Civil War Talk Radio: June 2, 2006

Air Date: 060206
Subject: Fergus M. Bordewich: Bound for Canaan on the Underground Railroad
Book:  Bound For Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America
Guest: Fergus M. Bordewich

Summary: One of the paths that led to the Civil War was a hidden one: the Underground Railroad. Fergus M. Bordewich, author of Bound For Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America, reveals the reality behind a much mythologized historical phenomenon.

Brett’s Summary: Fergus Bordewich and Gerry spend the hour talking about the Underground Railroad.  Gerry asks some thought-provoking questions, including how much information is available now on what was by its very nature a secretive operation.  Gerry also points out that white America might use the Underground Railroad in some ways to assuage guilt about the institution of slavery in this country.  Mr. Bordewich, a writer by trade, initially set out to do an article on the topic and was astonished to find no major books in the bookstore.  In fact, the last published history of the Underground Railroad prior to Bound for Canaan was published in 1898!  One of the more interesting discussions during this hour centered on just how successful the Underground Railroad was and the efforts of Southern politicians to blame all slave escapes on the operation as a propaganda tool.

Civil War Talk Radio airs most Fridays at 12 PM Pacific on World Talk Radio Studio A. Host Gerry Prokopowicz, the History Chair at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, interviews a guest each week and discusses their interest in the Civil War. Most interviews center around a book or books if the guest is an author. Other guests over the years have included public Historians such as park rangers and museum curators,wargamers, bloggers, and even a member of an American Civil War Round Table located in London, England.

In this series of blog entries, I will be posting air dates, subjects, and guests, and if I have time, I’ll provide a brief summary of the program. You can find all of the past episodes I’ve entered into the blog by clicking on the Civil War Talk Radio category. Each program should appear either on or near the date it was first broadcast.