))
S9E8 Confederates in Canada and the Canadian Connection to Lincoln's Assassination
Manage episode 389263202 series 3325788
Content provided by David Borys. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by David Borys or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
On the 30th of May 1867 Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederate States of America, arrived in Toronto following his imprisonment after the Civil War. In a speech to a crowd of Canadian onlookers he said, “I thank you for the honour you have shown me, May peace and prosperity be forever the blessing of Canada, for she has been the asylum of many of my friends, as she is now an asylum for myself, may god bless you all.” What did he mean by an asylum for himself and many of his friends? When looking back on the Civil War it is difficult to sympathize with anyone who served on behalf of a political institution that sought to keep hundreds of thousands of people brutally enslaved. Yet, the reality is that back in the 1860s certain parts of Canada, and sizeable groups of Canadians and Maritimers, were indeed sympathetic to the southern cause, if not outright supportive. Various parts of British North America were used by Confederate spies, agents and saboteurs to conduct operations against Abraham Lincoln’s Union. In certain quarters of some cities and towns Confederates and their supporters could be found drinking, socializing, drumming up support, raising money, planning miliary operations and even dreaming of murder.
BOOK RECO: The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots against Lincoln by Julian Sher, published by Alfred E. Knopf Canada in 2023
Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/curiouscanadianhistory Get add free content at Patreon!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
168 episodes
Share
