Making Teddy

Introducing Making Lincoln, a new podcast from The HISTORY® Channel. Hosted by Emmy-winning actor and Broadway legend André De Shields, each episode takes you inside the life of our 16th President, bringing together leading historians, authors and journalists to uncover the forces that made the man Lincoln would become.

After leaving government, Lincoln is settling into his life as a successful lawyer with a young family. Earlier setbacks have left him feeling like he’s done with politics, but politics are not done with him. When new domestic policy jeopardizes the momentum of abolition, Lincoln decides he can no longer sit on the sidelines. His fight against slavery takes him to the national stage and then to Washington, as the newly elected president of a fractured country.

Growing up poor on his father’s farm in the frontier wilderness of Indiana, Abraham Lincoln seems to be  the least likely man to lead the country. But Lincoln’s  love for learning and desire to leave a mark on the world take him from a hardscrabble farm life to winning his first election.

Lincoln takes office as the southern states domino into secession. By spring of 1861, the country is at war, and eleven states have left the Union. As Lincoln learns to be both president and commander-in-chief, emancipation becomes the most pressing question. Lincoln must convince the nation that the Civil War should  be about more than simply preserving the Union.

Lincoln finally passes the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring the end of slavery and establishing the United States Colored Troops. Meanwhile, Confederate forces gain momentum under their new general, Robert E. Lee. Hope for the end of the war hangs on a victory at Gettysburg. 

With the end of the war in sight, Lincoln grows frustrated as the Union army stalls, and his promises of emancipation struggle to take root even within his own army  When the Union finally does break the Confederacy and emerges victorious, Lincoln’s triumph - and his very life - is cut tragically short. But his legacy lives on.

No one expected Ulysses S. Grant to grow up to be the Union general who would end the Civil War and eventually win the presidency. A string of early failures trains Grant to become one of America’s greatest and most unlikely heroes. 

A surprise attack at the Battle of Shiloh galvanizes Grant’s combat instincts.  His grit and dogged determination  leads President Lincoln to appoint Grant general of the entire Union Army.