Sitting alone in my apartment gesticulating on my laptop, its really wonderful too i guess be able to articulate a person to you guys today. So just wanted to give a big thank you to the organization of american historians for putting together this conference and for accommodating all of the different varieties in which people chose to participate, even though i know that came at some great logistical challenges. I also want to thank rachel and bart who unfortunately cant be here today but who was really the one responsible for bringing us all together today. She originally conceived as a roundtable as one thatd would be focused on the civil war in the west but ultimately last year around february decided to focus it on 1862. This is the year when the Republican Party succeeded in passing some of its original campaign promises, abolishing slavery in the district of columbia, the western territories as well as passing the homestead act. It achieved legislative victories that would help the union win the war like the direct tax act of 1862 establishing the First Federal income tax. This was in the year when the fighting and the civil war took a particularly delighted turn with the battlesatan of shiloh d antietam among other strip when it seemedin increasingly likely that france or england might recognized the confederacy and when the congress and later lincoln recognized what many africanamericans free and enslaved had known all along, that this was a war over slavery not just over union. And, of course, the war in the west is even more complicated and im sure will be the subject of much will be discussing in todays roundtable. All of these decisions, events have shaped the world that we live in today here and so it seemed particularly apt 160 years later to think about this a year together in this roundtable. As you might notice, our ranks are somewhat diminished. Unfortunately when wasserman had a family emergency and couldnt come to the conference at all. Regarding coleman unfortunately had his flight canceled, and if you wonder what airline it was, it was united and wasnt able to get here in time for this roundtable. They both asked me to say how disappointed they are to not be able to be with us today. So what were going to do is ask our, the two members of our roundtable to share some thoughts. I will introduce each of them before they speak and then we will open the floor up to a broader discussion. And i really hope that we will be able to do that as a conversation. So first up we have manu karuka who is an assistant professor of american studies and affiliated faculty with womens gender and sexuality studies at Barnard College where he has taught since 2014. His work centers critique ofqu imperialism with a particular focus on antiracism and indigenous decolonization pic he teaches courses on the political economy of racism, u. S. Imperialism and radical internationalism. Indigenous critiques of political economy and liberation peer he is the author of Empire Strikes him indigenous nations Chinese Workers and the Transcontinental Railroad which was published in 2019. I want to echo the thanks to the organizers of the Conference Agenda is a huge amount of work especially in these conditions, and t also to ray lynn. I feel kind of sheepish because it feels like from here the big 1862 doesnt feel so good. I hope we can have a discussion with everyone in the room thanks so much for making the time to join us. So when my remarks today i plan to focus on 1862 as a moment of escalation in the destructive power of the u. S. And the world linking the wartime expansion of both the u. S. Military power wih the development of u. S. Financial institutions. In the relationships between the war or military and financial power in the west socalled and in the caribbean and the links between these two spaces. In its wars in occupations against the seminals which up until that point where the most expensive wars that the us fought until the civil war and wars at the us was militaryly defeated and also against mexico the us war economy had tied together the production of arms in new england with the stabilization of slavery in texas in the deep south. By the early 1860s the war economy marked a confrontation between northern Merchant Capital which required a protected National Market for its further growth and southern agrarian capital which required International Exports to ensure its future. Merchant and insurance capital based in new york city and the Connecticut River valley began, the war paralyzed and divided undertaking a transition from cotton to a diversified portfolio of investments across ranching agriculture mining and industry. As you expected rapid us victory over the confederacy was thwarted by a series of battlefield catastrophes the legal tender act passed on february 25th, 1862 authorized 150 Million Dollars in us treasury notes the socalled greenbacks, which eventually increased the 450 million with an additional half billion dollars in war bonds. Raising funds to support military power over land and sea which would be necessary to defeat the confederacy. It provided a windfall for industrial and military contractors launching the careers of robber barons of the coming period in a further effort to raise war funds and in the face of bitter Political Polarization the revenue act which lincoln signed into law on july 1st, 1862 established both the First Federal income tax and the first tax on inherited wealth and the agency, which would eventually become the irs. These laws in turn set the stage for the series of National Bank acts past annually between 1863 and 1866 which formed a National Banking system giving the us federal government the ability to issue war bonds and authorizing the federal government to regulate and tax the commercial banking system. On april 19th 1861 lincoln had issued a proclamation of blockade against southern ports. The naval blockade was necessary to stop the flow of capital weapons and consumer goods into the confederacy. It was a coercive policy to break the alliance of new york merchants with southern planters, which was running goods by a nassau, bermuda and havana. The us navy began the civil war with 42 ships in active service by the end of 1862. This would increase to 384 ships and by the end of the war the us had the Worlds Largest navy. This navy provided the muscle for an expanded Monroe Doctrine in the decades following the war with active us interventions against caribbean and Central American nationalist movements in the service of ensuring us returns on investment. In cuba over the coming decades the us would leverage Political Economic and eventually military pressure to support an alliance of agrarian and finance capital that was based in north america. At the close of the 19th century the cuban revolution would seek to overturn this pressure. Two days after the passage of the legal tender act on february 27th, 1862 the us executed Nathaniel Gordon cyan of a respectable main family. Gordon was captain of the slave ship erie, which had been apprehended the previous august at the mouth of the congo river carrying a cargo of 897 african captives. This is the first and only time the us executed someone for participating in the slave trade. Six weeks later on april 7th 1862 the british and us concluded negotiations on the leones sewer treaty, which effectively ended us sanction for participation in the slave trade to cuba and brazil in duboiss analysis. This ended us participation legal us participation in the atlantics and the atlantic slave trade. 1862 also saw a transitions in us assertions of power over land. On july 1st 1862 the same day as the revenue act lincoln signed the Pacific Railway act into law the act chartered the Union Pacific railroad and provided land grants to the Union Pacific and the central Pacific Railroad, which is chartered in the state of california. In these corporate land grants the us congress violated treaties at its signed with indigenous nations along the path of the railroad the Railroad Companies use these land grants to raise capital to fund the construction and maintenance of the roads. And these Real Infrastructure that they built. You know raise capital through this finance it moved resources out and it moved troops in. And these real develops took place in a on a global stage the end of the year would see the completion of the first the end of 1862 would see the completion of the first rail line in algeria built by the french and the spread of the rail network and restaurant western india built by the british. On july 2nd the day after he signed the Pacific Railway act lincoln signed the moral act. Establishing the structure of the modern Us Public University through land grants. The moral act was another aspect of continental imperialism. By Opening University education to small Property Owners the act deep in the class collaboration that has shaped settler colonialism. In the analysis of gerald horn by organizing Higher Education around modern disciplines producing graduates and engineering Accounting Administration and management. The universitys produced by the act would train in educate the cadre of corporations and a rapidly modernizing and expanding state. The political economy of our own era of crisis continues to operate within the constraint set in place by land grants to corporations and universities over these two days in 1862. At the end of the year on december 26th the us executed 38 dakota prisoners in what remains the largest official mass execution in us history. In Historical Context of the railway act in the landgrant act the mass execution was another kind of assertion of landbased power. Involve the transition in relating to north america as a space of war to a space of policing a transition which remains unfinished in our own day. Read together. We see the prioritization of the rights of corporations over and against International Treaty obligations. The expansion of land and seabased military power was accomplished through the expansion of finance of finance capital. This in turn set the stage for subsequent developments such as territorialization vigilantism and the abrogation of treaty obligations that provided the context for the sand creek massacre on november 29th. 1864. In the subsequent period following the defeat of the confederacy and the demise of the southern plantocracy the war finance nexus fueled the condensation of us power between the, mississippi and california and in the caribbean. The definitive break in the alliance between northeastern Merchant Capital and southern slaveholding capital around shared investments in cotton led to the development of finance capital investing in industry. By the end of the 1880s us finance capital had in economic terms, nx cuba controlling the production of sugar and Mining Operations burning down old growth forests to establish massive sugar estates building rail and Road Networks to transport raw and finish materials and importing thousands of Seasonal Workers from haiti and jamaica. Have spoken about two executions in 1862 as windows into the transitions in place during that year. Im particularly interested in how the defeat of southern agrarian capital was accomplished not through a revolution in land relations, but instead through a new alliance between finance capital and agrarian capital particularly on the plains of north america and in the islands of the caribbean. I want to end by calling our attention to the saudi execution of 81 prisoners this past march 12th followed by the us shipment of a significant number of patriot missiles to saudi arabia on march 21st as reported in the wall street journal. While the saudis report that they are unable or unwilling to rapidly increase Oil Production to offset sanctioned russian oil for consumers in europe. This is taking place as we witness rapidly unfolding experiments between countries seeking to trade in currencies other than the us dollar. In these recent developments we can see we can also see assertions of power over c and land and attempts to stabilize the petrodollar to project a future for us power. The world remains caught in the grip of the war finance nexus thank you so much. Our next panelist is jimmy sweet. Who is an assistant professor of american studies at rutgers his current book project the mixed blood moment race law and mixed interest during dakota indians in the 19th century midwest analyzes the legal and racial complexities of American Indians of mixed indian and european ancestry with the focus on kinship Family History land dispossession and citizenship. Is dedicated to indigenous language revitalization and preservation and as research is driven by a need to understand the full effects of american colonialism on indigenous americans and how those consequences influence native people today doing so with the hope of contributing to the continued fight for indigenous sovereignty and the healing of indigenous communities, jimmy. Homidakeby chanteo said not the achieves up, you know, that was a formal dakota greeting. I said hello my relatives and thank you for coming to this my mic not working. That working out. All right. Okay. Ill start again. We have the time obviously weve a short few people. I said how many doc efe chante which they are not page use up, you know, and thats a formal dakota greeting and it means hello my relatives and i shake your hands in a goodhearted manner, you know handshaking is a really a big deal and dakota culture and when i was invited to this panel, i intended to talk about the us dakota war of 1862, which is much closer to my area of expertise, but tuna two of the panelists. Were already going to talk about that which unfortunately theyre neither of them are here today. But my thinking lately has been turning a bit more broadly from the from the us dakota war more broadly in scope and and in the time period to think more about native people in the west particularly during the civil war years. So 1862 and the civil war years is a particularly. Horrible moments for native americans. I would i would say its in this moment where the Us Government really goes all out and makes it you know the full policy to dispossess native people of their land and replace them with white settlers. This really wasnt something new the us and other colonial powers in north america have been carrying out genocide and and dispossession of native American People for hundreds of years. But the civil war acted as cover for american lawmakers to explicitly make native land dispossession of a policy of the federal government and so in 1862, weve heard about the the congressional acts of that period the homestead act the Pacific Railroad act the moral act even all of these were legislation that focused on a dispossession of native people and not you know, the dispossession of sovereign indigenous nations, not just individuals but sovereign indigenous nations, and these are sovereign nations at long predates the existence of the United States, but this was a policy intended to remove them from their homelands and replace them with white settlers. In the same years during the civil war. We also see the creation of a large number of territories, colorado, nevada and the dakota territorial governments were created in 1861, arizona and idaho in 1863 and then montana in 1864 a huge swath of the American West then was now, you know government presence and administration was now dramatically increased over this huge swath of native american territory in native american lands, which all these things coupled together this legislation the creation of these territories was really all about using the what was going on in the civil war has covered to dramatically overtake indigenous land. I mean that had always been kind of the practice unfortunately of you know, the American Government and other settler colonial nations and their southern colonial powers before then, but it really kind of ramped up at this moment. And and we also see the the ramp up in violence in this particular moment in 1862. So some of the ones some of these are better known like i mentioned the us dakota war of 1862, you know was was a major war that depopulated the state of minnesota and resulted in you know hundreds of settlers dead hundreds of native people dead and thousands of native people displace from their homes and eventually removed from their homeland in minnesota and one of our commenters who wasnt able to make it today professor gwen. Westerman is actually a descendant of one of the 38 men at least one of the 38 men executed on december 26th. 1862, and i wish she was here to really to give what i know was going to be kind of like a powerful talk about that. But thats one of the better known ones at least you know for historians are theres a decent historiography of that. Another one is the sand creek massacre in 1864 in colorado. Most people have heard of that, you know, and ther