Executive Decision

Executive Decision reviews the most significant presidential decisions in American history: why they happened; how they happened; and what they ultimately tell us about the process of decision making.

Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation Part Six: The Last Best Hope on Earth 12/24/2022

Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation Part Five: The Emancipation Decision 12/24/2022

Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation Part Four: The War to Expand Slavery 12/24/2022

Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation Part Three: Slavery and Human Rights 12/24/2022

Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation Part Three: Slavery and Human Rights American slavery may have been the most successful totalitarian system in history, lasting ten generations, far longer than comparable 20th century totalitarian regimes. In some ways, slavery's success as an economic and socio-political system was that it was just brutal enough to generate effective rates of return on investment. But it became even more brutal from the beginning of the 19th century to the Civil War, in part in response to slave rebellions, and to the attacks on the institution made by abolitionists. In part three of our six part episode on Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, we analyze the economic institution of slavery as practiced in the Antebellum South, and its consequences for the black and white people that lived in it. And borrowing from the American writer James Baldwin, we try and understand why this institution led to so many racial attitudes that informed Lincoln's time--and our own. Part 3: Slavery and Human Rights Audio Clips: James Baldwin, “You’re the Nigger” (1963): Music Clips: “Long John,” Prisoners of Darrington State Prison Farm, Texas (1933/34?): “St. Louis Blues,” Bessie Smith (1929): “I Be So Happy When The Sun Goes Down,” Ed Lewis: “CC Rider Blues,” Ma Rainey (1924): “Early in the Mornin’,” Prisoners of Parchman Farm, Louisiana (1947): “Berta, Berta,” Prisoners of Parchman Farm, Louisiana (1947): “Stackolee,” Woody Guthrie (1944): Bibliography: Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made (Vintage, 1976) Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene Genovese, Slavery in Black and White: Race and Class in the Southern Slaveholders’ New World Order (Cambridge, 2008) Frederick Law Olmstead, The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveller's Observations On Cotton And Slavery In The American Slave States, 1853-1861 (1861; Bedford/St. Martin’s 2014) Calvin Schermerhorn, The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism, 1815-1860 (Yale, 2015) George Fitzhugh, Cannibals all! or, Slaves without masters (1857; Kindle, 2015) Mary Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War (1981; edited by C. Vann Woodward) J.H. Ingraham, The South-West By a Yankee. In Two Volumes. (1835; Kindle, 2017) Sally Hadden, Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas (Harvard University Press, 2001) Richard Blackett, Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery (University of North Carolina Press, 2013) /episode/index/show/executivedecision/id/25426023

Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, Part Two: Democracy, Perfectionism and Degradation 12/24/2022

Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, Part Two: Democracy, Perfectionism and Degradation In the antebellum South, democracy was racialized; as the vote was extened to every white man, it was granted in return for the political support of forced labor slavery. In part two of our six part episode on Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, we review this process, and the social context in which Lincoln made his emancipation decision. We probe attitudes towards democracy, the religious concept of perfectionism, and the idea of social degradation, especially in the context of slavery. We ask the question: How could so many people support an economic institution that was leading to dehumanization and social decline? Part 2: Democracy, Perfectionism and Degradation Audio Clips: Barack Obama, Speech on the Constitution, March 8, 2008: Music Clips: “We’re Coming Father Abraam” (date unknown): “Tyler and Tippecanoe (1842), Sing Along with Millard Fillmore (1964): “Draw Me Nearer,” Rittersville Sunday School (1890?): “Roll Jordan Roll,” Fisk Jubilee Singers (1927): Bibliography Merle Curti, The Growth of American Thought (Harper, 1951) Marvin Meyers, The Jacksonian Persuasion (Vintage, 1957) Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 (Norton, 2013) Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People (1973; Yale, 2004) Vernon Louis Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought: Volume 2 - The Romantic Revolution in America, 1800-1860 (1927; University of Oklahoma,1987) Joshua Rothman, Flush Times and Fever Dreams: A Story of Capitalism and Slavery in Jacksonian America (University of Georgia, 2012) Richard Blackett, Building an Antislavery Wall: Black Americans in the Atlantic Abolitionist Movement, 1830-1860 (Louisiana State University Press, 1983) Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition and the Men who Made it (Vintage, 1973) Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822-1832 (Harper, 1981) Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1822-1845 (Harper, 1984) /episode/index/show/executivedecision/id/25425999