ABOUT THIS PODCAST 🔗
A podcast investigation about a rebel statue in Kentucky’s Bluegrass. His belt buckle is Confederate, but he wears a Union uniform. Is he a monument to heroism? Or a symbol of treason and racism? Rebel on Main chronicles this statue’s bizarre biography—and the haunting story of the community that now decides its fate.
Hosts:
Update frequency:
every 18 days
Average audio length:
39 minutes
English
United States
11 episodes
since Sept. 17, 2024
serial
OLDEST EPISODE 🔗
It’s a Civil War statue unlike any other—one with a rebel belt and a Union hat. Join historian David Swartz on a podcast investigation of his hometown Confederate statue that stands on Main Street in Jessamine County, Kentucky. Is he a monument to bravery? Or treason and racism? As protesters threa…
PREVIOUS EPISODES 🔗
In June 2020 a Black Lives Matter protest erupts in Jessamine County, Kentucky. It soon transforms into a campaign to destroy the Confederate statue that looms behind them on Main Street.
As historian and local resident David Swartz covers this effort, he also investigates the history of this beau…
On a warm Monday morning, a week after protests broke out in front of the courthouse, a man with short-cropped hair stands beside the statue. Legs astride with an enormous handgun in a holster on his left side, Brandon is guarding “history.” When I approach him, he explains that the statue is not a…
Built with slave labor, Jessamine County, Kentucky, has a history that includes over a dozen lynchings, Jim Crow codes, and continuing racial inequities—all overseen by a Confederate statue on the courthouse lawn.
Like Confederate defender Brandon, Rev. Robert Gates cares very much about history. …
Two weeks into the Black Lives Matter campaign, homeschooler Jenna Sparks gets mad. This sixteen-year-old descendant of a Confederate ancestor, whose name was Jeptha Jefferson Davis Sparks, has a Black cousin, and seeing so many people in Jessamine who fly the Confederate battle flag angers her. So…
Archaeologist Stephen McBride wants to emancipate Jessamine from the Lost Cause. He zeroes in on Camp Nelson, which has nearly disappeared from the county’s memory. Farmers have leveled the earthworks, and developers are eyeing the site. Camp Nelson’s significance has also been buried by racial hos…
Bob doesn’t care at all about the statue—until he does. A Canadian transplant to Jessamine, his ancestry traces back to abolitionist New England. But as the 2020 election approaches, Bob sees a political opening. For months prior to the election, he spends three hours a night working through a list…
Jenna’s petition stalls. Blue Lives Matter outpaces Black Lives Matter. But in 2023 a new surge of activism reignites the controversy. What will happen to Jessamine County’s Confederate statue? And what does the statue’s fate reveal about the soul of the divided southern community?
Resources
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Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from David Swartz, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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