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Podcast: This Day (An America 250 History Show)
Episode: NYC Almost Burns to the Ground (1864)
Description: It’s December 2nd. This day in 1864, a plot to burn down New York City just barely fails. A group of eight saboteurs tried to light simultaneous fires in hotels around the city on “evacuation day,” part of an effort to spark Confederate sympathy in the north.
Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why the plot failed, and what it says about pro-slavery forces in the north, and the razor’s edge on which the Civil War was balanced until the very end.
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