Enslavers in Kentucky and elsewhere prospered in many different ways from their ownership of enslaved people—from their free labor, as commodities to be borrowed against, and from the profits made in buying, selling, and leasing them. However, many of their present day descendants have little or no knowledge of their family’s connection to slavery. This history was largely hidden in the recesses of their collective memory.

One of the things we examine in this series is how our country has developed such a profound misunderstanding of its own history.  In the aftermath of the Civil War, a coalition of Confederate veterans and their family members began to promote an alternative history of slavery and why the war was fought that came to be known as the Lost Cause. Kentuckians were central to this effort, and worked tirelessly to publish books, text books, and periodicals that deeply affected the national narrative about slavery and the Civil War to this day.

We have interviewed numerous writers, historians, social scientists, legal scholars, and others who can help us better understand the ways that slavery was integral to the United States and its economy, how racial violence and oppression were used to control African Americans in the decades after slavery, and how historians and educators were affected by the mythology of the Lost Cause. In addition, we have spoken with epidemiologists and public health scholars to better understand how this history affects racial disparities with COVID-19 outcomes.

The final product is a series of four hour-long specials for public radio, as well as a regular podcast, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and many other podcasting platforms. 

The series is produced by Dan Gediman, who has been producing award-winning programming for public radio for over 35 years, including the NPR series This I Believe, the Audible documentary series The Home Front: Life in America During World War II, and 50 Years After 14 August, which won the duPont-Columbia award, one of the highest honors in broadcasting. 

Loretta Williams is a Peabody award-winning reporter, producer and editor interested in stories that delve into America’s cultural divides. She’s been a producer and editor for NPR and SoundVision Productions. Since 2008 she’s been a freelance journalist working on a wide range of projects such as ISeeChange.org, the Scene on Radio from the Center for Documentary Studies and the Us & Them podcast. She is the editor for The Reckoning and brings the perspective of a descendent of those who were (mostly likely) enslaved.

Nancy Rosenbaum is a producer on The Reckoning. She is an award-winning audio journalist and documentarian whose work investigates the connections between history, culture, race and identity.

Dr. Carly Mutterties, executive director of the Kentucky Council for the Social Studies, and University of Kentucky education professor Dr. Kathy Swan have served as educational consultants.

Acclaimed Louisville composer Jecorey “1200” Arthur composed the theme music for the series.

Major funding for this series was provided by the Community Foundation of Louisville, the Norton Foundation, the Snowy Owl Foundation, Eleanor Bingham Miller,  Victoire and Owsley Brown III, Emily Bingham and Stephen Reily, Nina Bonnie, and Gill and Augusta Brown Holland.