The Civil War was the deadliest war in American history. Altogether, over 600,000 died in the conflict—more fatalities than World War I and World War II combined. A soldier was 13 times more likely to die in the Civil War than in the Vietnam War. There may have been as many as 60,000 excruciatingly painful amputations performed during the Civil War.
As gory as the Civil War was, Professor Brettle explains that the United States was on the brink of the internecine strife boiling over into a world war. Bringing an international perspective to the Civil War, Professor Brettle discusses how the Caribbean, Britain, France, Spain and Russia shaped events of the era.
Among the fascinating revelations to arise out of this podcast were the following:
- There were no Republican slave owners
- The Ku Klux Klan was established to restore the rule of white Democrats
- How other oppressed peoples—such as the Irish and the Chinese—were viewed by the Confederacy
- What happened to slaves as they reached retirement age
- The extent to which slaves were used for breeding
- How slaves were leased out to others during slack times
- The incidence of slaveholders relocating to points south of the border
Guest Speaker Professor Adrian Brettle
Professor Adrian Brettle lectures at Arizona State University and is the author of Colossal Ambitions: Confederate Planning for a Post-Civil War World. He earned his BA and MA from Cambridge and a doctorate from the University of Virginia.