Jefferson Davis Part 1: “The Civil War Was Not About Slavery, it Was About …”

In 1881, while enjoying his retirement at Beauvoir, his home in Biloxi, Mississippi, Jefferson Davis received a call from the future …

On the surface, Jefferson Davis was the perfect person to lead the South in secession from the Union. Prior to the Civil War he served in the United States House and Senate. He understood government. His experience was invaluable because the South had to build a non-existent government from scratch. In this episode, you’ll learn:

How his trouble with authority at Westpoint resulted in some excess drinking that history referred to as “The Egg Nogg Riots”

How and why, he adopted a black child?

Whether or not he dressed up as a woman to escape capture.

And why Davis believed that secession was not only legal, but the right of the South.

Regardless of what you believe about the past, our history is both “history” and it’s “ours. I don’t agree with slavery any more than the way I feel we poorly treated the Native Americans, and I like our Union united. Even though Jefferson Davis didn’t share my beliefs, I’m thankful that he was willing to tell his side of the story and how those beliefs changed with age.

Start the episode and join the conversation.