Thenceforward and Forever Free: Show Segments
The following are individual show segments included in the BackStory episode “Thenceforward and Forever Free: The Emancipation Proclamation,” broadcast in September 2012. You can listen to the entire episode here.
Image Problems
Brian talks with art historian Kirk Savage about how Americans have memorialized Lincoln as “The Great Emancipator,” and they examine how that image was used in an 1876 national monument.
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A Delicate Matter
Historian David Blight describes the controversy that marked the Emancipation Proclamation’s centennial.
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Just the Facts, Ma’am
Brian and Peter talk to legal historian Michael Vorenberg to nail down what exactly the Emancipation Proclamtion did and didn’t do.
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Plan B
The History Guys discuss Lincoln’s anxieties over whether blacks and whites could live together peacefully in the wake of slavery, and ask what motivated his proposals to resettle freedpeople outside the US.
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Vantage Points
Ed talks with Christy Coleman on the varying perspectives towards the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in the South.
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Listener Call
Peter, Ed, and Brian take a call from a listener.
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A Long Way From There to Here
BackStory producer Eric Mennel talks with writer and editor Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic about the legacy of emancipation for African-Americans today.
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In Their Own Words
Three former slaves, recorded by the WPA in the 1930s, describe their experiences of emancipation.
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