. We all understand that. What do the commentator misses is that without opportunity, the disadvantages is an unfair burden why the advantage is elevated. He also missed the point that a people who are denied opportunity can not aspire to anything greater than what they have experienced. If one cannot see the potential, one cannot arise above with the artificial barriers that are placed in ones way. Lincoln provided opportunities that held black men and women see the potential and encourage them to push to even greater heights. Their aspirations soared beyond simply the destruction of slavery. They saw the possibilities before them as seized upon every instance to remove the disadvantages they had been forced to endure for more than two centuries. For a brief moment, they enjoy some degree of success. Their quest wouldve please lincoln because it epitomized his believe in the rights of all americans to equal access to all that the nation had to offer. He wouldve recognized the failure to succeed fully can be attributed not to any lack of ability or commitment on their part but rather to the on readiness of americans of that era to extend equality of opportunity that lincoln knew would be essential to the successful integration of former slaves into American Society as free men. And has message to congress in 1861, lincoln characterized the union effort as defense of a government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all to afford all and unfettered start and fair chance in the race of life. I assume when he said elevate the condition he included women in that as well. At least i do. It is a statement that celebrates equality of opportunity that it defines american exceptionalism. Essentially it represents an ideal that should be as relevant and appropriate in our own time as it was in lincolns. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much. Could you describe in some detail some of the early lawsuits, economic lawsuits that were filed by freed blacks . What kind of cases . Were the representation of black attorneys or white attorneys and who were the defendants . And the outcomes . Professor medford before after the war . You were talking about economics, not have to do with Voting Rights to economic cases. Perhaps cases where they were given legal rights but the whites did not respect those rights and did they take their cases to courts . Professor medford we have to remember after the civil war the people who had been in charge of the south were still in charge after the war. Once the states were redeemed, white men had full control over these places. If you are talking about rural areas, you have these codes established where a black man cannot vote or serve on juries or hold Public Office. There are curfews put in place. People have to register before they can live in a particular community. That kind of thing. People are generally not bringing these lawsuits locally. Not in the south. Because there is no one there to hear it. The judge is the brother or the cousin of the people who are preventing these folks from having rights. You are not going to be a newly emancipated black man or woman trying to live in the south and bringing a suit for your rights. You will end up dead if you do pretty while the freed mens bureau is there, there is a head of protection. The federal troops in place do not always support the black people as they are there to protect. And in any respects. If you look at the freed mens Court Records and complaints of going to those courts. These white men who are serving as the judges in many essences are not really siding with the local black community and siding with the white community. Generally, you will not have a lot of cases of ink brought area the kinds of rights that africanamerican would receive before the decade is over is national law. Beginning with the 13th amendment that is ratified in 1865, slavery is eliminated throughout the country. You have 8000 people still enslaved once the emancipation proclamation was issued. Many people not freed immediately by the proclamation just because lincoln issued it on january 1, 1863 does not mean southern whites are abiding by the ruling, just ignoring it. Black men and women have to get to the union line. Or they run away. In terms of rights, the 13th amendment in december 1865 as a 14th amendment granting citizenship and due process of the constitutional amendment and the ratification of the right to vote, the 15th amendment in 1870. These are national laws. They are not always recognized in the states. There are still attempts to suppress the black vote and all kinds of ways that people are not receiving due process. [inaudible] professor medford you have got for instance still a National Matter and plessy versus ferguson which goes to the Supreme Court and what is says that separate is ok and black people have no recourse. This is an instance where our government sanctions discrimination against black people. The National Government sanctions discrimination. Of course, you have many more of those cases. Cases about voting and due process a comment into the 20th century. I read in the paper recently that at the level of lead in the blood of freddie gray was bad enough that the doctor looked at it said, jesus, here never seen anything like that. What do you think or do you think and it seems it is getting lost in the arguments and the demonstrations about Police Brutality . The economic opportunity, is that being emphasized enough . Do you think the approach of the protests is adequate to address that . Professor medford you are right. It is much more than a group of Police Personnel acting up and killing people. And keep in mind the majority of the police do not do that. It is a group of people who are. It is more prevalent and truly frightening. It is not that it just started happening either. It is always been there. People have phone cameras and it is recorded now in a way and revealed in a way we have not seen it before. It is more than just Police Brutality. This is about a culture of disrespect for people of color. Especially poor people. But also i will give you an example. I do not think anybody will consider me, this is not Police Brutality. I do not think anybody will consider me a threat or offensive. But, i have had two different people, one person spit on me. At Virginia Beach several years ago. I was doing nothing except crossing the street. Recently, outside of fords theater, i passed a group of students and one of them decided to sit immediately in front of me. I am just a black woman walking down the street. This student felt that he could do this and get away with it. And he did. So i think it is more than just what the police are doing but where we stand as a society. We are disrespected even if we are simply going about our business. We do not know yet what the situation is with the gentleman killed in baltimore except Six Police Officers are being prosecuted for his death. Hopefully everything will come out when the case is over. What we do know is there is heightened instances of this kind of behavior and just a rudeness toward africanamericans. And i see a difference as recently as 2008. I know all of us here in 2008 when president obama was elected said we are in a postracial society. Things are going to be so much better because look what america was able to do. America was able to let a black man and it was done with the support of white people. Black people cannot have put him in office online. We really thought, some people thought we turned the corner. I think what we are seeing in recent months especially and in the last two years is will not turn to corner at all unless that corner is in the wrong direction. I think because there is a black man in the white house, there are some people who are so incensed at the idea. Celebrate this victory over racism perhaps in 2008 but was it really a victory . Not when we are seeing the kind of animosity. I do not recall any president who suffered the kind of abuse that in this president does except for perhaps Abraham Lincoln because he suffered quite a bit as well. This president has suffered the kind of abuse that we do not see frequently. And what the difference is there . We need to be aware of where we are moving and we are moving in a dangerous direction. Unless were able to recognize that there are people out there who are frustrated. I know what happened in baltimore was disconcerting to a lot of people, the death of the young men and looting afterwards. People were in the street genuinely upset about what happened in other people in the streets taking advantage of the situation as always happens in instances like this. We need to build a separate the two. [applause] the civil war airs here every saturday at 6 00 and 10 00. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. American history tv is joining our partners to showcased the history of augusta georgia. To learn more about our 2015 tour follow us on facebook. We begin now with the history of augusta. Welcome to the home of george walton. The youngest signer from georgia of the declaration of independence