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  • Episode 13 – Slavery

  • Hi, I’m John Green. This is Crashcourse U.S. history and today were gonna to talk

  • about slavery, which is not funny. Yeah, so we put a lei on the eagle to try

  • to cheer you up, but, let’s face it, this is going to be depressing.

  • With slavery, every time you think, like, “Oh, it couldn’t have been that bad,”

  • it turns out to have been much worse. Mr. Green, Mr. Green, but what about--

  • Yeah, Me from the Past, I’m gonna stop you right there because youre going to embarrass

  • yourself. Slavery was hugely important to America. I

  • mean, it led to a civil war. And it also lasted what at least in U.S. history counts as a

  • long ass timefrom 1619 to 1865 And, yes, I know there’s a 1,200 year old

  • church in your neighborhood in Denmark, but were not talking about Denmark!

  • But slavery is most important because we still struggle with its legacy. So, yes, today’s

  • episode will probably not be funny. But it will be important.

  • INTRO So, the slave-based economy in the South is

  • sometimes characterized as having been separate from the market revolution, but that’s not

  • really the case. Without southern cotton, the north wouldn’t

  • have been able to industrialize, at least not as quickly, because cotton textiles were

  • one of the first industrially produced products and the most important commodity in world

  • trade by the 19th century. And ¾ of the world’s cotton came from the

  • American South. And, speaking of cotton, why has no one mentioned

  • to me that my collar has been half-popped this entire episode, like I’m trying to

  • recreate the flying nun’s hat? And although there were increasingly fewer

  • slaves in the North as northern states outlawed slavery, cotton shipments overseas made Northern

  • merchants rich, northern bankers financed the purchase of land for plantations. Northern

  • 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 manufacturers sold cloth back to the south where it was

  • used to clothe the very slaves who had cultivated it.

  • But certainly the most prominent effects of the slave-based economy were seen in the South.

  • The profitability of slave-based agriculture, especiallyKing Cotton,” meant that the

  • south would remain largely agricultural and rural.

  • Slave states were home to a few cities, like St. Louis and Baltimore, but with the exception

  • of New Orleans, almost all southern urbanization took place in the Upper South, further away

  • from the large cotton plantations. And slave-based agriculture was so profitable

  • that it siphoned money away from other economic endeavors. Like, there was very little industry

  • in the Southit produced only 10% of the nation’s manufactured goods, and as most

  • of the capital was being plowed into the purchase of slaves, there was very little room for

  • technological innovation like, for instance, railroads.

  • This lack of industry and railroads would eventually make the south suck at the civil

  • war, thankfully. In short, slavery dominated the south, shaping

  • it both economically and culturally. And, slavery wasn’t a minor aspect of American

  • society. By 1860, there were 4 million slaves in the U.S., and in the South, they made up

  • 1/3 of the total population. Although in the popular imagination, most

  • plantations were these sprawling affairs with hundreds of slaves, in reality the majority

  • of slave-holders owned five or fewer slaves. And of course, most white people in the south

  • owned no slaves at all, although if they could afford to, they would sometimes rent slaves

  • to help with their work. These were the so-calledyeomanfarmers

  • who lived self-sufficiently, raised their own food and purchased very little in the

  • market economy. They worked the poorest land and as a result were mostly pretty poor themselves.

  • But even they largely supported slavery, partly perhaps for aspirational reasons and partly

  • because the racism inherent to the system gave even the poorest whites legal and social

  • status. And southern intellectuals worked hard to

  • encourage these ideas of white solidarity and to make the case for slavery. Many of

  • the founders, a bunch of whom youll remember held slaves, saw slavery as a necessary evil.

  • Jefferson once wrote, “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 self-preservation in the other.”

  • The belief that justice and self-preservation couldn’t sit on the same side of the scale

  • was really opposed the American idea and, in the end, it would make the civil war inevitable.

  • But as slavery became more entrenchedand as ideas of liberty and political equality

  • were embraced by more peoplesome Southerners began to make the case that slavery wasn’t

  • just a necessary evil. They argued, for instance, that slaves benefited from slavery.

  • Because, you know, their masters fed them and clothed them and took care of them in

  • their old age. You still hear this argument today, astonishingly.

  • In fact, youll probably see asshats 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, and to contrast their family

  • oriented slavery with the cold mercenary capitalism of the free labor north.

  • So, yeah, in the face of rising criticism of slavery, some Southerners began to argue

  • that the institution was actually good for the social order. 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 that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished

  • by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together,

  • the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, instead of an

  • evil, a good — a positive good.” John: Now, of course, John C. Calhoun was

  • a fringe politician and nobody took his views particularly seriously

  • Stan: Well, he was secretary of state from 1844 to 1845.

  • John: Well, I mean, who really cares about the Secretary of State, Stan

  • Danica: Ehh, also Secretary of War from 1817 to 1825.

  • John: Alright, but we don’t even have a Secretary of War anymore.

  • Meredith: And he was Vice President from 1825 to 1832.

  • John: Oh my God, were we insane? We were, of course. But we justified the insanitywith

  • biblical passages and with the examples of the Greeks and Romans and with outright racism,

  • 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 by my nemesis, Aristotle. God, I hate Aristotle. You know what defenders

  • of Aristotle always say? He was the first person to identify dolphins. Well, okay. Dolphin-identifier.

  • Yes, that is what he should be remembered for, but he’s a terrible philosopher.

  • Here’s the truth about slavery: It was coerced labor that relied upon intimidation and brutality

  • and dehumanization. And this wasn’t just a cultural system,

  • it was a legal one. I mean, Louisiana law proclaimed that a slaveowes his master…a

  • respect without bounds, and an absolute obedience.” The signal feature of slaveslives was

  • work. I mean, conditions and tasks varied, but all slaves labored, usually from sunup

  • to sundown, and almost always without any pay.

  • Most slaves 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 labored under the task system, which meant that once they

  • had completed their allotted daily work, they would have time to do other things.

  • But lest you imagine this as like how we have work and leisure time, bear in mind that they

  • were owned and treated as property. On cotton plantations, most slaves worked

  • in gangs, usually under the control of an overseer or another slave who was 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 were often necessary to get slaves

  • to work. It’s easy enough to talk about the brutality

  • of slave discipline, but it can be difficult to internalize it. Like, you look at these

  • pictures, but because youve seen them over and over again, they don’t have the power

  • they once might have. The pictures 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.

  • “[The] overseerwent to my father one morning and said, “Bob, I’m gonna 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 know it would cut the blood out of you with every lick if they hit you hard.”

  • That brutalitythe whippings, the brandings, the rapewas real and it was intentional

  • because in order for slavery to function, slaves had to be dehumanized.

  • This enabled slaveholders to rationalize what they were doing and, it was hoped, to reduce

  • slaves to the animal property that is implied by the termchattel slavery.”

  • So the idea was that slaveholders wouldn’t think of their slaves as human. And slaves

  • wouldn’t think of themselves as human. But, it didn’t work.

  • But more importantly, slaveowners were never able to convince the slaves themselves that

  • they were anything less than human. Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

  • Slaves resistance to their dehumanization took many forms, but the primary way was by

  • forming families. Family was a refuge for slaves and a source of dignity that masters

  • recognized and sought to stifle. A paternalistic slaveowner named Bennett H. Barrow wrote in

  • his rules for the Highland Plantation: “No rule that I have stated is of more importance

  • than that relating to Negroes marrying outside of the plantationIt creates a feeling

  • of independence.” Most slaves did marry, usually for life, and

  • when possible, slaves grew up in two-parent households. Single parent households were

  • common, though, as a result of one parent being sold. In the Upper South, where the

  • economy was shifting from tobacco to different, less labor-intensive cash crops, the sale

  • of slaves was common. Perhaps 1/3 of slave marriages in states like Virginia were broken

  • up by sale. Religion was also an important part of life

  • in slavery. While masters wanted their slaves to learn the parts of the Bible that talked

  • about being happy in bondage, slave worship tended to focus on the stories of Exodus,

  • where Moses brought the slaves out of bondage, or Biblical heroes who overcame great odds,

  • like Daniel and David. And although most slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write,

  • many did anyway, and some became preachers. Slave preachers were often very charismatic

  • leaders, and they roused the suspicion of slave owners, and not without reason. Two

  • of the most important slave uprisings in the south were led by preachers.

  • Thanks, Thought Bubble. Oh, it’s time for the Mystery Document? Were doing two set

  • pieces in a row? Alright...The rules here are simple.

  • I wanted to reshoot that, but Stan said no. I guess the author of the Mystery Document.

  • If I am wrong, I get shocked with the shock pen.

  • Since I have been in the Queen’s dominions I have been well contented, Yes well contented

  • for Sure, man is as God intended he should be. That is, all are born free and equal.

  • This is a wholesome law, not like the Southern laws which puts man made in the image of God

  • on level with brutes. O, what will become of the people, and where will they stand in

  • the day of Judgment. Would that the 5th verse of the 3rd chapter of Malachi were written

  • as with a bar of iron, and the point of a diamond upon every oppressor’s heart that

  • they might repent of this evil, and let the oppressed go free…”

  • Alright, it’s definitely a preacher, because only preachers have read Malachi.

  • Probably 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? Dang it!

  • It’s Joseph Taper? And Stan 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 dominions.”

  • He was in Canada. He escaped slavery to Canada. The Queen’s dominions!

  • Alright, Canadians, I blame you for this. Although thank you for abolishing slavery

  • decades before we did. AH! So the mystery document shows one of the primary

  • ways that slaves resisted their oppression: by running away.