12. US history - The Civil War (1861-1865) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:08Here's a map of the United States during
2. 0:11the Civil War. Now, at this point, all
3. 0:15of this
4. 0:17um is not part of the country yet. So,
5. 0:20as you can see, the country was
6. 0:22basically split in half. The Union in
7. 0:25blue was the northern states. The
8. 0:28Confederacy in gray was the southern
9. 0:31states that separated from the Union and
10. 0:34the red states in the middle are the
11. 0:36border states. Um those were slave
12. 0:39states that stayed loyal to the union.
13. 0:42Um you can also see here
14. 0:46that Virginia split during the war. The
15. 0:50western part broke away to form West
16. 0:52Virginia in 1863
17. 0:54because it wanted to stay in the Union.
18. 0:57So that's why we have a Virginia and a
19. 0:59West Virginia, but no east or north or
20. 1:03south Virginia.
21. 1:06The Confederacy um even had its own
22. 1:09president, its own flag, and its own
23. 1:11government just like the Union. And you
24. 1:13can see the flags here. The Union, this
25. 1:17one, um used the flag that we still
26. 1:21recognize today as the country's flag.
27. 1:23And this
28. 1:26is the Confederate battle flag. Now, not
29. 1:29only the Union's flag, but also that
30. 1:31Confederate flag is still around today.
31. 1:35Um, it's important to know what it
32. 1:36represents. So, uh, it represents
33. 1:39slavery, white supremacy, and the
34. 1:42oppression of black Americans. So, if
35. 1:45you ever visit the South and you see one
36. 1:47of these Confederate flags, um, I
37. 1:50suggest you turn around and leave as
38. 1:52it's not just a historical decoration.
39. 1:55It's quite a hateful symbol with a very
40. 1:59painful meaning. Now, the central issue
41. 2:03behind the war was slavery. The southern
42. 2:07economy depended on enslaved people to
43. 2:10work in plantations and to produce crops
44. 2:12like cotton and tobacco. So like very
45. 2:16heavy manual labor. Now the north in
46. 2:19contrast was already quite
47. 2:21industrialized and moving away from
48. 2:24slavery. Um and it wasn't just a
49. 2:26political disagreement.
50. 2:28The civil war was a clash over human
51. 2:31freedom and basic human rights. So
52. 2:34without understanding slavery, you can't
53. 2:37really understand why the civil war even
54. 2:39happened. Now even today, the legacy of
55. 2:43the war is visible um in in the streets.
56. 2:47Um many statues of Confederate leaders
57. 2:50like General Robert E. Lee have been
58. 2:54quite controversial just like the
59. 2:56statues of Columbus that we discussed
60. 2:58earlier or King Leopul 2 here in
61. 3:01Belgium. Um and for example in
62. 3:04Charlottesville, Virginia
63. 3:06um there were attempts made to remove
64. 3:08the Lee statue in 2017. Um and those
65. 3:12sparked the Unite the Right rally. Now
66. 3:15on this slide you can see the statue
67. 3:17itself as well as both sides of uh
68. 3:22protesters
69. 3:23um people who do not want the statue to
70. 3:27be removed. And um in order to
71. 3:29understand what type of people we're
72. 3:31dealing with, well, we can see some of
73. 3:33them doing Nazi salutes in the picture
74. 3:35quite literally um and the other side um
75. 3:38as you can see um protesting for Black
76. 3:41Lives Matter. So that basically shows us
77. 3:44that monuments like these are not just
78. 3:47neutral. They carry meaning and they
79. 3:50send messages about who we honor and
80. 3:54even more importantly perhaps who we do
81. 3:57not wish to honor um anymore.
82. 4:03Here's a short video of the Lee statue
83. 4:05being removed in Richmond, Virginia. Um,
84. 4:08the removal sparked protests, but it
85. 4:10also showed that society is questioning
86. 4:13which historical figures we choose to
87. 4:16publicly honor and to no longer publicly
88. 4:20honor. Well, tonight, a vivid reminder
89. 4:23of the Civil War and America's history
90. 4:25of slavery no longer stands in a place
91. 4:27of honor in Virginia's capital. CBS's
92. 4:29Deborah Alvaron was in Richmond as a
93. 4:3112tonon statue of Confederate General
94. 4:34Robert E. Lee was taken down.
95. 4:38What has become the most notorious
96. 4:40monuments to one of the most
97. 4:41controversial figures of the Civil War
98. 4:44came down gently but decisively this
99. 4:46morning. The largest Confederate statue
100. 4:49in the country has now been removed.
101. 4:52The 131-year-old bronze statue of
102. 4:55Confederate General Robert E. Lee was
103. 4:58quickly dismantled at the torso and
104. 5:00hauled away in pieces. Virginia Governor
105. 5:03Ralph Northam ordered the statue removed
106. 5:05last year following the murder of George
107. 5:07Floyd.
108. 5:17Okay, so here are some images from this
109. 5:20Unite the Right rally in Virginia. So
110. 5:22you can see protesters displaying um
111. 5:26Nazi flags, uh KKK flags, uh Confederate
112. 5:30flags, uh ridiculous banners that say
113. 5:33things like diversity is white genocide.
114. 5:37Um and you can even see proud boys wear
115. 5:39t-shirts with 6MWE,
116. 5:426 million wasn't enough, a reference to
117. 5:45the Holocaust. Um, and this is why it
118. 5:48was so shocking when President Trump was
119. 5:50asked whether he condemned these white
120. 5:52nationalist protesters. And instead of
121. 5:55condemning him, he defended them saying
122. 5:58that there were very fine, very good
123. 6:00people on both sides, like very fine.
124. 6:04One side is literally waving Nazi flags
125. 6:06and threatening violence. That's that's
126. 6:08not fine. That's dangerous. So this
127. 6:11comment ignored the reality of what
128. 6:12these groups stood for and tried to make
129. 6:15moral equivalence between people
130. 6:17fighting for equality and people
131. 6:20promoting hate.
132. 6:24Fast forward to today. How Americans
133. 6:26understand a civil war is still quite
134. 6:29problematic. A 2018 nationwide study
135. 6:32found that only 8% of students your age
136. 6:36could correctly identify slavery as the
137. 6:38main cause of the Civil War. Now, this
138. 6:41ties into debates over critical race
139. 6:43theory or CRT. CRT is a way of studying
140. 6:46history and society that looks at how
141. 6:49racism is not just about individual
142. 6:52prejudice, but is built into laws,
143. 6:55institutions, culture. It tries to show
144. 6:59how racism affects real people's lives
145. 7:01even today and why events like the Civil
146. 7:04War or slavery or segregation still
147. 7:06matter. Some protesters, however,
148. 7:09misunderstand or even choose to
149. 7:11misrepresent CRT, holding signs like CRT
150. 7:14equals creating racial tension or having
151. 7:17children hold signs like I am not an
152. 7:19oppressor or stop teaching racism, no
153. 7:22CRT, etc. The connection is clear. If
154. 7:25students aren't learning the central
155. 7:27role of slavery in the Civil War, it's
156. 7:29easier for people to dismiss or even
157. 7:32deny the ongoing effects of racism. CRT
158. 7:35tries to fill that gap by explaining the
159. 7:38bigger picture. Why monuments,
160. 7:40Confederate flags, and education about
161. 7:42race are still important topics today.