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Crash Course 13 - on Slavery

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hi I'm John Green this is Crash Course u.s. history and today we're going to talk about slavery which is not funny yes we put it away on the eagle to try to cheer you up but let's face it this is going to be what flavor every time you think like couldn't have been that bad it turns out to have been much worse important to America I mean it led to a Civil War and it also lasted what at least in US history counts as a long-ass time from 1619 to 1865 now there's a 1200 year old church in your neighborhood in Denmark or we're not talking about Denmark probably not be funny but it will be important to me go to sleep based economy in the South and sometimes characterized as having been separate from the market Revolution but that's not really the case without Southern able to realize at least not as quickly because cotton came from the American South if you were slaves in the north as northern states outlawed slavery cotton shipments overseas made Northern Merchants Rich Northern Bankers Finance the purchase of land for plantations lower the insurance companies insured slaves who were after all considered property and very valuable property and in addition to Turning cotton into cloth for sale overseas Northern purse old cloth back to the South where it was used to close the very slaves who had cultivated but certainly the most prominent effects of the slave based economy were seen in the south slave based agriculture especially King Cotton meant that the South would remain largely Agricultural and Rural home to a few cities Lewis and Baltimore New Orleans almost all Southern organization took place in the upper sound further away from the large cotton Plantation agriculture with so profitable that it's money do other economic Endeavors like there was very little industry in the South and produced only 10% of the nation's manufactured goods and as most of the capital was being plowed into the purchase of slaves very little room for technological innovation like for instance railroad this lack of industry and railroads would eventually make the South suck at the Civil War thankfully and short slavery dominated the South sing it both economically and culturally and slavery wasn't a minor aspect of American society by 1860 they were four million slaves in the US and in the South they made one third of the total population although in the popular imagination most plantations were these sprawling affairs with hundreds of slaves in reality the majority of slaveholders owned five or fewer slaves self-sufficiently raise their own food in purchase very little in the market economy they worked the poorest land and as a result we're mostly pretty poor themselves even they largely some in slavery partly perhaps for aspirational reasons and part of the system gave even the poorest White's legal and social status encourage these ideas of white solidarity and to make the case for slavery many of the founders a bunch of whom you'll remember held slaves saw slavery as a necessary evil Jeffrey who once wrote quote as it is we have the wolf by the ear and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go Justice is in one scale and cell preservation in the other Justice and self-preservation couldn't sit on the same side of the scale was really opposed to the American idea and in the end it would make the Civil War in what is slavery became more entrenched in his ideas of Liberty and political equality were embraced by more people some Southerners began to make the case that slavery wasn't just a necessary evil day argued for instance that slaves benefited from slavery because you know their masters fed them and clothe them and took care of them in their old age you still hear this argument today astonish in fact you're probably see ass hats in the comments saying that I will remind you it's not cursing if you are referring to an actual ass this paternalism allowed Masters to see themselves as benevolent contrast their family-oriented slavery with the cold mercenary capitalism of the Free Labor nor the face of rising criticism of slavery the institution was actually good for the social one of the best-known proponents of this view was John C Calhoun who in 1837 said this in a speech on the senate floor I hold it in the present state of civilization where two races of different origin and distinguished by color and other physical differences as well as in two tool are brought together the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two is instead of an evil a good a positive good now course John C Calhoun with a fringe politician and nobody took his views particularly seriously Secretary of War from 1817 to 1825 oh my God were we insane we were of course but we justify the insanity with Biblical passages and with the examples of the Greeks and Romans and without right cysm arguing that black people were inherently inferior to whites and that not to keep them in slavery would upset the natural order of things a worldview popularized Millennia ago my my Nemesis Aristotle Sapphire yeah that is what he should be remembered for me the terrible philosopher D&D human make sure this wasn't just a cultural system it was illegal one I mean Louisiana law proclaimed that a slave owes his master a respect without bounds and an absolute obedience the signal feature of slaves lives was work I mean conditions and tasks buried but all slaves labor usually from sunup to sundown and almost always without any who's leads worked in agriculture on plantations and conditions were different depending on which crops were grown like slaves on the rice plantations of South Carolina had terrible working conditions but they turn under the task system which meant that once they had completed their allotted daily work they would have time to do other things so that you imagine this is like how we have work and Leisure bear in mind that they were owned and treated as property usually under the control of an overseer or another slave who is called a driver this was backbreaking work done in the southern sun and humidity and so it's not surprising that whippings or the threat of them we're often necessary to get slaves to work these enough to talk about brutality of slave discipline but it can be difficult to internalize it like you look at these pictures but because you've seen them over and over again they don't have the power they once might of you can tell a story about cruelty but they don't necessarily communicate how arbitrary it all was as for example in this story told by a woman who was a slave as a young girl one morning in said Bob I'm going to whip you this morning daddy said I ain't done nothing and he said I know it I'm going to whip you to keep you from doing nothing and he hit him with that cowhide you don't would cut the blood out of you with every lick if they hit you hard that brutality the whippings the brandings the rape was real and it was intentional because an order slavery to function slaves had to be dehumanize slaveholders to rationalize what they were doing and it was hoped to reduce slaves to the animal property that is play by the term chattel slavery is resistance to their dehumanization took many forms but the primary way with five forming families family was a refuge for slaves into source of dignity that Masters recognized and what to stifle a paternalistic slave owner named Bennet H Barrow wrote in his rules for the Highland Plantation no rule that I have standard is of more importance than that relating to Negroes outside of the plantation it creates a feeling of Independence MO slaves did Mary usually for life and when possible slaves grew up in two parent households single parent households were turn know as a result of one parent being sold in the upper South were the economy with shifting from tobacco two different less labor-intensive cash crops the sale of slaves was craps one-third of slave marriages in States like Virginia were broken up by sale religion important part of life in slavery Bible that talks about being happy in bondage slave worship tended to focus on the stories of Exodus Moses brought the slaves out of bondage who overcame great Daniel and David I know that most slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write many did anyway and some became preachers slave preachers were often very charismatic leader they rounds the suspicion of slave owners and not without reason two of the most important slave uprisings in the South were led by preachers Hanks though it's time for the mystery document we're doing set pieces in a row all right the rules here are simple that wanted to reshoot that but Stan said no I guess the author the mystery document if I am wrong I get shocked with the shock pen since I have been in the Queen's Dominion's I have been well contented yes well contented for sure man is as God he should be that is all are born free and equal this is a wholesome lawn not like the southern laws which puts man made in the image of God on level with boots will become of the people and where will they stand in the day of judgment when did the fifth verse of the third chapter of Malachi were written as with a bar of iron and the point of Diamond upon every oppressors heart that they might repent of this evil and let the oppressed Go free definitely a preacher because only preachers of Malachi call the Lee African-American probably not someone from the south I'm going to guess that it is Richard Allen the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Joseph paper and stand just pointed out to me that I should have known it was Joseph taper because it starts out since I have been in the Queen's Dominion's he was in Canada he escaped slave the Queen's Dominion resisted their oppression by running away all those some slaves like Joseph taper escape slavery for Good by running away to a northern free states or even to Canada where they wouldn't have to worry about Fugitive pause even more slaves ran away temporarily hiding out in the woods or the swamps and eventually return it no one knows exactly how many slaves escaped to freedom but the best estimate is that you're so a year made the journey North with the most famous runaway has been hanging out behind me all day long Harriet Tubman 29 and over the course of her life she made about 20 trips back to Maryland to help friends and relatives make the journey North on the Underground Railroad actual armed Rebellion which was the temple sometimes took matters into their own hands and feet or even killed their white overseers or Masters like Bob the guy to receive the arbitrary beating responded to it by killing his overseer with a hoe going to get the 19th century guns and marched on the city before militia stop the Denmark Vesey a former slave who purchased his freedom may have organized a plot to destroy Charleston South Carolina may have because the evidence against him is disputed and comes from a trial that was not fair successful slave rebellion at least in the sense that they actually killed some people was Nat Turner's in August 1831 and with a group of about 80 March from Farm to farm Southampton County Virginia killing the inhabitants most of whom were women and children because the men were attending a religious revival meeting in North Carolina and 17 other Rebels were captured and executed but not before they struck Terror into the hearts of whites all across the American sound Virginia's passing even harsher laws preaching and prohibited teaching them to read other slave states valid Virginia's need and by the 1830s slavery had grown if anything more harsh large-scale armed resistance Django Unchained aside nachos suicidal but also a threat to loved ones and really to all slaves it is hugely important to emphasize that slaves indeed resist there sometimes this meant taking up arms but usually met more subtle forms of resistance like intentional work slowdowns or sabotaging equipment or pretending not to understand instruction and most importantly the face of systematic legal and cultural degradation they reaffirm their Humanity through family and through faith why is this so important as if they failed to rise up when in fact rising up would not have made life better for them or for their family the truth is sometimes carving out and identity as a human being and a social what is constantly seeking to dehumanize you is the most powerful form of resistance refusing to become the channel That their masters believe them to be is what made slavery on Cannibal and the Civil War inevitable so make no mistake slaves fought back and in the end they won I'll see you next week Christ and know the script supervisor is Mary think or associate producer is Danica Johnson the show was written by my high school history teacher role Meyer and myself and our Graphics team is stock Cafe every week There's a new cat going to do paper towels but today's episode was so sad that we couldn't fit a liver Tashi in until now  suggest Liberty Cab can comets where you can also ask questions about today's video that will be answered by our team if it's story in thanks for watching crash course and as we say in my hometown don't forget to be able to assist

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Crash Course 13 - on Slavery

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