Rachel Swarns of the New York Times joins us to discuss what she discovered when she followed the money trail of one of the nation's top financial institutions all the back to the 19th century. 
Further reading:
You can read more of Rachel Swarns's reporting here, and check out her book, American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama. For further reading on slave insurance we recommend Investing in Life: Insurance in Antebellum America by Sharon Ann Murphy.
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The Assets

America is divided, and it always has been. We're going back to the moment when that split turned into war. This is Uncivil: Gimlet Media's new history podcast, hosted by journalists Jack Hitt and Chenjerai Kumanyika. We ransack the official version of the Civil War, and take on the history you grew up with. We bring you untold stories about covert operations, corruption, resistance, mutiny, counterfeiting, antebellum drones, and so much more. And we connect these forgotten struggles to the political battlefield we’re living on right now.

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News

Hey Uncivil listeners! We want to share a new show we think you’ll love, made by one of our producers. Resistance is a show about refusing to accept things as they are. Stories from the front lines of the movement for Black lives, told by the generation fighting for change. In this first episode, 22-year-old Chi Ossé goes out to protest and the trajectory of his life is changed forever. If you like this episode, follow now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Introducing Resistance: Is It Too Revolutionary?

A young woman, held by one of America’s founding slaveowners, bolts one day for a life of freedom that keeps her on the lam for the rest of her life, eventually touching upon the life of the most notorious slaveowner of the Civil War. 
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The Fugitive

Two brilliant women—one black, one white—assemble a spy ring in the rebel capital of Richmond, Virginia that eventually attempts a ‘mission impossible’ inside the military planning rooms of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. 
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The Ring

Hey, Uncivil listeners! This week we’re sharing a story from our friends at the The Nod, a podcast that tells the stories of Black life that don't get told anywhere else. We know you all will love this episode about a woman who broke away from a plantation in the South, where descendants of enslaved people and slave owners stayed together as family, long after the end of slavery. 
To listen to part 2 of the story, Diary of a Mad Black Cousin, look for The Nod in your podcast feed, wherever you get them, or on their website, http://www.gimletmedia.com/the-nod.
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Uncivil Presents: The Nod

A listener voicemail sends us deep down the rabbit hole into one of the most toxic myths of the Confederacy.
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The Assets

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