International history as well. We are going to begin by looking at a canoe thats roughly 300 years old. This is a piece that is actually a symbol much tof the collisiono cultures that make up the earliest populations in virginia history. So this piece represents the merging of european and native American Cultures. Many people talk about virginia history being four centuries long but in reality, the history of human habitation in virginia spans back to anywhere between 16,000 to 20,000 years into the past. So the canoe we have here represents the way in which thighs two cultures sometimes clashed with one another, sometimes failed to see eyetoeye but in many ways, were learning from one another and absorbing elements of each others culture. So the canoe here is made in the traditional dugout canoe fashion where you have a log thats been felled and its traditionally scraped out by setting a small fire within the log. The instasmall fire is controll carefully by folks making the canoe and the ashes were scraped away with sea shells. This is a type of tool that would have been easily accessible to the virginia indians. What makes this canoe unique, though, is the markings that you are able to see within the interior of the canoe. They are very straight, they were made by a very sharp tool and are very regular. So archaeologists have posited that these markings were made by a metal tool, which would not have been available or representative of a native American Culture in virginia. So this represents the collision between european settlers that arrived in the early 1600s and created the settlement of jamestown and the native americans that were here for centuries before. We have moved into one of the main galleries of the story of virginia and we are at the moment where we have the arrival of a very important third group of people in virginia, representing a very distinct third culture. So we are looking at a pair of shackles that represent the arrival of enslaved africans in 1619. This is really a central turning point for virginias history. So many subsequent decisions and events in virginia history are tied to this decision to invest in slave labor on plantations. Tobacco is an industry required a massive amount of labor to basically succeed and what happens is endentured servants are sort of transitioned out in favor of enslaved labor because of the lower cost for that type of worker. These shackles represent this new group of people this become indelibly linked to virginia history and also, they represent a continuation of this kind of ebb and flow of people coming and merging their culture with the virginia culture as a whole. This sort of odd pile of metal as it appears to be now is actually a fragment of what was called plate armor from the colc colonial period. This would have been worn essentially as a shirt of armor and whats happened of course is because this has been excavated by archaeologists, this was buried underground a couple of centuries and organic materials like the cloth eroded away and we are left with metal plates that sort of fused together over time. What this tells us about the life of colonial virginians is these were people who were afraid of attack so these are individuals who were coming to virginia with the idea of establishing a new life here, maybe investing in an economic venture, but these are people who are very conscious of the tensions that are here in virginia between the english settlers and the native virginians that were here for centuries prior. So this and all the other evidence that we have on the wall is the material culture that we use to understand the lives of these colonial virginians, everything from ointment pots to farm tools, even to chamber pots that would have been used by colonial virginians really kind of give a human side to our understanding of colonial life. We have moved into the revolutionary period of our timeline so we are transitioning from the colonial era into a period in which we were among the front lines of opposition to the british crown. Im standing next to one of the artifacts in our collection that is easily among the most beloved by visitors to the institution. Patrick henrys spectacles that he wore when he was alive. These are here as part of a display that features artifacts from what we call the voice, the pen and the sword of the revolution. This is Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, easily three of the most famous virginia patriots of the revolutionary period, and what i think is really lovely about artifacts like Patrick Henrys glasses is that very often, individuals like Patrick Henry or George Washington or any of the other Founding Fathers become almost like untouchable figures when we look at them in history. So thinking about something as human as a pair of glasses that actually sat on Patrick Henrys face makes him seem like a much more threedmngsal persons and allows us especially when we are working with visiting student groups to talk about the fact that these individuals were making personal and challenging decisions to participate in the american revolution. This was not a cause that they supported lightly. It was a cause that carried with it the condemnation of being a traitor to the crown and all of the punishments that would be associated with that. So its one of the best tools i think to turn Patrick Henry into a real individual who lived and breathed. We are standing next to one of the only remaining whipping posts to have been found in virginia after the civil war. So this is an incredibly powerful symbol for what antebellum slavery looked like. This is an artifact that was actually taken by Union Soldiers at the end of the civil war and sent to people in new york to show new yorkers what it meant to be living in a place where slavery existed. In the 1800s, the institution of slavery had spread into all sort of corners of the nation in the sense that it was a debate that was being hotly discussed. You had strong populations of abolitionists and strong population of proslavery supporters that were contentiously arguing over whether or not slavery should still be part of our nations reality and what is interesting is when you look at the public debate about slavery, sometimes its easy to forget the actual human reality of being an enslaved person in a place like virginia. This would have been in front of a slave jail in portsmouth, virginia. This is where individuals would have been chained in public to have their backs struck with some kind of leather strap as a public punishment for whatever crime their owners had deemed they were guilty of. And virginia, while it was not necessarily a place that had the highest population of enslaved laborers in the nation, it was the hub for the domestic slave trade. Richmond, for example, was home to numerous auction houses in which a person who was hoping to buy enslaved laborers would actually come to richmond with a specific purpose in mind of buying these people to then take back to their respective plantations. So the artifacts that we have in this section focus on that industry, richmond actually profited very much in the mid1800s from the domestic slave trade. We have a cane here that was owned by a slave auctioneer so this is a person who would actually run an auction, and the collar that is below it would have been worn by an enslaved virginian and so these pieces really do highlight the inhumanity of an institution that was again indelibly linked to virginias economy even in the 19th century, even though we moved beyond the colonial period, slavery is still an essential part of virginias identity economically and also culturally. It was a major part of how virginia saw itself in the 1800s. We are looking at a sword that was presented to george henry thomas, who unlike famous civil war figures like robert e. Lee who believed in their identity as virginians first, he believed in his identity as an american first. This is a sword he was given by the people of southampton county. He was born and raised there. They gave this to him for his service in war just to show their love for their native son. He left this in southampton county when he married a woman from new york and relocated his family to the northern part of the country. However, when the civil war broke out, he wrote home to his family asking for this sword to be sent to him. He was a wellregarded military figure and felt that it was his duty as someone who had taken an oath to uphold the constitution and defend the nation to basically report to duty, to serve the nation as a member of the union army. His sisters who held the sword in southampton county wrote back that in no Uncertain Terms would he be receiving his sword and that he could essentially consider them no longer related. That they were dissolving their relationship with their brother over the issue of the civil war. So this is a powerful reminder of just how divided the nation was at this important turning point in our history and also how divided virginia was. Virginia as the northernmost of the Southern States and as the home to the confederacy is a location in which there are very divided loyalties, sometimes even within a city like richmond where you have populations that might clash over the idea of whether the confederacy or the union is the just cause to support. What you see in this case are the stars robert e. Lee had on his collar the day the surrender was signed. He cut these stars off and kept them as a keepsake. These represent a major turning point in virginias history which was the loss of the civil war by the confederacy. We have left the civil war behind and are moving into a period in which virginia saw both massive Forward Movement in terms of the liberties afforded to enslaved virginians that are now emancipated and given rights as full citizens, and also steps backward into a system of segregation that essentially divided virginias population into two groups. So we are looking at a hearse that was owned and used by the a. D. Price funeral home Company Based in jackson ward here in richmond. Jackson ward is sometimes referred to as the harlem of the south. It was a very vibrant community of africanamericans living in richmond. The hearse is a symbol of these two parallel economies that were created between the white population that was served by the white only businesses and companies that existed in a place like richmond and the blackowned businesses that served the Africanamerican Community. Because of jim crow laws and segregation, these dual economies were essentially. People like Maggie Walker who helped promote the creation of banks and Service Foundations and newspapers, specifically for the black community, meant that even if an africanamerican wouldnt be able to be served by the White Companies or infrastructure that existed, there would be some type of system in place that would allow them to save their money somewhere, purchase anything they needed at a store that served black customers or even read the news in their own newspaper. So we are looking at a very enthusiastic group of ladies here who have just gone to the State Capitol to petition the State Government for the right to vote. Many people seem to forget that women were not enfranchised with the right to vote until the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920. Virginia women were very vocal about their desire to have the right to vote, but in many cases, virginia women who supported suffrage were in the minority. Virginia was not a state that was very enthusiastically behind the Movement Towards womens right to vote. Virginia, in fact, doesnt ratify the 19th amendment until 1952. So despite the fact it passes nationally in 1920, virginia doesnt decide that they want to ratify that amendment until 1952. The notion that virginia women are genteel southern ladies who dont want to be troubled with politics sort of reinforces this notion that suffrage for women isnt an important virginian priority but there are women like, for example, norra houston who wore the dress we see here jn rou generously on loan to us from the valentine museum, she would have been able to counter that argument with quite a great number of arguments of her own. Thats part of why pamphlets like the ones we have on display here explaining the reasons for which women should have been given the right to vote were such essential tools for the early 20th century suffragists. This was the type of material you would use to change minds and opinions much in the way that social media messages are used in the 21st century to spread ideas among a large group of people. We have moved into the middle of the 20th century and we are looking at a suit jacket, tie, shirt and lapel pins owned by one of virginias civil rights heroes, oliver hill. Oliver hill was a lawyer who took on one of the brown versus board of education cases that essentially asked the highest court in the country to decide whether segregation in schools was unconstitutional. He was somebody who was from virginia, from richmond, who felt as though it was an important cause for him to lend his services to. The Supreme Court decision to integrate schools was partially tied to his and other lawyers with the naacps contributions to this series of Supreme Court cases, and hes someone who continued to serve the Africanamerican Community in virginia for the rest of his life. So this riot of stuff that you see in front of you is our made in virginia wall. This wall is meant to represent people, ideas and things that were made in virginia in the 20th and 21st centuries. Many people think of virginia as being a place that relies on things like tobacco or agriculture to keep its economy afloat but in fact, virginia has invested in a very wide diversity of industries in the end of the 20th century and the start of the 21st century, so everything from recording artists that hailed from virginia, the movie and Television Industry that has grown rapidly here in the commonwealth, the growth of nasas presence here with places like langley station or even industries rather like reynolds aluminum that is easily a household name to many americans, is an iconic virginia industry. So its a fun opportunity to look at all these Amazing Products and people that hail from virginia and think about how virginia as a place has changed in terms of its identity over the last century and how virginians themselves might look different now from the way they may have looked half a century in the past. The notion of virginia as a place thats welcoming, welcoming people from all over the world, actually sort of links back to this notion in the colonial period that virginias a place that has accepted people for centuries that are coming in and making this their home and trying to find the best way to live within the confines of the commonwealth. So its a fun place to kind of look around and see industries and things that might be a thing that you would find in your own backyard. This weekend we are featuring the history of richmond, virginia together with our Comcast Cable partners. Learn more about richmond at other stops on our cities tour at cspan. Org cities tour. You are watching American History tv all weekend, every weekend, on cspan 3. The Lincoln Forum convened a panel to explore the people and ideas that shaped abraham lincolns political persona. We hear from harold holzer, ronald white, Richard Brookhiser and sidney blumenthal. This is about an hour and 20 minutes. Good afternoon. Im harold holzer, vicechair of the Lincoln Forum and its a pleasure to welcome you to the Panel Discussion we are going to have on foundations o