[00:07] Between 1860 and 1861, 11 southern
states withdrew from the United States
[00:12] and formed 
the Confederate States of America.
[00:16] They left, or seceded, in response
to the growing movement
[00:19] for the nationwide abolition of slavery.
[00:22] Mississippi said,
[00:23] “our position is thoroughly identified 
with the institution of slavery.”
[00:27] South Carolina cited “hostility
on the part of the non-slaveholding states
[00:31] to the institution of slavery.”
[00:33] In March 1861, the Vice President 
of the Confederacy, Alexander Stevens,
[00:39] proclaimed that the cornerstone of the new
Confederate government
[00:42] was white supremacy, or as he put it,
[00:44] “slavery” and “subordination” 
to white people
[00:47] was the “natural and normal condition” 
of Black people in America
[00:50] and the “immediate cause of the late 
rupture and present revolution.”
[00:55] Three weeks after the now-infamous
Cornerstone Speech,
[00:57] the American Civil War began.
[00:59] The conflict lasted four years, 
had a death toll of about 750,000,
[01:04] and ended with the Confederacy’s defeat.
[01:07] By 1866, 
barely a year after the war ended,
[01:11] southern sources began claiming the 
conflict wasn’t actually about slavery.
[01:15] Meanwhile, Frederick Douglass,
[01:17] a prominent abolitionist 
and formerly enslaved person, cautioned,
[01:21] “the spirit of secession
is stronger today than ever.”
[01:25] From the words of Confederate leaders,
[01:27] the reason for the war could not have
been clearer— it was slavery.
[01:31] So how did this revisionist history 
come about?
[01:34] The answer lies in the Lost Cause—
a cultural myth about the Confederacy.
[01:39] The term was coined by Edward Pollard,
a pro-Confederate journalist.
[01:42] In 1866, he published “The Lost Cause:
[01:46] A New Southern History 
of the War of the Confederates.”
[01:49] Pollard pointed out that 
the U.S. Constitution gave states
[01:52] the right to govern themselves
independently in all areas
[01:56] except those explicitly designated 
to the national government.
[01:59] According to him, the Confederacy 
wasn’t defending slavery,
[02:02] it was defending each state’s right 
to choose whether or not to allow slavery.
[02:07] This explanation effectively turned 
white southerners’ documented defense
[02:10] of slavery and white supremacy into a 
patriotic defense of the Constitution.
[02:15] The Civil War had devastated the country,
[02:17] leaving those who had 
supported the Confederacy
[02:20] grasping to justify their actions.
[02:22] Many pro-Confederate writers, 
political leaders, and others
[02:25] were quick to adopt and spread 
the narrative of the Lost Cause.
[02:29] One organization, 
the United Daughters of the Confederacy,
[02:33] played a key role in transmitting 
the ideas of the Lost Cause
[02:36] to future generations.
[02:38] Founded in Nashville, Tennessee, 
in 1894,
[02:41] the UDC united thousands of middle 
and upper class white southern women.
[02:46] The UDC raised thousands of dollars to 
build monuments to Confederate soldiers.
[02:51] These were often unveiled 
with large public ceremonies,
[02:53] and given prominent placements, 
especially on courthouse lawns.
[02:57] The Daughters also placed 
Confederate portraits in public schools.
[03:01] They monitored textbooks to minimize
the horrors of slavery,
[03:03] and its significance in the Civil War,
[03:06] passing revisionist history and racist
ideology down through generations.
[03:11] By 1918, the UDC claimed 
over 100,000 members.
[03:15] As their numbers grew, they increased 
their influence outside the South.
[03:20] Presidents William Howard Taft 
and Woodrow Wilson
[03:23] both met with UDC members 
and enabled them to memorialize
[03:26] the Confederacy 
in Arlington National Cemetery.
[03:29] The UDC still exists and defends
Confederate symbols
[03:32] as part of a noble heritage of sacrifice
by their ancestors.
[03:36] Despite the wealth of primary sources
[03:37] showing that slavery was the root cause 
of the Civil War,
[03:40] the myth about states’ rights 
persists today.
[03:43] In the aftermath of the war,
[03:45] Frederick Douglass 
and his abolitionist contemporaries
[03:48] feared this erasure of slavery 
from the history of the Civil War
[03:52] could contribute 
to the government’s failure
[03:54] to protect the rights of Black Americans—
[03:56] a fear that has repeatedly
been proven valid.
[03:59] In an 1871 address at Arlington Cemetery,
Douglass said:
[04:03] “We are sometimes asked 
in the name of patriotism
[04:06] to forget the merits 
of this fearful struggle,
[04:09] and to remember with equal admiration
those who struck at the nation’s life,
[04:13] and those who struck to save it—
[04:15] those who fought for slavery and those who
fought for liberty and justice. [...]
[04:19] if this war is to be forgotten, 
I ask in the name of all things sacred,
[04:24] what shall men remember?”