Tvs afterwards, damon root on the long standing battle of Supreme Court activism and ju additional restraint and sunday at 10 00 p. M. , jonathan yeardley, who retired after 33 years with the washington post. And on American History tv on cspan saturday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on the civil war, historians and authors discuss president lincolns 1864 Reelection Campaign and sunday afternoon at 4 00 on reel america, tried by fire. A 1965 film that chronicles the 84th Infantry Division of the battle of the bulge. Find our complete schedule and let us know about the programs youre watching. Join the cspan conversation. Like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. Next on American History tv, author and history professor michael ross discusses his book on the 1870 kidnapping of molly digby. The child of poor irish immigrants in new orleans. She was abducted by two black women and the case exacerbated racial tensions brought about by reconstruction. The Pratt Library hosted this 50minute event. Good evening. Its very nice to be here at the Pratt Library surrounded by pictures of Edgar Alan Poe and books about poe. Baltimore in many ways has a feel a lot like new orleans, an old port city with traditions and quirky and sometimes spooky history. I always kind of feel at home in baltimore just as i feel at home in new orleans. Where i lived for ten years. Introduce you to this case that has kind of disappeared from the american memory. But for the summer of 1870 captivated the nation. Newspaper readers across the country. Try to explain it to you so that you can see what i saw as i stumbled across it. I began writing i found this story while i was doing much more traditional legal history. I was researching the famous slaughterhouse cases, the first case where the Supreme Court interpreted the 14th amendment. I was reading every single day of the new orleans newspapers in 1870. Suddenly, theres this story about a white baby being abducted by two africanamerican women. The rumor begins to circulate that the baby has been abducted for use as a voodoo sacrifice. I was like, holy smokes, could that be or was that just the press telling a story. The new orleans newspapers talked about ghost sightings. The story picked up steam. The police are arresting voodoo practitioners. There was all these other implications tied with politics of reconstruction. I realized i had stumbled on to something really quite interesting. So what i want to do is show you what interested me so much. This is new orleans around the time of 1870. The digby family were irish immigrants who had come with a great wave of famine irish. Back in the late 1840s. They lived in a swampy area known as the back of town. Its back in here. It was a low rent district because it flooded all the time. It was a place where people of different races and immigrant backgrounds all lived on top of one another. It is here that on a summer evening in 1870 the digby children are playing out in the street and a neighboring teenager is watching them. And two africanamerican women come by and coo molly digby the child. Eventually the teenager allows the women to hold a baby. And she goes off to look at the fire down the block and these women leave with the child. In a crimefilled city, this normally particularly in a poor neighborhood, this would have ended up on the second or third page of the paper in the city intelligence columns where every day there was murders and knifings and things going on. nkp it would have disappeared into the mist. Until it gets entangled in the politics of reconstruction. This is where that neighborhood is today. The digbys back of town street is the street you walk down as you entered super dome to go to saints football games. The neighborhood torn down and urban redevelopment plans in the 50s and 60s. Every time i went to a saints game, i was walking down the street of my story. People were getting ready for game time, i was haunted by the story. Here is the thing i saw in the newspaper. This is from the mobile paper reporting the events in new orleans. You will see what it says. A horrible suspicion is connects in the mind with the abduction of infant child of mr. Digby which took place on the 9th of june. Its important to this story because two weeks later was saint johns eve. Saint johns eve is a sacred night in the voodoo religion and they consider themselves to be catholic. They practice a version of african religion and catholicism. On saint johns eve they would have ceremonies on the lake. The newspapers of new orleans are now going to allege that molly digby has been abducted for use as a voodoo sacrifice at the ceremony. You see in the article, the secrecy in which the cruel deed is involved has excited a general suspicion that the child was stolen for sacrifice. According to the rites of voodooism which is prevalent among negros in louisiana. Its true, voodooism of the practicing of voodoo was a flourishing religion in 19th century louisiana. During slavery, it was kept under wraps because slave owners found it threatening. When the civil war ends, voodoo practitioners can practice in the open. This lends to whites fears the society is being turned upside down. This is a depiction of a ceremony that isnt too critical. But this is the next one is the one that you would see more often, kind of sensationalize depictions. This is out of a new orleans newspaper. Depravity and lust locked arms at a voodoo dance. Again, you might write this off as just a sensational story. But i very quickly realized, particularly from the newspapers that were highlighting it, thatx the story was being used by the conservative white press by conservative, i mean people at the time who were opposed to reconstruction. Many of them were exconfederates, former democrats and wigs who were appalled that the north backed by federal bayonets, had created reconstruction governments in the south where africanamerican men could vote, where about a third of the Louisiana Legislature was africanamerican, where africanamericans are serving in government positions, serving on juries and in new orleans on the police force. The reconstruction governor integrates the new Orleans Police force. These are africanamerican members of the Louisiana Legislature during reconstruction. Y b and they were about a third of the membership of that body. Here is africanamerican pictures of africanamerican men in louisiana voting after the military reconstruction act of 1867. And then the 15th amendment. And here is a black policeman in new orleans, a couple of depictions of black policemen in new orleans. You can see the caption from the man who wrote this book. The polite but consequential negro policeman. They were on the street with full authority to arrest white people for many whites in new orleans, it was almost too much to bare, a world turned upside down in a short time because of the civil war. This is a critical depiction of the new Orleans Legislature of the Louisiana Legislature at the time where the critics of the legislature depicted it as a place where former slaves in from the fields illiterate, elected to office run amok in the legislature along with poor whites from the dirt perishes and the north of louisiana who they called scallywags. This will be depicted in a movie and still haunts the american imagination that somehow the reconstruction legislatures were places where where things had gone awry. So as this case gets sensationalized, as the white press is arguing, this is what we can expect, now that africanamericans are free from slavery, over 10,000 move from the plantations into the cities. Now that theres black policemen on the street who they suspect will wink and not when black people commit crimes against white people, the newspapers will start to demand that the reconstruction governor solve this crime. In particular, theyre going to listen to the calls that this crime be solved by the elite white women of new orleans, the wives of the most prominent financiers in the city who are going to adopt the digby case as their own and travel to the back of town bringing baked goods to the house and a neighborhood they normally would never go. They would be in the french French Quarter townhouse and marching to the home of the reconstruction governor demanding that he solve the crime. I just want to read you a paragraph from the book. n give you some sense of how the book is written about these activities by elite women and why i found it so interesting. As the coverage of the digby abduction became more sensational, prominent white women from the most famous new orleans families adopted the case as their own. In late june and early july, wealthy women of new orleans would usually be preparing to leave town for cooler climbs. Just as many theaters and restaurants closed for the season each summer, elite families put linen covers on furniture, packed white dresses, suits and hats into trunks and set off by rail and steamboat for the coast, the north or europe. In 1870, many women took time to march to Police Headquarters to demand resolution of the digby case. They also went to the back of town, a neighborhood they avoided, bringing food and gifts to the digbys house. The case provided an opportunity tore the citys women to enter the public debate over a reconstruction and to express ab governor, his police force and the emerging racial order in louisiana. Raised in a culture that required them to behave, most elite women left public commentary on politics to men. But in early july, 61 women presented a petition to the governor urging him to do something so that the painful feeling of the community in regard to this lawless outrage may be allayed by the early restoration of the child to those who love it. The press applauded the petition made to the governor by our ladies and demanded that he offer a state reward for mollys return. This is the reconstruction governor of louisiana, 28yearold henry clay warmoth, a former Union Soldier elected to office largely by the votes of africanamerican men. His critics thought he was too young to be governor. They dubbed him the boy governor. But he believed that he was actually doing gods work. Theres this image of the northerners in the south after the civil war where they are called carpetbaggers that they were there to make themselves rich and to exploit the populous. The votes of socalled ignorant negros for their own gain. Warmoth actually believes in what some people have called the public of prosperity. He believed in they could bring improvements that they could lure into the fold economically minded businessmen who would realize that the republicans were doing things that they had long called for and that they might be willing to put racial animosity aside in return tore economic development. This is warmoths goal. He is desperately wants to prove that his new integrated new Orleans Police force can solve this crime. And he accepts the petition. He puts up a state reward for the return of molly that eventually goes up to 5,000. About 40,000 today. Which is a lot of money after the civil war. It will turn the case into the powerball of 1870 as everyone who sees an africanamerican nanny with a white baby thinks they have found the kidnappers of molly digby. And he has a group on his side that is going to make new orleans and perhaps mobile the places where many historians argue if reconstruction was ever going to succeed, here it had the best chance. The group in new orleans that i speak of are the afrocreoles. They are a very interesting group, largely in louisiana and mobile. They emerge from the culture of French Colonial louisiana where÷ wealthy white men often had romantic relationships with mixed race and black women. And in this situation, when children were born, the white fathers, while they couldnt mary the women, made sure that their children had a start in life, made sure they had money, got an education, they would attend baptisms. As a result, theres a class of free persons of color before the civil war who are going to continue on in leadership roles after the war that you dont normally think of when you think of the slave south. I want to take a moment and just read to you from the book about the afrocreoles so you understand why they are so important and why warmoth will have the majority of his police force and elected black officials in louisiana are afrocreoles because they are a polished class of people who could put the lie reactionary whites argument that africanamericans were illiterate and couldnt join in government. Let me explain this to you. Let me add one point so this makes sense. What warmoth will do is he will have his police chief choose his best afrocreole detective, the first black detectives in American History, to be the lead detective in the digby case. The detective that he chooses is a man named john baptist jordan person of color class and then joins the union army when he gets the chance and then becomes a detective in the police force. And our afrocreole detective, in some way the protagonist of my story, im going to place him within the context of his afrocreole heritage. As a creole of color or afrocreole, detective jordan belongs to a class unique to the gulf coast. In colonial louisiana, anyone born in the colony is a creole. And white, who identified with french culture and language and feared being overwhelmed by the americans who arrived in new orleans after the Louisiana Purchase selfidentified as creoles. Afrocreoles of his class considered themselves to be cosmopolitan gentlemen and lady. Bilingual and mannerly, they looked to paris for inspiration. Many elite afrocreole men wore silk pants and fine jackets. They dined with silver utensils, filled homes with books and furniture, attended the opera, published their own newspaper, studied classical literature, formed lodges and drew inspiration from the ideals of the french revolution. Their ranks included writers, poets and composers as well as doctors, merchants and skilled art sans. They constituted only 7 of the souths free black population in 1860, louisianas afrocreoles held almost 60 of the real estate owned by the free black people. On under the slave regime, creoles of color took pride in the identity they shared with white creoles. They relished food, wine and French Colonial architecture. White creoles patronized black butchers, carpenters, mechanics, they attended plays, fights and circuses together, albeit on a n segregated basis. You get the idea. John baptist jordan comes out of this class. Again, what warmoth wants to prove is the police force had been previously largely a group of thugs. Every mayor that came in would turn the police force into his private army appointing their supporters. In the 1850s when the no nothings controlled new orleans, they filled the police force with thugs who would beat up the irish and germans. Right after the civil war, they fill it up with the men from henry hazes brigade but who were kind of antireconstruction. When reconstruction begins, the police force now will get afrocreoles along with white officers who are committed to reconstruction. The mannerly educated polished well dressed detective jordan is exactly the person that warmoth wants leading this investigation. Images of white and black creoles strolling in new orleans this is the police chief of new orleans, whose job it is to direct jordan and the other detectives in this investigation. Interesting to a baltimore audience, he was part of the massachusetts regiment that arrived on pratt street at the beginning of the civil war in response to lincolns call for volunteers thats attacked by a baltimore mob. They have to fight their way across the city. He was a member of that regiment. He knew how fearsome resistance could be. One quick side light. I had hoped he would play more of a role in the story. Jordan is my lead detective. One other detective that plays an early role in the case but vanishes, i have to mention because its fun, is a detective named jordan noble who is 72 years old. He was Andrew Jacksons drummer boy. He is africanamerican and goes on to be the drummer boy as white new orleans forces fight t in the mexican war. And then becomes an officer in the union army during the civil war. And then becomes a detective. Early on, he and jordan go in disguise into black neighbors to get evidence dressed as common laborers. Unfortunately, jordan who is my badger is directing the case. Again, people are now looking for any africanamerican woman who is seen with a white baby. All over new orleans and the south, that had been the condition of things through all time. So everyone who now sees an africanamerican woman with a white baby goes running to the police, i want to collect the reward. The newspaper fills with leads. Cincinnati, all over the place. At one point they actually there was a travelingpi it. These are homes standing in uptown new orleans at a Street Corner called bell castle and camp. They are stand across the street from homes that are that were central to my story, since torn down, but look like those buildings would have looked. This is what i want to tell you. Im not going to tell you tonight what happens to molly digby. I want you to read the book to i will tell you who the republican reconstruction government eventually accuses of having committed the crime. And they eventually commit accused of committing the crime two afrocreole sisters, one who lived in mobile and one who lived in the houses across the street from these. Those sisters ran a very interesting business. They were proprietors in both cities of lying in hospitals. What that meant was they were places where when wealthy white women got pregnant in difficult sirs, out of we had log, they could go to one of the sisters houses and spend the time there during their pregnancy and have the baby outside of prying eyes. If a woman from a plantation family in mobile, in alabama, got in trouble, the sister in mobile would bring the woman to her sister in uptown new orleans. The reverse was true of a fine new orleans family got in trouble, she would go to mobile. The reason why they were able t pull this business off is because both of these women have exquisite taste. When at their trial all the papers do is fawn over what they are wearing, how beautiful their hair is, how strikingly beautiful they are and how their home was filled with rosewood furniture and paintings. This is an