Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery (1998) s01e01 Episode Script
The Terrible Transformation: 1450-1750
PRESENTING HISTORY'S BES ON PBS.
THEY CAME FROM DIFFERENT LANDS, ALL FACING AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE: MANDE AND PORTUGUESE GERMAN AND IBO FANTI AND SPANIARD FRENCH AND ANGOLAN SOME SEEKING ADVENTURE OR RICHES OR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.
OTHERS WERE CAPTIVES, BARTERED AND SOLD LIKE CATTLE.
TOGETHER THEY WOULD BUILD A NATION AND STRUGGLE OVER THE VERY MEANING OF FREEDOM AND CREATE THE AMERICA WE HA VE INHERITED TODA Y.
Woman: I DON'T THINK YOU CAN UNDERSTAND RACE RELATIONS TODAY WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING SLAVERY.
EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE WILL SAY "I DIDN'T DO IT, MY FATHER DIDN'T DO I EVEN MY GRANDPARENTS, THEY DIDN'T DO IT" ONE OF THE THINGS THAT'S ESSENTIAL IS TO KNOW THAT SLAVERY IS NO JUST A SOUTHERN INSTITUTION.
IT'S AN AMERICAN INSTITUTION.
Man: WHAT EVOLVES IN NORTH AMERICA IS THE BELIEF SYSTEM WHERE TO BE BLACK MEANT TO BE A SLAVE AND TO BE A SLAVE MEANT TO BE BLACK.
Man: "WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT" WHY IS IT SELF-EVIDENT? IT CAME FROM GOD.
THEY'RE INALIENABLE, THE GOVERNMENT SECURES THEM REMARKABLE DOCUMENT, DIDN'T APPLY TO BLACK FOLKS.
AND THE MAN WHO WROTE THOSE WORDS, THOMAS JEFFERSON KEPT SLAVES.
HE ALSO WROTE SOMETIME LATER TO A FRIEND: "IF THERE IS A JUST GOD, WE'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS.
" Woman: SLAVERY AND FREEDOM EXISTED SIDE-BY-SIDE IN THIS COUNTRY.
I THINK THE ISSUE IS: DID I ALWAYS HAVE TO BE THAT WAY? AND THE EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA INDICATES THA IT PROBABLY DID NOT.
Woman: # YOUR COUNTRY # HOW CAME IT YOURS? BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED WE WERE HERE.
YOUR COUNTRY ââ¢Âª HOW CAME IT YOURS? ââ¢Âª ââ¢Âª BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED ââ¢Âª WE WERE HERE.
AFRICANS IN AMERICA [with captioning.]
HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE BY A GRAN FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMEN FOR THE HUMANITIES EXPANDING AMERICA'S UNDERSTANDING OF WHO WE WERE WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE WILL BE.
THEY WERE TORN FROM HOMES AND FAMILIES YET THEY NEVER LET GO OF THEIR COURAGE AND PERSEVERANCE AND OUR NATION IS STRONGER BECAUSE OF IT.
THAT'S WHY AFRICANS IN AMERICA IS PROUDLY BROUGHT TO YOU BY BANKERS TRUST, ARCHITECTS OF VALUE.
A HOME IS MORE THAN FOUR WALLS AND A ROOF.
IT'S SAFER STREETS BETTER SCHOOLS STRONGER COMMUNITIES THE AMERICAN DREAM.
THE FANNIE MAE FOUNDATION HELPING AMERICANS ON THE PATH TO HOME OWNERSHIP.
McDONALD'S IS PROUD TO SUPPOR THIS PRESENTATION OF AFRICANS IN AMERICA.
ADDITIONAL FUNDING IS PROVIDED BY: AND THE ANNUAL FINANCIAL SUPPOR OF PBS VIEWERS LIKE YOU.
Narrator: IN THE YEAR 1645, IN THE COLONY THAT WAS CALLED VIRGINIA IN THE COUNTY OF NORTHAMPTON, AFTER A SEASON OF DISPUTES A WHITE MAN AND A BLACK MAN WENT INTO THE FIELD AND THERE DIVIDED THEIR CROP AND THEIR LAND.
ACCORDING TO THE TESTIMONY GIVEN IN COUR THE MAN NAMED ANTHONY, THE NEGRO SAID, "MR.
TAYLOR AND I HAVE DIVIDED OUR CORN AND I AM VERY GLAD OF IT, FOR NOW I KNOW MINE OWN GROUND.
" IN AMERICA, IT SEEMED, ALL MEN WOULD BE EQUAL ALL MEN WOULD BE FREE.
IN APRIL 1607, THREE VESSELS CARRYING 105 COLONISTS LANDED AT A PLACE THEY NAMED JAMESTOWN AT THE EDGE OF THE VIRGINIA WILDERNESS.
THEY HOPED TO ESTABLISH THE FIRST PERMANEN IN THE NEW WORLD.
A NEW PROMISED LAND THE BRAVE NEW WORLD THAT THEIR POET SHAKESPEARE DREAMED A FREE LAND BUILT BY FREE MEN.
Man: THE DREAMS WERE UTOPIAN INITIALLY OF COLONIES WITHOUT COERCION, WITHOUT OPPRESSION WHERE EACH MAN WOULD BE REGARDED AS FREE AND EQUAL.
THERE WAS A LOT OF IDEALISM, I THINK AMONG THE SETTLEMENTS IN THE NEW WORLD A LOT OF IDEAS WHICH I THINK DIDN'T STAND MUCH THE TEST OF EXPERIENCE.
BELIEVED THAT THEIR GOD HAD ORDAINED THEM TO SPREAD HIS WORD AND THAT THEY HAD THE GOD-GIVEN RIGH TO DRIVE OUT ALL UNWILLING TO BUT IN THE FIRST TWO YEARS, THE COLONISTS LEARNED THAT THEY WERE UNPREPARED FOR LIFE IN THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS.
Man: "THE FOURTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER DIED THOMAS JACOB SERGEANT.
"THE FIFTH DAY, THERE DIED BEN JAMIN BEAST.
"OUR MEN WERE DESTROYED WITH CRUEL DISEASES "AS SWELLINGS, FLIXES, BURNING FEVERS, AND BY WARS.
"AND SOME DEPARTED SUDDENLY "BUT FOR THE MOST PAR THEY DIED OF MERE FAMINE.
LEFT IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY IN SUCH MISERY AS WE WERE IN THIS NEW DISCOVERED VIRGINIA.
" GEORGE PERCY.
Narrator: IN 1609, 500 SETTLERS LIVED IN THE JAMESTOWN COLONY.
BY THE SPRING OF 1610, ONLY 60 WERE LEFT ALIVE.
Man: "ABOUT THE LATTER END OF AUGUST, A DUTCH MAN-OF-WAR "ARRIVED AT POINT COMFORT.
"THE COMMANDER'S NAME, CAPTAIN JOPE.
"HE BROUGHT NOT ANYTHING BUT 20 AND ODD NEGROES WHICH THE GOVERNOR BOUGHT IN EXCHANGE FOR FOOD.
" JOHN ROLFE, VIRGINIA COLONIST.
Narrator: IN 1619, A YEAR BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED AT PLYMOUTH ROCK A MYSTERY SHIP APPEARED OUT OF A VIOLENT STORM OFF THE VIRGINIA COAST.
NO ONE RECORDED THE SHIP'S NAME BUT SOMEWHERE ON THE HIGH SEAS SHE HAD ROBBED A SPANISH VESSEL OF A CARGO OF AFRICANS.
IN SEARCH OF SUPPLIES, SHE TRADED THE AFRICANS FOR FOOD.
THEY HAD BEEN BAPTIZED AND GIVEN CHRISTIAN NAMES.
AS CHRISTIANS, THEY COULD NO BE ENSLAVED FOR LIFE LIKE MOST EUROPEANS IN THE COLONY THEY WERE PURCHASED TO WORK AS SERVANTS FOR A LIMITED NUMBER OF YEARS.
THE NEW ARRIVALS SUPPLIED MUCH-NEEDED LABOR FOR THE TOBACCO CROP THAT WAS MAKING MEN RICH.
SETTLERS WERE PLANTING TOBACCO IN THE STREETS OF JAMESTOWN CARVING PLANTATIONS OUT OF THE SURROUNDING WILDERNESS AND SHIPPING SOME 60,000 POUNDS A YEAR BACK TO ENGLAND.
Man: ONCE TOBACCO IS ESTABLISHED AS A VIABLE COMMODITY THEN THE MORE LAND YOU CONTROL, THE BIGGER PROFITS YOU CAN MAKE AND IN ORDER TO MAKE THOSE PROFITS, YOU'D NEED MORE LABOR AND YOU'D LOOK FOR THAT LABOR WHEREVER YOU CAN FIND IT.
WELL, THE COLONY BUILDERS INITIALLY INTENDED TO RELY ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY ON WHITE INDENTURED SERVANTS AS A LABOR FORCE TO CULTIVATE THE CROPS THAT WERE BEING GROWN IN VIRGINIA PRINCIPALLY TOBACCO.
AND IN ORDER TO CREATE THESE RAW MATERIALS OR GOODS YOU OFTEN NEEDED LABOR.
Narrator: THE WORLD THE AFRICANS ENTERED WAS CONTROLLED POOR MOST UNDER THE AGE OF 25.
IN RETURN FOR PASSAGE TO VIRGINIA THEY HAD TRADED FOUR TO SEVEN YEARS OF THEIR LABOR.
THEY WERE BOUND TO A MASTER BY AN INDENTURE FORM A CONTRACT THAT DEFINED LENGTH OF SERVICE AND THE CONDITIONS OF SERVITUDE.
MOST WERE PROMISED "FREEDOM DUES" AFTER THEIR SERVICE A BUSHEL OF CORN, A NEW SUIT OF CLOTHES AND 100 ACRES OF LAND.
UNDER VIRGINIA'S HEADRIGHT SYSTEM A PLANTER WAS ENTITLED TO 50 ACRES OF LAND FOR EACH SERVANT BROUGHT INTO THE COLONY.
Wood: THE ISSUE ALWAYS WAS HOW LONG THAT INDENTURE WOULD BE AND UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS YOU WOULD BE FORCED TO WORK.
AT ITS BEST, IT WAS A SHORT, FRIENDLY APPRENTICESHIP.
AT ITS WORST, IT WAS A LONG AND EXPLOITATIVE SITUATION IN WHICH YOU MIGHT DIE BEFORE YOU EVER OBTAINED YOUR FREEDOM.
Narrator: BY 1622, 3,000 NEW SETTLERS DRAWN BY THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE TOBACCO BOOM HAD ARRIVED IN VIRGINIA.
TWO YEARS LATER, THE FIRST NEGRO CHILD WAS BORN IN THE COLONY.
HE WAS NAMED WILLIAM TUCKER, AFTER A VIRGINIA PLANTER.
THE PROSPERITY THAT BEGAN IN 1619 AND THE DREAM OF A NEW EDEN OF PEOPLE PEACEFULLY CO-EXISTING WAS SERIOUSLY THREATENED IN MARCH 1622.
ON GOOD FRIDAY, SOME 30 NATIONS OF THE POWHATAN CONFEDERACY OF LAND TREATIES ATTACKED WITHOUT WARNING AND ATTEMPTED TO DRIVE ALONG THE JAMES RIVER, THE INDIANS KILLED 350 COLONISTS.
ON THE BENNETT PLANTATION ALONE, 52 PEOPLE DIED.
AMONG THE 12 WHO SURVIVED WAS A MAN NAMED ANTONIO.
Man: HERE'S AN INDIVIDUAL THAT ARRIVES AS ONE OF THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE HISTORY OF WHA BECAME THE UNITED STATES.
HE DOES WHAT ALMOST NO ONE IN EARLY VIRGINIA MANAGED TO DO AND THAT IS LIVE.
EVERYONE IS DYING OF DISEASE, OF VIOLENCE AND IN A SENSE, HE'S LUCKY.
Narrator: HE HAD BEEN BROUGH TO THE COLONY THE YEAR BEFORE TO WORK TOBACCO ALONG THE JAMES RIVER.
HIS NAME APPEARED IN THE 1625 VIRGINIA CENSUS AS "ANTONIO, A NEGRO.
" HE WAS LISTED AS A SERVANT.
Man: HE COMES TO VIRGINIA.
HE FINDS A SOCIETY THAT IS JUST DEVELOPING.
HE'S GETTING IN ON THE GROUND FLOOR, AS IT WERE.
I DON'T KNOW IF HE WAS ABLE TO IMMEDIATELY ENVISION THAT THERE WOULD BE OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIM HERE THAT WEREN' AVAILABLE ELSEWHERE.
I DON'T KNOW THAT ANYONE COULD HAVE FORETOLD THAT.
Narrator: WHEN ANTONIO ARRIVED THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA DID NO AS YET DEFINE RACIAL SLAVERY.
THEY GOVERNED ONLY THE STATUS OF SERVANTS.
AT SOME POINT, ANTONIO CHANGED HIS NAME TO ANTHONY JOHNSON AND MARRIED A NEGRO SERVAN NAMED MARY FROM A NEIGHBORING PLANTATION.
SHE BORE HIM FOUR CHILDREN.
BY 1640, IT IS CLEAR ANTHONY AND MARY WERE NO LONGER SERVANTS.
THEY HAD ACQUIRED THEIR OWN MODEST ESTATE ON VIRGINIA'S EASTERN SHORE.
Breen: AS JOHNSON PROSPERED, AS HE OBTAINED LAND AND CATTLE HE ALSO ACQUIRED DEPENDENT LABORERS.
WHAT MADE ALL THIS SOCIETY GO WAS PROPERTY.
YOUR IDENTITY IN THE SOCIETY WAS DETERMINED RATHER OBVIOUSLY BY THE AMOUNT OF LAND, THE AMOUNT OF LABOR THAT YOU OWNED.
Narrator: ANTHONY JOHNSON WAS EN JOYING PRIVILEGES HE CLAIMED FIVE WORKERS AS HEADRIGHTS AND EXPANDED HIS PROPERTY TO 250 ACRES ALONG THE PUNGOTEAGUE CREEK.
AT LEAST SOME OF HIS WORKERS WERE WHITE.
BY 1650, ANTHONY WAS ONE OF 400 BLACK PEOPLE IN VIRGINIA OUT OF A POPULATION OF ALMOST 19,000 SETTLERS.
IN NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, WHERE JOHNSON LIVED NEARLY 20 AFRICAN MEN AND WOMEN WERE FREE AND 13 OWNED THEIR OWN HOMES.
Woman: AS ANTHONY JOHNSON IS ACCUMULATING PROPERTY IT SEEMS AS THOUGH HIS SITUATION IS SECURE.
YOU GET A SENSE OF THIS INDIVIDUAL, THIS BLACK MAN BEING TREATED LIKE ANY WHITE PLANTER AND HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTERS BEING TREATED LIKE THE WIFE OF A PLANTER.
AT AN EARLY MOMEN WHEN MEN AND WOMEN WERE SORTING THEMSELVES OU WHEN THE RULES, THE ETIQUETTE OF RACE AND LABOR WERE NOT SO CLEAR AT THIS MOMENT, IN ONE COUNTY IN VIRGINIA IT WAS NOT FOREORDAINED THAT RACE RELATIONS WOULD BECOME WHAT THEY DID BECOME.
Narrator: IN 1640, THE YEAR ANTHONY JOHNSON PURCHASED HIS FIRST PIECE OF LAND THREE SERVANTS HAD RUN AWAY FROM A VIRGINIA PLANTATION AND HEADED FOR MARYLAND.
CAPTURED AND RETURNED TO THEIR OWNER THEY WERE TRIED FOR BREAKING THEIR CONTRACT.
Man: "THE SAID THREE SERVANTS SHALL RECEIVE "THE PUNISHMENT OF WHIPPING AND TO HAVE 30 STRIPES APIECE.
"ONE CALLED VICTOR, A DUTCHMAN "THE OTHER A SCOTCHMAN CALLED JAMES GREGORY "SHALL FIRST SERVE OU THEIR TIMES "ACCORDING TO THEIR INDENTURES "AND ONE WHOLE YEAR APIECE AFTER "AND AFTER THA TO SERVE THE COLONY "FOR THREE WHOLE YEARS APIECE.
"THE THIRD BEING A NEGRO NAMED JOHN PUNCH "SHALL SERVE HIS SAID MASTER OR HIS ASSIGNS FOR THE TIME OF HIS NATURAL LIFE.
" JAMESTOWN COURT RECORDER.
Narrator: "THE TIME OF HIS NATURAL LIFE.
" ACCORDING TO ALL THE LEGAL RECORDS THAT SURVIVE NO WHITE SERVANT IN AMERICA EVER RECEIVED SUCH A SENTENCE.
Davis: SO WHAT BEGINS TO HAPPEN IN THE 1640s IS THAT THOSE WHO ARE CONTROLLING THE VIRGINIA COLONY SAY TO THEMSELVES THE FLUIDITY THAT WE'VE SEEN IN THE PAS THE FLUIDITY THAT HAS ALLOWED AN ANTHONY JOHNSON TO SERVE LESS THAN THE LIFE TERM TO ACQUIRE HIS OWN PIECE OF GROUND TO DEVELOP A FREE STATUS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT WE WANT TO PROJEC AS GOING FURTHER IN THE FUTURE.
WE WANT TO CLOSE DOWN THAT OPPORTUNITY.
WE WANT TO BEGIN TO SHOW SOME DISTINCTIONS.
OF WHO COULD BE ENSLAVED BEGAN TO SHIFT FROM NON-CHRISTIAN TO NON-WHITE.
FOR ANTHONY AND OTHER AFRICANS IN AMERICA THE IDEA OF AN EQUAL CHANCE IN THE COLONIES WAS NOW UNDER ATTACK.
IN 1641, MASSACHUSETTS BECAME THE FIRST COLONY ON THE BRITISH-AMERICAN MAINLAND TO RECOGNIZE SLAVERY AS A LEGAL INSTITUTION.
CONNECTICUT FOLLOWED IN 1650, MARYLAND IN 1663 NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY IN 1664.
VIRGINIA LEGALLY RECOGNIZED SLAVERY IN 1661 AND A YEAR LATER, A VIRGINIA COURT DECIDED THAT ALL CHILDREN BORN IN THE COLONY WOULD BE FREE OR SLAVE ACCORDING TO THE CONDITION OF THE MOTHER.
IN VIRGINIA, SLAVERY WOULD BE DEFINED BY RACE AND PERPETUATED THROUGH HEREDITY.
PERHAPS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 17th CENTURY IF YOU WERE ONE OF SEVERAL THOUSAND AFRICANS LIVING IN VIRGINIA YOU CERTAINLY KNEW THA YOUR CHILDREN WOULD BE FREE YOU MIGHT HAVE THAT EXPECTATION.
AND TO SUDDENLY FIND THEMSELVES INVOLVED IN LIFELONG SERVITUDE, AND THEN TO REALIZE THAT, IN FACT, THEIR CHILDREN MIGHT INHERIT THE SAME STATUS THAT WAS A TERRIBLE BLOW.
THAT WAS A TERRIBLE TRANSFORMATION.
Narrator: FOR THE FIRS 50 YEARS OF THE COLONY MOST OF THE UNFREE LABOR FORCE HAD BEEN EUROPEAN BUT THAT WAS ABOUT TO CHANGE.
WORD OF THE HARD LIFE IN VIRGINIA HAD GOTTEN BACK TO ENGLAND AND THE COLONIAL GOVERNMEN FACED A GROWING SHORTAGE OF SERVANT LABOR.
ALSO TROUBLING THE COLONY WERE THE THOUSANDS OF FREE MEN MOST FORMER INDENTURED SERVANTS WHO WERE UNEMPLOYED AND ROAMING THE COUNTRYSIDE.
Man: THE PROBLEM THEY FACE IS NOT ONLY A DECREASING SUPPLY OF INDENTURED SERVANTS BUT THEY FACE THIS INCREASING PROBLEM OF WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THESE INDENTURED SERVANTS ONCE THEY LIVE OUT THEIR TERM AND A LOT OF THEM WERE SURVIVING.
THEY HAD TO BE GIVEN LAND.
THEY HAD TO BE GIVEN THEIR FREEDOM DUES AND ONE OF THOSE DUES INCLUDED EVEN GUNS AND THERE WAS A LOT OF UNRES IN VIRGINIA.
Narrator: IN 1661, SERVANTS REBELLED IN YORK COUNTY.
TWO YEARS LATER GLOUCESTER COUNTY AUTHORITIES FOILED A PLOT BY NINE SERVANTS TO STEAL ARMS AND AMMUNITION AND MARCH ON THE SEA OF COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.
IN 1676, THE UNREST IN VIRGINIA EXPLODED INTO CIVIL WAR.
AN ARMY OF 500 FREE MEN, SERVANTS AND SLAVES REBELLED AGAINST THE COLONIAL ESTABLISHMENT'S RESTRICTION ON AVAILABLE LANDS.
THEY ATTACKED PEACEFUL INDIANS, RANSACKED PROPERTY AND BURNED JAMESTOWN, SENDING THE GOVERNOR INTO HIDING.
Blight: THIS DISORDER THA THE INDENTURED SERVANT SYSTEM HAD CREATED MADE RACIAL SLAVERY TO SOUTHERN SLAVEHOLDERS MUCH MORE ATTRACTIVE BECAUSE WHA WERE BLACK SLAVES NOW? WELL, THEY WERE A PERMANENT, DEPENDENT LABOR FORCE WHO COULD BE COULD BE DEFINED AS A PEOPLE SET APART.
THEY WERE RACIALLY SET APART.
THEY WERE OUTSIDERS.
THEY WERE STRANGERS, AND IN MANY WAYS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD WITH A COUPLE POSSIBLE EXCEPTIONS SLAVERY HAS TAKEN ROO ESPECIALLY WELL WHEN THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ENSLAVED ARE DEFINED AS STRANGERS, AS OUTSIDERS AND CAN THEREFORE BE PUT INTO AN INHERITABLE, PERMANEN STATUS OF SLAVERY.
Man: "I UNDERSTAND THERE ARE SOME SLAVE SHIPS "EXPECTED INTO YORK RIVER NOW EVERY DAY.
"I DESIRE YOU TO BUY ME FIVE OR SIX SLAVES "WHEREOF THREE OR FOUR TO BE BOYS, A MAN AND A WOMAN "THE BOYS FROM EIGHT TO 17 OR 18 THE REST AS YOUNG AS YOU CAN PROCURE THEM.
" WILLIAM FITZHUGH, VIRGINIA PLANTER, 1681.
Narrator: FEW SHIPS COMING FROM AFRICA MADE THE VOYAGE BEYOND THE CARIBBEAN TO SELL THEIR CARGOES ON THE MAINLAND OF BRITISH AMERICA.
IN 1672, THE KING OF ENGLAND CHARTERED THE ROYAL AFRICAN COMPANY ENCOURAGING IT TO EXPAND THE BRITISH SLAVE TRADE.
SHAREHOLDERS INCLUDED THE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, AND JOHN LOCKE "THE PHILOSOPHER OF LIBERTY.
" IN ITS FIRST 16 YEARS, THE COMPANY TRANSPORTED NEARLY 90,000 AFRICANS TO THE AMERICAS.
Breen: IN THE LAS DECADE OF THE 17th CENTURY IT WAS POSSIBLE TO IMAGINE THAT IN A SINGLE YEAR THE NUMBER OF NEW AFRICANS ARRIVING WOULD EQUAL THE TOTAL BLACK POPULATION IN THE COLONY OR CLOSE TO IT.
THESE WERE MEN AND WOMEN THAT HAD NO SENSE OF THE WORLD THEY WERE GETTING INTO.
AND THEY SEEMED TO WHITES AS VERY ALIEN, FOREIGN, UNKNOWABLE.
Davis: THE EUROPEANS LOOK UPON THESE PEOPLE AND THEY PROJECT AN IMAGE ON THEM, THEY PROJECT AN IDENTITY AND THAT IDENTITY IS AFRICAN.
WHAT THAT MEANS IS NON-AMERICAN.
WHAT THAT MEANS IS NON-EUROPEAN.
WHAT THAT MEANS IS SEPARATION.
Man: "ALL SERVANTS IMPORTED AND BROUGHT INTO THIS COUNTRY "WHO ARE NOT CHRISTIAN IN THEIR NATIVE LAND SHALL BE COUNTED AND BE SLAVES.
" Man: "IF ANY SLAVE RESISTS HIS MASTER CORRECTING SUCH SLAVE "AND SHALL HAPPEN TO BE KILLED IN SUCH IT SHALL NOT BE ACCOUNTED FELONY.
" "IF ANY NEGRO SHALL ABSENT HIMSELF "FROM HIS MASTER'S SERVICE AND LIE HID AND LURKING "AND IF HE SHALL RESIS ANY PERSON EMPLOYED "TO APPREHEND THE SAID NEGRO "THEN IT SHALL BE LAWFUL FOR SUCH PERSON TO KILL THE SAID NEGRO.
" VIRGINIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY, JUNE 1680.
Woman: WE THINK ABOUT SLAVERY AS THIS COMPLETE PACKAGE THAT JUST CAME TO EVIL LANDOWNERS AND IT DIDN'T HAPPEN THAT WAY.
IT HAPPENED ONE LAW AT A TIME, ONE PERSON AT A TIME.
AS LANDOWNERS FELT THE NEED TO CONTROL A DIFFERENT BEHAVIOR YEAR AFTER YEAR, THEY ADDED MORE LAWS UNTIL FINALLY 1691 THEY PASSED THE LAW THAT MADE IT ILLEGAL TO FREE A BLACK SLAVE UNLESS THEY WERE LEAVING THE COLONY.
SO BY THEN, IT WAS PRETTY MUCH SE THAT THIS WAS GOING TO BE A SLAVE SOCIETY.
Blight: TO MOVE FROM INDENTURED SERVITUDE TO RACIAL SLAVERY MEANS THAT THEY'RE SETTING THEIR OWN HISTORY ON A COURSE WHERE FREEDOM IS GOING TO DEPEND ON SLAVERY WHERE THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF A MAJOR PORTION OF THESE COLONIES IS GOING TO DEPEND ON SLAVERY WHERE THE FREEDOM OF SOME IS GOING TO DEPEND ON THE BONDAGE OF OTHERS.
IT MEANS THA THE AMERICAN COLONIES THIS JEWEL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE IS LIVING THIS CONTRADICTORY HISTORY NOW OF A SOCIETY THAT IS INCREASINGLY ROOTED IN A LABOR SYSTEM THAT'S HUMAN BONDAGE THAT'S RACIAL SLAVERY.
Narrator: ANTHONY JOHNSON MOVED HIS FAMILY OUT OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH TO MARYLAND.
THERE HE LEASED 300 ACRES HE CALLED "TONIES VINEYARD.
" ON THAT FARM, ANTHONY JOHNSON DIED.
BACK IN VIRGINIA A JURY DECIDED THAT THE LAND ANTHONY HAD LEFT BEHIND COULD BE SEIZED BY THE STATE "BECAUSE HE WAS A NEGRO AND BY CONSEQUENCE, AN ALIEN.
" Breen: ONE WONDERS HOW JOHNSON WOULD HAVE VIEWED THIS CHANGING WORLD OF VIRGINIA.
HE LIVED A VERY LONG TIME.
HE SURVIVED AND DID QUITE WELL BY THE STANDARDS OF THE DAY IN BUILDING UP PROPERTIES HUNDREDS, HUNDREDS OF ACRES, AND CATTLE.
BY THE STANDARDS OF THE TIME ANYONE WOULD SAY HE DID QUITE WELL.
THERE'S NO REASON TO BELIEVE, AS OF, SAY, THE 1670s THAT THE JOHNSON FAMILY IS GOING TO BE SQUEEZED OUT.
Narrator: WITHIN A FEW YEARS, ANTHONY'S GRANDSON JOHN PURCHASED ANOTHER 44 ACRES AND IN MEMORY OF HIS GRANDFATHER'S HOMELAND CALLED THE FARM "ANGOLA.
" Latimer: BY THE TIME THE END OF THE CENTURY CAME ANTHONY JOHNSON'S CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN MAY WELL HAVE BEEN FIGHTING TO STAY FREE.
MANY FREE PEOPLE WERE SOLD INTO SLAVERY.
NO, THEY COULDN'T PROVE THAT THEY WERE FREE.
THEY HAD NO WAY OF LETTING ANYBODY KNOW THAT THEY WERE FREE SO IF A PLANTATION OWNER CAME BY AND SAID "THIS IS MY SLAVE AND I WAN TO SELL HIM," YOU WERE SOLD.
Narrator: BY THE END OF THE CENTURY NEARLY 58,000 PEOPLE LIVED IN THE COLONY.
16,000 WERE LISTED AS NEGROES.
IN 1705, THE VIRGINIA ASSEMBLY PASSED LAWS CLEARLY DEFINING THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN A SLAVE AND A SERVAN RELEGATING ALL SLAVES TO THE STATUS OF REAL ESTATE.
THE NEXT YEAR JOHN, THE THIRD GENERATION OF JOHNSONS IN AMERICA DIED WITHOUT AN HEIR.
THAT WOULD BE THE LAST MENTION OF THE PLANTATION NAMED FOR ANTHONY'S BIRTHPLACE.
ANGOLA PLANTATION, LIKE THE JOHNSONS THEMSELVES DISAPPEARED FROM THE RECORD BOOKS OF COLONIAL AMERICA.
Man: "THE AFRICAN TRADE IS A TRADE "OF THE MOST ADVANTAGE TO THIS KINGDOM OF ANY WE DERIVE "AND AS IT WERE ALL PROFI "IT IS INDEED THE BEST TRAFFIC THE KINGDOM HATH "AS IT DOTH OCCASIONALLY GIVE SO VAST AN EMPLOYMEN TO OUR PEOPLE BOTH BY SEA AND LAND.
" JOHN CARY, BRISTOL, ENGLAND.
PARLIAMENT ENDED THE MONOPOLY OF THE ROYAL AFRICAN COMPANY ON THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.
IT BECAME THE RIGHT OF EVERY FREE-BORN BRITISH SUBJEC TO TRADE IN SLAVES.
OVER THE NEXT HALF CENTURY THE NUMBER OF AFRICANS TRANSPORTED TO THE BRITISH COLONIES IN BRITISH SHIPS INCREASED FROM 5,000 TO 45,000 A YEAR.
ENGLAND BECAME THE LARGES TRAFFICKER IN SLAVES IN THE WESTERN WORLD.
"IT IS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION OF ALL THE REST" SAID ONE BRITISH WRITER: "THE MAINSPRING OF THE MACHINE WHICH SETS EVERY WHEEL IN MOTION.
" HE WAS BORN IBO THE SON OF A TRIBAL ELDER, THE FAVORITE OF HIS MOTHER.
THE FATHER OF TWO DAUGHTERS AND AT THE AGE OF 11, OLAUDAH EQUIANO WAS KIDNAPPED BY AFRICANS AND SOLD TO EUROPEANS.
(man reciting chant in Kwa language) (continues reciting Kwa chant) Man: "WHEN THE GROWN PEOPLE WERE GONE FAR IN THE FIELDS TO LABOR "THE CHILDREN GENERALLY ASSEMBLED TOGETHER TO PLAY "AND SOME OF US OFTEN USED TO GET UP INTO A TREE "TO LOOK OU FOR ANY ASSAILANT OR KIDNAPPER THAT MIGHT COME UPON US.
" "ONE DAY "WHEN ONLY I AND MY SISTER WERE LEFT TO MIND THE HOUSE "TWO MEN AND A WOMAN GOT OVER OUR WALLS "AND IN A MOMENT SEIZED US BOTH WITHOUT GIVING US TIME "TO CRY OU OR TO MAKE ANY RESISTANCE.
THEY STOPPED OUR MOUTHS AND RAN OFF WITH US.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
(man saying chant in Kwa language) WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR? WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR? IT'S EQUIANO WE'RE LOOKING FOR.
(repeats line of chant) HAS HE GONE TO THE STREAM? LET HIM COME BACK.
HAS HE GONE TO THE MARKET? LET HIM COME BACK.
HAS HE GONE TO THE FARM? LET HIM RETURN.
IT'S EQUIANO WE'RE LOOKING FOR.
(repeats line of chant) Narrator: FOR MORE THAN FOUR CENTURIES PEOPLE DISAPPEARED FROM THE SAVANNAS, THE RAIN FORESTS AND THE VILLAGES OF BLACK AFRICA FARMERS AND CRAFTSPEOPLE, COMMONERS AND AFRICAN NOBILITY.
MOST WERE STRONG YOUNG MEN, AGE 15 TO 25 BUT WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE ALSO TAKEN AND SOLD.
TO OBTAIN SLAVES, AFRICANS WAGED WAR DESTROYING COMMUNITIES, STEALING PEOPLE.
TO ESCAPE THE SPREADING VIOLENCE MANY MOVED INTO THE INTERIOR ABANDONING FAMILY COMPOUNDS, FARMS, ENTIRE VILLAGES.
IN WEST AFRICA MORE THAN 20 MILLION PEOPLE WERE KIDNAPPED INTO SLAVERY.
ONLY HALF WOULD SURVIVE THE JOURNEY TO THE COAST.
THE BOY EQUIANO WAS ONE OF THE SURVIVORS.
Equiano: "AT LAST I CAME TO THE BANKS OF A LARGE RIVER.
"I WAS BEYOND MEASURE SURPRISED AT THIS "AS I HAD NEVER BEFORE SEEN ANY WATER LARGER THAN A POND OR RIVULET.
" "AND TO MY SURPRISE WAS MINGLED WITH NO SMALL FEAR "WHEN I WAS PU INTO ONE OF THESE CANOES AND WE BEGAN TO PADDLE AND MOVE ALONG THE RIVER.
" Narrator: ON THE JOURNEY TO THE COAS EQUIANO PASSED FROM ONE AFRICAN MASTER TO ANOTHER.
ONCE HE WAS SOLD FOR 172 COWRIE SHELLS.
HE LEARNED THREE DIFFERENT LANGUAGES TRAVELED SOME 800 MILES AND ENCOUNTERED PEOPLE AND CUSTOMS UNFAMILIAR AND FRIGHTENING TO HIM.
AFTER CLOSE TO SEVEN MONTHS OF TRAVEL ON FOOT AND BY BOA HE REACHED THE AFRICAN COAST.
Equiano: "THE FIRS OBJECT THAT SALUTED MY EYES "WHEN I ARRIVED ON THE COAS WAS THE SEA AND A SLAVE SHIP "WHICH WAS THEN RIDING AT ANCHOR AND WAITING FOR ITS CARGO.
"THESE FILLED ME WITH ASTONISHMEN BUT WAS SOON CONVERTED INTO TERROR.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Narrator: IT WAS AN ANCIENT BUSINESS THIS TRADE IN HUMAN BEINGS BETWEEN AFRICA AND EUROPE.
50 YEARS BEFORE COLUMBUS SAILED TO THE NEW WORLD PORTUGUESE EXPLORERS HAD SAILED TO WEST AFRICA.
AT FIRST SEEKING GOLD, THEY BUILT A FORT IN 1482 AND CALLED IT EL MINA, THE MINE.
THE PORTUGUESE POINTED THEIR GUNS TOWARD THE ATLANTIC TO GUARD, NOT AGAINST AFRICANS BUT AGAINS EUROPEAN COMPETITORS.
OVER TIME, THE CASTLE CHANGED HANDS FROM THE PORTUGUESE TO THE DUTCH AND FINALLY THE BRITISH AND THE TRADE CHANGED FROM GOLD TO HUMAN BEINGS.
Man: "CONCERNING THE TRADE ON THIS COAS "WE NOTIFIED YOUR HIGHNESS ALREADY "THAT IS HAS COMPLETELY CHANGED INTO A SLAVE COAS "AND THAT NOWADAYS THE NATIVES NO LONGER OCCUPY THEMSELVES "WITH THE SEARCH FOR GOLD "BUT RATHER MAKE WAR ON EACH OTHER "IN ORDER TO FURNISH SLAVES.
THE GOLD COAST HAS CHANGED INTO A COMPLETE SLAVE COAST.
" WILLIAM DE LA PALMA DIRECTOR, DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY.
Narrator: ALONG THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA FROM SENEGAL IN THE NORTH TO THE CAMEROONS IN THE SOUTH THE EUROPEANS BUIL SOME 60 FORTS AND CASTLES WAREHOUSES FOR EUROPEAN MERCHANDISE AND FOR AFRICAN SLAVES.
CALLED "FACTORIES," THEY WERE COMMERCIAL CENTERS WHERE AGENTS OR "FACTORS" TRADED RUM, CLOTH AND GUNS FOR HUMAN BEINGS AND GOLD.
Man: "THE MOST NOTABLE ITEM IS THE SLAVE HOUSE "WHICH LIES BELOW GROUND.
"IT CONSISTS OF VAULTED CELLARS DIVIDED INTO SEVERAL APARTMENTS WHICH CAN EASILY HOLD A THOUSAND SLAVES.
" CAPTAIN JOHN BARBOT, FRENCH SLAVE TRADER.
Narrator: IN DUNGEONS BUIL DEEP INTO THE OCEAN ROCK PEOPLE WAITED, SOMETIMES A DAY, SOMETIMES A YEAR.
THESE CHAMBERS WOULD BE THEIR LAST MEMORY OF AFRICA.
WHEN A SLAVE SHIP ARRIVED AND ANCHORED OFF THE COAS THEY WOULD BE LED OU FROM THE DARKNESS TO THE BEACH.
Barbot: "AS THE SLAVES COME DOWN TO FIDA FROM THE INLAND COUNTRY "THEY ARE PUT INTO A BOOTH, OR PRISON, NEAR THE BEACH.
"WHEN THE EUROPEANS ARE TO RECEIVE THEM "THEY ARE BROUGHT OU INTO A LARGE PLAIN "WHERE THE SURGEONS EXAMINE EVERY ONE OF THEM "ALL STARK NAKED.
"EACH WHICH HAVE PASSED AS GOOD IS MARKED ON THE BREAS "WITH A RED-HOT IRON IMPRINTING THE MARK OR DUTCH COMPANIES.
"IN THIS, PARTICULAR CARE IS TAKEN THAT THE WOMEN, AS TENDEREST, BE NOT BURNT TOO HARD.
" CAPTAIN JOHN BARBOT, FRENCH SLAVE TRADER.
Achebe: THE WHITE PEOPLE DID NOT NEED TO BE PRESEN IN THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA.
ALL THEY NEEDED TO DO WAS TO SUPPLY THE WEAPONS.
THE PEOPLE THEY DEALT WITH WERE THOSE COASTAL PEOPLES RIGHT ON THE COASTLINE WHO CONTROLLED THE TERRITORY DOWN THERE.
SO EQUIANO WOULD NOT HAVE MET, MAYBE NOT EVEN HEARD OF WHITE PEOPLE.
Man: "I HAVE FOUND NO PLACE WHERE I CAN ENLARGE MY FORTUNE SO SOON "AS WHERE I NOW LIVE.
"IN THIS MANNER, WE SPEND THE PRIME OF YOUTH AMONG NEGROES "SCRAPING THE WORLD FOR MONEY, THE UNIVERSAL GOD OF MANKIND UNTIL DEATH OVERTAKES US.
" NICHOLAS OWEN, SLAVE TRADER.
Unsworth: EUROPEANS DIED LIKE FLIES IN THAT CLIMATE.
THE AVERAGE EXPECTATION WAS THREE OR FOUR YEARS, YOU KNOW, REALLY.
AND SO THEY HAD TO MAKE MONEY WHILE THEY COULD BECAUSE THEY KNEW THEY DIDN'T HAVE MUCH TIME SO IN THAT SENSE, OF COURSE, THEY WERE TRAPPED.
THEY WERE CAUGHT IN THE WEB OF THE SYSTEM AND HELD THERE AND DIED THERE.
Narrator: THE EUROPEANS MADE MORE THAN 54,000 VOYAGES TO TRADE IN HUMAN BEINGS.
NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW THE EXACT NUMBER OF PEOPLE TAKEN FROM THE SHORES OF WEST AFRICA BUT MORE THAN 11 MILLION HAVE BEEN COUNTED IN THE RECORDS THAT REMAIN.
MOST HEADED FOR SOUTH AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS SOME HALF A MILLION TO THE MAINLAND OF NORTH AMERICA.
Man: "DECEMBER 29, 1724, NO TRADE TODAY "THOUGH MANY TRADERS CAME ON BOARD.
"THEY INFORMED US "THAT THE PEOPLE ARE GONE TO WAR WITHIN LAND "AND WILL BRING PRISONERS ENOUGH IN TWO OR THREE DAYS IN HOPES OF WHICH WE STAY.
" "DECEMBER 30, 1724, NO TRADE YE "BUT OUR TRADERS CAME ON BOARD TODAY AND INFORMED US "THE PEOPLE HAD BURN FOUR TOWNS OF THEIR ENEMIES SO THAT TOMORROW WE EXPECT SLAVES.
" LIVERPOOL SURGEON.
Man: "RECEIVED ON THIS CARGO 46 MEN, 34 WOMEN, 14 BOYS, SIX GIRLS "AND 147 CHESTS OF CORN.
"THE REST OF THE GOODS DELIVERED ONSHORE TO CAPE COAST AND ACCRA TO MR.
HARBIN.
" WILLIAM DEXTER, SHIP'S CAPTAIN.
Narrator: SHIP CAPTAINS WERE CAUTIONED NOT TO BUY ALL THEIR SLAVES FROM ONE PLACE.
AFRICANS WHO KNEW EACH OTHER, WHO SPOKE THE SAME LANGUAGE WERE MORE LIKELY TO CONSPIRE AND REBEL.
Unsworth: THERE WOULD BE MAYBE 25 SEAMEN AND THE SHIP'S OFFICERS.
THERE MIGHT HAVE BEEN A CREW OF 30 AND THESE 30 HAD TO CONTROL MAYBE 300 MEN BLACK MEN AND WOMEN WHO WERE AWARE OF BEING ABDUCTED AND WHO WERE DESPERATE AND WHO WERE DANGEROUS BECAUSE THEY WERE OBVIOUSLY WAITING TO SEIZE ANY OPPORTUNITY THAT WAS OFFERED TO REBEL AND TO TAKE OVER THE SHIP AND TO KILL THE CREW AND THAT DID HAPPEN FAIRLY FREQUENTLY.
THE ONLY WAY THA THIS COULD BE CONTAINED WAS BY A SYSTEM OF FEAR.
Equiano: "I WAS NOW PERSUADED THA I HAD GOT INTO A WORLD OF BAD SPIRITS "AND THAT THEY WERE GOING TO KILL ME.
"THEIR COMPLEXIONS, TOO, DIFFERING SO MUCH FROM OURS "THEIR LONG HAIR AND THE LANGUAGE THEY SPOKE "WHICH WAS VERY DIFFEREN FROM ANY I HAD EVER HEARD "UNITED TO CONFIRM ME IN THIS BELIEF: "I NO LONGER DOUBTED MY FATE.
"I ASKED IF WE WERE GOING TO BE EATEN BY THOSE WHITE MEN WITH HORRIBLE LOOKS, RED FACES AND LONG HAIR.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Narrator: CAPTAINS CALLED THE VOYAGE FROM WEST AFRICA TO THE NEW WORLD "THE MIDDLE PASSAGE" THE MIDDLE LEG OF A TRIANGULAR COURSE THAT BEGAN AND ENDED IN EUROPE.
SHIPS SAILED TO AFRICA TO TRADE GOODS FOR SLAVES.
THEN THE HUMAN CARGO WAS TAKEN TO THE AMERICAS AND TRADED FOR RAW MATERIALS WHICH WERE THEN CARRIED BACK TO ENGLAND AND SOLD.
THE CROSSING FROM AFRICA TO THE AMERICAS USUALLY TOOK 60 TO 90 DAYS BUT SOME VOYAGES TOOK AS LONG AS FOUR OR EVEN SIX MONTHS.
BAD WEATHER AND SICKNESS COULD TURN ANY TRIP INTO A NIGHTMARE.
Man: THE CRAMPED QUARTERS OF SHIPS BEING PACKED IN SUCH A WAY THAT A SLAVE WILL BE BETWEEN THE LEGS OF ANOTHER SLAVE AND HAVING TO LIE IN THE FECES.
THE LACK OF AIR.
THE LONGER THIS TRIP TAKES, THE MORE SUFFOCATING.
Man: "THE SURGEON, UPON GOING BETWEEN DECKS IN THE MORNING "TO EXAMINE THE SITUATION OF THE SLAVES "FREQUENTLY FINDS SEVERAL DEAD "AND SOMETIMES A DEAD AND LIVING NEGRO "FASTENED BY THEIR IRONS TOGETHER.
"WHEN THIS IS THE CASE, THEY ARE BROUGHT UPON THE DECK.
"THE LIVING NEGRO IS DISENGAGED AND THE DEAD ONE THROWN OVERBOARD.
" ALEXANDER FALCONBRIDGE, SHIP'S SURGEON.
Jones: THERE ARE NO DOUB PEOPLE WHO WENT MAD INABILITY TO COMMUNICATE, DECISIONS HAVING TO BE MADE AND THIS PERSON IS SUFFERING AS YOURSELF.
DOES ONE HELP? DOES ONE SIMPLY TRY TO MAKE I THE BEST THAT ONE CAN ALONE? NOT KNOWING, WHERE AM I BEING TAKEN, WHAT IS MY FATE? FOR WEEKS, MONTHS, DEPENDING WHAT THE POINT OF ORIGIN WAS.
Equiano: "ONE DAY, TWO OF MY WEARIED COUNTRYMEN "WHO WERE CHAINED TOGETHER "SOMEHOW MADE I THROUGH THE NETTINGS "AND JUMPED INTO THE SEA.
"IMMEDIATELY ANOTHER QUITE DEJECTED FELLOW "ALSO FOLLOWED THEIR EXAMPLE "AND I BELIEVE MANY MORE WOULD HAVE VERY SOON DONE THE SAME "IF THEY HAD NOT BEEN PREVENTED BY THE SHIP'S CREW WHO WERE INSTANTLY ALARMED.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Unsworth: THE IDEA, I THINK WAS THAT THE SLAVE CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO DIE BY HIS OWN WILL AND INTENTION.
HE CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO DIE VOLUNTARILY.
IF HE'S GOING TO DIE, IT MUST BE AT THE HANDS OF HIS CAPTORS SO THAT IN THAT CASE HE DOESN' SPREAD A DANGEROUS EXAMPLE.
Man: "MONDAY, 11 DECEMBER.
"BY THE FAVOR OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE "MADE A TIMELY DISCOVERY TODAY "THAT THE SLAVES WERE FORMING A PLOT FOR INSURRECTION.
"SURPRISED TWO OF THEM "ATTEMPTING TO GET OFF THEIR IRONS "AND IN THEIR ROOMS FOUND KNIVES, STONES, SHOT, ETC.
"AND A COLD CHISEL.
"THERE APPEARED EIGH PRINCIPALLY CONCERNED "IN PROTECTING THE MISCHIEF "AND FOUR BOYS IN SUPPLYING THEM WITH THE ABOVE INSTRUMENTS.
"PUT THE BOYS IN IRONS AND SLIGHTLY IN THE THUMBSCREWS TO URGE THEM TO A FULL CONFESSION.
" CAPTAIN JOHN NEWTON.
Man: "WE STOOD IN ARMS, FIRING ON THE REVOLTED SLAVES "OF WHOM WE KILLED SOME AND WOUNDED MANY.
"AND MANY OF THE MOST MUTINOUS "LEAPT OVERBOARD AND DROWNED THEMSELVES IN THE OCEAN WITH MUCH RESOLUTION.
" JAMES BARBOT, Equiano: "OFTEN DID I THINK MANY OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE DEEP "MUCH HAPPIER THAN MYSELF.
"EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE I MET WITH "SERVED ONLY TO RENDER MY STATE MORE PAINFUL "AND HEIGHTEN MY APPREHENSIONS AND MY OPINION OF THE CRUELTY OF WHITES.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Unsworth: THE SLAVERS, THEY KNEW AT ONE LEVEL THAT THESE WERE HUMAN BEINGS BECAUSE THEY WERE OBVIOUSLY, CLEARLY, HUMAN BEINGS.
AT THE SAME TIME, THEY WERE OBJECTS OF PROFI AND THOSE TWO CONCEPTS COULDN' OBVIOUSLY BE REALLY RECONCILED AND THEY NEVER WERE RECONCILED.
IT WAS JUS I THINK THAT THE HUMANE THE SENSE OF THE HUMANITY OF THESE PEOPLE WAS SIMPLY SUPPRESSED FOR THE SAKE OF GOLD.
AND THE SHOCKING THING IS THAT HUMAN BEINGS ARE ABLE INDEFINITELY TO SUPPRESS THE URGINGS OF THEIR COMMON HUMANITY AND TO DENY I FOR THE SAKE OF MAKING PROFITS.
Equiano: "IS NOT THE SLAVE TRADE ENTIRELY A WAR WITH THE HEART OF MAN? "AND SURELY THAT WHICH IS BEGUN "BY BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS OF VIRTUE "INVOLVES IN ITS CONTINUANCE DESTRUCTION TO EVERY PRINCIPLE AND BURIES ALL SENTIMENT IN RUIN.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Narrator: THE MIDDLE PASSAGE ENDED FOR EQUIANO ON THE ISLAND OF BARBADOS ONE OF THE MOST PROFITABLE COLONIES IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
ON BARBADOS, IT WAS CALCULATED THAT IT WAS CHEAPER TO WORK SLAVES TO DEATH AND REPLACE THEM WITH NEW SLAVES THAN TO TREAT THEM HUMANELY.
WITHIN THREE YEARS OF ARRIVAL ONE OUT OF THREE SLAVES WOULD DIE.
THE BOY EQUIANO, JUDGED TOO SMALL TO CUT SUGAR CANE WAS SHIPPED NORTH TO THE MAINLAND OF BRITISH AMERICA.
ON THE MAINLAND, THE PLANTATION SYSTEM OF BARBADOS WAS ADMIRED AND IMITATED PARTICULARLY ON THE CAROLINA COAST.
Man: SOUTH CAROLINA WAS STARTED AS THE COLONY OF A COLONY.
BARBADOS HAD BECOME OVERPOPULATED MERCHANTS AND WITH THEIR SLAVES AND IN BOTH CASES THEY BEGAN TO LOOK AROUND, CAST AROUND FOR NEW PLACES AND WITHIN THE FIRST DECADE AFTER SOUTH CAROLINA'S INITIAL SETTLEMEN THERE WERE JUST LOADS OF IMMIGRANTS FROM BARBADOS WHO BROUGHT WITH THEM SLAVES FROM BARBADOS BUT MORE IMPORTAN THAN JUST BRINGING SLAVES UNLIKE VIRGINIA, THEY BROUGHT A FULLY CONCEIVED IDEA OF SLAVERY.
Narrator: ON THE SHORES OF THE ASHLEY RIVER STANDS MIDDLETON PLACE HOME TO ONE OF CAROLINA'S OLDEST FAMILIES.
MIDDLETON FAMILY MEMBERS WERE DESTINED TO BECOME PAR OF THE CAROLINA ELITE A GOVERNOR, A CONGRESSMAN A SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
THE FAMILY HAD BEEN AMONG THE FIRST SETTLERS ARRIVING FROM BARBADOS IN 1678 WITH A LAND GRAN IN GOOSE CREEK JUST 14 MILES NORTH OF CHARLESTON CAROLINA'S SLAVE-TRADING CENTER.
BY 1706, A SECOND GENERATION OF MIDDLETONS HAD ALMOST TRIPLED THE SIZE OF THE FAMILY'S LANDHOLDINGS TO 5,000 ACRES OF CAROLINA WILDERNESS.
AT AGE 25, YOUNG ARTHUR MIDDLETON WAS MASTER OF THE OAKS PLANTATION.
Man: "DEAR SARAH MR.
ARTHUR MIDDLETON "IS MARRIED TO MY SISTER "AND WAS A SCHOOLFELLOW WITH ME WHEN I WAS AT CAROLINA.
"HE IS A SENSIBLE MAN AND ONE OF THE RICHEST IN THE COUNTRY WITH UPWARDS OF 100 NEGROES.
" THOMAS AMORY.
Wood: RACIAL SLAVERY TURNS OU TO BE EXTRAORDINARILY PROFITABLE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEIZED CONTROL.
THE PLANTER CAN COMPLAIN IN HIS DIARY THAT IT'S BEEN A BAD YEAR OR THE CROP IS WEAK OR THE RAINY SEASON LASTED TOO LONG BUT YEAR IN AND YEAR OU TREMENDOUS PROFITS ARE BEING MADE.
Narrator: THE IMMIGRANTS FROM BARBADOS HAD SEARCHED FOR A CASH CROP THAT WOULD MAKE THEM RICH.
FAMILIES LIKE THE MIDDLETONS FOUND IT IT WAS RICE.
THE MOST PRIZED AFRICANS IN CAROLINA WERE FROM ANGOLA, SENE-GAMBIA AND THE WINDWARD COAST PEOPLE WHO BROUGH THE RICE-GROWING SKILLS THE EUROPEANS DID NOT HAVE.
Man: "RICE IS THE MOST UNHEALTHY WORK "IN WHICH THE SLAVES WERE EMPLOYED "AND THEY SANK UNDER I IN GREAT NUMBERS.
"THE CAUSES OF THIS DREADFUL MORTALITY "ARE THE CONSTANT MOISTURE AND HEAT OF THE ATMOSPHERE "TOGETHER WITH THE ALTERNATE FLOODINGS AND DRYING "OF THE FIELDS ON WHICH THE NEGROES ARE PERPETUALLY AT WORK "OFTEN ANKLE-DEEP IN MUD WITH THEIR BARE HEADS EXPOSED TO THE FIERCE RAYS OF THE SUN.
" CAPTAIN BASIL HALL.
Man: "MANY MASTERS CAN'T BE PERSUADED "THAT NEGROES AND INDIANS ARE OTHERWISE THAN BEASTS "AND USE THEM LIKE SUCH.
"I DAILY PERCEIVE THAT MANY THINGS ARE DONE HERE OUT OF A WORLDLY PRINCIPLE, LITTLE FOR GOD'S SAKE.
" FRANCIS LEJAU, ANGLICAN MINISTER.
Narrator: IN 1706, THE MIDDLETONS DONATED FOUR ACRES OF LAND FOR A CHURCH IN GOOSE CREEK.
FRANCIS LEJAU, THE FIRS FULL-TIME ANGLICAN MINISTER WAS NOT OPPOSED TO SLAVERY BUT HE PREACHED THAT ALL MEN REGARDLESS OF COLOR HAD IMMORTAL SOULS.
HE EARNED A REPUTATION FOR SPENDING TIME WITH THE NEGROES BAPTIZING AND TEACHING THEM TO READ THE BIBLE.
HE SPOKE OUT OFTEN AGAINS THE BRUTALITY OF CAROLINA SLAVEHOLDERS WHO WERE SEEKING TO CONTROL THE GROWING POPULATION OF AFRICANS.
Lejau: "I HAVE HAD OF LATE "AN OPPORTUNITY TO OPPOSE WITH ALL MY MIGH "A VERY UNHUMANE LAW IN RELATION TO RUNAWAY NEGROES.
"SUCH A NEGRO MUST BE MUTILATED "BY AMPUTATION OF TESTICLES IF IT BE A MAN "AND AN EAR, IF A WOMAN.
"I HAVE OPENLY DECLARED AGAINST SUCH A PUNISHMEN GROUNDED UPON THE LAW OF GOD.
" FRANCIS LEJAU.
Washington: THE ANGLICAN MISSIONARIES PROBABLY DESCRIBED THE BLACK COMMUNITY BETTER THAN ANYONE AT THE TIME IN EARLY CAROLINA.
THEY DESCRIBED IT AS A NATION WITHIN A NATION.
THE AFRICANS LIVED SEPARATED FROM THE REST OF SOCIETY.
BEING FRESHLY FROM AFRICA, THEIR FRAME OF REFERENCE WAS AFRICAN.
THEY WERE VERY MUCH FAMILIAR WITH THIS KIND OF SUBTROPICAL ENVIRONMEN THAT THEY FOUND THEMSELVES IN IN CAROLINA.
THEY'RE STILL COMMUNITIES OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE, LOVE RAISE CHILDREN AND WORK, AND THEY FEEL THAT AS PEOPLE AS HUMANS, THEY HAVE A RIGH TO COME AND GO.
THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO VISI THEIR WIVES AND THEIR HUSBANDS ON OTHER PLANTATIONS.
IT WAS, AS ONE TRAVELER SAID, "A NEGRO COUNTRY.
" Man: "THEIR NUMBERS INCREASE EVERY DAY "AS WELL BY BIRTH AS IMPORTATION.
"AND IN CASE THERE SHOULD ARISE A MAN OF DESPERATE COURAGE "EXASPERATED BY A DESPERATE FORTUNE "HE MIGHT KINDLE A SERVILE WAR.
"SUCH A MAN MIGHT BE DREADFULLY MISCHIEVOUS "BEFORE ANY OPPOSITION COULD BE FORMED AGAINST HIM AND TINGE OUR RIVERS AS WIDE AS THEY ARE WITH BLOOD.
" WILLIAM BYRD, VIRGINIA PLANTER.
Narrator: IN 1710, JUST 15 YEARS AFTER RICE TOOK HOLD IN CAROLINA AFRICANS BEGAN TO OUTNUMBER EUROPEANS IN THE COLONY.
AS THE NUMBER OF AFRICANS ROSE SO, TOO, DID WHITE FEAR AND RETALIATION.
Equiano: "MR.
D.
TOLD ME ONCE "HE CUT OFF A NEGRO MAN'S LEG FOR RUNNING AWAY.
"I ASKED HIM IF THE MAN HAD DIED IN THE OPERATION "AND HOW HE, AS A CHRISTIAN "COULD ANSWER FOR THE HORRID ACT BEFORE GOD "AND HE TOLD ME "ANSWERING WAS A THING OF ANOTHER WORLD.
WHAT HE THOUGHT AND DID WERE POLICY.
" "HE THEN SAID HIS SCHEME HAD THE DESIRED EFFECT: IT CURED THAT MAN AND SOME OTHERS OF RUNNING AWAY.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Wood: IF YOU'RE A WHITE AUTHORITY YOU'RE CONSTANTLY TRYING TO FIGURE HOW TIGHTLY YOU WAN TO IMPOSE THE LID WITH RESPEC TO PEOPLE RUNNING AWAY.
HOW FIERCE SHOULD THE PUNISHMENTS BE, YOU KNOW? SHOULD IT BE A WHIPPING? SHOULD IT BE THE LOSS OF A FINGER OR A HAND OR A FOOT? YOU KNOW, SHOULD IT BE WEARING SHACKLES PERPETUALLY? THE ENTIRE SYSTEM OF CONTROL IS BASED ON PHYSICAL PUNISHMEN OFTEN MAKING EXAMPLES OUT OF PEOPLE SO THAT OTHERS WILL BE INTIMIDATED.
Narrator: THE COLONIAL LEGISLATURE PASSED LAWS DESIGNED TO MORE TIGHTLY CONTROL THE GROWING BLACK MAJORITY.
PLANTER RECORDS REVEAL PUNISHMENTS INFLICTED FOR INFRACTIONS LARGE AND SMALL.
Byrd: "8 FEBRUARY, 1709.
"I ROSE AT 5:00 THIS MORNING THEN READ A CHAPTER IN HEBREW "AND 200 VERSES IN HOMER'S ODYSSEY.
"I ATE MILK FOR BREAKFAST.
"I SAID MY PRAYERS.
"JENNY AND EUGENE WERE WHIPPED.
"17 APRIL ANAKA WAS WHIPPED YESTERDAY FOR STEALING THE RUM "AND FILLING THE BOTTLE UP WITH WATER.
"I SAID MY PRAYERS AND I DANCED MY DANCE.
"EUGENE WAS WHIPPED AGAIN FOR PISSING IN BED "AND JENNY FOR CONCEALING IT.
"I TOOK A WALK ABOUT THE PLANTATION.
"EUGENE WAS WHIPPED FOR RUNNING AWAY "AND HAD THE BIT PUT ON HIM.
"I SAID MY PRAYERS.
"I HAD GOOD HEALTH, GOOD THOUGHTS AND GOOD HUMOR.
THANKS BE TO GOD ALMIGHTY.
" WILLIAM BYRD, VIRGINIA PLANTER.
Washington: WHEN YOU ENSLAVE A PERSON IN SOME WAYS YOU BECOME A SLAVE YOURSELF BECAUSE MASTERS AND SLAVES ARE NATURAL ENEMIES AND THAT'S WHAT THE EUROPEANS HAD TO DEAL WITH.
THEY HAD TO DEAL WITH A POPULATION LIVING AMONGST THEM SOMETIMES THE MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION, IN HOSTILITY.
THEY LIVED AMONGST ENEMIES.
AND AS ONE CAROLINA PLANTER SAID "NOWHERE ON EARTH IS MANKIND SO PLAGUED BY ENEMIES LIVING WITHIN THEM AS WE ARE IN OUR OWN HOMES.
" Man: "THE SPANISH ARE RECEIVING AND HARBORING "ALL OUR RUNAWAY NEGROES.
"THEY HAVE FOUND OUT A NEW WAY "OF SENDING OUR OWN SLAVES AGAINST US "TO ROB AND PLUNDER US.
"WE ARE NOT ONLY AT A VAST EXPENSE "IN GUARDING OUR SOUTHERN FRONTIERS BUT THE INHABITANTS ARE CONTINUALLY ALARMED.
" ARTHUR MIDDLETON, ACTING GOVERNOR, 1728.
Narrator: ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA FRONTIER WORD SPREAD OF AFRICANS AND INDIANS COMING UP FROM SPANISH FLORIDA TO ATTACK PLANTERS AND OF SPANISH AUTHORITIES OFFERING RUNAWAYS FREEDOM ON FLORIDA SOIL.
IN GOOSE CREEK, AN ANGLICAN MINISTER COMPLAINED OF "SECRET POISONINGS AND BLOODY INSURRECTIONS BY CERTAIN CHRISTIAN SLAVES.
" Wood: SOUTH CAROLINA IS A POT READY TO BOIL OVER.
IMAGINE COMING INTO A SETUP THAT SEEMS ALMOST UNBEARABLE AND FINDING THAT PEOPLE HAVE MANY OF THEM HAVE SOMEHOW RATIONALIZED I OR ARE ENDURING IT, THAT'S THE BEST THEY CAN DO.
BUT YOU AS A NEWCOMER MIGHT FEEL "I'M NOT GOING TO PUT UP WITH THIS.
BETTER TO DIE TRYING TO CHANGE THIS.
" AND THERE MUST HAVE BEEN HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE LIKE THA IN SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE 1730s.
Narrator: BY THE 1730s, CLOSE TO 2,000 AFRICANS WERE ARRIVING AT THE POR OF CHARLESTON EACH YEAR.
FROM 1735 TO 1739, OUT OF 11,000 SLAVES LANDED MORE THAN 8,000 WERE LISTED AS ANGOLANS.
Davis: WHAT DEVELOPS IS A SENSE AMONG EUROPEANS THAT SLAVES FROM CERTAIN AREAS HAVE PARTICULAR CHARACTERISTICS.
SLAVES FROM THE ANGOLA AREA TO BE PARTICULARLY DIFFICUL TO BE REBELLIOUS.
Narrator: IN ST.
PAUL'S PARISH THERE WERE CLOSE TO A THOUSAND NEW PEOPLE WHO JUST A FEW YEARS BEFORE HAD BEEN TAKEN FROM THE ANGOLA REGION OF AFRICA.
Wood: ONE OF THEM, WE ONLY KNOW HIS NAME, A MAN NAMED JEMMY APPARENTLY HAD COME RECENTLY FROM ANGOLA.
HE MAY NOT EVEN BUT HE MAY HAVE HAD STRONG CONTACTS WITH OTHER ANGOLANS.
HE HAD TO TRY TO BUILD ALLIANCES NOT ONLY WITH OTHER ANGOLANS, OTHER NEW ARRIVALS BUT WITH OTHER AFRICANS, AFRICAN AMERICANS PEOPLE FROM A COMMUNITY THA HE WAS NOT THAT FAMILIAR WITH AND APPARENTLY HE SUCCEEDED.
Narrator: DURING THE EARLY MORNING HOURS OF SEPTEMBER 9, 1739 ALMOST AS SOON AS WORD IS RECEIVED IN SOUTH CAROLINA THAT ENGLAND AND SPAIN ARE AT WAR SOME 20 ANGOLAN SLAVES, LED BY THE MAN NAMED JEMMY BEGAN MARCHING TOWARD ST.
AUGUSTINE AND THE PROMISE OF FREEDOM.
JUST 30 MILES FROM THE MIDDLETON'S OAKS PLANTATION AT THE STONO BRIDGE, THEY SEIZED A GENERAL STORE WHERE THERE WERE ARMS AND POWDER.
THEY KILLED THE STOREKEEPERS AND LEFT THEIR HEADS ON THE DOORSTEP.
Wood: WHAT BETTER MOMEN TO START AN UPRISING AND TRY TO STRIKE OU FOR ST.
AUGUSTINE AND FIND FREEDOM IN FLORIDA IN THE HOPE THAT THE SPANISH AUTHORITIES ARE WILLING TO GRANT FREEDOM WHO ESCAPE FROM THE CAROLINAS INTO FLORIDA.
Narrator: ON THE MARCH SOUTH THE AFRICANS DID NOT KILL EVERY WHITE THEY ENCOUNTERED.
THEY SPARED MR.
WALLACE AN INNKEEPER THEY KNEW TO BE KIND TO HIS SLAVES.
BUT BEFORE THE DAY ENDED, THEY HAD KILLED MORE THAN 20 PEOPLE.
AS OTHER SLAVES JOINED THEM THEY BECAME AN ARMY OF ALMOST A HUNDRED CAMPED AT THE EDISTO RIVER WAITING FOR OTHERS TO GATHER UNDER THEIR FLAG.
Davis: THE ENTIRE FORCE WAS GOING TO COME DOWN ON THEM BECAUSE THIS WAS AN ISSUE NOT MERELY FOR THOSE IN SOUTH CAROLINA IMMEDIATELY SURROUNDING THIS AREA.
THIS WAS AN ISSUE FOR EVERY EUROPEAN COLONIS EVERYWHERE IN THE COLONIES TO QUASH THIS AND TO PROVIDE SOME EXEMPLARY PUNISHMENT.
Narrator: AROUND NOON, THE NEARES WHITE SETTLERS WERE ALERTED.
BY 4:00 IN THE AFTERNOON THEY CAUGHT UP WITH THE NEGROES ALONG THE EDISTO RIVER AND FIRED UPON THEM.
EYEWITNESSES RECORDED THAT THE REBELS FOUGHT BOLDLY BUT AT LEAST 14 WERE KILLED OR WOUNDED IN THE FIRST ATTACK.
OTHERS WERE SURROUNDED, QUESTIONED AND THEN SHOT.
THE ARMED COLONISTS THEN TURNED TOWARD CHARLESTON AND ON MILE POSTS ALONG THE WAY THEY LEFT THE HEADS OF THE EXECUTED MEN.
Wood: JUST THE WAY WAR TRANSFORMS PEOPLE THIS TERRIBLE TRANSFORMATION INTO RACE SLAVERY HAD CHANGED PEOPLE BY THE MIDDLE OF THE 18th CENTURY.
THE VIOLENCE YOU SEE AT STONO IS A VIOLENCE THAT HAD BECOME PERVASIVE IN THE CULTURE.
BY THE MIDDLE OF THE 18th CENTURY THIS HAD BECOME A WAY OF LIFE Washington: STONO WAS SORT OF THE BEGINNING OF THE CONCEP THAT THE BLACK POPULATION HAD TO BE UTTERLY CONTROLLED AND THE LEGISLATION THAT CAME OUT OF STONO, THE NEGRO AC TOOK AWAY WHATEVER LIBERTIES THE AFRICANS HAD.
Narrator: FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT, FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY TO EARN MONEY, TO LEARN TO READ, ALL WERE OUTLAWED.
SOUTH CAROLINA IMPOSED DUTIES ON ALL SLAVE IMPORTATIONS AND ENCOURAGED EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION IN ORDER TO CHANGE THE RATIO OF WHITES TO BLACKS.
THE NEGRO ACT BECAME THE MODEL FOR SLAVE LAWS THROUGHOUT THE MAINLAND OF BRITISH AMERICA.
Equiano: "WHY DO YOU USE THOSE INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE? "ARE THEY NOT FIT TO BE APPLIED "BY ONE RATIONAL BEING TO ANOTHER? "AND ARE YOU NOT STRUCK WITH SHAME AND MORTIFICATION "TO SEE THE PARTAKERS OF YOUR NATURE REDUCED SO LOW? "BUT ABOVE ALL "ARE THERE NO DANGERS ATTENDING THIS MODE OF TREATMENT? ARE YOU NOT HOURLY IN DREAD OF AN INSURRECTION?" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Narrator: NEWS OF THE REBELLION TRAVELED QUICKLY TO NEW YORK NOW THE THIRD LARGEST CITY IN BRITISH AMERICA.
MOST OF MANHATTAN ISLAND WAS UNBROKEN WILDERNESS CROSSED BY STREAMS EMPTYING INTO BOTH THE HUDSON AND EAST RIVERS.
BY 1740, EXCEPT FOR CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA NO CITY IN COLONIAL AMERICA HAD SO HIGH A DENSITY OF SLAVE POPULATION AS NEW YORK.
CROWDED ONTO THE SOUTHERN TIP OF THE ISLAND LIVED 11,000 PEOPLE OF WHICH MORE THAN 2,000 WERE BLACK.
Foote: THERE WAS REALLY AN ILLUSION OF INTIMACY BETWEEN ENSLAVED BLACKS AND THEIR WHITE SLAVE OWNERS WHO LIVED UNDER THE SAME ROOF.
THESE PEOPLE COULD NOT TRUS ONE ANOTHER.
IN FACT, THE SLAVE OWNERS CONSIDERED THE ENSLAVED BLACKS DOMESTIC ENEMIES.
Man: "NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 18, 1731.
"BE IT ORDAINED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THIS CITY "THAT ALL NEGRO, MULATTO AND INDIAN SLAVES "THAT SHALL DIE WITHIN THIS CITY BE BURIED BY DAYLIGHT.
"AND FOR THE PREVENTION OF GREAT NUMBERS OF SLAVES "ASSEMBLING AND MEETING TOGETHER AT THEIR FUNERALS "UNDER PRETEXT WHEREOF THEY HAVE GREAT OPPORTUNITIES "OF PLOTTING AND CONFEDERATING TOGETHER TO DO MISCHIEF "BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED THAT NOT ABOVE 12 SLAVES SHALL ASSEMBLE OR MEET TOGETHER AT THE FUNERAL.
" MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF NEW YORK.
THERE WERE PROBABLY A LO OF OTHER ISSUES GOING ON IN NEW YORK CITY AT THAT TIME THAT MADE WHITES SUSPICIOUS OF BLACKS.
THERE WAS, AMONG THE LOWER CLASSES OF BLACKS AND WHITES A LOT OF RACIAL AMALGAMATION.
THERE WAS A LOT OF ACTIVITY IN THE GROGSHOPS BETWEEN BLACKS AND WHITES, BLACKS FREQUENTING TAVERNS.
NEW YORK CITY WAS A COSMOPOLITAN PLACE WITH PEOPLE FROM VARIOUS ETHNIC GROUPS CONVERGING LOTS OF SEAMEN, AND BLACKS WERE VERY MUCH A PART OF THAT.
Narrator: IN TAVERNS, BLACK MEN ILLEGALLY GATHERED, DRANK AND MINGLED WITH WHITE NEW YORK RESIDENTS.
MANY ENSLAVED MEN IN NEW YORK WERE HIRED OUT BY THEIR MASTERS.
THEY HAD RELATIVE FREEDOM OF MOVEMEN AND CONTROL OVER THEIR OWN TIME.
Davis: THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN ADULT MALE IS SEEN AS THE MOST TROUBLESOME, THE MOST INTRACTABLE THE MOST REBELLIOUS.
THOSE ARE THE PERSONS WHO ARE GROWING IN THE POPULATION.
BY LAW THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE OUT AFTER SUNSET; BY LAW THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE ANY CURRENCY OF THEIR OWN; BY LAW THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO GO AND GATHER IN NUMBERS OF THREE OR GREATER; BY LAW THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE OUT DRINKING YET EVERY NIGHT THEY'RE OU DOING ALL OF THESE THINGS.
THERE DEVELOPED IN COLONIAL NEW YORK CITY A LIVELY STREET LIFE AMONGST BLACK MEN AND ENSLAVED AND FREE.
THESE BLACK MEN ORGANIZED INTO CLUBS OR, UH GANGS AND THEY WERE A CONSTAN PRESENCE ON THE STREETS.
THEY EVEN GATHERED AT NIGHTS AT THE DOCKS OR IN TAVERNS AND THEY PRESENTED, ACCORDING AND ANXIOUS WHITE RESIDENTS, A PUBLIC THREAT.
Narrator: ON MARCH 18, 1741, A FIRE BROKE OUT AT FORT GEORGE THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICIAL RESIDENCE.
WHIPPED BY VIOLENT WINDS IT BURNED UNTIL A RAIN SHOWER COOLED THE BLAZE KEEPING IT FROM TORCHING THE ENTIRE CITY.
A WEEK LATER, ANOTHER FIRE BROKE OU AND THEN IN THE NEX THREE WEEKS, FIRES RAGED.
Davis: AS THIS RASH OCCURS A SENSE THAT THERE IS SOME EVIL HAND BEHIND THIS DEVELOPS AND THEN PEOPLE BEGIN TO SEE A BLACK HAND.
THEY BEGIN TO WORRY THAT SLAVES ARE BEHIND THIS THAT THIS IS SOME ACT OF VENGEANCE THAT THIS IS SOME PRELUDE TO REBELLION.
IN 1741, ENGLAND WAS NOW AT WAR WITH SPAIN AND MANY OF THE COLONIAL AUTHORITIES IN NEW YORK CITY FEARED THAT THE ENSLAVED BLACKS WOULD HAVE BEEN INFLUENCED BY THE PROMISES FROM SPAIN OF FREEDOM.
WHO CLAIMED THAT THEY HAD DISCOVERED A COMBINATION BETWEEN ENSLAVED BLACKS AND THE LOWER ORDERS OF WHITE TOWN DWELLERS TRANSIENTS AND VAGABONDS TO DESTROY THE TOWN, TO BURN IT TO THE GROUND AND TO SET UP A BLACK OR NEGRO REGIME THAT WOULD OWE ALLEGIANCE TO SPAIN.
Narrator: JUST 30 YEARS EARLIER IN NEW YORK FIRE HAD BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN THE NEGRO PLOT OF 1712 WHERE NINE WHITES WERE KILLED AND FIVE WERE SERIOUSLY WOUNDED.
NOW THE CITY'S OFFICIALS DID NOT WASTE ANY TIME FINDING AN EXPLANATION FOR THE MYSTERIOUS EVENTS.
Davis: A GENERAL DRAGNET GOES OU AND JUST ABOUT EVERY AFRICAN-AMERICAN MALE OVER 16 YEARS OF AGE IS TAKEN UP AND PUT IN JAIL, CROWDED UNDER THE CITY HALL.
Narrator: THE COURT USED THE TESTIMONY OF MARY BURTON A 16-YEAR-OLD INDENTURED SERVAN TO ACCUSE THE ALLEGED CONSPIRATORS.
BURTON WORKED AT A TAVERN AND BROTHEL IN THE CITY A BUSINESS THAT REGULARLY SERVED BLACK CUSTOMERS.
PROMISED HER FREEDOM FROM SERVITUDE MARY BURTON STARTED IMPLICATING A CONSTANT STREAM OF MEN AND WOMEN SOME WHITE, BUT MOS YOUNG BLACK MEN.
FOR CLOSE TO FOUR MONTHS BLACK MEN WERE DRAGGED INTO COURT OFF NEW YORK'S STREETS.
Washington: NEW YORKERS ARE SO INCENSED OVER WHAT THEY CONCEIVE OF AS A CONSPIRACY THAT THEY CREATE THIS WAVE OF PARANOIA THAT LEADS TO INCREDIBLE MURDERS AND INCREDIBLE PUNISHMENTS.
IT SPEAKS TO THE WHOLE ENTRENCHMENT OF SLAVERY EVEN IN THE NORTH AND ALSO IT SPEAKS TO RACIAL ATTITUDES AS WELL THAT THEY ARE VERY MUCH AFRAID OF RACIAL EGALITARIANISM AND PEOPLE IN THE LOWER ECHELONS OF THEIR SOCIETY COMING TOGETHER TO FORM ANY KIND OF BOND.
Narrator: IN MAY, NEW YORKERS WITNESS THE PUBLIC EXECUTION OF CAESAR AND PRINCE, TWO BLACK MEN ACCUSED OF PARTICIPATING IN A ROBBERY CONNECTED TO THE FIRES.
CAESAR'S CORPSE WAS THEN HUNG IN CHAINS UNTIL IT DECOMPOSED.
FROM THE SPRING OF 1741 THROUGH THE FOLLOWING WINTER AND INTO THE SPRING OF 1742 SOME 160 SLAVES AND AT LEAST A DOZEN WHITES WERE ACCUSED OF CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
31 AFRICANS WERE PUT TO DEATH, 13 OF THEM BURNED AT THE STAKE AND FOUR WHITES WERE HUNG.
Man: "23 JUNE 1741.
"TO DR.
CADWALLADER COLDEN "GOVERNOR'S COUNCIL, PROVINCE OF NEW YORK.
"SIR, THE HORRIBLE EXECUTIONS AMONG YOU "PUTS ME IN MIND OF OUR NEW ENGLAND WITCHCRAF "IN THE YEAR 1692.
"I AM HUMBLY OF THE OPINION "THAT SUCH CONFESSIONS ARE NOT WORTH A STRAW "FOR MANY TIMES THEY ARE OBTAINED BY FOUL MEANS "BY FORCE OR TORMEN "OR IN HOPES OF A LONGER TIME TO LIVE "OR TO DIE AN EASIER DEATH.
"I ENTREAT YOU NOT TO GO ON MAKING BONFIRES OF THE NEGROES "AND LOADING YOURSELVES WITH GREATER GUILT THAN THEIRS.
"FOR WE HAVE TOO MUCH REASON TO FEAR "THAT THE DIVINE VENGEANCE DOES AND WILL PURSUE US "FOR OUR ILL TREATMEN TO THE BODIES AND SOULS OF OUR POOR SLAVES.
" ANONYMOUS LETTER FROM MASSACHUSETTS.
Narrator: THE ENCROACHMEN OF SLAVERY IN AMERICAN SOCIETY THAT BEGAN IN VIRGINIA, CULMINATED IN 1750 WITH THE DECISION TO LEGALIZE SLAVERY IN GEORGIA THE LAST FREE COLONY.
IT HAD BEEN A LITTLE OVER 100 YEARS SINCE ANTHONY JOHNSON FIRST ARRIVED IN VIRGINIA.
NOW SLAVERY EXISTED EVERYWHERE IN THE 13 COLONIES.
BUT THE ARGUMENT OVER WHO WOULD BE FREE AND WHO WOULD BE EQUAL HAD JUST BEGUN.
FOR GENERATIONS TO COME SLAVERY WOULD CONTINUE TO TROUBLE THE SOUL OF AMERICA.
Equiano: "WHEN YOU MAKE MEN SLAVES "YOU DEPRIVE THEM OF HALF THEIR VIRTUE "YOU SET THEM IN YOUR OWN CONDUC "AN EXAMPLE OF FRAUD AND CRUELTY AND COMPEL THEM TO LIVE WITH YOU IN A STATE OF WAR.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO, ENSLAVED AFRICAN.
[Captioned by The Caption Center WGBH Educational Foundation.]
Woman: # HOW CAME IT YOURS? # BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED WE WERE HERE.
TO LEARN MORE ABOU AFRICANS IN AMERICA AND TO SEE THE TEACHERS' GUIDE FOR THE SERIES VISIT THE AFRICANS IN AMERICA NEXT TIME ON AFRICANS IN AMERICA AMERICA 'S STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE BEGINS.
WITH THE THREAT OF WAR, BLACK MEN BECOME SOLDIERS IN EXCHANGE FOR THE PROMISE OF FREEDOM.
IT GAVE YOU A PURPOSE IN LIFE.
YOU WERE PAR OF A NATIONAL EFFORT.
TO PURCHASE THE AFRICANS IN AMERICA HOME VIDEO COMPANION BOOK OR C.
D.
SOUNDTRACK CALL 1-800-255-9424.
AFRICANS IN AMERICA HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE BY A GRAN FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMEN FOR THE HUMANITIES EXPANDING AMERICA'S UNDERSTANDING OF WHO WE WERE WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE WILL BE.
THEY HAD DIFFERENT STRUGGLES AND DREAMS YET THEIR COURAGE AND PERSEVERANCE UNITED THEM AND STRENGTHENED OUR NATION.
THAT'S WHY AFRICANS IN AMERICA IS PROUDLY BROUGHT TO YOU BY BANKERS TRUST, ARCHITECTS OF VALUE.
A HOME IS MORE THAN FOUR WALLS AND A ROOF.
IT'S SAFER STREETS BETTER SCHOOLS STRONGER COMMUNITIES THE AMERICAN DREAM.
THE FANNIE MAE FOUNDATION HELPING AMERICANS ON THE PATH TO HOME OWNERSHIP.
McDONALD'S IS PROUD TO SUPPOR THIS PRESENTATION OF AFRICANS IN AMERICA.
ADDITIONAL FUNDING IS PROVIDED BY: AND THE ANNUAL FINANCIAL SUPPOR OF PBS VIEWERS LIKE YOU.
THIS IS HISTORY'S BEST ON PBS.
THEY CAME FROM DIFFERENT LANDS, ALL FACING AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE: MANDE AND PORTUGUESE GERMAN AND IBO FANTI AND SPANIARD FRENCH AND ANGOLAN SOME SEEKING ADVENTURE OR RICHES OR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.
OTHERS WERE CAPTIVES, BARTERED AND SOLD LIKE CATTLE.
TOGETHER THEY WOULD BUILD A NATION AND STRUGGLE OVER THE VERY MEANING OF FREEDOM AND CREATE THE AMERICA WE HA VE INHERITED TODA Y.
Woman: I DON'T THINK YOU CAN UNDERSTAND RACE RELATIONS TODAY WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING SLAVERY.
EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE WILL SAY "I DIDN'T DO IT, MY FATHER DIDN'T DO I EVEN MY GRANDPARENTS, THEY DIDN'T DO IT" ONE OF THE THINGS THAT'S ESSENTIAL IS TO KNOW THAT SLAVERY IS NO JUST A SOUTHERN INSTITUTION.
IT'S AN AMERICAN INSTITUTION.
Man: WHAT EVOLVES IN NORTH AMERICA IS THE BELIEF SYSTEM WHERE TO BE BLACK MEANT TO BE A SLAVE AND TO BE A SLAVE MEANT TO BE BLACK.
Man: "WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT" WHY IS IT SELF-EVIDENT? IT CAME FROM GOD.
THEY'RE INALIENABLE, THE GOVERNMENT SECURES THEM REMARKABLE DOCUMENT, DIDN'T APPLY TO BLACK FOLKS.
AND THE MAN WHO WROTE THOSE WORDS, THOMAS JEFFERSON KEPT SLAVES.
HE ALSO WROTE SOMETIME LATER TO A FRIEND: "IF THERE IS A JUST GOD, WE'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS.
" Woman: SLAVERY AND FREEDOM EXISTED SIDE-BY-SIDE IN THIS COUNTRY.
I THINK THE ISSUE IS: DID I ALWAYS HAVE TO BE THAT WAY? AND THE EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA INDICATES THA IT PROBABLY DID NOT.
Woman: # YOUR COUNTRY # HOW CAME IT YOURS? BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED WE WERE HERE.
YOUR COUNTRY ââ¢Âª HOW CAME IT YOURS? ââ¢Âª ââ¢Âª BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED ââ¢Âª WE WERE HERE.
AFRICANS IN AMERICA [with captioning.]
HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE BY A GRAN FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMEN FOR THE HUMANITIES EXPANDING AMERICA'S UNDERSTANDING OF WHO WE WERE WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE WILL BE.
THEY WERE TORN FROM HOMES AND FAMILIES YET THEY NEVER LET GO OF THEIR COURAGE AND PERSEVERANCE AND OUR NATION IS STRONGER BECAUSE OF IT.
THAT'S WHY AFRICANS IN AMERICA IS PROUDLY BROUGHT TO YOU BY BANKERS TRUST, ARCHITECTS OF VALUE.
A HOME IS MORE THAN FOUR WALLS AND A ROOF.
IT'S SAFER STREETS BETTER SCHOOLS STRONGER COMMUNITIES THE AMERICAN DREAM.
THE FANNIE MAE FOUNDATION HELPING AMERICANS ON THE PATH TO HOME OWNERSHIP.
McDONALD'S IS PROUD TO SUPPOR THIS PRESENTATION OF AFRICANS IN AMERICA.
ADDITIONAL FUNDING IS PROVIDED BY: AND THE ANNUAL FINANCIAL SUPPOR OF PBS VIEWERS LIKE YOU.
Narrator: IN THE YEAR 1645, IN THE COLONY THAT WAS CALLED VIRGINIA IN THE COUNTY OF NORTHAMPTON, AFTER A SEASON OF DISPUTES A WHITE MAN AND A BLACK MAN WENT INTO THE FIELD AND THERE DIVIDED THEIR CROP AND THEIR LAND.
ACCORDING TO THE TESTIMONY GIVEN IN COUR THE MAN NAMED ANTHONY, THE NEGRO SAID, "MR.
TAYLOR AND I HAVE DIVIDED OUR CORN AND I AM VERY GLAD OF IT, FOR NOW I KNOW MINE OWN GROUND.
" IN AMERICA, IT SEEMED, ALL MEN WOULD BE EQUAL ALL MEN WOULD BE FREE.
IN APRIL 1607, THREE VESSELS CARRYING 105 COLONISTS LANDED AT A PLACE THEY NAMED JAMESTOWN AT THE EDGE OF THE VIRGINIA WILDERNESS.
THEY HOPED TO ESTABLISH THE FIRST PERMANEN IN THE NEW WORLD.
A NEW PROMISED LAND THE BRAVE NEW WORLD THAT THEIR POET SHAKESPEARE DREAMED A FREE LAND BUILT BY FREE MEN.
Man: THE DREAMS WERE UTOPIAN INITIALLY OF COLONIES WITHOUT COERCION, WITHOUT OPPRESSION WHERE EACH MAN WOULD BE REGARDED AS FREE AND EQUAL.
THERE WAS A LOT OF IDEALISM, I THINK AMONG THE SETTLEMENTS IN THE NEW WORLD A LOT OF IDEAS WHICH I THINK DIDN'T STAND MUCH THE TEST OF EXPERIENCE.
BELIEVED THAT THEIR GOD HAD ORDAINED THEM TO SPREAD HIS WORD AND THAT THEY HAD THE GOD-GIVEN RIGH TO DRIVE OUT ALL UNWILLING TO BUT IN THE FIRST TWO YEARS, THE COLONISTS LEARNED THAT THEY WERE UNPREPARED FOR LIFE IN THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS.
Man: "THE FOURTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER DIED THOMAS JACOB SERGEANT.
"THE FIFTH DAY, THERE DIED BEN JAMIN BEAST.
"OUR MEN WERE DESTROYED WITH CRUEL DISEASES "AS SWELLINGS, FLIXES, BURNING FEVERS, AND BY WARS.
"AND SOME DEPARTED SUDDENLY "BUT FOR THE MOST PAR THEY DIED OF MERE FAMINE.
LEFT IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY IN SUCH MISERY AS WE WERE IN THIS NEW DISCOVERED VIRGINIA.
" GEORGE PERCY.
Narrator: IN 1609, 500 SETTLERS LIVED IN THE JAMESTOWN COLONY.
BY THE SPRING OF 1610, ONLY 60 WERE LEFT ALIVE.
Man: "ABOUT THE LATTER END OF AUGUST, A DUTCH MAN-OF-WAR "ARRIVED AT POINT COMFORT.
"THE COMMANDER'S NAME, CAPTAIN JOPE.
"HE BROUGHT NOT ANYTHING BUT 20 AND ODD NEGROES WHICH THE GOVERNOR BOUGHT IN EXCHANGE FOR FOOD.
" JOHN ROLFE, VIRGINIA COLONIST.
Narrator: IN 1619, A YEAR BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED AT PLYMOUTH ROCK A MYSTERY SHIP APPEARED OUT OF A VIOLENT STORM OFF THE VIRGINIA COAST.
NO ONE RECORDED THE SHIP'S NAME BUT SOMEWHERE ON THE HIGH SEAS SHE HAD ROBBED A SPANISH VESSEL OF A CARGO OF AFRICANS.
IN SEARCH OF SUPPLIES, SHE TRADED THE AFRICANS FOR FOOD.
THEY HAD BEEN BAPTIZED AND GIVEN CHRISTIAN NAMES.
AS CHRISTIANS, THEY COULD NO BE ENSLAVED FOR LIFE LIKE MOST EUROPEANS IN THE COLONY THEY WERE PURCHASED TO WORK AS SERVANTS FOR A LIMITED NUMBER OF YEARS.
THE NEW ARRIVALS SUPPLIED MUCH-NEEDED LABOR FOR THE TOBACCO CROP THAT WAS MAKING MEN RICH.
SETTLERS WERE PLANTING TOBACCO IN THE STREETS OF JAMESTOWN CARVING PLANTATIONS OUT OF THE SURROUNDING WILDERNESS AND SHIPPING SOME 60,000 POUNDS A YEAR BACK TO ENGLAND.
Man: ONCE TOBACCO IS ESTABLISHED AS A VIABLE COMMODITY THEN THE MORE LAND YOU CONTROL, THE BIGGER PROFITS YOU CAN MAKE AND IN ORDER TO MAKE THOSE PROFITS, YOU'D NEED MORE LABOR AND YOU'D LOOK FOR THAT LABOR WHEREVER YOU CAN FIND IT.
WELL, THE COLONY BUILDERS INITIALLY INTENDED TO RELY ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY ON WHITE INDENTURED SERVANTS AS A LABOR FORCE TO CULTIVATE THE CROPS THAT WERE BEING GROWN IN VIRGINIA PRINCIPALLY TOBACCO.
AND IN ORDER TO CREATE THESE RAW MATERIALS OR GOODS YOU OFTEN NEEDED LABOR.
Narrator: THE WORLD THE AFRICANS ENTERED WAS CONTROLLED POOR MOST UNDER THE AGE OF 25.
IN RETURN FOR PASSAGE TO VIRGINIA THEY HAD TRADED FOUR TO SEVEN YEARS OF THEIR LABOR.
THEY WERE BOUND TO A MASTER BY AN INDENTURE FORM A CONTRACT THAT DEFINED LENGTH OF SERVICE AND THE CONDITIONS OF SERVITUDE.
MOST WERE PROMISED "FREEDOM DUES" AFTER THEIR SERVICE A BUSHEL OF CORN, A NEW SUIT OF CLOTHES AND 100 ACRES OF LAND.
UNDER VIRGINIA'S HEADRIGHT SYSTEM A PLANTER WAS ENTITLED TO 50 ACRES OF LAND FOR EACH SERVANT BROUGHT INTO THE COLONY.
Wood: THE ISSUE ALWAYS WAS HOW LONG THAT INDENTURE WOULD BE AND UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS YOU WOULD BE FORCED TO WORK.
AT ITS BEST, IT WAS A SHORT, FRIENDLY APPRENTICESHIP.
AT ITS WORST, IT WAS A LONG AND EXPLOITATIVE SITUATION IN WHICH YOU MIGHT DIE BEFORE YOU EVER OBTAINED YOUR FREEDOM.
Narrator: BY 1622, 3,000 NEW SETTLERS DRAWN BY THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE TOBACCO BOOM HAD ARRIVED IN VIRGINIA.
TWO YEARS LATER, THE FIRST NEGRO CHILD WAS BORN IN THE COLONY.
HE WAS NAMED WILLIAM TUCKER, AFTER A VIRGINIA PLANTER.
THE PROSPERITY THAT BEGAN IN 1619 AND THE DREAM OF A NEW EDEN OF PEOPLE PEACEFULLY CO-EXISTING WAS SERIOUSLY THREATENED IN MARCH 1622.
ON GOOD FRIDAY, SOME 30 NATIONS OF THE POWHATAN CONFEDERACY OF LAND TREATIES ATTACKED WITHOUT WARNING AND ATTEMPTED TO DRIVE ALONG THE JAMES RIVER, THE INDIANS KILLED 350 COLONISTS.
ON THE BENNETT PLANTATION ALONE, 52 PEOPLE DIED.
AMONG THE 12 WHO SURVIVED WAS A MAN NAMED ANTONIO.
Man: HERE'S AN INDIVIDUAL THAT ARRIVES AS ONE OF THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE HISTORY OF WHA BECAME THE UNITED STATES.
HE DOES WHAT ALMOST NO ONE IN EARLY VIRGINIA MANAGED TO DO AND THAT IS LIVE.
EVERYONE IS DYING OF DISEASE, OF VIOLENCE AND IN A SENSE, HE'S LUCKY.
Narrator: HE HAD BEEN BROUGH TO THE COLONY THE YEAR BEFORE TO WORK TOBACCO ALONG THE JAMES RIVER.
HIS NAME APPEARED IN THE 1625 VIRGINIA CENSUS AS "ANTONIO, A NEGRO.
" HE WAS LISTED AS A SERVANT.
Man: HE COMES TO VIRGINIA.
HE FINDS A SOCIETY THAT IS JUST DEVELOPING.
HE'S GETTING IN ON THE GROUND FLOOR, AS IT WERE.
I DON'T KNOW IF HE WAS ABLE TO IMMEDIATELY ENVISION THAT THERE WOULD BE OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIM HERE THAT WEREN' AVAILABLE ELSEWHERE.
I DON'T KNOW THAT ANYONE COULD HAVE FORETOLD THAT.
Narrator: WHEN ANTONIO ARRIVED THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA DID NO AS YET DEFINE RACIAL SLAVERY.
THEY GOVERNED ONLY THE STATUS OF SERVANTS.
AT SOME POINT, ANTONIO CHANGED HIS NAME TO ANTHONY JOHNSON AND MARRIED A NEGRO SERVAN NAMED MARY FROM A NEIGHBORING PLANTATION.
SHE BORE HIM FOUR CHILDREN.
BY 1640, IT IS CLEAR ANTHONY AND MARY WERE NO LONGER SERVANTS.
THEY HAD ACQUIRED THEIR OWN MODEST ESTATE ON VIRGINIA'S EASTERN SHORE.
Breen: AS JOHNSON PROSPERED, AS HE OBTAINED LAND AND CATTLE HE ALSO ACQUIRED DEPENDENT LABORERS.
WHAT MADE ALL THIS SOCIETY GO WAS PROPERTY.
YOUR IDENTITY IN THE SOCIETY WAS DETERMINED RATHER OBVIOUSLY BY THE AMOUNT OF LAND, THE AMOUNT OF LABOR THAT YOU OWNED.
Narrator: ANTHONY JOHNSON WAS EN JOYING PRIVILEGES HE CLAIMED FIVE WORKERS AS HEADRIGHTS AND EXPANDED HIS PROPERTY TO 250 ACRES ALONG THE PUNGOTEAGUE CREEK.
AT LEAST SOME OF HIS WORKERS WERE WHITE.
BY 1650, ANTHONY WAS ONE OF 400 BLACK PEOPLE IN VIRGINIA OUT OF A POPULATION OF ALMOST 19,000 SETTLERS.
IN NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, WHERE JOHNSON LIVED NEARLY 20 AFRICAN MEN AND WOMEN WERE FREE AND 13 OWNED THEIR OWN HOMES.
Woman: AS ANTHONY JOHNSON IS ACCUMULATING PROPERTY IT SEEMS AS THOUGH HIS SITUATION IS SECURE.
YOU GET A SENSE OF THIS INDIVIDUAL, THIS BLACK MAN BEING TREATED LIKE ANY WHITE PLANTER AND HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTERS BEING TREATED LIKE THE WIFE OF A PLANTER.
AT AN EARLY MOMEN WHEN MEN AND WOMEN WERE SORTING THEMSELVES OU WHEN THE RULES, THE ETIQUETTE OF RACE AND LABOR WERE NOT SO CLEAR AT THIS MOMENT, IN ONE COUNTY IN VIRGINIA IT WAS NOT FOREORDAINED THAT RACE RELATIONS WOULD BECOME WHAT THEY DID BECOME.
Narrator: IN 1640, THE YEAR ANTHONY JOHNSON PURCHASED HIS FIRST PIECE OF LAND THREE SERVANTS HAD RUN AWAY FROM A VIRGINIA PLANTATION AND HEADED FOR MARYLAND.
CAPTURED AND RETURNED TO THEIR OWNER THEY WERE TRIED FOR BREAKING THEIR CONTRACT.
Man: "THE SAID THREE SERVANTS SHALL RECEIVE "THE PUNISHMENT OF WHIPPING AND TO HAVE 30 STRIPES APIECE.
"ONE CALLED VICTOR, A DUTCHMAN "THE OTHER A SCOTCHMAN CALLED JAMES GREGORY "SHALL FIRST SERVE OU THEIR TIMES "ACCORDING TO THEIR INDENTURES "AND ONE WHOLE YEAR APIECE AFTER "AND AFTER THA TO SERVE THE COLONY "FOR THREE WHOLE YEARS APIECE.
"THE THIRD BEING A NEGRO NAMED JOHN PUNCH "SHALL SERVE HIS SAID MASTER OR HIS ASSIGNS FOR THE TIME OF HIS NATURAL LIFE.
" JAMESTOWN COURT RECORDER.
Narrator: "THE TIME OF HIS NATURAL LIFE.
" ACCORDING TO ALL THE LEGAL RECORDS THAT SURVIVE NO WHITE SERVANT IN AMERICA EVER RECEIVED SUCH A SENTENCE.
Davis: SO WHAT BEGINS TO HAPPEN IN THE 1640s IS THAT THOSE WHO ARE CONTROLLING THE VIRGINIA COLONY SAY TO THEMSELVES THE FLUIDITY THAT WE'VE SEEN IN THE PAS THE FLUIDITY THAT HAS ALLOWED AN ANTHONY JOHNSON TO SERVE LESS THAN THE LIFE TERM TO ACQUIRE HIS OWN PIECE OF GROUND TO DEVELOP A FREE STATUS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT WE WANT TO PROJEC AS GOING FURTHER IN THE FUTURE.
WE WANT TO CLOSE DOWN THAT OPPORTUNITY.
WE WANT TO BEGIN TO SHOW SOME DISTINCTIONS.
OF WHO COULD BE ENSLAVED BEGAN TO SHIFT FROM NON-CHRISTIAN TO NON-WHITE.
FOR ANTHONY AND OTHER AFRICANS IN AMERICA THE IDEA OF AN EQUAL CHANCE IN THE COLONIES WAS NOW UNDER ATTACK.
IN 1641, MASSACHUSETTS BECAME THE FIRST COLONY ON THE BRITISH-AMERICAN MAINLAND TO RECOGNIZE SLAVERY AS A LEGAL INSTITUTION.
CONNECTICUT FOLLOWED IN 1650, MARYLAND IN 1663 NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY IN 1664.
VIRGINIA LEGALLY RECOGNIZED SLAVERY IN 1661 AND A YEAR LATER, A VIRGINIA COURT DECIDED THAT ALL CHILDREN BORN IN THE COLONY WOULD BE FREE OR SLAVE ACCORDING TO THE CONDITION OF THE MOTHER.
IN VIRGINIA, SLAVERY WOULD BE DEFINED BY RACE AND PERPETUATED THROUGH HEREDITY.
PERHAPS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 17th CENTURY IF YOU WERE ONE OF SEVERAL THOUSAND AFRICANS LIVING IN VIRGINIA YOU CERTAINLY KNEW THA YOUR CHILDREN WOULD BE FREE YOU MIGHT HAVE THAT EXPECTATION.
AND TO SUDDENLY FIND THEMSELVES INVOLVED IN LIFELONG SERVITUDE, AND THEN TO REALIZE THAT, IN FACT, THEIR CHILDREN MIGHT INHERIT THE SAME STATUS THAT WAS A TERRIBLE BLOW.
THAT WAS A TERRIBLE TRANSFORMATION.
Narrator: FOR THE FIRS 50 YEARS OF THE COLONY MOST OF THE UNFREE LABOR FORCE HAD BEEN EUROPEAN BUT THAT WAS ABOUT TO CHANGE.
WORD OF THE HARD LIFE IN VIRGINIA HAD GOTTEN BACK TO ENGLAND AND THE COLONIAL GOVERNMEN FACED A GROWING SHORTAGE OF SERVANT LABOR.
ALSO TROUBLING THE COLONY WERE THE THOUSANDS OF FREE MEN MOST FORMER INDENTURED SERVANTS WHO WERE UNEMPLOYED AND ROAMING THE COUNTRYSIDE.
Man: THE PROBLEM THEY FACE IS NOT ONLY A DECREASING SUPPLY OF INDENTURED SERVANTS BUT THEY FACE THIS INCREASING PROBLEM OF WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THESE INDENTURED SERVANTS ONCE THEY LIVE OUT THEIR TERM AND A LOT OF THEM WERE SURVIVING.
THEY HAD TO BE GIVEN LAND.
THEY HAD TO BE GIVEN THEIR FREEDOM DUES AND ONE OF THOSE DUES INCLUDED EVEN GUNS AND THERE WAS A LOT OF UNRES IN VIRGINIA.
Narrator: IN 1661, SERVANTS REBELLED IN YORK COUNTY.
TWO YEARS LATER GLOUCESTER COUNTY AUTHORITIES FOILED A PLOT BY NINE SERVANTS TO STEAL ARMS AND AMMUNITION AND MARCH ON THE SEA OF COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.
IN 1676, THE UNREST IN VIRGINIA EXPLODED INTO CIVIL WAR.
AN ARMY OF 500 FREE MEN, SERVANTS AND SLAVES REBELLED AGAINST THE COLONIAL ESTABLISHMENT'S RESTRICTION ON AVAILABLE LANDS.
THEY ATTACKED PEACEFUL INDIANS, RANSACKED PROPERTY AND BURNED JAMESTOWN, SENDING THE GOVERNOR INTO HIDING.
Blight: THIS DISORDER THA THE INDENTURED SERVANT SYSTEM HAD CREATED MADE RACIAL SLAVERY TO SOUTHERN SLAVEHOLDERS MUCH MORE ATTRACTIVE BECAUSE WHA WERE BLACK SLAVES NOW? WELL, THEY WERE A PERMANENT, DEPENDENT LABOR FORCE WHO COULD BE COULD BE DEFINED AS A PEOPLE SET APART.
THEY WERE RACIALLY SET APART.
THEY WERE OUTSIDERS.
THEY WERE STRANGERS, AND IN MANY WAYS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD WITH A COUPLE POSSIBLE EXCEPTIONS SLAVERY HAS TAKEN ROO ESPECIALLY WELL WHEN THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ENSLAVED ARE DEFINED AS STRANGERS, AS OUTSIDERS AND CAN THEREFORE BE PUT INTO AN INHERITABLE, PERMANEN STATUS OF SLAVERY.
Man: "I UNDERSTAND THERE ARE SOME SLAVE SHIPS "EXPECTED INTO YORK RIVER NOW EVERY DAY.
"I DESIRE YOU TO BUY ME FIVE OR SIX SLAVES "WHEREOF THREE OR FOUR TO BE BOYS, A MAN AND A WOMAN "THE BOYS FROM EIGHT TO 17 OR 18 THE REST AS YOUNG AS YOU CAN PROCURE THEM.
" WILLIAM FITZHUGH, VIRGINIA PLANTER, 1681.
Narrator: FEW SHIPS COMING FROM AFRICA MADE THE VOYAGE BEYOND THE CARIBBEAN TO SELL THEIR CARGOES ON THE MAINLAND OF BRITISH AMERICA.
IN 1672, THE KING OF ENGLAND CHARTERED THE ROYAL AFRICAN COMPANY ENCOURAGING IT TO EXPAND THE BRITISH SLAVE TRADE.
SHAREHOLDERS INCLUDED THE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, AND JOHN LOCKE "THE PHILOSOPHER OF LIBERTY.
" IN ITS FIRST 16 YEARS, THE COMPANY TRANSPORTED NEARLY 90,000 AFRICANS TO THE AMERICAS.
Breen: IN THE LAS DECADE OF THE 17th CENTURY IT WAS POSSIBLE TO IMAGINE THAT IN A SINGLE YEAR THE NUMBER OF NEW AFRICANS ARRIVING WOULD EQUAL THE TOTAL BLACK POPULATION IN THE COLONY OR CLOSE TO IT.
THESE WERE MEN AND WOMEN THAT HAD NO SENSE OF THE WORLD THEY WERE GETTING INTO.
AND THEY SEEMED TO WHITES AS VERY ALIEN, FOREIGN, UNKNOWABLE.
Davis: THE EUROPEANS LOOK UPON THESE PEOPLE AND THEY PROJECT AN IMAGE ON THEM, THEY PROJECT AN IDENTITY AND THAT IDENTITY IS AFRICAN.
WHAT THAT MEANS IS NON-AMERICAN.
WHAT THAT MEANS IS NON-EUROPEAN.
WHAT THAT MEANS IS SEPARATION.
Man: "ALL SERVANTS IMPORTED AND BROUGHT INTO THIS COUNTRY "WHO ARE NOT CHRISTIAN IN THEIR NATIVE LAND SHALL BE COUNTED AND BE SLAVES.
" Man: "IF ANY SLAVE RESISTS HIS MASTER CORRECTING SUCH SLAVE "AND SHALL HAPPEN TO BE KILLED IN SUCH IT SHALL NOT BE ACCOUNTED FELONY.
" "IF ANY NEGRO SHALL ABSENT HIMSELF "FROM HIS MASTER'S SERVICE AND LIE HID AND LURKING "AND IF HE SHALL RESIS ANY PERSON EMPLOYED "TO APPREHEND THE SAID NEGRO "THEN IT SHALL BE LAWFUL FOR SUCH PERSON TO KILL THE SAID NEGRO.
" VIRGINIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY, JUNE 1680.
Woman: WE THINK ABOUT SLAVERY AS THIS COMPLETE PACKAGE THAT JUST CAME TO EVIL LANDOWNERS AND IT DIDN'T HAPPEN THAT WAY.
IT HAPPENED ONE LAW AT A TIME, ONE PERSON AT A TIME.
AS LANDOWNERS FELT THE NEED TO CONTROL A DIFFERENT BEHAVIOR YEAR AFTER YEAR, THEY ADDED MORE LAWS UNTIL FINALLY 1691 THEY PASSED THE LAW THAT MADE IT ILLEGAL TO FREE A BLACK SLAVE UNLESS THEY WERE LEAVING THE COLONY.
SO BY THEN, IT WAS PRETTY MUCH SE THAT THIS WAS GOING TO BE A SLAVE SOCIETY.
Blight: TO MOVE FROM INDENTURED SERVITUDE TO RACIAL SLAVERY MEANS THAT THEY'RE SETTING THEIR OWN HISTORY ON A COURSE WHERE FREEDOM IS GOING TO DEPEND ON SLAVERY WHERE THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF A MAJOR PORTION OF THESE COLONIES IS GOING TO DEPEND ON SLAVERY WHERE THE FREEDOM OF SOME IS GOING TO DEPEND ON THE BONDAGE OF OTHERS.
IT MEANS THA THE AMERICAN COLONIES THIS JEWEL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE IS LIVING THIS CONTRADICTORY HISTORY NOW OF A SOCIETY THAT IS INCREASINGLY ROOTED IN A LABOR SYSTEM THAT'S HUMAN BONDAGE THAT'S RACIAL SLAVERY.
Narrator: ANTHONY JOHNSON MOVED HIS FAMILY OUT OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH TO MARYLAND.
THERE HE LEASED 300 ACRES HE CALLED "TONIES VINEYARD.
" ON THAT FARM, ANTHONY JOHNSON DIED.
BACK IN VIRGINIA A JURY DECIDED THAT THE LAND ANTHONY HAD LEFT BEHIND COULD BE SEIZED BY THE STATE "BECAUSE HE WAS A NEGRO AND BY CONSEQUENCE, AN ALIEN.
" Breen: ONE WONDERS HOW JOHNSON WOULD HAVE VIEWED THIS CHANGING WORLD OF VIRGINIA.
HE LIVED A VERY LONG TIME.
HE SURVIVED AND DID QUITE WELL BY THE STANDARDS OF THE DAY IN BUILDING UP PROPERTIES HUNDREDS, HUNDREDS OF ACRES, AND CATTLE.
BY THE STANDARDS OF THE TIME ANYONE WOULD SAY HE DID QUITE WELL.
THERE'S NO REASON TO BELIEVE, AS OF, SAY, THE 1670s THAT THE JOHNSON FAMILY IS GOING TO BE SQUEEZED OUT.
Narrator: WITHIN A FEW YEARS, ANTHONY'S GRANDSON JOHN PURCHASED ANOTHER 44 ACRES AND IN MEMORY OF HIS GRANDFATHER'S HOMELAND CALLED THE FARM "ANGOLA.
" Latimer: BY THE TIME THE END OF THE CENTURY CAME ANTHONY JOHNSON'S CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN MAY WELL HAVE BEEN FIGHTING TO STAY FREE.
MANY FREE PEOPLE WERE SOLD INTO SLAVERY.
NO, THEY COULDN'T PROVE THAT THEY WERE FREE.
THEY HAD NO WAY OF LETTING ANYBODY KNOW THAT THEY WERE FREE SO IF A PLANTATION OWNER CAME BY AND SAID "THIS IS MY SLAVE AND I WAN TO SELL HIM," YOU WERE SOLD.
Narrator: BY THE END OF THE CENTURY NEARLY 58,000 PEOPLE LIVED IN THE COLONY.
16,000 WERE LISTED AS NEGROES.
IN 1705, THE VIRGINIA ASSEMBLY PASSED LAWS CLEARLY DEFINING THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN A SLAVE AND A SERVAN RELEGATING ALL SLAVES TO THE STATUS OF REAL ESTATE.
THE NEXT YEAR JOHN, THE THIRD GENERATION OF JOHNSONS IN AMERICA DIED WITHOUT AN HEIR.
THAT WOULD BE THE LAST MENTION OF THE PLANTATION NAMED FOR ANTHONY'S BIRTHPLACE.
ANGOLA PLANTATION, LIKE THE JOHNSONS THEMSELVES DISAPPEARED FROM THE RECORD BOOKS OF COLONIAL AMERICA.
Man: "THE AFRICAN TRADE IS A TRADE "OF THE MOST ADVANTAGE TO THIS KINGDOM OF ANY WE DERIVE "AND AS IT WERE ALL PROFI "IT IS INDEED THE BEST TRAFFIC THE KINGDOM HATH "AS IT DOTH OCCASIONALLY GIVE SO VAST AN EMPLOYMEN TO OUR PEOPLE BOTH BY SEA AND LAND.
" JOHN CARY, BRISTOL, ENGLAND.
PARLIAMENT ENDED THE MONOPOLY OF THE ROYAL AFRICAN COMPANY ON THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.
IT BECAME THE RIGHT OF EVERY FREE-BORN BRITISH SUBJEC TO TRADE IN SLAVES.
OVER THE NEXT HALF CENTURY THE NUMBER OF AFRICANS TRANSPORTED TO THE BRITISH COLONIES IN BRITISH SHIPS INCREASED FROM 5,000 TO 45,000 A YEAR.
ENGLAND BECAME THE LARGES TRAFFICKER IN SLAVES IN THE WESTERN WORLD.
"IT IS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION OF ALL THE REST" SAID ONE BRITISH WRITER: "THE MAINSPRING OF THE MACHINE WHICH SETS EVERY WHEEL IN MOTION.
" HE WAS BORN IBO THE SON OF A TRIBAL ELDER, THE FAVORITE OF HIS MOTHER.
THE FATHER OF TWO DAUGHTERS AND AT THE AGE OF 11, OLAUDAH EQUIANO WAS KIDNAPPED BY AFRICANS AND SOLD TO EUROPEANS.
(man reciting chant in Kwa language) (continues reciting Kwa chant) Man: "WHEN THE GROWN PEOPLE WERE GONE FAR IN THE FIELDS TO LABOR "THE CHILDREN GENERALLY ASSEMBLED TOGETHER TO PLAY "AND SOME OF US OFTEN USED TO GET UP INTO A TREE "TO LOOK OU FOR ANY ASSAILANT OR KIDNAPPER THAT MIGHT COME UPON US.
" "ONE DAY "WHEN ONLY I AND MY SISTER WERE LEFT TO MIND THE HOUSE "TWO MEN AND A WOMAN GOT OVER OUR WALLS "AND IN A MOMENT SEIZED US BOTH WITHOUT GIVING US TIME "TO CRY OU OR TO MAKE ANY RESISTANCE.
THEY STOPPED OUR MOUTHS AND RAN OFF WITH US.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
(man saying chant in Kwa language) WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR? WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR? IT'S EQUIANO WE'RE LOOKING FOR.
(repeats line of chant) HAS HE GONE TO THE STREAM? LET HIM COME BACK.
HAS HE GONE TO THE MARKET? LET HIM COME BACK.
HAS HE GONE TO THE FARM? LET HIM RETURN.
IT'S EQUIANO WE'RE LOOKING FOR.
(repeats line of chant) Narrator: FOR MORE THAN FOUR CENTURIES PEOPLE DISAPPEARED FROM THE SAVANNAS, THE RAIN FORESTS AND THE VILLAGES OF BLACK AFRICA FARMERS AND CRAFTSPEOPLE, COMMONERS AND AFRICAN NOBILITY.
MOST WERE STRONG YOUNG MEN, AGE 15 TO 25 BUT WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE ALSO TAKEN AND SOLD.
TO OBTAIN SLAVES, AFRICANS WAGED WAR DESTROYING COMMUNITIES, STEALING PEOPLE.
TO ESCAPE THE SPREADING VIOLENCE MANY MOVED INTO THE INTERIOR ABANDONING FAMILY COMPOUNDS, FARMS, ENTIRE VILLAGES.
IN WEST AFRICA MORE THAN 20 MILLION PEOPLE WERE KIDNAPPED INTO SLAVERY.
ONLY HALF WOULD SURVIVE THE JOURNEY TO THE COAST.
THE BOY EQUIANO WAS ONE OF THE SURVIVORS.
Equiano: "AT LAST I CAME TO THE BANKS OF A LARGE RIVER.
"I WAS BEYOND MEASURE SURPRISED AT THIS "AS I HAD NEVER BEFORE SEEN ANY WATER LARGER THAN A POND OR RIVULET.
" "AND TO MY SURPRISE WAS MINGLED WITH NO SMALL FEAR "WHEN I WAS PU INTO ONE OF THESE CANOES AND WE BEGAN TO PADDLE AND MOVE ALONG THE RIVER.
" Narrator: ON THE JOURNEY TO THE COAS EQUIANO PASSED FROM ONE AFRICAN MASTER TO ANOTHER.
ONCE HE WAS SOLD FOR 172 COWRIE SHELLS.
HE LEARNED THREE DIFFERENT LANGUAGES TRAVELED SOME 800 MILES AND ENCOUNTERED PEOPLE AND CUSTOMS UNFAMILIAR AND FRIGHTENING TO HIM.
AFTER CLOSE TO SEVEN MONTHS OF TRAVEL ON FOOT AND BY BOA HE REACHED THE AFRICAN COAST.
Equiano: "THE FIRS OBJECT THAT SALUTED MY EYES "WHEN I ARRIVED ON THE COAS WAS THE SEA AND A SLAVE SHIP "WHICH WAS THEN RIDING AT ANCHOR AND WAITING FOR ITS CARGO.
"THESE FILLED ME WITH ASTONISHMEN BUT WAS SOON CONVERTED INTO TERROR.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Narrator: IT WAS AN ANCIENT BUSINESS THIS TRADE IN HUMAN BEINGS BETWEEN AFRICA AND EUROPE.
50 YEARS BEFORE COLUMBUS SAILED TO THE NEW WORLD PORTUGUESE EXPLORERS HAD SAILED TO WEST AFRICA.
AT FIRST SEEKING GOLD, THEY BUILT A FORT IN 1482 AND CALLED IT EL MINA, THE MINE.
THE PORTUGUESE POINTED THEIR GUNS TOWARD THE ATLANTIC TO GUARD, NOT AGAINST AFRICANS BUT AGAINS EUROPEAN COMPETITORS.
OVER TIME, THE CASTLE CHANGED HANDS FROM THE PORTUGUESE TO THE DUTCH AND FINALLY THE BRITISH AND THE TRADE CHANGED FROM GOLD TO HUMAN BEINGS.
Man: "CONCERNING THE TRADE ON THIS COAS "WE NOTIFIED YOUR HIGHNESS ALREADY "THAT IS HAS COMPLETELY CHANGED INTO A SLAVE COAS "AND THAT NOWADAYS THE NATIVES NO LONGER OCCUPY THEMSELVES "WITH THE SEARCH FOR GOLD "BUT RATHER MAKE WAR ON EACH OTHER "IN ORDER TO FURNISH SLAVES.
THE GOLD COAST HAS CHANGED INTO A COMPLETE SLAVE COAST.
" WILLIAM DE LA PALMA DIRECTOR, DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY.
Narrator: ALONG THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA FROM SENEGAL IN THE NORTH TO THE CAMEROONS IN THE SOUTH THE EUROPEANS BUIL SOME 60 FORTS AND CASTLES WAREHOUSES FOR EUROPEAN MERCHANDISE AND FOR AFRICAN SLAVES.
CALLED "FACTORIES," THEY WERE COMMERCIAL CENTERS WHERE AGENTS OR "FACTORS" TRADED RUM, CLOTH AND GUNS FOR HUMAN BEINGS AND GOLD.
Man: "THE MOST NOTABLE ITEM IS THE SLAVE HOUSE "WHICH LIES BELOW GROUND.
"IT CONSISTS OF VAULTED CELLARS DIVIDED INTO SEVERAL APARTMENTS WHICH CAN EASILY HOLD A THOUSAND SLAVES.
" CAPTAIN JOHN BARBOT, FRENCH SLAVE TRADER.
Narrator: IN DUNGEONS BUIL DEEP INTO THE OCEAN ROCK PEOPLE WAITED, SOMETIMES A DAY, SOMETIMES A YEAR.
THESE CHAMBERS WOULD BE THEIR LAST MEMORY OF AFRICA.
WHEN A SLAVE SHIP ARRIVED AND ANCHORED OFF THE COAS THEY WOULD BE LED OU FROM THE DARKNESS TO THE BEACH.
Barbot: "AS THE SLAVES COME DOWN TO FIDA FROM THE INLAND COUNTRY "THEY ARE PUT INTO A BOOTH, OR PRISON, NEAR THE BEACH.
"WHEN THE EUROPEANS ARE TO RECEIVE THEM "THEY ARE BROUGHT OU INTO A LARGE PLAIN "WHERE THE SURGEONS EXAMINE EVERY ONE OF THEM "ALL STARK NAKED.
"EACH WHICH HAVE PASSED AS GOOD IS MARKED ON THE BREAS "WITH A RED-HOT IRON IMPRINTING THE MARK OR DUTCH COMPANIES.
"IN THIS, PARTICULAR CARE IS TAKEN THAT THE WOMEN, AS TENDEREST, BE NOT BURNT TOO HARD.
" CAPTAIN JOHN BARBOT, FRENCH SLAVE TRADER.
Achebe: THE WHITE PEOPLE DID NOT NEED TO BE PRESEN IN THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA.
ALL THEY NEEDED TO DO WAS TO SUPPLY THE WEAPONS.
THE PEOPLE THEY DEALT WITH WERE THOSE COASTAL PEOPLES RIGHT ON THE COASTLINE WHO CONTROLLED THE TERRITORY DOWN THERE.
SO EQUIANO WOULD NOT HAVE MET, MAYBE NOT EVEN HEARD OF WHITE PEOPLE.
Man: "I HAVE FOUND NO PLACE WHERE I CAN ENLARGE MY FORTUNE SO SOON "AS WHERE I NOW LIVE.
"IN THIS MANNER, WE SPEND THE PRIME OF YOUTH AMONG NEGROES "SCRAPING THE WORLD FOR MONEY, THE UNIVERSAL GOD OF MANKIND UNTIL DEATH OVERTAKES US.
" NICHOLAS OWEN, SLAVE TRADER.
Unsworth: EUROPEANS DIED LIKE FLIES IN THAT CLIMATE.
THE AVERAGE EXPECTATION WAS THREE OR FOUR YEARS, YOU KNOW, REALLY.
AND SO THEY HAD TO MAKE MONEY WHILE THEY COULD BECAUSE THEY KNEW THEY DIDN'T HAVE MUCH TIME SO IN THAT SENSE, OF COURSE, THEY WERE TRAPPED.
THEY WERE CAUGHT IN THE WEB OF THE SYSTEM AND HELD THERE AND DIED THERE.
Narrator: THE EUROPEANS MADE MORE THAN 54,000 VOYAGES TO TRADE IN HUMAN BEINGS.
NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW THE EXACT NUMBER OF PEOPLE TAKEN FROM THE SHORES OF WEST AFRICA BUT MORE THAN 11 MILLION HAVE BEEN COUNTED IN THE RECORDS THAT REMAIN.
MOST HEADED FOR SOUTH AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS SOME HALF A MILLION TO THE MAINLAND OF NORTH AMERICA.
Man: "DECEMBER 29, 1724, NO TRADE TODAY "THOUGH MANY TRADERS CAME ON BOARD.
"THEY INFORMED US "THAT THE PEOPLE ARE GONE TO WAR WITHIN LAND "AND WILL BRING PRISONERS ENOUGH IN TWO OR THREE DAYS IN HOPES OF WHICH WE STAY.
" "DECEMBER 30, 1724, NO TRADE YE "BUT OUR TRADERS CAME ON BOARD TODAY AND INFORMED US "THE PEOPLE HAD BURN FOUR TOWNS OF THEIR ENEMIES SO THAT TOMORROW WE EXPECT SLAVES.
" LIVERPOOL SURGEON.
Man: "RECEIVED ON THIS CARGO 46 MEN, 34 WOMEN, 14 BOYS, SIX GIRLS "AND 147 CHESTS OF CORN.
"THE REST OF THE GOODS DELIVERED ONSHORE TO CAPE COAST AND ACCRA TO MR.
HARBIN.
" WILLIAM DEXTER, SHIP'S CAPTAIN.
Narrator: SHIP CAPTAINS WERE CAUTIONED NOT TO BUY ALL THEIR SLAVES FROM ONE PLACE.
AFRICANS WHO KNEW EACH OTHER, WHO SPOKE THE SAME LANGUAGE WERE MORE LIKELY TO CONSPIRE AND REBEL.
Unsworth: THERE WOULD BE MAYBE 25 SEAMEN AND THE SHIP'S OFFICERS.
THERE MIGHT HAVE BEEN A CREW OF 30 AND THESE 30 HAD TO CONTROL MAYBE 300 MEN BLACK MEN AND WOMEN WHO WERE AWARE OF BEING ABDUCTED AND WHO WERE DESPERATE AND WHO WERE DANGEROUS BECAUSE THEY WERE OBVIOUSLY WAITING TO SEIZE ANY OPPORTUNITY THAT WAS OFFERED TO REBEL AND TO TAKE OVER THE SHIP AND TO KILL THE CREW AND THAT DID HAPPEN FAIRLY FREQUENTLY.
THE ONLY WAY THA THIS COULD BE CONTAINED WAS BY A SYSTEM OF FEAR.
Equiano: "I WAS NOW PERSUADED THA I HAD GOT INTO A WORLD OF BAD SPIRITS "AND THAT THEY WERE GOING TO KILL ME.
"THEIR COMPLEXIONS, TOO, DIFFERING SO MUCH FROM OURS "THEIR LONG HAIR AND THE LANGUAGE THEY SPOKE "WHICH WAS VERY DIFFEREN FROM ANY I HAD EVER HEARD "UNITED TO CONFIRM ME IN THIS BELIEF: "I NO LONGER DOUBTED MY FATE.
"I ASKED IF WE WERE GOING TO BE EATEN BY THOSE WHITE MEN WITH HORRIBLE LOOKS, RED FACES AND LONG HAIR.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Narrator: CAPTAINS CALLED THE VOYAGE FROM WEST AFRICA TO THE NEW WORLD "THE MIDDLE PASSAGE" THE MIDDLE LEG OF A TRIANGULAR COURSE THAT BEGAN AND ENDED IN EUROPE.
SHIPS SAILED TO AFRICA TO TRADE GOODS FOR SLAVES.
THEN THE HUMAN CARGO WAS TAKEN TO THE AMERICAS AND TRADED FOR RAW MATERIALS WHICH WERE THEN CARRIED BACK TO ENGLAND AND SOLD.
THE CROSSING FROM AFRICA TO THE AMERICAS USUALLY TOOK 60 TO 90 DAYS BUT SOME VOYAGES TOOK AS LONG AS FOUR OR EVEN SIX MONTHS.
BAD WEATHER AND SICKNESS COULD TURN ANY TRIP INTO A NIGHTMARE.
Man: THE CRAMPED QUARTERS OF SHIPS BEING PACKED IN SUCH A WAY THAT A SLAVE WILL BE BETWEEN THE LEGS OF ANOTHER SLAVE AND HAVING TO LIE IN THE FECES.
THE LACK OF AIR.
THE LONGER THIS TRIP TAKES, THE MORE SUFFOCATING.
Man: "THE SURGEON, UPON GOING BETWEEN DECKS IN THE MORNING "TO EXAMINE THE SITUATION OF THE SLAVES "FREQUENTLY FINDS SEVERAL DEAD "AND SOMETIMES A DEAD AND LIVING NEGRO "FASTENED BY THEIR IRONS TOGETHER.
"WHEN THIS IS THE CASE, THEY ARE BROUGHT UPON THE DECK.
"THE LIVING NEGRO IS DISENGAGED AND THE DEAD ONE THROWN OVERBOARD.
" ALEXANDER FALCONBRIDGE, SHIP'S SURGEON.
Jones: THERE ARE NO DOUB PEOPLE WHO WENT MAD INABILITY TO COMMUNICATE, DECISIONS HAVING TO BE MADE AND THIS PERSON IS SUFFERING AS YOURSELF.
DOES ONE HELP? DOES ONE SIMPLY TRY TO MAKE I THE BEST THAT ONE CAN ALONE? NOT KNOWING, WHERE AM I BEING TAKEN, WHAT IS MY FATE? FOR WEEKS, MONTHS, DEPENDING WHAT THE POINT OF ORIGIN WAS.
Equiano: "ONE DAY, TWO OF MY WEARIED COUNTRYMEN "WHO WERE CHAINED TOGETHER "SOMEHOW MADE I THROUGH THE NETTINGS "AND JUMPED INTO THE SEA.
"IMMEDIATELY ANOTHER QUITE DEJECTED FELLOW "ALSO FOLLOWED THEIR EXAMPLE "AND I BELIEVE MANY MORE WOULD HAVE VERY SOON DONE THE SAME "IF THEY HAD NOT BEEN PREVENTED BY THE SHIP'S CREW WHO WERE INSTANTLY ALARMED.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Unsworth: THE IDEA, I THINK WAS THAT THE SLAVE CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO DIE BY HIS OWN WILL AND INTENTION.
HE CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO DIE VOLUNTARILY.
IF HE'S GOING TO DIE, IT MUST BE AT THE HANDS OF HIS CAPTORS SO THAT IN THAT CASE HE DOESN' SPREAD A DANGEROUS EXAMPLE.
Man: "MONDAY, 11 DECEMBER.
"BY THE FAVOR OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE "MADE A TIMELY DISCOVERY TODAY "THAT THE SLAVES WERE FORMING A PLOT FOR INSURRECTION.
"SURPRISED TWO OF THEM "ATTEMPTING TO GET OFF THEIR IRONS "AND IN THEIR ROOMS FOUND KNIVES, STONES, SHOT, ETC.
"AND A COLD CHISEL.
"THERE APPEARED EIGH PRINCIPALLY CONCERNED "IN PROTECTING THE MISCHIEF "AND FOUR BOYS IN SUPPLYING THEM WITH THE ABOVE INSTRUMENTS.
"PUT THE BOYS IN IRONS AND SLIGHTLY IN THE THUMBSCREWS TO URGE THEM TO A FULL CONFESSION.
" CAPTAIN JOHN NEWTON.
Man: "WE STOOD IN ARMS, FIRING ON THE REVOLTED SLAVES "OF WHOM WE KILLED SOME AND WOUNDED MANY.
"AND MANY OF THE MOST MUTINOUS "LEAPT OVERBOARD AND DROWNED THEMSELVES IN THE OCEAN WITH MUCH RESOLUTION.
" JAMES BARBOT, Equiano: "OFTEN DID I THINK MANY OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE DEEP "MUCH HAPPIER THAN MYSELF.
"EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE I MET WITH "SERVED ONLY TO RENDER MY STATE MORE PAINFUL "AND HEIGHTEN MY APPREHENSIONS AND MY OPINION OF THE CRUELTY OF WHITES.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Unsworth: THE SLAVERS, THEY KNEW AT ONE LEVEL THAT THESE WERE HUMAN BEINGS BECAUSE THEY WERE OBVIOUSLY, CLEARLY, HUMAN BEINGS.
AT THE SAME TIME, THEY WERE OBJECTS OF PROFI AND THOSE TWO CONCEPTS COULDN' OBVIOUSLY BE REALLY RECONCILED AND THEY NEVER WERE RECONCILED.
IT WAS JUS I THINK THAT THE HUMANE THE SENSE OF THE HUMANITY OF THESE PEOPLE WAS SIMPLY SUPPRESSED FOR THE SAKE OF GOLD.
AND THE SHOCKING THING IS THAT HUMAN BEINGS ARE ABLE INDEFINITELY TO SUPPRESS THE URGINGS OF THEIR COMMON HUMANITY AND TO DENY I FOR THE SAKE OF MAKING PROFITS.
Equiano: "IS NOT THE SLAVE TRADE ENTIRELY A WAR WITH THE HEART OF MAN? "AND SURELY THAT WHICH IS BEGUN "BY BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS OF VIRTUE "INVOLVES IN ITS CONTINUANCE DESTRUCTION TO EVERY PRINCIPLE AND BURIES ALL SENTIMENT IN RUIN.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Narrator: THE MIDDLE PASSAGE ENDED FOR EQUIANO ON THE ISLAND OF BARBADOS ONE OF THE MOST PROFITABLE COLONIES IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
ON BARBADOS, IT WAS CALCULATED THAT IT WAS CHEAPER TO WORK SLAVES TO DEATH AND REPLACE THEM WITH NEW SLAVES THAN TO TREAT THEM HUMANELY.
WITHIN THREE YEARS OF ARRIVAL ONE OUT OF THREE SLAVES WOULD DIE.
THE BOY EQUIANO, JUDGED TOO SMALL TO CUT SUGAR CANE WAS SHIPPED NORTH TO THE MAINLAND OF BRITISH AMERICA.
ON THE MAINLAND, THE PLANTATION SYSTEM OF BARBADOS WAS ADMIRED AND IMITATED PARTICULARLY ON THE CAROLINA COAST.
Man: SOUTH CAROLINA WAS STARTED AS THE COLONY OF A COLONY.
BARBADOS HAD BECOME OVERPOPULATED MERCHANTS AND WITH THEIR SLAVES AND IN BOTH CASES THEY BEGAN TO LOOK AROUND, CAST AROUND FOR NEW PLACES AND WITHIN THE FIRST DECADE AFTER SOUTH CAROLINA'S INITIAL SETTLEMEN THERE WERE JUST LOADS OF IMMIGRANTS FROM BARBADOS WHO BROUGHT WITH THEM SLAVES FROM BARBADOS BUT MORE IMPORTAN THAN JUST BRINGING SLAVES UNLIKE VIRGINIA, THEY BROUGHT A FULLY CONCEIVED IDEA OF SLAVERY.
Narrator: ON THE SHORES OF THE ASHLEY RIVER STANDS MIDDLETON PLACE HOME TO ONE OF CAROLINA'S OLDEST FAMILIES.
MIDDLETON FAMILY MEMBERS WERE DESTINED TO BECOME PAR OF THE CAROLINA ELITE A GOVERNOR, A CONGRESSMAN A SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
THE FAMILY HAD BEEN AMONG THE FIRST SETTLERS ARRIVING FROM BARBADOS IN 1678 WITH A LAND GRAN IN GOOSE CREEK JUST 14 MILES NORTH OF CHARLESTON CAROLINA'S SLAVE-TRADING CENTER.
BY 1706, A SECOND GENERATION OF MIDDLETONS HAD ALMOST TRIPLED THE SIZE OF THE FAMILY'S LANDHOLDINGS TO 5,000 ACRES OF CAROLINA WILDERNESS.
AT AGE 25, YOUNG ARTHUR MIDDLETON WAS MASTER OF THE OAKS PLANTATION.
Man: "DEAR SARAH MR.
ARTHUR MIDDLETON "IS MARRIED TO MY SISTER "AND WAS A SCHOOLFELLOW WITH ME WHEN I WAS AT CAROLINA.
"HE IS A SENSIBLE MAN AND ONE OF THE RICHEST IN THE COUNTRY WITH UPWARDS OF 100 NEGROES.
" THOMAS AMORY.
Wood: RACIAL SLAVERY TURNS OU TO BE EXTRAORDINARILY PROFITABLE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEIZED CONTROL.
THE PLANTER CAN COMPLAIN IN HIS DIARY THAT IT'S BEEN A BAD YEAR OR THE CROP IS WEAK OR THE RAINY SEASON LASTED TOO LONG BUT YEAR IN AND YEAR OU TREMENDOUS PROFITS ARE BEING MADE.
Narrator: THE IMMIGRANTS FROM BARBADOS HAD SEARCHED FOR A CASH CROP THAT WOULD MAKE THEM RICH.
FAMILIES LIKE THE MIDDLETONS FOUND IT IT WAS RICE.
THE MOST PRIZED AFRICANS IN CAROLINA WERE FROM ANGOLA, SENE-GAMBIA AND THE WINDWARD COAST PEOPLE WHO BROUGH THE RICE-GROWING SKILLS THE EUROPEANS DID NOT HAVE.
Man: "RICE IS THE MOST UNHEALTHY WORK "IN WHICH THE SLAVES WERE EMPLOYED "AND THEY SANK UNDER I IN GREAT NUMBERS.
"THE CAUSES OF THIS DREADFUL MORTALITY "ARE THE CONSTANT MOISTURE AND HEAT OF THE ATMOSPHERE "TOGETHER WITH THE ALTERNATE FLOODINGS AND DRYING "OF THE FIELDS ON WHICH THE NEGROES ARE PERPETUALLY AT WORK "OFTEN ANKLE-DEEP IN MUD WITH THEIR BARE HEADS EXPOSED TO THE FIERCE RAYS OF THE SUN.
" CAPTAIN BASIL HALL.
Man: "MANY MASTERS CAN'T BE PERSUADED "THAT NEGROES AND INDIANS ARE OTHERWISE THAN BEASTS "AND USE THEM LIKE SUCH.
"I DAILY PERCEIVE THAT MANY THINGS ARE DONE HERE OUT OF A WORLDLY PRINCIPLE, LITTLE FOR GOD'S SAKE.
" FRANCIS LEJAU, ANGLICAN MINISTER.
Narrator: IN 1706, THE MIDDLETONS DONATED FOUR ACRES OF LAND FOR A CHURCH IN GOOSE CREEK.
FRANCIS LEJAU, THE FIRS FULL-TIME ANGLICAN MINISTER WAS NOT OPPOSED TO SLAVERY BUT HE PREACHED THAT ALL MEN REGARDLESS OF COLOR HAD IMMORTAL SOULS.
HE EARNED A REPUTATION FOR SPENDING TIME WITH THE NEGROES BAPTIZING AND TEACHING THEM TO READ THE BIBLE.
HE SPOKE OUT OFTEN AGAINS THE BRUTALITY OF CAROLINA SLAVEHOLDERS WHO WERE SEEKING TO CONTROL THE GROWING POPULATION OF AFRICANS.
Lejau: "I HAVE HAD OF LATE "AN OPPORTUNITY TO OPPOSE WITH ALL MY MIGH "A VERY UNHUMANE LAW IN RELATION TO RUNAWAY NEGROES.
"SUCH A NEGRO MUST BE MUTILATED "BY AMPUTATION OF TESTICLES IF IT BE A MAN "AND AN EAR, IF A WOMAN.
"I HAVE OPENLY DECLARED AGAINST SUCH A PUNISHMEN GROUNDED UPON THE LAW OF GOD.
" FRANCIS LEJAU.
Washington: THE ANGLICAN MISSIONARIES PROBABLY DESCRIBED THE BLACK COMMUNITY BETTER THAN ANYONE AT THE TIME IN EARLY CAROLINA.
THEY DESCRIBED IT AS A NATION WITHIN A NATION.
THE AFRICANS LIVED SEPARATED FROM THE REST OF SOCIETY.
BEING FRESHLY FROM AFRICA, THEIR FRAME OF REFERENCE WAS AFRICAN.
THEY WERE VERY MUCH FAMILIAR WITH THIS KIND OF SUBTROPICAL ENVIRONMEN THAT THEY FOUND THEMSELVES IN IN CAROLINA.
THEY'RE STILL COMMUNITIES OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE, LOVE RAISE CHILDREN AND WORK, AND THEY FEEL THAT AS PEOPLE AS HUMANS, THEY HAVE A RIGH TO COME AND GO.
THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO VISI THEIR WIVES AND THEIR HUSBANDS ON OTHER PLANTATIONS.
IT WAS, AS ONE TRAVELER SAID, "A NEGRO COUNTRY.
" Man: "THEIR NUMBERS INCREASE EVERY DAY "AS WELL BY BIRTH AS IMPORTATION.
"AND IN CASE THERE SHOULD ARISE A MAN OF DESPERATE COURAGE "EXASPERATED BY A DESPERATE FORTUNE "HE MIGHT KINDLE A SERVILE WAR.
"SUCH A MAN MIGHT BE DREADFULLY MISCHIEVOUS "BEFORE ANY OPPOSITION COULD BE FORMED AGAINST HIM AND TINGE OUR RIVERS AS WIDE AS THEY ARE WITH BLOOD.
" WILLIAM BYRD, VIRGINIA PLANTER.
Narrator: IN 1710, JUST 15 YEARS AFTER RICE TOOK HOLD IN CAROLINA AFRICANS BEGAN TO OUTNUMBER EUROPEANS IN THE COLONY.
AS THE NUMBER OF AFRICANS ROSE SO, TOO, DID WHITE FEAR AND RETALIATION.
Equiano: "MR.
D.
TOLD ME ONCE "HE CUT OFF A NEGRO MAN'S LEG FOR RUNNING AWAY.
"I ASKED HIM IF THE MAN HAD DIED IN THE OPERATION "AND HOW HE, AS A CHRISTIAN "COULD ANSWER FOR THE HORRID ACT BEFORE GOD "AND HE TOLD ME "ANSWERING WAS A THING OF ANOTHER WORLD.
WHAT HE THOUGHT AND DID WERE POLICY.
" "HE THEN SAID HIS SCHEME HAD THE DESIRED EFFECT: IT CURED THAT MAN AND SOME OTHERS OF RUNNING AWAY.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Wood: IF YOU'RE A WHITE AUTHORITY YOU'RE CONSTANTLY TRYING TO FIGURE HOW TIGHTLY YOU WAN TO IMPOSE THE LID WITH RESPEC TO PEOPLE RUNNING AWAY.
HOW FIERCE SHOULD THE PUNISHMENTS BE, YOU KNOW? SHOULD IT BE A WHIPPING? SHOULD IT BE THE LOSS OF A FINGER OR A HAND OR A FOOT? YOU KNOW, SHOULD IT BE WEARING SHACKLES PERPETUALLY? THE ENTIRE SYSTEM OF CONTROL IS BASED ON PHYSICAL PUNISHMEN OFTEN MAKING EXAMPLES OUT OF PEOPLE SO THAT OTHERS WILL BE INTIMIDATED.
Narrator: THE COLONIAL LEGISLATURE PASSED LAWS DESIGNED TO MORE TIGHTLY CONTROL THE GROWING BLACK MAJORITY.
PLANTER RECORDS REVEAL PUNISHMENTS INFLICTED FOR INFRACTIONS LARGE AND SMALL.
Byrd: "8 FEBRUARY, 1709.
"I ROSE AT 5:00 THIS MORNING THEN READ A CHAPTER IN HEBREW "AND 200 VERSES IN HOMER'S ODYSSEY.
"I ATE MILK FOR BREAKFAST.
"I SAID MY PRAYERS.
"JENNY AND EUGENE WERE WHIPPED.
"17 APRIL ANAKA WAS WHIPPED YESTERDAY FOR STEALING THE RUM "AND FILLING THE BOTTLE UP WITH WATER.
"I SAID MY PRAYERS AND I DANCED MY DANCE.
"EUGENE WAS WHIPPED AGAIN FOR PISSING IN BED "AND JENNY FOR CONCEALING IT.
"I TOOK A WALK ABOUT THE PLANTATION.
"EUGENE WAS WHIPPED FOR RUNNING AWAY "AND HAD THE BIT PUT ON HIM.
"I SAID MY PRAYERS.
"I HAD GOOD HEALTH, GOOD THOUGHTS AND GOOD HUMOR.
THANKS BE TO GOD ALMIGHTY.
" WILLIAM BYRD, VIRGINIA PLANTER.
Washington: WHEN YOU ENSLAVE A PERSON IN SOME WAYS YOU BECOME A SLAVE YOURSELF BECAUSE MASTERS AND SLAVES ARE NATURAL ENEMIES AND THAT'S WHAT THE EUROPEANS HAD TO DEAL WITH.
THEY HAD TO DEAL WITH A POPULATION LIVING AMONGST THEM SOMETIMES THE MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION, IN HOSTILITY.
THEY LIVED AMONGST ENEMIES.
AND AS ONE CAROLINA PLANTER SAID "NOWHERE ON EARTH IS MANKIND SO PLAGUED BY ENEMIES LIVING WITHIN THEM AS WE ARE IN OUR OWN HOMES.
" Man: "THE SPANISH ARE RECEIVING AND HARBORING "ALL OUR RUNAWAY NEGROES.
"THEY HAVE FOUND OUT A NEW WAY "OF SENDING OUR OWN SLAVES AGAINST US "TO ROB AND PLUNDER US.
"WE ARE NOT ONLY AT A VAST EXPENSE "IN GUARDING OUR SOUTHERN FRONTIERS BUT THE INHABITANTS ARE CONTINUALLY ALARMED.
" ARTHUR MIDDLETON, ACTING GOVERNOR, 1728.
Narrator: ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA FRONTIER WORD SPREAD OF AFRICANS AND INDIANS COMING UP FROM SPANISH FLORIDA TO ATTACK PLANTERS AND OF SPANISH AUTHORITIES OFFERING RUNAWAYS FREEDOM ON FLORIDA SOIL.
IN GOOSE CREEK, AN ANGLICAN MINISTER COMPLAINED OF "SECRET POISONINGS AND BLOODY INSURRECTIONS BY CERTAIN CHRISTIAN SLAVES.
" Wood: SOUTH CAROLINA IS A POT READY TO BOIL OVER.
IMAGINE COMING INTO A SETUP THAT SEEMS ALMOST UNBEARABLE AND FINDING THAT PEOPLE HAVE MANY OF THEM HAVE SOMEHOW RATIONALIZED I OR ARE ENDURING IT, THAT'S THE BEST THEY CAN DO.
BUT YOU AS A NEWCOMER MIGHT FEEL "I'M NOT GOING TO PUT UP WITH THIS.
BETTER TO DIE TRYING TO CHANGE THIS.
" AND THERE MUST HAVE BEEN HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE LIKE THA IN SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE 1730s.
Narrator: BY THE 1730s, CLOSE TO 2,000 AFRICANS WERE ARRIVING AT THE POR OF CHARLESTON EACH YEAR.
FROM 1735 TO 1739, OUT OF 11,000 SLAVES LANDED MORE THAN 8,000 WERE LISTED AS ANGOLANS.
Davis: WHAT DEVELOPS IS A SENSE AMONG EUROPEANS THAT SLAVES FROM CERTAIN AREAS HAVE PARTICULAR CHARACTERISTICS.
SLAVES FROM THE ANGOLA AREA TO BE PARTICULARLY DIFFICUL TO BE REBELLIOUS.
Narrator: IN ST.
PAUL'S PARISH THERE WERE CLOSE TO A THOUSAND NEW PEOPLE WHO JUST A FEW YEARS BEFORE HAD BEEN TAKEN FROM THE ANGOLA REGION OF AFRICA.
Wood: ONE OF THEM, WE ONLY KNOW HIS NAME, A MAN NAMED JEMMY APPARENTLY HAD COME RECENTLY FROM ANGOLA.
HE MAY NOT EVEN BUT HE MAY HAVE HAD STRONG CONTACTS WITH OTHER ANGOLANS.
HE HAD TO TRY TO BUILD ALLIANCES NOT ONLY WITH OTHER ANGOLANS, OTHER NEW ARRIVALS BUT WITH OTHER AFRICANS, AFRICAN AMERICANS PEOPLE FROM A COMMUNITY THA HE WAS NOT THAT FAMILIAR WITH AND APPARENTLY HE SUCCEEDED.
Narrator: DURING THE EARLY MORNING HOURS OF SEPTEMBER 9, 1739 ALMOST AS SOON AS WORD IS RECEIVED IN SOUTH CAROLINA THAT ENGLAND AND SPAIN ARE AT WAR SOME 20 ANGOLAN SLAVES, LED BY THE MAN NAMED JEMMY BEGAN MARCHING TOWARD ST.
AUGUSTINE AND THE PROMISE OF FREEDOM.
JUST 30 MILES FROM THE MIDDLETON'S OAKS PLANTATION AT THE STONO BRIDGE, THEY SEIZED A GENERAL STORE WHERE THERE WERE ARMS AND POWDER.
THEY KILLED THE STOREKEEPERS AND LEFT THEIR HEADS ON THE DOORSTEP.
Wood: WHAT BETTER MOMEN TO START AN UPRISING AND TRY TO STRIKE OU FOR ST.
AUGUSTINE AND FIND FREEDOM IN FLORIDA IN THE HOPE THAT THE SPANISH AUTHORITIES ARE WILLING TO GRANT FREEDOM WHO ESCAPE FROM THE CAROLINAS INTO FLORIDA.
Narrator: ON THE MARCH SOUTH THE AFRICANS DID NOT KILL EVERY WHITE THEY ENCOUNTERED.
THEY SPARED MR.
WALLACE AN INNKEEPER THEY KNEW TO BE KIND TO HIS SLAVES.
BUT BEFORE THE DAY ENDED, THEY HAD KILLED MORE THAN 20 PEOPLE.
AS OTHER SLAVES JOINED THEM THEY BECAME AN ARMY OF ALMOST A HUNDRED CAMPED AT THE EDISTO RIVER WAITING FOR OTHERS TO GATHER UNDER THEIR FLAG.
Davis: THE ENTIRE FORCE WAS GOING TO COME DOWN ON THEM BECAUSE THIS WAS AN ISSUE NOT MERELY FOR THOSE IN SOUTH CAROLINA IMMEDIATELY SURROUNDING THIS AREA.
THIS WAS AN ISSUE FOR EVERY EUROPEAN COLONIS EVERYWHERE IN THE COLONIES TO QUASH THIS AND TO PROVIDE SOME EXEMPLARY PUNISHMENT.
Narrator: AROUND NOON, THE NEARES WHITE SETTLERS WERE ALERTED.
BY 4:00 IN THE AFTERNOON THEY CAUGHT UP WITH THE NEGROES ALONG THE EDISTO RIVER AND FIRED UPON THEM.
EYEWITNESSES RECORDED THAT THE REBELS FOUGHT BOLDLY BUT AT LEAST 14 WERE KILLED OR WOUNDED IN THE FIRST ATTACK.
OTHERS WERE SURROUNDED, QUESTIONED AND THEN SHOT.
THE ARMED COLONISTS THEN TURNED TOWARD CHARLESTON AND ON MILE POSTS ALONG THE WAY THEY LEFT THE HEADS OF THE EXECUTED MEN.
Wood: JUST THE WAY WAR TRANSFORMS PEOPLE THIS TERRIBLE TRANSFORMATION INTO RACE SLAVERY HAD CHANGED PEOPLE BY THE MIDDLE OF THE 18th CENTURY.
THE VIOLENCE YOU SEE AT STONO IS A VIOLENCE THAT HAD BECOME PERVASIVE IN THE CULTURE.
BY THE MIDDLE OF THE 18th CENTURY THIS HAD BECOME A WAY OF LIFE Washington: STONO WAS SORT OF THE BEGINNING OF THE CONCEP THAT THE BLACK POPULATION HAD TO BE UTTERLY CONTROLLED AND THE LEGISLATION THAT CAME OUT OF STONO, THE NEGRO AC TOOK AWAY WHATEVER LIBERTIES THE AFRICANS HAD.
Narrator: FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT, FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY TO EARN MONEY, TO LEARN TO READ, ALL WERE OUTLAWED.
SOUTH CAROLINA IMPOSED DUTIES ON ALL SLAVE IMPORTATIONS AND ENCOURAGED EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION IN ORDER TO CHANGE THE RATIO OF WHITES TO BLACKS.
THE NEGRO ACT BECAME THE MODEL FOR SLAVE LAWS THROUGHOUT THE MAINLAND OF BRITISH AMERICA.
Equiano: "WHY DO YOU USE THOSE INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE? "ARE THEY NOT FIT TO BE APPLIED "BY ONE RATIONAL BEING TO ANOTHER? "AND ARE YOU NOT STRUCK WITH SHAME AND MORTIFICATION "TO SEE THE PARTAKERS OF YOUR NATURE REDUCED SO LOW? "BUT ABOVE ALL "ARE THERE NO DANGERS ATTENDING THIS MODE OF TREATMENT? ARE YOU NOT HOURLY IN DREAD OF AN INSURRECTION?" OLAUDAH EQUIANO.
Narrator: NEWS OF THE REBELLION TRAVELED QUICKLY TO NEW YORK NOW THE THIRD LARGEST CITY IN BRITISH AMERICA.
MOST OF MANHATTAN ISLAND WAS UNBROKEN WILDERNESS CROSSED BY STREAMS EMPTYING INTO BOTH THE HUDSON AND EAST RIVERS.
BY 1740, EXCEPT FOR CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA NO CITY IN COLONIAL AMERICA HAD SO HIGH A DENSITY OF SLAVE POPULATION AS NEW YORK.
CROWDED ONTO THE SOUTHERN TIP OF THE ISLAND LIVED 11,000 PEOPLE OF WHICH MORE THAN 2,000 WERE BLACK.
Foote: THERE WAS REALLY AN ILLUSION OF INTIMACY BETWEEN ENSLAVED BLACKS AND THEIR WHITE SLAVE OWNERS WHO LIVED UNDER THE SAME ROOF.
THESE PEOPLE COULD NOT TRUS ONE ANOTHER.
IN FACT, THE SLAVE OWNERS CONSIDERED THE ENSLAVED BLACKS DOMESTIC ENEMIES.
Man: "NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 18, 1731.
"BE IT ORDAINED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THIS CITY "THAT ALL NEGRO, MULATTO AND INDIAN SLAVES "THAT SHALL DIE WITHIN THIS CITY BE BURIED BY DAYLIGHT.
"AND FOR THE PREVENTION OF GREAT NUMBERS OF SLAVES "ASSEMBLING AND MEETING TOGETHER AT THEIR FUNERALS "UNDER PRETEXT WHEREOF THEY HAVE GREAT OPPORTUNITIES "OF PLOTTING AND CONFEDERATING TOGETHER TO DO MISCHIEF "BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED THAT NOT ABOVE 12 SLAVES SHALL ASSEMBLE OR MEET TOGETHER AT THE FUNERAL.
" MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF NEW YORK.
THERE WERE PROBABLY A LO OF OTHER ISSUES GOING ON IN NEW YORK CITY AT THAT TIME THAT MADE WHITES SUSPICIOUS OF BLACKS.
THERE WAS, AMONG THE LOWER CLASSES OF BLACKS AND WHITES A LOT OF RACIAL AMALGAMATION.
THERE WAS A LOT OF ACTIVITY IN THE GROGSHOPS BETWEEN BLACKS AND WHITES, BLACKS FREQUENTING TAVERNS.
NEW YORK CITY WAS A COSMOPOLITAN PLACE WITH PEOPLE FROM VARIOUS ETHNIC GROUPS CONVERGING LOTS OF SEAMEN, AND BLACKS WERE VERY MUCH A PART OF THAT.
Narrator: IN TAVERNS, BLACK MEN ILLEGALLY GATHERED, DRANK AND MINGLED WITH WHITE NEW YORK RESIDENTS.
MANY ENSLAVED MEN IN NEW YORK WERE HIRED OUT BY THEIR MASTERS.
THEY HAD RELATIVE FREEDOM OF MOVEMEN AND CONTROL OVER THEIR OWN TIME.
Davis: THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN ADULT MALE IS SEEN AS THE MOST TROUBLESOME, THE MOST INTRACTABLE THE MOST REBELLIOUS.
THOSE ARE THE PERSONS WHO ARE GROWING IN THE POPULATION.
BY LAW THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE OUT AFTER SUNSET; BY LAW THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE ANY CURRENCY OF THEIR OWN; BY LAW THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO GO AND GATHER IN NUMBERS OF THREE OR GREATER; BY LAW THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE OUT DRINKING YET EVERY NIGHT THEY'RE OU DOING ALL OF THESE THINGS.
THERE DEVELOPED IN COLONIAL NEW YORK CITY A LIVELY STREET LIFE AMONGST BLACK MEN AND ENSLAVED AND FREE.
THESE BLACK MEN ORGANIZED INTO CLUBS OR, UH GANGS AND THEY WERE A CONSTAN PRESENCE ON THE STREETS.
THEY EVEN GATHERED AT NIGHTS AT THE DOCKS OR IN TAVERNS AND THEY PRESENTED, ACCORDING AND ANXIOUS WHITE RESIDENTS, A PUBLIC THREAT.
Narrator: ON MARCH 18, 1741, A FIRE BROKE OUT AT FORT GEORGE THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICIAL RESIDENCE.
WHIPPED BY VIOLENT WINDS IT BURNED UNTIL A RAIN SHOWER COOLED THE BLAZE KEEPING IT FROM TORCHING THE ENTIRE CITY.
A WEEK LATER, ANOTHER FIRE BROKE OU AND THEN IN THE NEX THREE WEEKS, FIRES RAGED.
Davis: AS THIS RASH OCCURS A SENSE THAT THERE IS SOME EVIL HAND BEHIND THIS DEVELOPS AND THEN PEOPLE BEGIN TO SEE A BLACK HAND.
THEY BEGIN TO WORRY THAT SLAVES ARE BEHIND THIS THAT THIS IS SOME ACT OF VENGEANCE THAT THIS IS SOME PRELUDE TO REBELLION.
IN 1741, ENGLAND WAS NOW AT WAR WITH SPAIN AND MANY OF THE COLONIAL AUTHORITIES IN NEW YORK CITY FEARED THAT THE ENSLAVED BLACKS WOULD HAVE BEEN INFLUENCED BY THE PROMISES FROM SPAIN OF FREEDOM.
WHO CLAIMED THAT THEY HAD DISCOVERED A COMBINATION BETWEEN ENSLAVED BLACKS AND THE LOWER ORDERS OF WHITE TOWN DWELLERS TRANSIENTS AND VAGABONDS TO DESTROY THE TOWN, TO BURN IT TO THE GROUND AND TO SET UP A BLACK OR NEGRO REGIME THAT WOULD OWE ALLEGIANCE TO SPAIN.
Narrator: JUST 30 YEARS EARLIER IN NEW YORK FIRE HAD BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN THE NEGRO PLOT OF 1712 WHERE NINE WHITES WERE KILLED AND FIVE WERE SERIOUSLY WOUNDED.
NOW THE CITY'S OFFICIALS DID NOT WASTE ANY TIME FINDING AN EXPLANATION FOR THE MYSTERIOUS EVENTS.
Davis: A GENERAL DRAGNET GOES OU AND JUST ABOUT EVERY AFRICAN-AMERICAN MALE OVER 16 YEARS OF AGE IS TAKEN UP AND PUT IN JAIL, CROWDED UNDER THE CITY HALL.
Narrator: THE COURT USED THE TESTIMONY OF MARY BURTON A 16-YEAR-OLD INDENTURED SERVAN TO ACCUSE THE ALLEGED CONSPIRATORS.
BURTON WORKED AT A TAVERN AND BROTHEL IN THE CITY A BUSINESS THAT REGULARLY SERVED BLACK CUSTOMERS.
PROMISED HER FREEDOM FROM SERVITUDE MARY BURTON STARTED IMPLICATING A CONSTANT STREAM OF MEN AND WOMEN SOME WHITE, BUT MOS YOUNG BLACK MEN.
FOR CLOSE TO FOUR MONTHS BLACK MEN WERE DRAGGED INTO COURT OFF NEW YORK'S STREETS.
Washington: NEW YORKERS ARE SO INCENSED OVER WHAT THEY CONCEIVE OF AS A CONSPIRACY THAT THEY CREATE THIS WAVE OF PARANOIA THAT LEADS TO INCREDIBLE MURDERS AND INCREDIBLE PUNISHMENTS.
IT SPEAKS TO THE WHOLE ENTRENCHMENT OF SLAVERY EVEN IN THE NORTH AND ALSO IT SPEAKS TO RACIAL ATTITUDES AS WELL THAT THEY ARE VERY MUCH AFRAID OF RACIAL EGALITARIANISM AND PEOPLE IN THE LOWER ECHELONS OF THEIR SOCIETY COMING TOGETHER TO FORM ANY KIND OF BOND.
Narrator: IN MAY, NEW YORKERS WITNESS THE PUBLIC EXECUTION OF CAESAR AND PRINCE, TWO BLACK MEN ACCUSED OF PARTICIPATING IN A ROBBERY CONNECTED TO THE FIRES.
CAESAR'S CORPSE WAS THEN HUNG IN CHAINS UNTIL IT DECOMPOSED.
FROM THE SPRING OF 1741 THROUGH THE FOLLOWING WINTER AND INTO THE SPRING OF 1742 SOME 160 SLAVES AND AT LEAST A DOZEN WHITES WERE ACCUSED OF CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
31 AFRICANS WERE PUT TO DEATH, 13 OF THEM BURNED AT THE STAKE AND FOUR WHITES WERE HUNG.
Man: "23 JUNE 1741.
"TO DR.
CADWALLADER COLDEN "GOVERNOR'S COUNCIL, PROVINCE OF NEW YORK.
"SIR, THE HORRIBLE EXECUTIONS AMONG YOU "PUTS ME IN MIND OF OUR NEW ENGLAND WITCHCRAF "IN THE YEAR 1692.
"I AM HUMBLY OF THE OPINION "THAT SUCH CONFESSIONS ARE NOT WORTH A STRAW "FOR MANY TIMES THEY ARE OBTAINED BY FOUL MEANS "BY FORCE OR TORMEN "OR IN HOPES OF A LONGER TIME TO LIVE "OR TO DIE AN EASIER DEATH.
"I ENTREAT YOU NOT TO GO ON MAKING BONFIRES OF THE NEGROES "AND LOADING YOURSELVES WITH GREATER GUILT THAN THEIRS.
"FOR WE HAVE TOO MUCH REASON TO FEAR "THAT THE DIVINE VENGEANCE DOES AND WILL PURSUE US "FOR OUR ILL TREATMEN TO THE BODIES AND SOULS OF OUR POOR SLAVES.
" ANONYMOUS LETTER FROM MASSACHUSETTS.
Narrator: THE ENCROACHMEN OF SLAVERY IN AMERICAN SOCIETY THAT BEGAN IN VIRGINIA, CULMINATED IN 1750 WITH THE DECISION TO LEGALIZE SLAVERY IN GEORGIA THE LAST FREE COLONY.
IT HAD BEEN A LITTLE OVER 100 YEARS SINCE ANTHONY JOHNSON FIRST ARRIVED IN VIRGINIA.
NOW SLAVERY EXISTED EVERYWHERE IN THE 13 COLONIES.
BUT THE ARGUMENT OVER WHO WOULD BE FREE AND WHO WOULD BE EQUAL HAD JUST BEGUN.
FOR GENERATIONS TO COME SLAVERY WOULD CONTINUE TO TROUBLE THE SOUL OF AMERICA.
Equiano: "WHEN YOU MAKE MEN SLAVES "YOU DEPRIVE THEM OF HALF THEIR VIRTUE "YOU SET THEM IN YOUR OWN CONDUC "AN EXAMPLE OF FRAUD AND CRUELTY AND COMPEL THEM TO LIVE WITH YOU IN A STATE OF WAR.
" OLAUDAH EQUIANO, ENSLAVED AFRICAN.
[Captioned by The Caption Center WGBH Educational Foundation.]
Woman: # HOW CAME IT YOURS? # BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED WE WERE HERE.
TO LEARN MORE ABOU AFRICANS IN AMERICA AND TO SEE THE TEACHERS' GUIDE FOR THE SERIES VISIT THE AFRICANS IN AMERICA NEXT TIME ON AFRICANS IN AMERICA AMERICA 'S STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE BEGINS.
WITH THE THREAT OF WAR, BLACK MEN BECOME SOLDIERS IN EXCHANGE FOR THE PROMISE OF FREEDOM.
IT GAVE YOU A PURPOSE IN LIFE.
YOU WERE PAR OF A NATIONAL EFFORT.
TO PURCHASE THE AFRICANS IN AMERICA HOME VIDEO COMPANION BOOK OR C.
D.
SOUNDTRACK CALL 1-800-255-9424.
AFRICANS IN AMERICA HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE BY A GRAN FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMEN FOR THE HUMANITIES EXPANDING AMERICA'S UNDERSTANDING OF WHO WE WERE WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE WILL BE.
THEY HAD DIFFERENT STRUGGLES AND DREAMS YET THEIR COURAGE AND PERSEVERANCE UNITED THEM AND STRENGTHENED OUR NATION.
THAT'S WHY AFRICANS IN AMERICA IS PROUDLY BROUGHT TO YOU BY BANKERS TRUST, ARCHITECTS OF VALUE.
A HOME IS MORE THAN FOUR WALLS AND A ROOF.
IT'S SAFER STREETS BETTER SCHOOLS STRONGER COMMUNITIES THE AMERICAN DREAM.
THE FANNIE MAE FOUNDATION HELPING AMERICANS ON THE PATH TO HOME OWNERSHIP.
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