The Reckoning: Facing the Legacy of Slavery in America

The Reckoning Promo

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 13:15:15 -0400

A promo for the upcoming first season of The Reckoning: Facing the Legacy of Slavery in America, coming September 30, 2020. More information at reckoningradio.org. Subscribe now.

Episode One: Hidden History

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 17:21:15 -0400

The history of slavery is often taught as a bitter chapter of America’s past that has been rectified. But in Kentucky that history has been rarely acknowledged, and is poorly documented. This has made it particularly difficult for African American families to learn anything about their enslaved ancestors. We’ll meet one Black family just beginning to learn about their family’s connections to a plantation in Louisville.

Episode Two: Sold Down the River

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 17:45:29 -0400

Kentucky was an important hub of America’s internal slave trade, with fortunes made by slave traders and those who invested in enslaved people as commodities. We hear from members of a white family that descend from a Louisville slave trader and learn how integral slavery was to their wealth and to the economy of the state of Kentucky.

Episode Three: Recovering History

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 11:07:42 -0400

Due to prohibitions against enslaved people learning to read and write, there are only a few written records left behind by formerly enslaved Kentuckians. But thankfully, over 100 people were interviewed during the 1930s about their experiences while enslaved. These narratives, combined with letters and diaries kept by white enslavers, help us better understand the true nature of slavery in Kentucky.

Episode Four: The Civil War

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 09:39:05 -0400

The Civil War was a confusing time for enslaved people in Kentucky. Because the state remained loyal to the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply and slavery remained legal. And yet when tens of thousands of enslaved Kentuckians joined the Union Army, both the soldiers and their family members were considered free.

Episode Five: Aftermath

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 13:33:02 -0500

Kentuckians fought on both sides of the Civil War but came together at war’s end to oppose a common foe—newly emancipated African Americans yearning for education, dignity, and a decent living. In the process, the state pioneered restrictive racial laws that became models for the rest of the South.

Episode Six: Lost Cause

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 12:51:34 -0500

In the years that followed the Civil War, many Kentuckians embraced the Lost Cause ideology, even if they had fought for the Union. And some joined armed vigilante groups that used violence and terror to keep Black Kentuckians away from power and prosperity.

Episode Seven: Henrietta Wood

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 15:47:24 -0500

In 1848, Henrietta Wood was delighted to be granted her freedom when her enslaver moved to Ohio, a free state. But five years later, she was kidnapped, taken across the river to Kentucky, and sold back into slavery for another 13 years. In 1878, she successfully sued her kidnapper and received the largest known sum ever granted by a U.S. court in restitution for slavery.

Episode Eight: Zebulon Ward

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 17:16:03 -0500

In addition to being a slave trader and the kidnapper of Henrietta Wood (which we heard about in our last episode), Kentuckian Zebulon Ward made a fortune as a pioneer of the convict leasing system, which, through a loophole in the 13th Amendment, continued slavery by another name for decades after the Civil War.

Episode Nine: Facing the Past

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 14:11:52 -0500

There are clear lines that connect the legacy of slavery to many of our present day issues, including the racial inequities of COVID-19 infection and deaths, wealth inequality, and ongoing police brutality. A true and deep understanding of our history allows us to navigate the present moment and stop running away from the past. Features interviews with Sadiqa Reynolds, Dr. Ricky Jones, Dr. Kidada Williams, Dr. Anita Fernander, and Dr. William Darity.

Episode Ten: My Old Kentucky Home

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 14:09:36 -0400

If you live in Kentucky, it is hard to avoid hearing the state song, My Old Kentucky Home. But it is a song with a lot of historical baggage relating to the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow in Kentucky. Our guest, historian Emily Bingham, will help us unpack that baggage. She is the author of an upcoming book about the song, Singing About Slavery: “My Old Kentucky Home.”

Copperhead Conspiracy Trailer

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:09:54 -0500

A six-part podcast series that tells a forgotten story from the American Civil War. A group of Northerners, angry at President Lincoln, conspired with Confederates to plan an armed insurrection intended to topple the governments of several midwestern states and free tens of thousands of Confederate prisoners from Union prisons, hoping they would force an end to the Civil War with the Confederacy intact and slavery still legal. It would have worked, except for a Union spy who was embedded in their midst.

Copperhead Conspiracy: Introduction

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 10:46:41 -0500

During the Civil War, a group of Northern Democrats known as Copperheads came together to oppose the policies of Abraham Lincoln and his Republican Party. As the war progressed, they became progressively more radicalized and began to consider taking violent action in a strategic alliance with the Confederates.

Copperhead Conspiracy: Birth of a Movement

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:01:00 -0500

The Copperhead movement was a coalition of several groups with varied histories and political goals, the seeds of which went back to the early years of the nation. But the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860 activated their worst fears and inspired them to come together to fight against a common foe.

Copperhead Conspiracy: The Union Fights Back

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:01:00 -0500

The summer of 1863 was a momentous period in the Civil War with the Battle of Gettysburg and the Fall of Vicksburg. It was also a turning point in a different kind of war being fought against Copperhead insurrectionists, who were starting to be taken very seriously by Union military officials. To counteract the threat, they started to spy on their own citizens.

Copperhead Conspiracy: Oh Canada

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:01:00 -0500

During the Civil War, neutral Canada became a haven for both exiled Copperheads and Confederate soldiers who had escaped from Union prisons. It then became a base of operations for a planned attack on several Northern cities by a combined force of Copperheads and Confederates.

Copperhead Conspiracy: Fire and Pestilence

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:01:00 -0500

After a planned Copperhead insurrection in Chicago is thwarted, the Confederates pivot to new methods for terrorizing Northern cities using fire, bank robberies, and biological warfare. When those fail to bring the Union to its knees, they turn their attention to kidnapping the President.

Copperhead Conspiracy: Aftermath

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:01:00 -0500

In the wake of Lincoln’s murder, the Confederates successfully derailed efforts to connect them to the assassination plot. We also explore what happened to the various Copperhead conspirators after the Civil War and why these events from 160 years ago still matter today.