The Union Rapists

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contents graphic depictions of sexual assault and violence, occasionally involving minors.The American Civil War was supposedly a war of liberation. But the question of who some of these liberators actually were rarely gets asked. Most of the soldiers on the side of liberation--the Union Army--were simply grunts; uneducated, poor men who were completely unprepared for the horrors that awaited them.Equally unprepared were the women of the South, both white and black. Some feared having their property taken away from them. Others were the property and were told they were being freed. And yet both groups were only really concerned with their lives. This is the story of roaming gangs of drunken hooligans, serial abusers and rapists, ostensibly socially-conscious racists, and pederasts, not to mention the legal system that protected them: not the picture of an army of liberators fighting for a noble cause that many of us were taught in school.Music thanks to Lobo Loco for the track "Work Wonders".(If you don't want to listen to the news/housekeeping, skip ahead to the five minute mark). Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support.