Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery (1998) s01e03 Episode Script
Brotherly Love: 1791-1831
PRESENTING HISTORY'S BES ON PBS.
Woman: # YOUR COUNTRY # HOW CAME IT YOURS? BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED WE WERE HERE.
YOUR COUNTRY HOW CAME IT YOURS? BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED 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.
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.
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.
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.
Man: "MEN MAY WRITE FICTIONS PORTRAYING LOWLY LIFE AS IT IS "OR AS IT IS NO "MAY EXPATIATE WITH OWLISH GRAVITY "UPON THE BLISS OF IGNORANCE "DISCOURSE FLIPPANTLY FROM ARMCHAIRS OF THE PLEASURES OF SLAVE LIFE" "BUT LET THEM TOIL WITH HIM IN THE FIELD "SLEEP WITH HIM IN THE CABIN "FEED WITH HIM ON HUSKS.
"LET THEM BEHOLD HIM SCOURGED, HUNTED, TRAMPLED ON "AND THEY WILL COME BACK WITH ANOTHER STORY IN THEIR MOUTHS.
"LET THEM KNOW THE HEAR OF THE POOR SLAVE "LEARN HIS SECRET THOUGHTS "THOUGHTS HE DARE NOT UTTER IN THE HEARING OF THE WHITE MAN.
"LET THEM SIT BY HIM IN THE SILENT WATCHES OF THE NIGH "CONVERSE WITH HIM IN TRUSTFUL CONFIDENCE "OF 'LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS' "AND THEY WILL FIND THAT 99 OUT OF EVERY HUNDRED "ARE INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND THEIR SITUATION "AND TO CHERISH IN THEIR BOSOMS THE LOVE OF FREEDOM.
AS PASSIONATELY AS THEMSELVES.
" SOLOMON NORTHRUP, 12 YEARS A SLAVE.
Narrator: IN JANUARY 1793, A REMARKABLE SIGHT APPEARED ABOVE THE ROOFTOPS OF PHILADELPHIA THE BIRTHPLACE OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE A WOVEN BASKET LARGE ENOUGH TO CARRY A MAN SUSPENDED ONLY BY AN ENORMOUS BALLOON.
IT WAS THE FIRST VOYAGE IN THE UNITED STATES OF THE FAMOUS FRENCH AERONAU JEAN-PIERRE BLANCHARD.
BEN JAMIN RUSH, ONE OF THE CITY'S FATHERS, DECLARED "IT WAS A TRULY SUBLIME SIGHT.
"EVERY FACULTY OF THE MIND WAS SEIZED, EXPANDED AND CAPTIVATED BY IT.
" Man: WE'RE INTO THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMEN AND THE BALLOON IS CERTAINLY A PRODUCT OF I BECAUSE WE'RE TALKING CHEMISTRY WITH THE GASES THAT EXPAND IT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT AERONAUTICS WITH THE PRINCIPLES THAT DEVELOPING PRINCIPLES THAT HOLD IT UP AND WE'RE ALSO TALKING ABOUT THAT KIND OF OPTIMISM THAT THE MIND CAN DO ANYTHING.
PART OF WHAT THE ENLIGHTENMEN GAVE PEOPLE FAITH IN WAS THIS NOTION OF A DOCTRINE OF PROGRESS THAT HISTORY ITSELF COULD BE PROGRESSIVE THAT HUMAN BEINGS AND THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND HUMAN NATURE COULD BE IMPROVED, MAYBE EVEN PERFECTED.
AND IN AMERICA NOW, THERE WAS THE SPREADING BELIEF THAT LIBERTY WOULD EXPAND AND THE CONTRADICTIONS TO THAT LIBERTY THE PROBLEMS THA THAT LIBERTY WOULD FACE WOULD SOMEHOW BE DISSOLVED OR ABSORBED.
Narrator: AT THE END OF THE REVOLUTION THE MOST CONSPICUOUS CONTRADICTION TO LIBERTY IN AMERICA WAS SLAVERY.
BY 1790, ONE IN FIVE AMERICANS WAS BEING HELD IN BONDAGE.
MOST OF THE 700,000 ENSLAVED MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN WHO PLANTED AMERICA'S CROPS AND TILLED THEM WHO KEPT AMERICA'S HOMES AND COOKED ITS MEALS WHO FORGED AMERICA'S TOOLS AND WEAVED ITS VERY FABRIC HAD BEEN BORN IN THE OLDES COLONIES OF THE SOUTH OVER HALF IN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND ALONE.
AND THOUGH THEY WERE NOT UNTOUCHED BY THE RHETORIC OF PROGRESS AND EQUALITY THAT SWEPT THE YOUNG NATION IN THOSE DAYS NEITHER WERE THEY FREED BY IT.
AMERICA HAD DECIDED IN ITS FIRST DOCUMENTS TO KEEP NEARLY ALL THE AFRICANS NOW IN AMERICA, SLAVES.
THE CONSTITUTION PROHIBITED EVEN A VOTE ON ENDING THE SLAVE TRADE UNTIL 1808.
Blight: STILL, BLACKS CLAIM OUT OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION THEIR OWN KIND OF A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE THAT THEY CLAIM THEIR OWN PLACE NOW IN THIS REPUBLIC THAT THEY REFUSE TO LET AMERICA SAY THAT THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE ONLY APPLIES TO WHITE PEOPLE.
IN ALL OF THE WAYS THAT BLACKS START WRITING PETITIONS TO STATE LEGISLATURES THE WAYS THAT THEY APPROPRIATE THE VERY LANGUAGE OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE TO THEIR OWN USES IT'S QUITE CLEAR THAT THEY SAW THEMSELVES AS VESSELS OF THE LEGACY OF THIS REVOLUTION.
Narrator: DURING THE REVOLUTION, THOMAS JEFFERSON HAD WRITTEN THE WORDS "ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.
" HE HAD DEFINED THE SPIRI OF RESISTANCE AND SHAPED THE FOUNDATION OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.
AND IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NEW REPUBLIC HIS WRITINGS WOULD GIVE VOICE TO THE PARADOX OF HUMAN BONDAGE IN THE LAND OF LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
Man: JEFFERSON ALWAYS BELIEVED ALWAYS STATED, IN ANY CASE THAT THE RIGHT OF ONE MAN TO HOLD ANOTHER AS PROPERTY WAS AN ILLEGITIMATE FORM OF PROPERTY.
FROM HIS EARLIES PUBLIC PRONOUNCEMENTS JEFFERSON ANNOUNCED THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING PROFOUNDLY WRONG WITH THE ENTIRE CONCEP OF SLAVERY.
YET, LIKE MOST VIRGINIANS OF HIS DAY AND CLASS HE FOUND IT VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO LIVE WITHOUT ALL OF THIS UNFREE LABOR.
Narrator: IN 1793, THOMAS JEFFERSON WAS SECRETARY OF STATE AND THE OWNER OF OVER 130 HUMAN BEINGS.
JEFFERSON KNEW FIRSTHAND OF THE IN JUSTICES OF SLAVERY AND HIS WRITINGS, BOTH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WARNED OF A DAY WHEN THE SLAVE WOULD RISE, AS HE PUT I "FROM THE DUST.
" Man: "CAN THE LIBERTIES OF A NATION BE THOUGHT SECURE "WHEN WE HAVE REMOVED THEIR ONLY FIRM BASIS "A CONVICTION IN THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE "THAT THESE LIBERTIES ARE THE GIFT OF GOD THAT THEY ARE NOT TO BE VIOLATED, BUT WITH HIS WRATH?" THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Woman: JEFFERSON GAVE US THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BUT JEFFERSON IS REALLY ONE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE AND CERTAINLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON TO DISCUSS IN WRITING BLACK INFERIORITY.
HE'S THE FIRST PERSON TO DISCUSS IN WRITING THE IDEA THAT BLACKS AND WHITES CANNOT LIVE TOGETHER AS EQUALS.
Narrator: IN 1781 FIVE YEARS AFTER HE COMPOSED THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE JEFFERSON WROTE "NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA.
" IN IT, HE ANSWERED QUERIES ABOUT THE MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS, CASCADES AND CAVERNS SEVERAL PAGES DEVOTED TO THE AVERAGE FALL OF RAIN.
BUT IN QUERY XIV "THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE AND THE DESCRIPTION OF THE LAWS" JEFFERSON TURNED HIS ATTENTION TO THE CHARACTER OF HIS SLAVES.
"THEIR GRIEFS ARE TRANSIENT," HE WROTE "THEIR ODOR DISAGREEABLE.
" Jefferson: "ARE NOT THE FINE MIXTURES OF RED AND WHITE "THE EXPRESSIONS OF EVERY PASSION "BY GREATER OR LESS SUFFUSIONS OF COLOR "IN THE ONE PREFERABLE TO THAT ETERNAL MONOTONY "WHICH REIGNS IN THE COUNTENANCES "THAT IMMOVABLE VEIL OF BLACK "WHICH COVERS ALL THE EMOTIONS OF THE OTHER RACE? "ADD TO THESE FLOWING HAIR, A MORE ELEGANT SYMMETRY OF FORM "THEIR OWN JUDGMEN IN FAVOR OF THE WHITES "DECLARED BY THEIR PREFERENCE OF THEM "AS UNIFORMLY AS IS THE PREFERENCE OF THE ORANGUTAN FOR THE BLACK WOMEN OVER THOSE OF HIS OWN SPECIES.
" JEFFERSON HAD TO FIND EXCUSES FOR WHY HE SAID ONE THING AND PRACTICED ANOTHER.
AND SO HIS ANSWER WAS THA AFRICANS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS WERE BIOLOGICALLY INFERIOR TO ANGLOS AND THEREFORE, THEY WERE ESSENTIALLY CHILDREN.
AND IT WAS HIS RESPONSIBILITY, HIS DUTY TO CARE FOR THESE PEOPLE WHO SIMPLY COULDN'T CARE FOR THEMSELVES IN A FREE WORLD.
Man: "I WAS AWAKENED AND BROUGHT TO SEE MYSELF "POOR, WRETCHED, UNDONE AND WITHOUT THE MERCY OF GOD.
"I WAS TEMPTED TO BELIEVE HELL WOULD BE MY PORTION.
"AND ALL OF A SUDDEN "MY DUNGEON SHOOK, MY CHAINS FLEW OFF AND 'GLORY TO GOD! ' I CRIED.
" Narrator: DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION RICHARD ALLEN, BORN A SLAVE, HAD BEEN CONVERTED UNDER THE PREACHINGS OF AN ITINERANT WHITE MINISTER.
HE HAD WORKED FOR THE PATRIO FORCES DURING THE WAR TO EARN MONEY TO BUY HIS FREEDOM AND IN 1786, HE CAME TO PHILADELPHIA, AMERICA'S CAPITAL A FREE MAN AND A METHODIST PREACHER.
HIS DREAM WAS TO BUILD A CHURCH TO UPLIFT THE MORALS OF THOSE SO LONG OPPRESSED BY SLAVERY.
Man: HERE'S A MAN WHO HAS BOUGHT HIMSELF OUT OF SLAVERY.
HE'S PARTICIPATED IN THE EVANGELICAL REVOLUTION THAT'S HAPPENING CONCURRENTLY WITH THE REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL REALM.
AND IN THA EVANGELICAL REVOLUTION THE SENSE OF THE EQUALITY OF PEOPLE ACROSS RACIAL LINES IN THE EYES OF GOD HAS, FOR AT LEAST A MOMEN BECOME A REALITY IN THE SOCIAL ORDER.
Narrator: BY 1793, RICHARD ALLEN WAS ONE OF OVER 2,000 FREED SLAVES IN PHILADELPHIA EMBARKING ON ANOTHER EXPERIMEN IN LIBERTY.
ALLEN HAD ENLISTED MEMBERS OF THE WHITE COMMUNITY IN RAISING MONEY FOR AN AFRICAN CHURCH AND OFFERED HIMSELF AS AN EXAMPLE THAT FORMER SLAVES COULD REACH AS HIGH AS WHITE AMERICANS.
Wideman: SOME OF WHAT MOVED ALLEN WERE IDEAS LIKE "WORK REAL HARD" "GO TO SCHOOL," "LEARN" "YOU CAN DO ANYTHING" THESE PRINCIPLES, THESE AMERICAN PRINCIPLES THAT"HEY, HERE'S THIS WILDERNESS "AND IF WE DEDICATE OURSELVES, WE CAN CHANGE I WE CAN CHANGE IT INTO A GARDEN.
" I THINK ALLEN BELIEVED THAT.
Narrator: ALLEN SPENT HIS DAYS GOING AMONG THE POOREST OF THE FREED SLAVES PREACHING AS MANY AS FIVE TIMES A DAY.
HE ATTENDED THIS WHITE METHODIST CHURCH UNTIL BLACK MEMBERS WERE EVICTED FROM SERVICES ONE SUNDAY FOR MISTAKENLY SITTING IN SEATS RESERVED FOR WHITES SEATS THE BLACK COMMUNITY HAD HELPED TO BUILD.
BUT DURING THE SWELTERING SUMMER OF 1793 ALLEN BELIEVED PHILADELPHIA'S BLACK COMMUNITY WOULD HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO PROVE ITSELF ONCE AND FOR ALL.
ANY SUMMER IN A CITY WAS AN UNHEALTHY TIME.
I MEAN, SANITATION WAS PRIMITIVE, TO SAY THE LEAST.
PEOPLE GOT SICK AND PEOPLE DIED.
WHAT WAS UNUSUAL ABOUT 1793 IS THAT THE RATES OF DEATH CREEP UP AND UP AND THEN THEY START TO LEAP UP.
Man: "A MALIGNANT FEVER HAS BROKEN OUT IN WATER STREE "WHICH HAS ALREADY CARRIED OFF 12 PERSONS.
"THE DISEASE IS VIOLEN AND OF SHORT DURATION.
"IN ONE CASE, IT KILLED IN 12 HOURS AND IN NO CASE HAS IT LASTED MORE THAN FOUR DAYS.
" BEN JAMIN RUSH, PHILADELPHIA.
Wideman: A REAL SIEGE MENTALITY TOOK OVER SO THAT IN A HOUSEHOLD, IF ONE PERSON CAUGHT I THAT PERSON WAS OSTRACIZED OFTEN JUST PUT OUTDOORS.
AND YOU HAD THE SITUATION WHERE YOU HAD ACTUAL SITUATIONS WHERE CHILDREN WERE PUT OUT OF DOORS AND DROPPED IN THE STREE BECAUSE PEOPLE WERE AFRAID THE CHILD WOULD INFEC EVERYBODY ELSE.
IT'S A SCARY MOMENT.
IT'S A MOMENT OF ABSOLUTE CHAOS.
THE GOVERNMENT FLEES TOWN.
THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR LAW AND ORDER GIVE UP, RUN AWAY THE ONES WHO CAN, THE ONES WHO ARE RICH ENOUGH.
Man: "THE WEEK BEFORE LAST, THE DEATHS WERE ABOUT 40 "THE LAST WEEK, ABOUT 80 "AND THIS WEEK, I THINK THEY WILL BE ABOUT 200.
"ALL PERSONS WHO CAN FIND ASYLUM ELSEWHERE "ARE FLYING FROM THIS CITY.
"THE PRESIDENT SET OU FOR MOUNT VERNON YESTERDAY.
"GENERAL KNOX IS SETTING OU FOR MASSACHUSETTS AND I THINK TO GO TO VIRGINIA.
" THOMAS JEFFERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Man: "DR.
RUSH HAS ACKNOWLEDGED, WITH A CANDOR THAT DOES HIM HONOR "THAT IN HIS EARLY DAYS "HAVING DEPENDED ON GENTLE PURGES OF SALTS "HIS PATIENTS ALL DIED.
"AFTERWARDS, HE HAD RECOURSE TO STRONG PURGES OF CALOMEL AND JALAP, AND THE BLEEDING.
" MATHEW CAREY.
Narrator: BEN JAMIN RUSH, A SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND PHILADELPHIA'S LEADING PHYSICIAN HAD ACQUIRED A REPUTATION AS A FRIEND OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY WHEN HE JOINED ALLEN IN SOLICITING FUNDS FOR THE AFRICAN CHURCH.
Winch: RUSH HAD SOME REPORTS THAT SEEM TO HIM TO INDICATE THAT PEOPLE OF AFRICAN ANCESTRY ARE IMMUNE.
SO SEVERAL IDEAS COME TOGETHER IN THIS MAN'S MIND THAT THIS IS A DIVINE DISPENSATION; THAT YOU HAVE A SEGMENT OF THE COMMUNITY DESPISED, DISCRIMINATED AGAINS WHO ARE, FOR SOME REASON, HE THINKS UNABLE TO CONTRACT YELLOW FEVER.
SO WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THEM TO BE OF SERVICE TO THE WHITE COMMUNITY THAT IS AFFLICTED NURSE PEOPLE, TREAT PEOPLE, AND THEN, IN THE AFTERMATH HOW MUCH GRATITUDE IS GOING TO BE LAVISHED UPON THEM.
AND SO WE HAD THIS ANOMALOUS SITUATION OF PEOPLE WHO WOULDN'T ALLOW, WHO WOULD NEVER DREAM OF HAVING A BLACK PERSON ENTER THEIR FRONT DOOR LET ALONE THEIR BEDROOM PEOPLE WHO WERE NOW DEPENDEN ON A BLACK PERSON WHO WAS WIELDING A KNIFE AND WHO ENTERED THE BEDROOM AND OPENED A VEIN.
Man: "I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE PEOPLE WOULD DO "IF WERE NOT FOR THE NEGROES, AS THEY ARE THE PRINCIPAL NURSES.
DR.
RUSH HAS HAD IT BUT RECOVERED.
" ISAAC HESTON.
Narrator: BY OCTOBER, NEARLY 4,000 WHITE PHILADELPHIANS LAY DEAD OR DYING AND TEN PERCENT OF THE CITY'S BLACK POPULATION HAD BEEN CLAIMED BY THE PLAGUE.
IN THE END, THE FEVER HAD SHOWN NO PREFERENCE FOR BLACK OR WHITE.
Wideman: THE PLAGUE DIDN'T END UNTIL THE FIRST FROSTS, IN NOVEMBER.
AND THEN THERE SEEMED TO BE THIS MIRACULOUS LIFTING OF THE CURSE.
AND, OF COURSE, PEOPLE WERE JUBILAN AND FELT THAT THE CITY HAD BEEN SAVED, HAD BEEN DELIVERED.
AND THEN RACE RISES UP AND BEGINS TO BECOME THE ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE.
Narrator: WITH THE COOL WEATHER CAME ACCUSATIONS AND CHARGES AGAINST THE BLACK NURSES, CART DRIVERS AND GRAVEDIGGERS CHARGES OF WRONGDOING, OF PROFITEERING AND OF MURDER.
Woman: THE YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC IS A HARBINGER OF THINGS TO COME FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS, BECAUSE IT'S A PLACE WHERE AFRICAN AMERICANS PUT IN A LOT OF ENERGY HOPING TO EARN THEMSELVES A PLACE IN AMERICAN SOCIETY.
AND AS A RESULT, THEY ARE VILIFIED FOR IT.
WHAT WE SEE IS FOLKS BEGINNING TO DIG IN AND BECOME ENTRENCHED FOR THIS LONG STRUGGLE THAT THEY SAW ON THE HORIZON.
SO WE HAVE THIS "HOW DO WE LIVE FOR TODAY? "AND ALSO HOW DO WE LIVE FOR TOMORROW? "WHAT IS IT THA WILL MAKE THINGS BETTER FOR OUR CHILDREN AND OUR GRANDCHILDREN?" AND THIS PLANNING AND STRATEGIZING WAS BEGINNING TO FORM IN EARNEST.
(bell ringing) Narrator: THE FOLLOWING YEAR IN THE SHADOW OF INDEPENDENCE HALL RICHARD ALLEN OPENED HIS CHURCH THAT IT WOULD BE A GATHERING PLACE OF SOULS.
IT WAS CALLED BETHEL "HOUSE OF GOD.
" Man: "WHEN I ARRIVED, AT THE AGE OF 18 "IT WAS MY LOT TO BE INTRODUCED TO A SLAVE GIRL NAMED MALINDA.
"MALINDA WAS GRACEFUL IN HER WALK, EXTRAORDINARY.
"HER SKIN WAS SMOOTH, WITH DARK AND PENETRATING EYES.
"BEFORE I WAS AWARE OF IT, I WAS DEEPLY IN LOVE "AND BECAME SATISFIED THAT IT WAS RECIPROCAL.
"I COULD READ IT BY THE WARM AND AFFECTIONATE SHAKE OF THE HAND "AND THE GENTLE SMILE UPON THE LOVELY CHEEK.
"I COULD READ I "IN THE LANGUAGE OF HER BRIGHT AND SPARKLING EYE.
"OUR MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE DURING CHRISTMAS.
AND SOME MONTHS LATER, MALINDA MADE ME A FATHER.
" HENRY BIBB.
Narrator: SLAVE MARRIAGES TOOK MANY FORMS, FROM ELABORATE WEDDINGS TO A COUPLE'S JUMPING OVER A BROOMSTICK HAND-IN-HAND.
WHEN CEREMONIES WERE CONDUCTED BY WHITE MINISTERS THE PHRASES "TILL DEATH DO YOU PART" AND "THOSE WHOM GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER LET NO MAN PUT ASUNDER," WERE CUSTOMARILY OMITTED SINCE SLAVE MARRIAGES WERE NEITHER LEGAL NOR SECURE.
IN 1793, A NEW INVENTION WOULD THREATEN THOSE UNIONS AS NEVER BEFORE.
THAT YEAR, AN APPLICATION FOR A PATENT WAS MADE BY A SCHOOLTEACHER NAMED ELI WHITNEY.
PHILADELPHIA'S YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC HAD SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMEN AND DELAYED ACTION ON WHITNEY'S INVENTION A DEVICE TO SEPARATE THE SEEDS FROM COTTON WITHOUT DESTROYING THE FIBER.
IT WAS CALLED AN ENGINE, OR "GIN" FOR SHORT.
Man: "THIS GIN, IF TURNED WITH HORSES OR BY WATER "TWO PERSONS WILL CLEAN AS MUCH COTTON IN ONE DAY AS A HUNDRED PERSONS COULD CLEAN IN THE SAME TIME.
" ELI WHITNEY.
THE COTTON GIN WAS IMPORTANT PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTAN INVENTION IN AMERICAN HISTORY UP TO THE CIVIL WAR BUT IT CARRIED A GREAT PRICE.
IT CARRIED A PRICE FOR BLACK PEOPLE AND IT ALSO CARRIED A PRICE FOR WHITE PEOPLE BECAUSE WHILE THE COUNTRY ADVANCED ECONOMICALLY BECAUSE OF THIS TECHNOLOGY, IT CREATED A SYSTEM THAT THEY WERE GOING TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH LATER ON.
Narrator: BEFORE WHITNEY'S INVENTION SHORT-STAPLE COTTON COULD NOT BE GROWN FOR PROFI BECAUSE OF THE LABOR NEEDED TO FILTER OUT THE SEEDS.
NOW IT COULD BE GROWN ALMOS ANYWHERE CLIMATE PERMITTED.
AND AMERICAN FARMERS WASTED NO TIME PUSHING WEST INTO THE WILDERNESS OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI SEEKING MORE AND MORE LAND TO TURN WHITE WITH COTTON.
WITHIN 50 YEARS, 75% OF THE WORLD'S COTTON CAME FROM THE BLACK EARTH OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH, MAKING WORK FOR AN ARMY OF LABORERS WHO PLANTED AND PICKED IT.
BUT AS THE NATION MOVED WES NO SLAVE FAMILY WOULD BE SAFE FROM SEPARATION.
Woman: "WHEN MY BABE WAS BORN, IT WEIGHED ONLY FOUR POUNDS "BUT GOD LET IT LIVE.
"WHEN HE WAS A YEAR OLD, THEY CALLED HIM BEAUTIFUL.
"THE LITTLE VINE WAS TAKING A DEEP ROOT IN MY EXISTENCE "THOUGH ITS CLINGING FONDNESS "EXCITED A MIXTURE OF LOVE AND PAIN.
"WHEN I WAS MOST SORELY OPPRESSED "I FOUND A SOLACE IN HIS SMILES.
"I LOVED TO WATCH HIS INFANT SLUMBERS "BUT ALWAYS THERE WAS A DARK CLOUD OVER MY EN JOYMENT.
I COULD NEVER FORGE THAT HE WAS A SLAVE.
" HARRIET JACOBS.
IF A MASTER DIED, OR IF A MASTER WENT INTO DEB OR IF THE CROPS FAILED, OR IF THERE WERE SOME CATASTROPHE THESE PEOPLE WERE PREY NOT ONLY TO HUNGER AND POVERTY BUT WERE PREY TO THEIR MOST INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS BEING VIOLATED.
ONE OF THE CHALLENGES OF TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT SLAVERY MEAN IS TO SOMEHOW BALANCE THE BIG PICTURE OF "HERE IS THIS DREADFUL, OPPRESSIVE RELATIONSHIP" WITH THE OTHER REALITY THA THEY'RE MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN WHO ARE LIVING THEIR LIVES, WHO ARE FALLING IN LOVE WHO ARE DECIDING TO HAVE CHILDREN WHO HAVE ALL THE KINDS OF HUMAN FRAILTIES OF OTHERS.
Man: "AFTER THE SALE OF MY MOTHER "MY FATHER'S MASTER RESOLVED TO SELL MY FATHER "TO A SOUTHERN SLAVE DEALER.
"ABOUT MIDNIGHT, MY GRANDFATHER SILENTLY REPAIRED "TO THE CABIN OF MY FATHER "GAVE HIM A BOTTLE OF CIDER AND A SMALL BAG OF PARCHED CORN "AND THEN, PRAYING TO THE GOD OF HIS NATIVE COUNTRY "TO PROTECT HIS SON "EN JOINED HIM TO FLY FROM THE DESTRUCTION WHICH AWAITED HIM.
"IN THE MORNING "THE GEORGIAN COULD NOT FIND HIS NEWLY PURCHASED SLAVE WHO WAS NEVER SEEN OR HEARD OF FROM THAT DAY.
" CHARLES BALL.
Narrator: AFTER THE INVENTION OF THE COTTON GIN THE THREAT OF SALE LOOMED LARGER THAN EVER BEFORE AND LAWS WERE PASSED TO KEEP SLAVES UNDER A TIGHTER WATCH.
SOME RESISTED BY RUNNING AWAY; OTHERS, BY STEALING OR REFUSING TO WORK.
A VERY FEW SAW NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE BUT TO TAKE UP ARMS.
ONE WAS A SLAVE NAMED GABRIEL, WHO STOLE A PIG AND WAS HAULED INTO A COURTHOUSE OUTSIDE RICHMOND, VIRGINIA IN 1799.
Egerton: GABRIEL WAS CAUGHT STEALING A PIG AND INSTEAD OF ACCEPTING THE ABUSE WHICH, OF COURSE, EVERY SLAVE WAS SUPPOSED TO ACCEP HE THREW THE MAN TO THE GROUND, WRESTLED HIM TO THE GROUND AND BIT OFF THE BETTER PAR OF HIS LEFT EAR.
THAT, OF COURSE, WAS A CAPITAL CRIME.
PIG STEALING WAS A COMMON OCCURRENCE.
BITING WHITE PEOPLE WAS SOMETHING THAT IT WAS NOT ENCOURAGED FOR BLACK VIRGINIANS TO DO.
Narrator: GABRIEL WAS CONVICTED OF ATTACKING AND MAIMING THE WHITE MAN WHO CAUGHT HIM.
TO DETER OTHERS FROM SUCH CRIMES HE WAS PUBLICLY HUMILIATED, BRANDED AND FORCED TO SPEND A MONTH IN JAIL.
(jail door slams shut) AS GABRIEL SAT IN HIS CELL, HE DECIDED THAT THE TIME WAS RIGHT TO ORGANIZE THE SLAVES OF RICHMOND AND STRIKE AGAINST THOSE WHO WERE HOLDING THEM IN BONDAGE.
THE ONLY TIME THAT SLAVES WOULD HAVE HAD ANY MOBILITY WITHOUT THE MOST RIGID OBSERVATION OF WHITES WOULD HAVE BEEN ON A SUNDAY, WOULD HAVE BEEN AT NIGHT.
RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS COULD HAVE, IN SOME CASES PROVIDED AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PEOPLE TO MEET.
WE MUST NEVER FORGE THAT ANY KIND OF MOVE TOWARD LIBERATION AMONG BLACKS WAS A QUESTION OF LIFE AND DEATH.
LIKE ALL REVOLUTIONARIES, GABRIEL SEEMED TO HAVE VERY LITTLE CONCERN FOR VIOLENCE AND DANGER.
HE WAS AN ENORMOUS MAN SIX FOOT TWO, SIX FOOT THREE IN A TIME OF RELATIVELY SHORTER MEN.
HE WAS A BLACKSMITH, SO HE WAS A MAN OF ENORMOUS STRENGTH.
HE WAS DESCRIBED AS HAVING SCARS ON HIS FACE.
HE WAS MISSING MOS OF HIS FRONT TEETH AND I SUSPECT THA THAT CAME FROM MIXING IT UP IN THE QUARTERS WITH OTHER SLAVES.
HE WAS A MAN WHO PEOPLE INSTINCTIVELY TENDED TO FOLLOW AND HE APPARENTLY FEARED VERY LITTLE.
Narrator: AFTER HIS RELEASE GABRIEL BEGAN HAMMERING OU INSTRUMENTS OF WAR TURNING SHOVELS INTO SWORDS AND MOLDING BULLETS.
THROUGH MOST OF THE YEAR 1800 HE RECRUITED SOLDIERS FOR A REBEL ARMY.
Man: "ALL THE WHITES WERE TO BE MASSACRED "EXCEPT THE QUAKERS, THE METHODISTS AND THE FRENCHMEN "AND THEY WERE TO BE SPARED "ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR BEING FRIENDLY TO LIBERTY.
"THEY INTENDED ALSO TO SPARE ALL THE POOR WHITE WOMEN WHO HAD NO SLAVES.
" BEN WOOLFOLK, CONSPIRATOR.
OBVIOUSLY, HE WAS NO A NAIVE MAN.
HE REALIZED THAT THIS WOULD BE BLACK FREEDOM BORN OF WHITE FEAR, NOT OUT OF WHITE MAGNANIMITY.
Man: "1,000 MEN WAS TO BE RAISED FROM RICHMOND "600 FROM GROUND SQUIRREL BRIDGE AND 400 FROM GOOCHLAND.
"THE BUSINESS OF THE INSURRECTION HAD SO FAR ADVANCED THAT WE WERE COMPELLED, EVEN IF DISCOVERED, TO GO FORWARD.
" SOLOMON, CONSPIRATOR.
Narrator: GABRIEL DECIDED HIS TROOPS WOULD MOVE AT MIDNIGHT ON AUGUST 30, 1800 CARRYING A FLAG WITH THE MOTTO "DEATH OR LIBERTY.
" Washington: WE CAN IMAGINE WHAT IT WAS LIKE ON THAT DAY IN AUGUST IN 1800 WITH SCORES OF AFRICAN AMERICANS GATHERING ON A SUNDAY TO CREATE THIS REBELLION WITH PICKS AND AX AND KNIVES AND CLUBS AND WHAT IT MUS HAVE BEEN LIKE FOR THEM PREPARED TO STRIKE AND YET UNABLE TO STRIKE.
(thunder) Narrator: "THAT VERY EVENING," ONE OBSERVER WROTE "THERE CAME ON THE MOS TERRIBLE THUNDERSTORM ACCOMPANIED WITH AN ENORMOUS RAIN.
" RIVERS SWELLED.
ROADS AND BRIDGES WASHED AWAY.
AND WHEN IT BECAME CLEAR THA "THE BUSINESS," AS IT WAS CALLED WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE IN THE STORM GABRIEL TRIED TO POSTPONE THE REVOLT.
BUT BEFORE MORNING, THE PLO WAS BETRAYED BY TWO SLAVES.
Jones: WHAT'S PHENOMENAL IS HOW CLOSE IT GOT.
IF THE ACCOUNTS AND THE INFERENCES WE CAN MAKE ABOUT THE NUMBERS THAT IT LASTED SO LONG BEFORE ANY BETRAYAL IS QUITE EXTRAORDINARY.
Narrator: GABRIEL WENT TO TRIAL ON OCTOBER 6, 1800.
HE REFUSED TO TESTIFY OR TO EXPLAIN HIS ACTIONS BUT ONE OF THE REBELS DID MAKE A STATEMENT.
Man: "I HAVE NOTHING MORE TO SAY IN MY DEFENSE "THAN WHAT GENERAL WASHINGTON WOULD HAVE HAD TO OFFER "HAD HE BEEN TAKEN BY THE BRITISH AND PUT TO TRIAL.
"I HAVE ADVENTURED MY LIFE "IN ENDEAVORING TO OBTAIN THE LIBERTY OF MY COUNTRYMEN "AND I AM A WILLING SACRIFICE IN THEIR CAUSE.
"AND I BEG, AS A FAVOR "THAT I MAY BE IMMEDIATELY LED TO EXECUTION.
"I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE PREDETERMINED TO SHED MY BLOOD.
WHY, THEN, ALL THIS MOCKERY OF A TRIAL?" Man: "ONE CANNOT GO TO BED IN THE EVENING "WITHOUT THE APPREHENSION OF BEING MASSACRED BEFORE MORNING.
"MASTERS AND OVERSEERS ARE OBLIGED "TO RETREAT TO SOME SECURE PLACE DURING THE NIGH "OR EMPLOY ARMED SENTINELS.
"A GENTLEMAN OF HIGH RESPECTABILITY "LATELY INFORMED ME "THAT HE PERSONALLY KNEW A MASTER OF SLAVES "WHO RETREATED EVERY NIGH INTO AN UPPER ROOM "THE ENTRANCE OF WHICH WAS BY A TRAPDOOR AND KEPT AN AX BY HIS SIDE FOR DEFENSE.
" JESSE TORREY.
Narrator: THE GROWING FEAR OF SLAVE UPRISINGS IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH WAS INTENSIFIED BY THE SUCCESS OF THE REBELS IN THE SMALL CARIBBEAN COLONY OF HAITI KNOWN THEN AS ST.
DOMINGUE.
ST.
DOMINGUE HAD BEEN THE MOST BRUTAL OF EUROPE'S COLONIES IN THE NEW WORLD AND THE MOST SUCCESSFUL UNTIL A VIOLENT SLAVE REVOL IN 1791 HAD CHANGED ALL THA RELEASING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS FROM THEIR BONDAGE AND OVERTURNING THE PLANTATION ECONOMY.
BUT BY 1801, PEACE AND COMMERCE HAD RETURNED TO ST.
DOMINGUE AND A DETENTE BETWEEN THE FORMER SLAVES AND FORMER MASTERS HAD COME WITH IT.
WHILE STILL A FRENCH COLONY ST.
DOMINGUE WAS MOVING TOWARD INDEPENDENCE JUST AS THE UNITED STATES HAD DONE 25 YEARS BEFORE.
THAT YEAR, ST.
DOMINGUE'S GOVERNOR, TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE HIMSELF A FORMER SLAVE DECLARED A NEW CONSTITUTION OUTLAWING SLAVERY FOREVER.
Man: SLAVERY'S REGIME TRIED TO CREATE FOR SLAVES A VERY LIMITED HORIZON IN TERMS OF, YOU KNOW, WHAT CONSTITUTED THEIR WORLD.
AND ONE OF THE THINGS THAT THIS ST.
DOMINGUE REVOLUTION WAS DOING WAS REALLY FOCUSING ATTENTION AT THINGS THAT WERE TAKING PLACE OUTSIDE AND OPENING UP, TO SOME DEGREE, A WHOLE SET OF POSSIBILITIES.
Narrator: AS VICE-PRESIDEN THOMAS JEFFERSON URGED CONGRESS TO CUT OFF TRADE WITH TOUSSAINT.
BLACK SAILORS FROM THE ISLAND MIXING WITH AMERICAN SLAVES IN SOUTHERN PORTS WAS A THREAT THAT COULD NOT BE CONTAINED, HE ARGUED.
BUT THE TRADE WAS TOO PROFITABLE AND CONGRESS REFUSED.
Egerton: JEFFERSON'S FEAR WAS THAT BLACK AMERICANS, LIKE GABRIEL WOULD BE INSPIRED BY WHAT THEY SAW TAKING PLACE JUST OFF THE SHORE OF AMERICA.
AND HE SPENT VIRTUALLY HIS ENTIRE CAREER TRYING TO SHUT DOWN ANY CONTAC AND THEREFORE ANY MOVEMEN OF INFORMATION BETWEEN THE AMERICAN MAINLAND AND THE CARIBBEAN ISLAND.
Narrator: IN 1801, WEEKS AFTER JEFFERSON'S INAUGURATION AS AMERICA'S THIRD PRESIDEN HE WAS VISITED BY NAPOLEON BONAPARTE'S REPRESENTATIVE IN AMERICA'S NEW CAPITAL, THE CITY OF WASHINGTON.
NAPOLEON, THE FIRST CONSUL OF FRANCE WAS SEEKING JEFFERSON'S HELP IN REIMPOSING SLAVERY IN ST.
DOMINGUE.
AFTER THE MEETING THE ENVOY WROTE TO NAPOLEON THAT JEFFERSON PROMISED THAT ALL NECESSARY MEASURES WOULD BE TAKEN TO STARVE OUT TOUSSAIN AND TO AID THE FRENCH ARMY.
IN FEBRUARY 1802 THE FIRST OF NAPOLEON'S TROOPS BEGAN TO ARRIVE AT ST.
DOMINGUE'S HARBORS.
AFTER FOUR YEARS OF PEACE, WAR RESUMED IMMEDIATELY.
Scott: DESPITE THE FRENCH EFFOR AND DESPITE THE AMERICANS' TACI SUPPORT OF THAT FRENCH EFFOR THEY MANAGED NEVERTHELESS TO ESTABLISH INDEPENDENCE TO RESIST AND DEFEA THE FRENCH FORCE UNDER NAPOLEON'S BROTHER-IN-LAW AND ESTABLISH AN INDEPENDEN COUNTRY ON JANUARY 1, 1804 WHOSE NAME WAS HAITI.
Narrator: HAITI WAS NOW THE SECOND REPUBLIC IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE AND A STUNNING EXAMPLE FOR AMERICAN SLAVES.
IT HAD TAKEN 13 YEARS AND COST OVER 100,000 BLACK LIVES BUT THERE WOULD NEVER AGAIN BE SLAVERY IN HAITI.
NAPOLEON, NOW UNABLE TO USE HAITI AS A MILITARY BASE TO PROTECT FRENCH INTERESTS IN NORTH AMERICA AND EMBROILED IN OTHER FOREIGN WARS ABANDONED THE NEW WORLD SELLING THE LOUISIANA TERRITORY TO THE UNITED STATES FOR $15 MILLION.
WELL, IT'S IRONIC THAT DESPITE JEFFERSON'S OWN HOSTILITY TO THE ST.
DOMINGUE/ HAITIAN REVOLUTION THAT THE SIGNAL ACHIEVEMEN OF HIS ADMINISTRATION WAS VERY MUCH BASED ON THE SUCCESS OF THAT REVOLUTION.
THAT WAS THE PURCHASE OF THE LOUISIANA TERRITORY.
Narrator: CALLED THE GREATES BARGAIN IN AMERICAN HISTORY THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE DOUBLED THE SIZE OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, MAKING ROOM FOR 13 NEW STATES ALL WES OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
FOUR YEARS LATER THE FIRST AMERICAN STEAMBOA WOULD PUSH AWAY FROM ITS MOORING.
AND BY THE 1830s THE MISSISSIPPI WOULD BE CROWDED WITH THEM EMBARKING FROM PORTS LIKE NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA AND JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI, LADEN WITH SLAVE-GROWN COTTON.
BY 1808, AGRICULTURE WAS ON THE DECLINE IN THE OLDER SOUTHERN STATES, LIKE MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA.
THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH WORK TO SUPPORT THE HALF MILLION SLAVES NOW HELD THERE.
IN THE NORTH, SLAVERY WAS DYING AND AN ANTISLAVERY MOVEMEN WAS BEING BORN.
ITS FIRST GOAL WAS ACHIEVED WHEN CONGRESS ABOLISHED THE FOREIGN SLAVE TRADE STOPPING IMPORTATIONS FROM AFRICA OR THE CARIBBEAN.
THE BAN WAS SIGNED INTO LAW ON JANUARY 1, 1808 THE EARLIEST MOMENT ALLOWED BY THE U.
S.
CONSTITUTION.
Man: "LET THE FIRST OF JANUARY BE SET APART IN EVERY YEAR "AS A DAY OF PUBLIC THANKSGIVING.
"LET THE HISTORY OF THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR BRETHREN "AND OF THEIR DELIVERANCE DESCEND BY THIS MEANS "TO OUR CHILDREN, TO THE REMOTEST GENERATIONS.
"AND WHEN THEY SHALL ASK IN TIME TO COME "SAYING, 'WHAT MEAN THE LESSONS OF THIS DAY? ' "LET US ANSWER THEM BY SAYING "'THE LORD ON THIS DAY ABOLISHED THE TRADE "'WHICH DRAGGED YOUR FATHERS FROM THEIR NATIVE COUNTRY AND SOLD THEM AS BOND MEN IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
'" ABSALOM JONES, PHILADELPHIA.
Egerton: IN AN ODD WAY, THE PROHIBITION ON FURTHER AFRICAN IMPORTS AS OF JANUARY 1, 1808 ACTUALLY STRENGTHENED SLAVERY IN A PLACE WHERE IT HAD BEEN THE WEAKEST.
THE BAN CREATED AN ARTIFICIAL SCARCITY OF BLACK LABORERS AND CONSEQUENTLY, IMMEDIATELY AN INTRA-AMERICAN TRADE BETWEEN THE UPPER SOUTH BETWEEN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND AND THE LOWER SOUTH SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA EMERGED.
Man: "MY PURCHASER ORDERED ME TO CROSS MY HANDS BEHIND "WHICH WERE QUICKLY BOUND WITH A STRONG CORD; "AND THEN HE TOLD ME THAT DAY "THAT WE MUST SET OU FOR THE SOUTH.
"I JOINED 51 OTHER SLAVES "32 MEN AND 19 WOMEN.
"A STRONG IRON COLLAR WAS CLOSELY FITTED "BY MEANS OF A PADLOCK AROUND EACH OF OUR NECKS.
WE WERE HANDCUFFED IN PAIRS WITH IRON STAPLES AND BOLTS.
" CHARLES BALL.
Narrator: THOUGH SLAVERY WOULD VANISH FROM THE NORTH IT WOULD FLOURISH ON THE NEW FRONTIER AND PROVIDE A MARKE FOR THE SURPLUS OF SLAVES IN THE UPPER SOUTH.
CHARLES BALL WAS BORN INTO SLAVERY IN MARYLAND AS HIS PARENTS HAD BEEN.
HE WOULD BE ONE OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS FORCE-MARCHED INTO THE DEEP SOUTH AND WEST.
Egerton: IF ONE WAS BETWEEN THE AGE OF ROUGHLY 18 AND 30 YOU HAD ABOUT A ONE-IN-THREE CHANCE OF BEING SOLD TO SOUTH CAROLINA OR TO MISSISSIPPI.
SOME MASTERS AND JEFFERSON FALLS INTO THIS CATEGORY TRIED TO SELL WOMEN WITH THEIR CHILDREN.
BUT FOR SLAVE MEN THEY WERE NOT REGARDED AS BEING PART OF THE FAMILY.
AND IF WE THINK ABOU SOMEONE SUCH AS CHARLES BALL WHO IS MARRIED, WHO HAS CHILDREN HIS FIRST THOUGHT WHEN HE'S CAPTURED, WHEN HE'S TAKEN HE MAKES THE REQUEST THA "CAN I AT LEAST SEE" WELL, HIS FIRST THOUGH IS THE ISSUE OF THE FUTILITY OF ANY RESISTANCE AND THEN HIS THOUGHT IMMEDIATELY GOES TO FACING THAT QUICKLY.
THIS IS A FAIT ACCOMPLI.
AND HE SIMPLY ASKS, "CAN I SEE MY FAMILY BEFOREHAND?" AND ONE OF THE THINGS TO ME, WHEN I READ THIS, IT JUST IT SENDS A CHILL DOWN MY BACK THAT THE RESPONSE THAT HE GETS IS "YOU CAN GET ANOTHER WIFE IN GEORGIA.
" Man: "WE ALL LAY DOWN ON THE NAKED FLOOR TO SLEEP "IN OUR HANDCUFFS AND CHAINS.
"THE WOMEN, MY FELLOW SLAVES, LAY ON ONE SIDE OF THE ROOM "AND THE MEN, WHO WERE CHAINED WITH ME, OCCUPIED THE OTHER.
"I, AT LENGTH, FELL ASLEEP "BUT WAS DISTRESSED BY PAINFUL DREAMS.
"MY WIFE AND CHILDREN APPEARED TO BE WEEPING "AND LAMENTING MY CALAMITY "AND BESEECHING AND IMPLORING MY MASTER ON THEIR KNEES "NOT TO CARRY ME AWAY FROM THEM.
"MY LITTLE BOY CAME AND BEGGED ME NOT TO GO AND LEAVE HIM "AND ENDEAVORED, WITH HIS LITTLE HANDS TO BREAK THE FETTERS THAT BOUND ME.
" CHARLES BALL.
Man: "IN THE FIRST PLACE "IT IS IMPOSSIBLE IN THE NATURE OF THINGS "FOR THE BLACKS IN THE NORTH TO EVER BE RECONCILED TO THE WHITES "WHILE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF THEIR COUNTRYMEN "ARE GROANING, BLEEDING AND DYING "BENEATH THE FROWNS OF DESPOTISM IN THE SOUTH.
"SUPPOSE AN ARMY OF THEM SHOULD MARCH ON PHILADELPHIA.
WHAT HAVOC WOULD A HANDFUL OF INFURIATED NEGROES OCCASION.
" THOMAS BRANAGAN.
Narrator: SINCE 1793, THE BLACK POPULATION IN PHILADELPHIA HAD GROWN TO OVER 10,000 SOULS.
MANY WERE REFUGEES FROM SLAVERY.
THERE AND THROUGHOUT THE NORTH FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES HAD BUILT CHURCHES AND FORMED MUTUAL AID SOCIETIES TO HELP THE FUGITIVES AND THOSE NEWLY FREED.
AND ON APRIL 11, 1816 THE AFRICAN METHODIS EPISCOPAL DENOMINATION UNITING CONGREGATIONS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED AT RICHARD ALLEN'S BETHEL CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA.
ALLEN WAS CONSECRATED ITS BISHOP.
Raboteau: ARGUABLY, THE A.
M.
E.
CHURCH WAS THE MAIN BLACK INSTITUTION FOR MOST OF THE 19th CENTURY.
IT SERVED AS A FORUM FOR POLITICAL ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION.
IT SERVED AS A PLACE WHERE BLACKS COULD EXPRESS THEMSELVES IN A PUBLIC ARENA.
IT SERVED AS A FOCAL POIN FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES.
Narrator: AS THE BLACK POPULATION IN NORTHERN CITIES GREW SOME WHITES WORRIED THAT THE PEACE AND SECURITY OF THE NATION WAS AT STAKE.
THREE TIMES FROM 1805 TO 1814, BILLS WERE INTRODUCED TO BAN FURTHER BLACK IMMIGRATION INTO PENNSYLVANIA AND BY 1816, BLACK CITIZENS WERE SHUT OU OF PUBLIC CELEBRATIONS ON THE FOURTH OF JULY.
THAT YEAR, A GROUP OF WHITE POLITICIANS AND MINISTERS ME IN WASHINGTON, D.
C.
TO DISCUSS THE PROBLEM OF FREE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES.
Winch: YOU GENUINELY HAD INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE CONCERNED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA WHETHER IT BE FROM PURELY RACIAL MOTIVATION THAT THEY DID NOT LIKE THE PROSPECT OF LIVING ALONGSIDE BLACK MEN AND WOMEN WHO WOULD BE FELLOW CITIZENS OR WHETHER IT WAS BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO PROTEC THEIR SLAVE INVESTMENTS AND FELT THAT FREE BLACK PEOPLE WERE LIKELY TO INCITE THE SLAVES TO REBELLION.
Narrator: ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, 1817 THE CONCERNED STATESMEN GATHERED IN WASHINGTON FOUNDED THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY WITH SUPPOR FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
ITS MISSION WAS TO RESETTLE FREE BLACK PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES.
THE A.
C.
S.
WOULD LIST AMONG ITS MEMBERS PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE THE AUTHOR OF "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER" GEORGE WASHINGTON'S NEPHEW AND A FAMOUS ANTl- COLONIZATIONIST FROM TENNESSEE NAMED ANDREW JACKSON.
THIS IS THE SAME GENERATION, BEAR IN MIND THAT FORCED THOUSANDS OF GEORGIA CHEROKEES TO MOVE TO OKLAHOMA.
SO THE IDEA OF MOVING PEOPLE AROUND TO MAKE THIS A MORE PERFEC WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY WAS NOT NEARLY AS IRRATIONAL AS IT OFTEN SEEMS TO US.
Narrator: DAYS AFTER ITS FOUNDING THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY CONTACTED JAMES FORTEN A WEALTHY BUSINESSMAN IN PHILADELPHIA'S BLACK COMMUNITY.
THE A.
C.
S.
HOPED FREE BLACK PEOPLE WOULD SEE THEIR FUTURE IN A PLACE LIKE SIERRA LEONE ON THE COAST OF WEST AFRICA.
Egerton: THERE WERE A GOOD NUMBER OF FREE BLACKS MODERATELY PROSPEROUS BLACKS BARBERS, ARTISANS, TAVERN KEEPERS WHO SIMPLY HAD HAD ENOUGH AND DECIDED TO GO.
THEY WERE WEARY OF ENDLESS WHITE DEMANDS FOR DEFERENCE.
THEY WERE TIRED OF GETTING OFF THE SIDEWALK WHEN A WHITE MAN WALKED TOWARD THEM.
THEY DECIDED, AS THE ANTEBELLUM PERIOD DRAGGED ON THAT AMERICA NEVER WOULD GIVE THEM AN EVEN BREAK.
Narrator: PAUL CUFFE, A BLACK SHIPPING MERCHANT FROM MASSACHUSETTS WROTE THAT THE CITIZENS OF SIERRA LEONE WERE INSTILLED WITH EVERY PRIVILEGE OF FREEBORN CITIZENS.
ON JANUARY 15, 1817, A MEETING WAS CALLED AT BETHEL CHURCH TO RESPOND TO THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY'S PROPOSITION.
Winch: THIS WAS A MEETING THAT ABSOLUTELY PACKED BETHEL CHURCH WITH 3,000 MEN CONSTITUTED THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE ADULT MEN IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY.
IT WAS A TREMENDOUS MEETING, AND LED BY THE VERY PEOPLE THAT THEY HAD THE GREATEST REASON TO RESPECT: RICHARD ALLEN, ABSALOM JONES, JAMES FORTEN MEN WHO HAD PROVEN THEMSELVES OVER AND OVER AGAIN WHOM THE COMMUNITY WAS ACCUSTOMED TO LOOK TO FOR LEADERSHIP, FOR ASSISTANCE, FOR GUIDANCE.
Narrator: THAT NIGHT, FORTEN AND OTHER LEADERS ARGUED IN FAVOR OF SETTING SAIL FOR AFRICAN SHORES BUT WHEN A VOTE WAS CALLED, FORTEN LATER WROTE "A 'NO' WAS HEARD THAT SOUNDED AS IF IT WOULD BRING DOWN THE WALLS OF THE BUILDING.
" THE ASSEMBLY GATHERED THAT NIGH ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTIONS WITHOUT ONE DISSENTING VOTE.
Man: "WHEREAS OUR ANCESTORS, NOT OF CHOICE "WERE THE FIRS SUCCESSFUL CULTIVATORS "OF THE WILDS OF AMERICA "WE, THEIR DESCENDANTS "FEEL OURSELVES ENTITLED TO PARTICIPATE "IN THE BLESSINGS OF HER LUXURIANT SOIL.
"WE WILL NEVER SEPARATE OURSELVES VOLUNTARILY "FROM THE SLAVE POPULATION OF THIS COUNTRY.
"THEY ARE OUR BRETHREN BY THE TIES OF CONSANGUINITY OF SUFFERING AND OF WRONG.
" Narrator: A POLYGAMIST A FORMER SLAVE WHO HAD PURCHASED HIS FREEDOM WITH MONEY WON IN A LOTTERY A MAN DESCRIBED BY HIS ACQUAINTANCES AS MEAN AND INTOLERAN OF HUMAN FRAILTY DENMARK VESEY SEEMED AN UNLIKELY CANDIDATE TO UNITE SLAVES AND FREE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE FIGHT FOR THEIR LIBERTY.
AS THE PROPERTY OF A SLAVE SHIP'S CAPTAIN, JOSEPH VESEY FOR NEARLY HALF HIS LIFE DENMARK WAS WELL ACQUAINTED WITH THE HARSH REALITIES OF THE TRAFFIC IN FLESH.
I THINK THA HIS OWN EXPERIENCES BEING BORN A SLAVE IN ST.
THOMAS LIVING BRIEFLY BEFORE THE REVOLUTION IN ST.
DOMINGUE, AS A SLAVE BEING FORCED BY CAPTAIN VESEY TO GO DOWN TO THE DOCKS AND EVEN BRING ASHORE SLAVES WHO WERE BEING IMPORTED INTO SOUTH CAROLINA AND GET THEM TO THE SLAVE PENS IN CHARLESTON REMINDED HIM THAT THIS WAS NOT A WORLD OF BROTHERHOOD.
Narrator: IN 1816, DENMARK VESEY AND OTHER BLACK METHODISTS IN CHARLESTON ELECTED TO SEPARATE FROM THE WHITE CHURCH.
BY 1820, THERE WERE SOME 3,000 MEMBERS OF THE CITY'S AFRICAN CHURCH ACCOUNTING FOR NEARLY A THIRD OF THE MEMBERS OF THE A.
M.
E.
DENOMINATION NATIONWIDE.
THE CHURCH WAS OPENING THIS HORIZON.
PEOPLE WERE EXPERIENCING THIS CONVERSION SO THAT ALL OF A SUDDEN THEY SEE THEMSELVES AS A PART OF THIS LARGER WORLD THIS LARGER GOD, THIS COSMOS, WHERE THEY HAVE RIGHTS.
Narrator: WHEN WHITE AUTHORITIES SHUT DOWN CHARLESTON'S AFRICAN CHURCH CHURCH MEMBERS DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO ORCHESTRATE A PLAN TO FREE THE SLAVES OF CHARLESTON.
THEY WERE LED BY DENMARK VESEY.
VESEY CALLED A MEETING TO ORGANIZE THE STRIKE EXCLUDING, HE SAID SLAVES WHO ACCEPTED PRESENTS OF OLD COATS FROM THEIR MASTERS AND THE PASTOR IN CHARGE OF THE AFRICAN CHURCH.
Man: "I, ONE NIGHT, MET A VESEY'S A GREAT NUMBER OF MEN.
"VESEY SAID THE NEGROES WERE LIVING SUCH AN ABOMINABLE LIFE "THEY OUGHT TO RISE.
"I SAID I WAS LIVING WELL.
"HE SAID THOUGH I WAS, OTHERS WAS NO AND THAT IT WAS SUCH FOOLS AS I THAT WERE IN THEIR WAY.
" FRANK.
Narrator: THE NUMBER OF CONSPIRATORS IN VESEY'S PLO WAS ESTIMATED TO BE IN THE THOUSANDS MAKING IT THE MOS FAR-REACHING INSURRECTION PLANNED IN NORTH AMERICA.
(flames crackling) Raboteau: DENMARK VESEY'S PLO AGAINST CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA WAS ONE OF THE MOS SIGNIFICANT OF THE ATTEMPTS TO STRIKE AGAINST SLAVERY BY AMERICAN SLAVES.
IT WAS PROBABLY THE MOS ELABORATELY PLANNED OF THE CONSPIRACIES THAT WE KNOW ABOU AND IT'S INTERESTING IN SEVERAL REGARDS.
ONE OF THE WAYS IN WHICH IT'S INTERESTING IS THAT IT APPEALS TO BOTH BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY AND TO AFRICAN CON JURE.
Man: "JACK PRITCHARD CALLED ON ME.
"HE'S SOMETIMES CALLED 'GULLAH JACK,' SOMETIMES 'COUTER JACK.
' "HE SAID, 'PUT INTO YOUR MOUTH THIS CRAB CLAW "AND YOU CAN'T BE WOUNDED.
' "HE SAID ALL HIS COUNTRY BORN PROMISED TO JOIN "BECAUSE HE WAS A DOCTOR THAT IS, A CON JURER.
"HE SAID HIS CHARMS WOULD NOT PROTECT HIM FROM THE TREACHERY OF HIS OWN COLOR.
" WITNESS NUMBER TEN, A NEGRO MAN.
Narrator: UNLIKE GABRIEL 20 YEARS BEFORE VESEY PLANNED TO SPARE FEW WHITES BUT LIKE GABRIEL HIS INSURRECTION ENDED BEFORE IT BEGAN.
VESEY WAS INFORMED ON BY ONE OF HIS MEN AND CAPTURED AND SENTENCED TO DIE.
Man: "DENMARK VESEY, I IS DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE "WHAT INFATUATION COULD HAVE PROMPTED YOU TO ATTEMP "AN ENTERPRISE SO WILD AND VISIONARY.
"YOU WERE A FREE MAN, WERE COMPARATIVELY WEALTHY "AND EN JOYED EVERY COMFORT.
"YOU OUGHT TO HAVE KNOWN THAT SUCCESS WAS IMPRACTICABLE.
"A MOMENT'S REFLECTION MUST HAVE CONVINCED YOU "THAT THE RUIN OF YOUR RACE WOULD HAVE BEEN THE PROBABLE RESULT.
" LIONEL H.
KENNEDY, PRESIDING MAGISTRATE.
Narrator: IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE VESEY CONSPIRACY WHITE CITIZENS OF CHARLESTON TORE DOWN THE AFRICAN CHURCH BRICK BY BRICK.
Raboteau: IT WAS IMPORTAN TO RAZE THE CHURCH.
IT SHOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE BLACK INSTITUTIONS FOR A SENSE OF BLACK INDEPENDENCE AND AUTONOMY.
IT'S THE SAME REASON THAT BLACK CHURCHES ARE BOMBED OR FIRE OR BURNT TODAY.
IT REPRESENTS A SENSE OF CRUCIAL AUTONOMY FOR BLACK PEOPLE AND AN AUTONOMY WHICH IN CHARLESTON HAD TURNED DANGEROUS.
IN ONE FRIDAY, LATE IN JULY OF 1822 THE STATE EXECUTED IN ONE MOMEN 22 OF VESEY'S FOLLOWERS.
INSTEAD OF USING THE REGULAR GALLOWS THEY SIMPLY TOSSED ROPES OVER AN OLD WALL KNOWN AS "THE LINES" THAT WAS BUILT IN THE NORTHERN PART OF CHARLESTON.
Narrator: THE 22 WERE ALL SLAVES.
A CRUDE PLATFORM WAS BUIL FOR THEM TO STAND ON.
BUT THE PLATFORM WAS SO LOW TO THE GROUND THAT WHEN THE SLAVES FELL, THEIR NECKS DIDN'T BREAK AND THEY WERE SLOWLY STRANGLING TO DEATH.
(gunshot) TO HASTEN THEM TO THE GRAVE THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD RODE DOWN THE LINE SHOOTING EACH OF THEM IN THE HEAD RELOADING AS HE WEN FROM ONE MAN TO THE NEXT.
(gunshot) (gunshot) Narrator: THE YEAR BEFORE VESEY WAS EXECUTED, MISSOURI WAS THE SECOND TERRITORY CARVED OUT OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE TO BE ADMITTED TO THE UNION.
DESPITE PROTESTS FROM THE NORTH THE COMPROMISE OF 1820 ALLOWED MISSOURI TO COME IN AS A SLAVE STATE.
BUT THE SOUTHERN STATES WERE FORCED TO AGREE TO A NEW LINE DRAWN ACROSS AMERICA ABOVE WHICH SLAVERY COULD NOT EXPAND.
THERE WAS NOW OFFICIALLY A BORDER BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH AND BY 1830 THERE WOULD BE FEWER THAN 3,000 SLAVES LIVING ABOVE IT.
WRITING IN 1820, THOMAS JEFFERSON EXPRESSED THE OPINION THAT THIS LINE WOULD NEVER BE OBLITERATED AND THAT EVERY NEW IRRITATION WOULD MARK IT DEEPER AND DEEPER.
Jefferson: "AS IT IS, WE HAVE THE WOLF BY THE EAR "AND WE CAN NEITHER HOLD HIM, NOR SAFELY LET HIM GO.
JUSTICE IS IN THE ONE SCALE AND SELF-PRESERVATION IN THE OTHER.
" Narrator: IT WOULD BE JEFFERSON'S LAST CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLIC DEBATE.
THOMAS JEFFERSON DIED ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1826.
Egerton: WHEN JEFFERSON DIED ON THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF HIS MOST CELEBRATED DOCUMENT, FOR WHITE AMERICA IT WAS A MOMENT TO PONDER THE MEANING OF THE REVOLUTION AND TO MAKE A NEW COMMITMEN TO REVOLUTIONARY IDEALS.
FOR THE ROUGHLY 200 SLAVES WHO LIVED ON HIS HILLTOP IN MONTICELLO IT WAS A MOMEN OF ENORMOUS TRAGEDY.
JEFFERSON HAD ALWAYS LIVED WELL BEYOND HIS MEANS.
HE DIED IN GREAT DEBT, WHICH MEANT IT WAS QUITE CLEAR THAT HIS HEIRS WERE GOING TO LIQUIDATE.
Narrator: IN HIS 83 YEARS THE AUTHOR OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY HAD FREED THREE SLAVES.
HIS WILL FREED FIVE MORE.
JEFFERSON HAD WRITTEN THAT HE WANTED TO BE REMEMBERED BY FUTURE GENERATIONS FOR ONLY THREE THINGS: THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WHICH HE WROTE; THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, WHICH HE FOUNDED; AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
BUT JEFFERSON OWNED FIVE WORKING FARMS IN 1826 AND OVER 200 SLAVES.
HIS LIFE AND HIS DEATH WOULD COME TO MEAN SOMETHING FAR DIFFEREN TO THOSE WHO HE ONCE SAID LABORED FOR HIS HAPPINESS.
Woman: AN INVENTORY OF THE ESTATE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, DECEASED.
AND THIS IS DATED THE SEVENTH DAY OF AUGUST, 1826.
NEGRO MAN, BARNABY, WHO'S VALUED AT $400.
NEGRO WOMAN, BETTY BROWN, WHO'S WORTH NOTHING.
CRITTA, NEGRO WOMAN WORTH NOTHING.
NEGRO WOMAN, ELLEN $300; NEGRO MAN, PETER HEMMINGS $400; NEGRO, SALLY HEMMINGS $200; NEGRO MAN, WORMLY $200; NEGRO WOMAN, URSULA, AND HER YOUNG CHILD $300; NEGRO WOMAN, ANN, AND HER YOUNG CHILD $350 AND IT GOES ON DOWN.
IT LISTS ALL OF HIS SLAVES.
THIS NEGRO WOMAN, URSULA, AND HER YOUNG CHILD AND A FEW OF HER OTHER YOUNGER CHILDREN WERE SOLD TO THE UNIVERSITY FOR $1,100 ALONG WITH SOME OTHER HOUSEHOLD GOODS.
Narrator: TO SATISFY JEFFERSON'S ENORMOUS DEBTS 130 SLAVES WERE SOLD IN ONE AUCTION MOST AWAY FROM THE ONLY HOME THEY HAD EVER KNOWN.
Man: "WHAT GOOD MAN WOULD PREFER A COUNTRY COVERED WITH FORESTS "AND RANGED BY A FEW THOUSAND SAVAGES "TO OUR EXTENSIVE REPUBLIC "STUDDED WITH CITIES, TOWNS AND PROSPEROUS FARMS "EMBELLISHED WITH ALL THE IMPROVEMENTS "WHICH ART CAN DEVISE OR INDUSTRY EXECUTE "OCCUPIED BY MORE THAN 12 MILLIONS OF HAPPY PEOPLE "AND FILLED WITH ALL THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY, CIVILIZATION AND RELIGION?" ANDREW JACKSON.
Narrator: IN 1828, ANDREW JACKSON WAS ELECTED THE SEVENTH PRESIDEN OF THE UNITED STATES ON A PLATFORM THAT PROCLAIMED HIM CHAMPION OF THE COMMON MAN.
IN MANY STATES WHITE MEN NO LONGER NEEDED TO OWN PROPERTY TO VOTE AND THE COMING OF PHOTOGRAPHY WOULD ALLOW ORDINARY PEOPLE TO CHRONICLE THE NATION'S RAPID EXPANSION.
IN 1830, THE FIRST U.
S.
RAILROAD WOULD OPEN FOR BUSINESS AND BY THE END OF THE NEXT DECADE THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN CITIZENS WOULD SEEK THEIR FORTUNES IN THE WES TAKING SLAVERY ALONG WITH THEM.
Blight: WHAT'S BLOOMING NOW IS THIS, IN MANY WAYS, GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN OPTIMISM.
BUT AT THE SAME TIME THERE'S ALL OF THIS OPTIMISM THIS FAITH IN PROGRESS IN AMERICA THERE IS BEGINNING TO BE A REAL FEAR THAT WHAT'S ALSO SPREADING ACROSS THIS CONTINEN IS A PROBLEM THAT SOMEDAY THE COUNTRY'S GOT TO FACE; THAT SOMEDAY THERE HAS TO BE A SOLUTION TO THIS CONTRADICTION OF SLAVERY IN A LAND OF LIBERTY AND FREEDOM.
Narrator: BY 1827 THE LAST VESTIGES OF SLAVERY IN THE NORTH WERE CRUMBLING.
THAT YEAR, NEW YORK FREED ALL 10,000 MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN HELD IN BONDAGE IN THE STATE.
BUT IN A NATION OF 12 MILLION FEWER THAN THREE PERCEN WERE FREE BLACK PEOPLE.
Man: "THE MORE YOU IMPROVE THE CONDITION OF THESE PEOPLE "THE MORE YOU CULTIVATE THEIR MINDS THE MORE MISERABLE YOU MAKE THEM.
" "YOU GIVE THEM A HIGHER RELISH "FOR THOSE PRIVILEGES WHICH THEY CAN NEVER ATTAIN AND TURN WHAT WE INTEND FOR A BLESSING INTO A CURSE.
" ELIAS B.
CALDWELL.
THE RIGHT TO VOTE, THE RIGHT TO SERVE ON JURIES THE RIGHT TO BE ELECTED, THE RIGHT TO SPEND MONEY FREELY WHATEVER MONEY YOU HAVE WITHOUT SOCIAL RESTRICTIONS THE RIGHT, LATER ON, TO SERVE IN MILITIAS, TO MIGRATE WEST ALL THESE, OF COURSE, ARE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES.
BUT IN THIS PERIOD IN PARTICULAR THEY GET DEFINED AS THE RIGHTS OF WHITES.
THEY GET IDENTIFIED SO THA CITIZENSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES BECOMES EQUIVALENT TO WHITENESS.
Narrator: AS SLAVERY DISAPPEARED FROM THE NORTH A NEW CHORUS OF SCIENTISTS REPRISED THE AMATEUR SUSPICIONS THOMAS JEFFERSON HAD VOICED A GENERATION EARLIER.
DOCTORS MEASURED SKULLS AND IDENTIFIED DISEASES THA ONLY AFFLICTED BLACK PEOPLE.
ONE CONCLUDED THAT "IN BODILY STRUCTURE AND ECONOMY THEY WERE CLOSER TO APES THAN TO EUROPEANS.
" IN PHILADELPHIA, DR.
CHARLES CALDWELL PUBLISHED TWO LONG ESSAYS ON THE INFERIORITY OF AFRICANS.
Lapsansky: THERE'S A SEQUENCE OF ATTACKS ON AFRICAN AMERICANS' SELF-ESTEEM ATTACKS PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTACKS THAT CULMINATE IN THE LATE 1820s IN THE WORKS OF A CARICATURIS NAMED EDWARD CLAY WHICH ARE REPRODUCED AS HUGE BROADSIDES AND THEN AS SMALL, ALMOS BASEBALL-CARD SIZE THAT DO CARICATURES OF THE PROGRESS THA AFRICAN AMERICANS HAVE MADE.
THE EDWARD CLAY CARTOONS ARE INDEED DOCUMENTATION OF A SOR AS WELL AS RIDICULE.
THAT'S PART OF WHAT MAKES THE RIDICULE SO SHARP.
BY 1830, THERE ARE ABOUT 15,000 AFRICAN AMERICANS IN PHILADELPHIA ABOUT A THOUSAND OF WHOM ARE ECONOMICALLY AND SOCIALLY IN A POSITION TO LIVE A KIND OF MIDDLE-CLASS URBAN LIFE.
Winch: THESE PEOPLE ARE REGARDED BY THE WHITE COMMUNITY AS LEGITIMATE TARGETS THE BUTT OF ANY KIND OF ILL FEELING, RATHER OBNOXIOUS HUMOR THAT ANYBODY FEELS THEY WAN TO LEVEL AGAINST THEM.
AND VERY CLEARLY THAT IS SOMETHING THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THERE IN CERTAIN SEGMENTS OF THE WHITE COMMUNITY EARLIER BUT HADN'T SURFACED IN THE WAY IT WOULD DO IN THE 1820s, 1830s.
Narrator: IN THE 1830s A NEW CHARACTER APPEARED ON AMERICAN STAGES FIRST CALLED "JIM CROW" THEN "ZIP COON," "SNOWBALL," "SAMBO.
" A WHITE FACE BLACKED BY A BURNT CORK GAVE BIRTH TO A NEW AMERICAN MYTH THE HAPPY SLAVE THE BLACK MAN IN HIS NATURAL CONDITION.
Man: "ABSURD AS MAY SEEM NEGRO MINSTRELSY "TO THE REFINED MUSICIAN, IT IS NEVERTHELESS BEYOND DOUB "THAT IT EXPRESSES THE PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEGRO "AS TRULY AS THE GREA MASTERS OF ITALY REPRESEN THEIR MORE SPIRITUAL AND PROFOUND NATIONALITY.
" THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE.
AT THE SAME TIME MINSTRELSY EXPLODES AS THIS POPULAR ART FORM ACROSS THE NORTH IT IS THE VERY TIME THA FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES BEGIN TO FORM IN NORTHERN CITIES ON A LARGE SCALE.
AND THESE FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES, OF COURSE ARE CONCERNED PROBABLY AS MUCH WITH ANYTHING ARE CONCERNED WITH CREATING THEIR OWN SENSE OF DIGNITY THEIR OWN SENSE OF PLACE, THEIR OWN SENSE OF BELONGING.
Narrator: ON SEPTEMBER 15, 1830, RICHARD ALLEN NOW AN OLD MAN GATHERED 40 DELEGATES FROM BLACK COMMUNITIES IN NEW YORK CITY, WILMINGTON, BALTIMORE AND BOSTON FOR THE FIRST NATIONAL NEGRO CONVENTION.
THE ASSEMBLY COMPOSED AN ADDRESS TO THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR WHICH BEGAN WITH A REFERENCE TO THE FAMOUS PHRASE OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE "ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.
" Lapsansky: I THINK THA THE REAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY AS OPPOSED TO AFRICANS KIND OF SCOOPING THEMSELVES TOGETHER AND TRYING TO MAKE A COMMUNITY THAT THE REAL CONSCIOUSNESS COMES WITH THAT CONVENTION IN 1830.
THEY'RE NEVER AGAIN WITHOUT SOME ORGANIZATION THAT MEETS NATIONALLY AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR AND GETS TOGETHER AND TALKS ABOUT "WELL, WHERE ARE WE NOW? AND WHAT'LL WE DO NEXT?" Narrator: OUT OF THE NATIONAL NEGRO CONVENTION MOVEMEN WOULD COME BOYCOTTS OF SLAVE-PRODUCED GOODS STRATEGIES FOR ENDING SEGREGATED PASSAGE ON STEAMBOATS AND STAGECOACHES AND A CALL FOR SLAVE REBELLION IN THE SOUTH.
Man: "GO LOOK INTO THE BACK STREETS AND CROWDED CELLARS "OF LONDON AND NEW YORK "THE METROPOLITAN CITIES OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLD "AND YOU WILL SEE A CONDITION "OF SQUALIDNESS, HUNGER AND SICKNESS "FOR WHICH YOU WILL LOOK IN VAIN AMONG THE SLAVES OF THE SOUTH.
"THE NEGRO RACE IS NOWHERE UPON THE BROAD FACE OF THE EARTH "MORE ELEVATED IN MORAL CHARACTER THAN AMONG THE SLAVES OF THE SOUTH.
" THE REVEREND IVESON L.
BROOKES.
IN PART BECAUSE OF THE GROWTH OF THE COTTON ECONOMY THE WHITE SOUTH, ESPECIALLY THE LOWER SOUTH SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA BEGAN TO ARTICULATE A FAIRLY NEW IDEA WHICH WAS THAT SLAVERY WAS NOT A BAD THING IN ANY WAY BUT THAT IT WAS A POSITIVE GOOD FOR ALL CONCERNED; THAT IT ALLOWED FOR WHITE AMERICAN CIVILIZATION TO ADVANCE BY TAKING WHITES OUT OF MENIAL LABOR; IT ALLOWED FOR AFRICANS TO BE CIVILIZED BY BRINGING THEM INTO CONTAC WITH ALLEGEDLY SUPERIOR WHITE CULTURE AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.
Narrator: IN HIS NARRATIVE, PUBLISHED IN 1836 CHARLES BALL WROTE THA "THE SLAVES WERE READY ENOUGH "TO RECEIVE THE FAITH, WHICH CONDUCTS THEM TO HEAVEN ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR SUFFERINGS.
" BUT THEY WERE NOT SO WILLING "TO SIT DOWN IN PARADISE WITH THE WHITES WHO HAD OPPRESSED THEM ON EARTH.
" Ball: "THE NEGRO'S HEAVEN WILL BE NO HEAVEN TO HIM "IF HE IS NOT TO BE AVENGED OF HIS ENEMIES.
"I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE "THAT THESE ARE THE FUNDAMENTAL RULES OF HIS RELIGIOUS CREED "BECAUSE I LEARNED THEM IN THE RELIGIOUS MEETINGS OF THE SLAVES THEMSELVES.
" CHARLES BALL.
Washington: THERE IS A SENSE OF A PROVIDENTIAL JOURNEY IN THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE COTTON GIN AS A METHOD OF OF EXPANDING SLAVERY AND CREATING HAVOC IN BLACK LIFE THROUGH THE SEPARATION OF FAMILIES THROUGH THIS INCESSANT LABOR WHICH SEEMS TO BE ABLE TO GO ON IN PERPETUITY.
FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS IT REPRESENTS A PERIOD WHEN THEIR IDEA OF PROVIDENCE IS THAT THIS IS NOT PLEASING IN THE SIGHT OF GOD.
Narrator: THOUGH BLACK SLAVES MADE UP ONLY A SMALL FRACTION OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANS IN THE EARLY 19th CENTURY, MANY WHO CONVERTED SEIZED EAGERLY ON THE IDEA OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION.
ONE WAS A SLAVE PREACHER NAMED NAT TURNER.
TURNER'S ACTIONS IN THE SUMMER OF 1831 WOULD FORCE AMERICA TO FACE ITS DEEPEST FEARS AND HELP A MOUNTING ABOLITIONIST MOVEMEN GAIN THE ATTENTION OF THE NATION.
Man: "WHILE LABORING IN THE FIELD "I DISCOVERED DROPS OF BLOOD ON THE CORN "AS THOUGH IT WERE DEW FROM HEAVEN.
"AND AS THE BLOOD OF CHRIS HAD BEEN SHED ON THIS EARTH "AND HAD ASCENDED TO HEAVEN FOR THE SALVATION OF SINNERS "IT WAS PLAIN TO ME "THAT THE SAVIOR WAS ABOU TO LAY DOWN THE YOKE "HE HAD BORNE FOR THE SINS OF MEN AND THE GREAT DAY OF JUDGMEN WAS AT HAND.
" NAT TURNER.
GOD, IN THE OLD TESTAMEN OFTEN WORKED THROUGH ACTS OF VIOLENCE AND OFTEN PROTECTED THE ISRAELITES THROUGH ACTS OF VIOLENCE.
AND IT WAS IN THAT TRADITION THAT NAT TURNER SITUATED HIMSELF.
HE WAS AN AVENGING MESSIAH WHO HAD COME TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THE SINFULNESS OF THE SLAVEHOLDING SOUTH.
Narrator: NAT TURNER WAS BORN IN THE YEAR 1800 THE WEEK BEFORE GABRIEL WAS HANGED.
IN 1825, TURNER VOLUNTARILY RETURNED TO BONDAGE AFTER SUCCESSFULLY MAKING HIS ESCAPE.
THE SPIRIT HAD APPEARED TO HIM, HE SAID AND TOLD HIM TO RETURN TO HIS EARTHLY MASTER.
BUT IN 1828, THE SPIRI APPEARED TO HIM AGAIN.
Turner: "I HEARD A LOUD NOISE IN THE HEAVENS "AND THE SPIRI INSTANTLY APPEARED TO ME "AND SAID THE SERPEN WAS LOOSENED "AND CHRIS HAD LAID DOWN THE YOKE "HE HAD BORNE FOR THE SINS OF MEN "AND THAT I SHOULD TAKE IT ON AND FIGHT AGAINST THE SERPEN "FOR THE TIME WAS FAST APPROACHING "WHEN THE FIRST SHOULD BE LAS AND THE LAST SHOULD BE FIRST.
"AND IMMEDIATELY THE SEAL WAS REMOVED FROM MY LIPS AND I COMMUNICATED THE GREA WORK LAID OUT FOR ME TO DO.
" NAT TURNER.
Narrator: NAT TURNER CONFIDED HIS INTENTION, HE LATER EXPLAINED TO FOUR MEN IN WHOM HE HAD THE GREATEST CONFIDENCE.
IT WAS AGREED THAT THEY WOULD PREPARE A DINNER, ARM THEMSELVES AND THEN BEGIN GOD'S WORK.
THE ISSUE HERE IS "GOD MADE US TO BE FREE.
"GOD IS EMPOWERING US TO CLAIM THIS FREEDOM WHICH GOD HAS PROMISED TO US.
" AND SO WHAT WE SEE IS THAT, UH WITH NAT TURNER THE KEY CONCEPT IS DELIVERANCE.
Narrator: THE WORK OF DEATH BEGAN ON AUGUST 21, 1831 AND LASTED FOR 36 HOURS AS MORE THAN 40 SLAVES JOINED TURNER AND HIS MEN IN OPEN REBELLION.
IN THE END, AT LEAS 55 WHITE PEOPLE WERE DEAD.
AN ABOLITIONIST NEWSPAPER IN BOSTON, THE LIBERATOR REPORTED THAT "WHOLE FAMILIES HAD BEEN CUT OFF NOT A MOTHER, NOT A DAUGHTER, NOT A BABE LEFT.
" PUTNAM MOORE, THE YOUNG BOY WHO LEGALLY OWNED NAT TURNER WAS MURDERED IN THE BED WHERE HE LAY SLEEPING OUTSIDE JERUSALEM, VIRGINIA.
IT'S HORRIFYING.
THERE WERE THERE WERE YOUNG CHILDREN WHO WERE KILLED.
BUT YOU CAN YOU CAN FEEL THE RAGE AND YOU CAN FEEL THE ANGER AND YOU CAN WONDER WHETHER SLAVERY EVER WOULD HAVE ENDED WITHOUT THAT SORT OF RAGE.
Narrator: NAT TURNER WAS HANGED, AND THEN SKINNED, IN 1831.
AND FOR THE FIRST TIME, POLITICIANS IN VIRGINIA SERIOUSLY CONSIDERED A PLAN FOR ABOLISHING SLAVERY BUT COULDN'T BRING THEMSELVES TO DO IT.
SLAVERY WAS THE SOUL OF AMERICAN PROGRESS.
WITHOUT IT, MANY ARGUED, THERE WOULD BE NO FUTURE.
BUT TO THE GROWING ABOLITIONIST MOVEMEN TURNER'S REBELLION WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
Man: "WHAT WE HAVE SO LONG PREDICTED HAS COMMENCED.
"THE FIRST DROPS OF BLOOD, WHICH ARE BUT A PRELUDE, HAVE FALLEN.
"THE FIRST FLASH OF LIGHTNING HAS BEEN FELT.
"THE FIRST WAILINGS OF A BEREAVEMEN WHICH IS TO CLOAK THE EARTH HAVE BROKEN UPON OUR EARS.
" THE LIBERATOR, SEPTEMBER 3, 1831.
[Captioned by The Caption Center WGBH Educational Foundation.]
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 THE NATION GROWS RICH OFF THE BLOOD AND SWEA OF ENSLA VED AFRICAN AMERICANS.
THE COUNTRY IS ON THE BRINK OF CHANGE AS ABOLITIONISTS IN THE SEGREGATED NORTH IGNITE UPRISINGS FOR FREEDOM.
WHAT WAS ALSO AT STAKE WAS THE WHOLE FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES.
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.
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.
THEY HAD DIFFEREN 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.
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.
Woman: # YOUR COUNTRY # HOW CAME IT YOURS? BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED WE WERE HERE.
YOUR COUNTRY HOW CAME IT YOURS? BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED 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.
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.
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.
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.
Man: "MEN MAY WRITE FICTIONS PORTRAYING LOWLY LIFE AS IT IS "OR AS IT IS NO "MAY EXPATIATE WITH OWLISH GRAVITY "UPON THE BLISS OF IGNORANCE "DISCOURSE FLIPPANTLY FROM ARMCHAIRS OF THE PLEASURES OF SLAVE LIFE" "BUT LET THEM TOIL WITH HIM IN THE FIELD "SLEEP WITH HIM IN THE CABIN "FEED WITH HIM ON HUSKS.
"LET THEM BEHOLD HIM SCOURGED, HUNTED, TRAMPLED ON "AND THEY WILL COME BACK WITH ANOTHER STORY IN THEIR MOUTHS.
"LET THEM KNOW THE HEAR OF THE POOR SLAVE "LEARN HIS SECRET THOUGHTS "THOUGHTS HE DARE NOT UTTER IN THE HEARING OF THE WHITE MAN.
"LET THEM SIT BY HIM IN THE SILENT WATCHES OF THE NIGH "CONVERSE WITH HIM IN TRUSTFUL CONFIDENCE "OF 'LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS' "AND THEY WILL FIND THAT 99 OUT OF EVERY HUNDRED "ARE INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND THEIR SITUATION "AND TO CHERISH IN THEIR BOSOMS THE LOVE OF FREEDOM.
AS PASSIONATELY AS THEMSELVES.
" SOLOMON NORTHRUP, 12 YEARS A SLAVE.
Narrator: IN JANUARY 1793, A REMARKABLE SIGHT APPEARED ABOVE THE ROOFTOPS OF PHILADELPHIA THE BIRTHPLACE OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE A WOVEN BASKET LARGE ENOUGH TO CARRY A MAN SUSPENDED ONLY BY AN ENORMOUS BALLOON.
IT WAS THE FIRST VOYAGE IN THE UNITED STATES OF THE FAMOUS FRENCH AERONAU JEAN-PIERRE BLANCHARD.
BEN JAMIN RUSH, ONE OF THE CITY'S FATHERS, DECLARED "IT WAS A TRULY SUBLIME SIGHT.
"EVERY FACULTY OF THE MIND WAS SEIZED, EXPANDED AND CAPTIVATED BY IT.
" Man: WE'RE INTO THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMEN AND THE BALLOON IS CERTAINLY A PRODUCT OF I BECAUSE WE'RE TALKING CHEMISTRY WITH THE GASES THAT EXPAND IT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT AERONAUTICS WITH THE PRINCIPLES THAT DEVELOPING PRINCIPLES THAT HOLD IT UP AND WE'RE ALSO TALKING ABOUT THAT KIND OF OPTIMISM THAT THE MIND CAN DO ANYTHING.
PART OF WHAT THE ENLIGHTENMEN GAVE PEOPLE FAITH IN WAS THIS NOTION OF A DOCTRINE OF PROGRESS THAT HISTORY ITSELF COULD BE PROGRESSIVE THAT HUMAN BEINGS AND THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND HUMAN NATURE COULD BE IMPROVED, MAYBE EVEN PERFECTED.
AND IN AMERICA NOW, THERE WAS THE SPREADING BELIEF THAT LIBERTY WOULD EXPAND AND THE CONTRADICTIONS TO THAT LIBERTY THE PROBLEMS THA THAT LIBERTY WOULD FACE WOULD SOMEHOW BE DISSOLVED OR ABSORBED.
Narrator: AT THE END OF THE REVOLUTION THE MOST CONSPICUOUS CONTRADICTION TO LIBERTY IN AMERICA WAS SLAVERY.
BY 1790, ONE IN FIVE AMERICANS WAS BEING HELD IN BONDAGE.
MOST OF THE 700,000 ENSLAVED MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN WHO PLANTED AMERICA'S CROPS AND TILLED THEM WHO KEPT AMERICA'S HOMES AND COOKED ITS MEALS WHO FORGED AMERICA'S TOOLS AND WEAVED ITS VERY FABRIC HAD BEEN BORN IN THE OLDES COLONIES OF THE SOUTH OVER HALF IN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND ALONE.
AND THOUGH THEY WERE NOT UNTOUCHED BY THE RHETORIC OF PROGRESS AND EQUALITY THAT SWEPT THE YOUNG NATION IN THOSE DAYS NEITHER WERE THEY FREED BY IT.
AMERICA HAD DECIDED IN ITS FIRST DOCUMENTS TO KEEP NEARLY ALL THE AFRICANS NOW IN AMERICA, SLAVES.
THE CONSTITUTION PROHIBITED EVEN A VOTE ON ENDING THE SLAVE TRADE UNTIL 1808.
Blight: STILL, BLACKS CLAIM OUT OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION THEIR OWN KIND OF A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE THAT THEY CLAIM THEIR OWN PLACE NOW IN THIS REPUBLIC THAT THEY REFUSE TO LET AMERICA SAY THAT THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE ONLY APPLIES TO WHITE PEOPLE.
IN ALL OF THE WAYS THAT BLACKS START WRITING PETITIONS TO STATE LEGISLATURES THE WAYS THAT THEY APPROPRIATE THE VERY LANGUAGE OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE TO THEIR OWN USES IT'S QUITE CLEAR THAT THEY SAW THEMSELVES AS VESSELS OF THE LEGACY OF THIS REVOLUTION.
Narrator: DURING THE REVOLUTION, THOMAS JEFFERSON HAD WRITTEN THE WORDS "ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.
" HE HAD DEFINED THE SPIRI OF RESISTANCE AND SHAPED THE FOUNDATION OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.
AND IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NEW REPUBLIC HIS WRITINGS WOULD GIVE VOICE TO THE PARADOX OF HUMAN BONDAGE IN THE LAND OF LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
Man: JEFFERSON ALWAYS BELIEVED ALWAYS STATED, IN ANY CASE THAT THE RIGHT OF ONE MAN TO HOLD ANOTHER AS PROPERTY WAS AN ILLEGITIMATE FORM OF PROPERTY.
FROM HIS EARLIES PUBLIC PRONOUNCEMENTS JEFFERSON ANNOUNCED THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING PROFOUNDLY WRONG WITH THE ENTIRE CONCEP OF SLAVERY.
YET, LIKE MOST VIRGINIANS OF HIS DAY AND CLASS HE FOUND IT VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO LIVE WITHOUT ALL OF THIS UNFREE LABOR.
Narrator: IN 1793, THOMAS JEFFERSON WAS SECRETARY OF STATE AND THE OWNER OF OVER 130 HUMAN BEINGS.
JEFFERSON KNEW FIRSTHAND OF THE IN JUSTICES OF SLAVERY AND HIS WRITINGS, BOTH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WARNED OF A DAY WHEN THE SLAVE WOULD RISE, AS HE PUT I "FROM THE DUST.
" Man: "CAN THE LIBERTIES OF A NATION BE THOUGHT SECURE "WHEN WE HAVE REMOVED THEIR ONLY FIRM BASIS "A CONVICTION IN THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE "THAT THESE LIBERTIES ARE THE GIFT OF GOD THAT THEY ARE NOT TO BE VIOLATED, BUT WITH HIS WRATH?" THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Woman: JEFFERSON GAVE US THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BUT JEFFERSON IS REALLY ONE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE AND CERTAINLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON TO DISCUSS IN WRITING BLACK INFERIORITY.
HE'S THE FIRST PERSON TO DISCUSS IN WRITING THE IDEA THAT BLACKS AND WHITES CANNOT LIVE TOGETHER AS EQUALS.
Narrator: IN 1781 FIVE YEARS AFTER HE COMPOSED THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE JEFFERSON WROTE "NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA.
" IN IT, HE ANSWERED QUERIES ABOUT THE MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS, CASCADES AND CAVERNS SEVERAL PAGES DEVOTED TO THE AVERAGE FALL OF RAIN.
BUT IN QUERY XIV "THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE AND THE DESCRIPTION OF THE LAWS" JEFFERSON TURNED HIS ATTENTION TO THE CHARACTER OF HIS SLAVES.
"THEIR GRIEFS ARE TRANSIENT," HE WROTE "THEIR ODOR DISAGREEABLE.
" Jefferson: "ARE NOT THE FINE MIXTURES OF RED AND WHITE "THE EXPRESSIONS OF EVERY PASSION "BY GREATER OR LESS SUFFUSIONS OF COLOR "IN THE ONE PREFERABLE TO THAT ETERNAL MONOTONY "WHICH REIGNS IN THE COUNTENANCES "THAT IMMOVABLE VEIL OF BLACK "WHICH COVERS ALL THE EMOTIONS OF THE OTHER RACE? "ADD TO THESE FLOWING HAIR, A MORE ELEGANT SYMMETRY OF FORM "THEIR OWN JUDGMEN IN FAVOR OF THE WHITES "DECLARED BY THEIR PREFERENCE OF THEM "AS UNIFORMLY AS IS THE PREFERENCE OF THE ORANGUTAN FOR THE BLACK WOMEN OVER THOSE OF HIS OWN SPECIES.
" JEFFERSON HAD TO FIND EXCUSES FOR WHY HE SAID ONE THING AND PRACTICED ANOTHER.
AND SO HIS ANSWER WAS THA AFRICANS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS WERE BIOLOGICALLY INFERIOR TO ANGLOS AND THEREFORE, THEY WERE ESSENTIALLY CHILDREN.
AND IT WAS HIS RESPONSIBILITY, HIS DUTY TO CARE FOR THESE PEOPLE WHO SIMPLY COULDN'T CARE FOR THEMSELVES IN A FREE WORLD.
Man: "I WAS AWAKENED AND BROUGHT TO SEE MYSELF "POOR, WRETCHED, UNDONE AND WITHOUT THE MERCY OF GOD.
"I WAS TEMPTED TO BELIEVE HELL WOULD BE MY PORTION.
"AND ALL OF A SUDDEN "MY DUNGEON SHOOK, MY CHAINS FLEW OFF AND 'GLORY TO GOD! ' I CRIED.
" Narrator: DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION RICHARD ALLEN, BORN A SLAVE, HAD BEEN CONVERTED UNDER THE PREACHINGS OF AN ITINERANT WHITE MINISTER.
HE HAD WORKED FOR THE PATRIO FORCES DURING THE WAR TO EARN MONEY TO BUY HIS FREEDOM AND IN 1786, HE CAME TO PHILADELPHIA, AMERICA'S CAPITAL A FREE MAN AND A METHODIST PREACHER.
HIS DREAM WAS TO BUILD A CHURCH TO UPLIFT THE MORALS OF THOSE SO LONG OPPRESSED BY SLAVERY.
Man: HERE'S A MAN WHO HAS BOUGHT HIMSELF OUT OF SLAVERY.
HE'S PARTICIPATED IN THE EVANGELICAL REVOLUTION THAT'S HAPPENING CONCURRENTLY WITH THE REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL REALM.
AND IN THA EVANGELICAL REVOLUTION THE SENSE OF THE EQUALITY OF PEOPLE ACROSS RACIAL LINES IN THE EYES OF GOD HAS, FOR AT LEAST A MOMEN BECOME A REALITY IN THE SOCIAL ORDER.
Narrator: BY 1793, RICHARD ALLEN WAS ONE OF OVER 2,000 FREED SLAVES IN PHILADELPHIA EMBARKING ON ANOTHER EXPERIMEN IN LIBERTY.
ALLEN HAD ENLISTED MEMBERS OF THE WHITE COMMUNITY IN RAISING MONEY FOR AN AFRICAN CHURCH AND OFFERED HIMSELF AS AN EXAMPLE THAT FORMER SLAVES COULD REACH AS HIGH AS WHITE AMERICANS.
Wideman: SOME OF WHAT MOVED ALLEN WERE IDEAS LIKE "WORK REAL HARD" "GO TO SCHOOL," "LEARN" "YOU CAN DO ANYTHING" THESE PRINCIPLES, THESE AMERICAN PRINCIPLES THAT"HEY, HERE'S THIS WILDERNESS "AND IF WE DEDICATE OURSELVES, WE CAN CHANGE I WE CAN CHANGE IT INTO A GARDEN.
" I THINK ALLEN BELIEVED THAT.
Narrator: ALLEN SPENT HIS DAYS GOING AMONG THE POOREST OF THE FREED SLAVES PREACHING AS MANY AS FIVE TIMES A DAY.
HE ATTENDED THIS WHITE METHODIST CHURCH UNTIL BLACK MEMBERS WERE EVICTED FROM SERVICES ONE SUNDAY FOR MISTAKENLY SITTING IN SEATS RESERVED FOR WHITES SEATS THE BLACK COMMUNITY HAD HELPED TO BUILD.
BUT DURING THE SWELTERING SUMMER OF 1793 ALLEN BELIEVED PHILADELPHIA'S BLACK COMMUNITY WOULD HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO PROVE ITSELF ONCE AND FOR ALL.
ANY SUMMER IN A CITY WAS AN UNHEALTHY TIME.
I MEAN, SANITATION WAS PRIMITIVE, TO SAY THE LEAST.
PEOPLE GOT SICK AND PEOPLE DIED.
WHAT WAS UNUSUAL ABOUT 1793 IS THAT THE RATES OF DEATH CREEP UP AND UP AND THEN THEY START TO LEAP UP.
Man: "A MALIGNANT FEVER HAS BROKEN OUT IN WATER STREE "WHICH HAS ALREADY CARRIED OFF 12 PERSONS.
"THE DISEASE IS VIOLEN AND OF SHORT DURATION.
"IN ONE CASE, IT KILLED IN 12 HOURS AND IN NO CASE HAS IT LASTED MORE THAN FOUR DAYS.
" BEN JAMIN RUSH, PHILADELPHIA.
Wideman: A REAL SIEGE MENTALITY TOOK OVER SO THAT IN A HOUSEHOLD, IF ONE PERSON CAUGHT I THAT PERSON WAS OSTRACIZED OFTEN JUST PUT OUTDOORS.
AND YOU HAD THE SITUATION WHERE YOU HAD ACTUAL SITUATIONS WHERE CHILDREN WERE PUT OUT OF DOORS AND DROPPED IN THE STREE BECAUSE PEOPLE WERE AFRAID THE CHILD WOULD INFEC EVERYBODY ELSE.
IT'S A SCARY MOMENT.
IT'S A MOMENT OF ABSOLUTE CHAOS.
THE GOVERNMENT FLEES TOWN.
THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR LAW AND ORDER GIVE UP, RUN AWAY THE ONES WHO CAN, THE ONES WHO ARE RICH ENOUGH.
Man: "THE WEEK BEFORE LAST, THE DEATHS WERE ABOUT 40 "THE LAST WEEK, ABOUT 80 "AND THIS WEEK, I THINK THEY WILL BE ABOUT 200.
"ALL PERSONS WHO CAN FIND ASYLUM ELSEWHERE "ARE FLYING FROM THIS CITY.
"THE PRESIDENT SET OU FOR MOUNT VERNON YESTERDAY.
"GENERAL KNOX IS SETTING OU FOR MASSACHUSETTS AND I THINK TO GO TO VIRGINIA.
" THOMAS JEFFERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Man: "DR.
RUSH HAS ACKNOWLEDGED, WITH A CANDOR THAT DOES HIM HONOR "THAT IN HIS EARLY DAYS "HAVING DEPENDED ON GENTLE PURGES OF SALTS "HIS PATIENTS ALL DIED.
"AFTERWARDS, HE HAD RECOURSE TO STRONG PURGES OF CALOMEL AND JALAP, AND THE BLEEDING.
" MATHEW CAREY.
Narrator: BEN JAMIN RUSH, A SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND PHILADELPHIA'S LEADING PHYSICIAN HAD ACQUIRED A REPUTATION AS A FRIEND OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY WHEN HE JOINED ALLEN IN SOLICITING FUNDS FOR THE AFRICAN CHURCH.
Winch: RUSH HAD SOME REPORTS THAT SEEM TO HIM TO INDICATE THAT PEOPLE OF AFRICAN ANCESTRY ARE IMMUNE.
SO SEVERAL IDEAS COME TOGETHER IN THIS MAN'S MIND THAT THIS IS A DIVINE DISPENSATION; THAT YOU HAVE A SEGMENT OF THE COMMUNITY DESPISED, DISCRIMINATED AGAINS WHO ARE, FOR SOME REASON, HE THINKS UNABLE TO CONTRACT YELLOW FEVER.
SO WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THEM TO BE OF SERVICE TO THE WHITE COMMUNITY THAT IS AFFLICTED NURSE PEOPLE, TREAT PEOPLE, AND THEN, IN THE AFTERMATH HOW MUCH GRATITUDE IS GOING TO BE LAVISHED UPON THEM.
AND SO WE HAD THIS ANOMALOUS SITUATION OF PEOPLE WHO WOULDN'T ALLOW, WHO WOULD NEVER DREAM OF HAVING A BLACK PERSON ENTER THEIR FRONT DOOR LET ALONE THEIR BEDROOM PEOPLE WHO WERE NOW DEPENDEN ON A BLACK PERSON WHO WAS WIELDING A KNIFE AND WHO ENTERED THE BEDROOM AND OPENED A VEIN.
Man: "I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE PEOPLE WOULD DO "IF WERE NOT FOR THE NEGROES, AS THEY ARE THE PRINCIPAL NURSES.
DR.
RUSH HAS HAD IT BUT RECOVERED.
" ISAAC HESTON.
Narrator: BY OCTOBER, NEARLY 4,000 WHITE PHILADELPHIANS LAY DEAD OR DYING AND TEN PERCENT OF THE CITY'S BLACK POPULATION HAD BEEN CLAIMED BY THE PLAGUE.
IN THE END, THE FEVER HAD SHOWN NO PREFERENCE FOR BLACK OR WHITE.
Wideman: THE PLAGUE DIDN'T END UNTIL THE FIRST FROSTS, IN NOVEMBER.
AND THEN THERE SEEMED TO BE THIS MIRACULOUS LIFTING OF THE CURSE.
AND, OF COURSE, PEOPLE WERE JUBILAN AND FELT THAT THE CITY HAD BEEN SAVED, HAD BEEN DELIVERED.
AND THEN RACE RISES UP AND BEGINS TO BECOME THE ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE.
Narrator: WITH THE COOL WEATHER CAME ACCUSATIONS AND CHARGES AGAINST THE BLACK NURSES, CART DRIVERS AND GRAVEDIGGERS CHARGES OF WRONGDOING, OF PROFITEERING AND OF MURDER.
Woman: THE YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC IS A HARBINGER OF THINGS TO COME FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS, BECAUSE IT'S A PLACE WHERE AFRICAN AMERICANS PUT IN A LOT OF ENERGY HOPING TO EARN THEMSELVES A PLACE IN AMERICAN SOCIETY.
AND AS A RESULT, THEY ARE VILIFIED FOR IT.
WHAT WE SEE IS FOLKS BEGINNING TO DIG IN AND BECOME ENTRENCHED FOR THIS LONG STRUGGLE THAT THEY SAW ON THE HORIZON.
SO WE HAVE THIS "HOW DO WE LIVE FOR TODAY? "AND ALSO HOW DO WE LIVE FOR TOMORROW? "WHAT IS IT THA WILL MAKE THINGS BETTER FOR OUR CHILDREN AND OUR GRANDCHILDREN?" AND THIS PLANNING AND STRATEGIZING WAS BEGINNING TO FORM IN EARNEST.
(bell ringing) Narrator: THE FOLLOWING YEAR IN THE SHADOW OF INDEPENDENCE HALL RICHARD ALLEN OPENED HIS CHURCH THAT IT WOULD BE A GATHERING PLACE OF SOULS.
IT WAS CALLED BETHEL "HOUSE OF GOD.
" Man: "WHEN I ARRIVED, AT THE AGE OF 18 "IT WAS MY LOT TO BE INTRODUCED TO A SLAVE GIRL NAMED MALINDA.
"MALINDA WAS GRACEFUL IN HER WALK, EXTRAORDINARY.
"HER SKIN WAS SMOOTH, WITH DARK AND PENETRATING EYES.
"BEFORE I WAS AWARE OF IT, I WAS DEEPLY IN LOVE "AND BECAME SATISFIED THAT IT WAS RECIPROCAL.
"I COULD READ IT BY THE WARM AND AFFECTIONATE SHAKE OF THE HAND "AND THE GENTLE SMILE UPON THE LOVELY CHEEK.
"I COULD READ I "IN THE LANGUAGE OF HER BRIGHT AND SPARKLING EYE.
"OUR MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE DURING CHRISTMAS.
AND SOME MONTHS LATER, MALINDA MADE ME A FATHER.
" HENRY BIBB.
Narrator: SLAVE MARRIAGES TOOK MANY FORMS, FROM ELABORATE WEDDINGS TO A COUPLE'S JUMPING OVER A BROOMSTICK HAND-IN-HAND.
WHEN CEREMONIES WERE CONDUCTED BY WHITE MINISTERS THE PHRASES "TILL DEATH DO YOU PART" AND "THOSE WHOM GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER LET NO MAN PUT ASUNDER," WERE CUSTOMARILY OMITTED SINCE SLAVE MARRIAGES WERE NEITHER LEGAL NOR SECURE.
IN 1793, A NEW INVENTION WOULD THREATEN THOSE UNIONS AS NEVER BEFORE.
THAT YEAR, AN APPLICATION FOR A PATENT WAS MADE BY A SCHOOLTEACHER NAMED ELI WHITNEY.
PHILADELPHIA'S YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC HAD SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMEN AND DELAYED ACTION ON WHITNEY'S INVENTION A DEVICE TO SEPARATE THE SEEDS FROM COTTON WITHOUT DESTROYING THE FIBER.
IT WAS CALLED AN ENGINE, OR "GIN" FOR SHORT.
Man: "THIS GIN, IF TURNED WITH HORSES OR BY WATER "TWO PERSONS WILL CLEAN AS MUCH COTTON IN ONE DAY AS A HUNDRED PERSONS COULD CLEAN IN THE SAME TIME.
" ELI WHITNEY.
THE COTTON GIN WAS IMPORTANT PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTAN INVENTION IN AMERICAN HISTORY UP TO THE CIVIL WAR BUT IT CARRIED A GREAT PRICE.
IT CARRIED A PRICE FOR BLACK PEOPLE AND IT ALSO CARRIED A PRICE FOR WHITE PEOPLE BECAUSE WHILE THE COUNTRY ADVANCED ECONOMICALLY BECAUSE OF THIS TECHNOLOGY, IT CREATED A SYSTEM THAT THEY WERE GOING TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH LATER ON.
Narrator: BEFORE WHITNEY'S INVENTION SHORT-STAPLE COTTON COULD NOT BE GROWN FOR PROFI BECAUSE OF THE LABOR NEEDED TO FILTER OUT THE SEEDS.
NOW IT COULD BE GROWN ALMOS ANYWHERE CLIMATE PERMITTED.
AND AMERICAN FARMERS WASTED NO TIME PUSHING WEST INTO THE WILDERNESS OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI SEEKING MORE AND MORE LAND TO TURN WHITE WITH COTTON.
WITHIN 50 YEARS, 75% OF THE WORLD'S COTTON CAME FROM THE BLACK EARTH OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH, MAKING WORK FOR AN ARMY OF LABORERS WHO PLANTED AND PICKED IT.
BUT AS THE NATION MOVED WES NO SLAVE FAMILY WOULD BE SAFE FROM SEPARATION.
Woman: "WHEN MY BABE WAS BORN, IT WEIGHED ONLY FOUR POUNDS "BUT GOD LET IT LIVE.
"WHEN HE WAS A YEAR OLD, THEY CALLED HIM BEAUTIFUL.
"THE LITTLE VINE WAS TAKING A DEEP ROOT IN MY EXISTENCE "THOUGH ITS CLINGING FONDNESS "EXCITED A MIXTURE OF LOVE AND PAIN.
"WHEN I WAS MOST SORELY OPPRESSED "I FOUND A SOLACE IN HIS SMILES.
"I LOVED TO WATCH HIS INFANT SLUMBERS "BUT ALWAYS THERE WAS A DARK CLOUD OVER MY EN JOYMENT.
I COULD NEVER FORGE THAT HE WAS A SLAVE.
" HARRIET JACOBS.
IF A MASTER DIED, OR IF A MASTER WENT INTO DEB OR IF THE CROPS FAILED, OR IF THERE WERE SOME CATASTROPHE THESE PEOPLE WERE PREY NOT ONLY TO HUNGER AND POVERTY BUT WERE PREY TO THEIR MOST INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS BEING VIOLATED.
ONE OF THE CHALLENGES OF TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT SLAVERY MEAN IS TO SOMEHOW BALANCE THE BIG PICTURE OF "HERE IS THIS DREADFUL, OPPRESSIVE RELATIONSHIP" WITH THE OTHER REALITY THA THEY'RE MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN WHO ARE LIVING THEIR LIVES, WHO ARE FALLING IN LOVE WHO ARE DECIDING TO HAVE CHILDREN WHO HAVE ALL THE KINDS OF HUMAN FRAILTIES OF OTHERS.
Man: "AFTER THE SALE OF MY MOTHER "MY FATHER'S MASTER RESOLVED TO SELL MY FATHER "TO A SOUTHERN SLAVE DEALER.
"ABOUT MIDNIGHT, MY GRANDFATHER SILENTLY REPAIRED "TO THE CABIN OF MY FATHER "GAVE HIM A BOTTLE OF CIDER AND A SMALL BAG OF PARCHED CORN "AND THEN, PRAYING TO THE GOD OF HIS NATIVE COUNTRY "TO PROTECT HIS SON "EN JOINED HIM TO FLY FROM THE DESTRUCTION WHICH AWAITED HIM.
"IN THE MORNING "THE GEORGIAN COULD NOT FIND HIS NEWLY PURCHASED SLAVE WHO WAS NEVER SEEN OR HEARD OF FROM THAT DAY.
" CHARLES BALL.
Narrator: AFTER THE INVENTION OF THE COTTON GIN THE THREAT OF SALE LOOMED LARGER THAN EVER BEFORE AND LAWS WERE PASSED TO KEEP SLAVES UNDER A TIGHTER WATCH.
SOME RESISTED BY RUNNING AWAY; OTHERS, BY STEALING OR REFUSING TO WORK.
A VERY FEW SAW NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE BUT TO TAKE UP ARMS.
ONE WAS A SLAVE NAMED GABRIEL, WHO STOLE A PIG AND WAS HAULED INTO A COURTHOUSE OUTSIDE RICHMOND, VIRGINIA IN 1799.
Egerton: GABRIEL WAS CAUGHT STEALING A PIG AND INSTEAD OF ACCEPTING THE ABUSE WHICH, OF COURSE, EVERY SLAVE WAS SUPPOSED TO ACCEP HE THREW THE MAN TO THE GROUND, WRESTLED HIM TO THE GROUND AND BIT OFF THE BETTER PAR OF HIS LEFT EAR.
THAT, OF COURSE, WAS A CAPITAL CRIME.
PIG STEALING WAS A COMMON OCCURRENCE.
BITING WHITE PEOPLE WAS SOMETHING THAT IT WAS NOT ENCOURAGED FOR BLACK VIRGINIANS TO DO.
Narrator: GABRIEL WAS CONVICTED OF ATTACKING AND MAIMING THE WHITE MAN WHO CAUGHT HIM.
TO DETER OTHERS FROM SUCH CRIMES HE WAS PUBLICLY HUMILIATED, BRANDED AND FORCED TO SPEND A MONTH IN JAIL.
(jail door slams shut) AS GABRIEL SAT IN HIS CELL, HE DECIDED THAT THE TIME WAS RIGHT TO ORGANIZE THE SLAVES OF RICHMOND AND STRIKE AGAINST THOSE WHO WERE HOLDING THEM IN BONDAGE.
THE ONLY TIME THAT SLAVES WOULD HAVE HAD ANY MOBILITY WITHOUT THE MOST RIGID OBSERVATION OF WHITES WOULD HAVE BEEN ON A SUNDAY, WOULD HAVE BEEN AT NIGHT.
RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS COULD HAVE, IN SOME CASES PROVIDED AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PEOPLE TO MEET.
WE MUST NEVER FORGE THAT ANY KIND OF MOVE TOWARD LIBERATION AMONG BLACKS WAS A QUESTION OF LIFE AND DEATH.
LIKE ALL REVOLUTIONARIES, GABRIEL SEEMED TO HAVE VERY LITTLE CONCERN FOR VIOLENCE AND DANGER.
HE WAS AN ENORMOUS MAN SIX FOOT TWO, SIX FOOT THREE IN A TIME OF RELATIVELY SHORTER MEN.
HE WAS A BLACKSMITH, SO HE WAS A MAN OF ENORMOUS STRENGTH.
HE WAS DESCRIBED AS HAVING SCARS ON HIS FACE.
HE WAS MISSING MOS OF HIS FRONT TEETH AND I SUSPECT THA THAT CAME FROM MIXING IT UP IN THE QUARTERS WITH OTHER SLAVES.
HE WAS A MAN WHO PEOPLE INSTINCTIVELY TENDED TO FOLLOW AND HE APPARENTLY FEARED VERY LITTLE.
Narrator: AFTER HIS RELEASE GABRIEL BEGAN HAMMERING OU INSTRUMENTS OF WAR TURNING SHOVELS INTO SWORDS AND MOLDING BULLETS.
THROUGH MOST OF THE YEAR 1800 HE RECRUITED SOLDIERS FOR A REBEL ARMY.
Man: "ALL THE WHITES WERE TO BE MASSACRED "EXCEPT THE QUAKERS, THE METHODISTS AND THE FRENCHMEN "AND THEY WERE TO BE SPARED "ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR BEING FRIENDLY TO LIBERTY.
"THEY INTENDED ALSO TO SPARE ALL THE POOR WHITE WOMEN WHO HAD NO SLAVES.
" BEN WOOLFOLK, CONSPIRATOR.
OBVIOUSLY, HE WAS NO A NAIVE MAN.
HE REALIZED THAT THIS WOULD BE BLACK FREEDOM BORN OF WHITE FEAR, NOT OUT OF WHITE MAGNANIMITY.
Man: "1,000 MEN WAS TO BE RAISED FROM RICHMOND "600 FROM GROUND SQUIRREL BRIDGE AND 400 FROM GOOCHLAND.
"THE BUSINESS OF THE INSURRECTION HAD SO FAR ADVANCED THAT WE WERE COMPELLED, EVEN IF DISCOVERED, TO GO FORWARD.
" SOLOMON, CONSPIRATOR.
Narrator: GABRIEL DECIDED HIS TROOPS WOULD MOVE AT MIDNIGHT ON AUGUST 30, 1800 CARRYING A FLAG WITH THE MOTTO "DEATH OR LIBERTY.
" Washington: WE CAN IMAGINE WHAT IT WAS LIKE ON THAT DAY IN AUGUST IN 1800 WITH SCORES OF AFRICAN AMERICANS GATHERING ON A SUNDAY TO CREATE THIS REBELLION WITH PICKS AND AX AND KNIVES AND CLUBS AND WHAT IT MUS HAVE BEEN LIKE FOR THEM PREPARED TO STRIKE AND YET UNABLE TO STRIKE.
(thunder) Narrator: "THAT VERY EVENING," ONE OBSERVER WROTE "THERE CAME ON THE MOS TERRIBLE THUNDERSTORM ACCOMPANIED WITH AN ENORMOUS RAIN.
" RIVERS SWELLED.
ROADS AND BRIDGES WASHED AWAY.
AND WHEN IT BECAME CLEAR THA "THE BUSINESS," AS IT WAS CALLED WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE IN THE STORM GABRIEL TRIED TO POSTPONE THE REVOLT.
BUT BEFORE MORNING, THE PLO WAS BETRAYED BY TWO SLAVES.
Jones: WHAT'S PHENOMENAL IS HOW CLOSE IT GOT.
IF THE ACCOUNTS AND THE INFERENCES WE CAN MAKE ABOUT THE NUMBERS THAT IT LASTED SO LONG BEFORE ANY BETRAYAL IS QUITE EXTRAORDINARY.
Narrator: GABRIEL WENT TO TRIAL ON OCTOBER 6, 1800.
HE REFUSED TO TESTIFY OR TO EXPLAIN HIS ACTIONS BUT ONE OF THE REBELS DID MAKE A STATEMENT.
Man: "I HAVE NOTHING MORE TO SAY IN MY DEFENSE "THAN WHAT GENERAL WASHINGTON WOULD HAVE HAD TO OFFER "HAD HE BEEN TAKEN BY THE BRITISH AND PUT TO TRIAL.
"I HAVE ADVENTURED MY LIFE "IN ENDEAVORING TO OBTAIN THE LIBERTY OF MY COUNTRYMEN "AND I AM A WILLING SACRIFICE IN THEIR CAUSE.
"AND I BEG, AS A FAVOR "THAT I MAY BE IMMEDIATELY LED TO EXECUTION.
"I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE PREDETERMINED TO SHED MY BLOOD.
WHY, THEN, ALL THIS MOCKERY OF A TRIAL?" Man: "ONE CANNOT GO TO BED IN THE EVENING "WITHOUT THE APPREHENSION OF BEING MASSACRED BEFORE MORNING.
"MASTERS AND OVERSEERS ARE OBLIGED "TO RETREAT TO SOME SECURE PLACE DURING THE NIGH "OR EMPLOY ARMED SENTINELS.
"A GENTLEMAN OF HIGH RESPECTABILITY "LATELY INFORMED ME "THAT HE PERSONALLY KNEW A MASTER OF SLAVES "WHO RETREATED EVERY NIGH INTO AN UPPER ROOM "THE ENTRANCE OF WHICH WAS BY A TRAPDOOR AND KEPT AN AX BY HIS SIDE FOR DEFENSE.
" JESSE TORREY.
Narrator: THE GROWING FEAR OF SLAVE UPRISINGS IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH WAS INTENSIFIED BY THE SUCCESS OF THE REBELS IN THE SMALL CARIBBEAN COLONY OF HAITI KNOWN THEN AS ST.
DOMINGUE.
ST.
DOMINGUE HAD BEEN THE MOST BRUTAL OF EUROPE'S COLONIES IN THE NEW WORLD AND THE MOST SUCCESSFUL UNTIL A VIOLENT SLAVE REVOL IN 1791 HAD CHANGED ALL THA RELEASING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS FROM THEIR BONDAGE AND OVERTURNING THE PLANTATION ECONOMY.
BUT BY 1801, PEACE AND COMMERCE HAD RETURNED TO ST.
DOMINGUE AND A DETENTE BETWEEN THE FORMER SLAVES AND FORMER MASTERS HAD COME WITH IT.
WHILE STILL A FRENCH COLONY ST.
DOMINGUE WAS MOVING TOWARD INDEPENDENCE JUST AS THE UNITED STATES HAD DONE 25 YEARS BEFORE.
THAT YEAR, ST.
DOMINGUE'S GOVERNOR, TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE HIMSELF A FORMER SLAVE DECLARED A NEW CONSTITUTION OUTLAWING SLAVERY FOREVER.
Man: SLAVERY'S REGIME TRIED TO CREATE FOR SLAVES A VERY LIMITED HORIZON IN TERMS OF, YOU KNOW, WHAT CONSTITUTED THEIR WORLD.
AND ONE OF THE THINGS THAT THIS ST.
DOMINGUE REVOLUTION WAS DOING WAS REALLY FOCUSING ATTENTION AT THINGS THAT WERE TAKING PLACE OUTSIDE AND OPENING UP, TO SOME DEGREE, A WHOLE SET OF POSSIBILITIES.
Narrator: AS VICE-PRESIDEN THOMAS JEFFERSON URGED CONGRESS TO CUT OFF TRADE WITH TOUSSAINT.
BLACK SAILORS FROM THE ISLAND MIXING WITH AMERICAN SLAVES IN SOUTHERN PORTS WAS A THREAT THAT COULD NOT BE CONTAINED, HE ARGUED.
BUT THE TRADE WAS TOO PROFITABLE AND CONGRESS REFUSED.
Egerton: JEFFERSON'S FEAR WAS THAT BLACK AMERICANS, LIKE GABRIEL WOULD BE INSPIRED BY WHAT THEY SAW TAKING PLACE JUST OFF THE SHORE OF AMERICA.
AND HE SPENT VIRTUALLY HIS ENTIRE CAREER TRYING TO SHUT DOWN ANY CONTAC AND THEREFORE ANY MOVEMEN OF INFORMATION BETWEEN THE AMERICAN MAINLAND AND THE CARIBBEAN ISLAND.
Narrator: IN 1801, WEEKS AFTER JEFFERSON'S INAUGURATION AS AMERICA'S THIRD PRESIDEN HE WAS VISITED BY NAPOLEON BONAPARTE'S REPRESENTATIVE IN AMERICA'S NEW CAPITAL, THE CITY OF WASHINGTON.
NAPOLEON, THE FIRST CONSUL OF FRANCE WAS SEEKING JEFFERSON'S HELP IN REIMPOSING SLAVERY IN ST.
DOMINGUE.
AFTER THE MEETING THE ENVOY WROTE TO NAPOLEON THAT JEFFERSON PROMISED THAT ALL NECESSARY MEASURES WOULD BE TAKEN TO STARVE OUT TOUSSAIN AND TO AID THE FRENCH ARMY.
IN FEBRUARY 1802 THE FIRST OF NAPOLEON'S TROOPS BEGAN TO ARRIVE AT ST.
DOMINGUE'S HARBORS.
AFTER FOUR YEARS OF PEACE, WAR RESUMED IMMEDIATELY.
Scott: DESPITE THE FRENCH EFFOR AND DESPITE THE AMERICANS' TACI SUPPORT OF THAT FRENCH EFFOR THEY MANAGED NEVERTHELESS TO ESTABLISH INDEPENDENCE TO RESIST AND DEFEA THE FRENCH FORCE UNDER NAPOLEON'S BROTHER-IN-LAW AND ESTABLISH AN INDEPENDEN COUNTRY ON JANUARY 1, 1804 WHOSE NAME WAS HAITI.
Narrator: HAITI WAS NOW THE SECOND REPUBLIC IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE AND A STUNNING EXAMPLE FOR AMERICAN SLAVES.
IT HAD TAKEN 13 YEARS AND COST OVER 100,000 BLACK LIVES BUT THERE WOULD NEVER AGAIN BE SLAVERY IN HAITI.
NAPOLEON, NOW UNABLE TO USE HAITI AS A MILITARY BASE TO PROTECT FRENCH INTERESTS IN NORTH AMERICA AND EMBROILED IN OTHER FOREIGN WARS ABANDONED THE NEW WORLD SELLING THE LOUISIANA TERRITORY TO THE UNITED STATES FOR $15 MILLION.
WELL, IT'S IRONIC THAT DESPITE JEFFERSON'S OWN HOSTILITY TO THE ST.
DOMINGUE/ HAITIAN REVOLUTION THAT THE SIGNAL ACHIEVEMEN OF HIS ADMINISTRATION WAS VERY MUCH BASED ON THE SUCCESS OF THAT REVOLUTION.
THAT WAS THE PURCHASE OF THE LOUISIANA TERRITORY.
Narrator: CALLED THE GREATES BARGAIN IN AMERICAN HISTORY THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE DOUBLED THE SIZE OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, MAKING ROOM FOR 13 NEW STATES ALL WES OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
FOUR YEARS LATER THE FIRST AMERICAN STEAMBOA WOULD PUSH AWAY FROM ITS MOORING.
AND BY THE 1830s THE MISSISSIPPI WOULD BE CROWDED WITH THEM EMBARKING FROM PORTS LIKE NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA AND JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI, LADEN WITH SLAVE-GROWN COTTON.
BY 1808, AGRICULTURE WAS ON THE DECLINE IN THE OLDER SOUTHERN STATES, LIKE MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA.
THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH WORK TO SUPPORT THE HALF MILLION SLAVES NOW HELD THERE.
IN THE NORTH, SLAVERY WAS DYING AND AN ANTISLAVERY MOVEMEN WAS BEING BORN.
ITS FIRST GOAL WAS ACHIEVED WHEN CONGRESS ABOLISHED THE FOREIGN SLAVE TRADE STOPPING IMPORTATIONS FROM AFRICA OR THE CARIBBEAN.
THE BAN WAS SIGNED INTO LAW ON JANUARY 1, 1808 THE EARLIEST MOMENT ALLOWED BY THE U.
S.
CONSTITUTION.
Man: "LET THE FIRST OF JANUARY BE SET APART IN EVERY YEAR "AS A DAY OF PUBLIC THANKSGIVING.
"LET THE HISTORY OF THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR BRETHREN "AND OF THEIR DELIVERANCE DESCEND BY THIS MEANS "TO OUR CHILDREN, TO THE REMOTEST GENERATIONS.
"AND WHEN THEY SHALL ASK IN TIME TO COME "SAYING, 'WHAT MEAN THE LESSONS OF THIS DAY? ' "LET US ANSWER THEM BY SAYING "'THE LORD ON THIS DAY ABOLISHED THE TRADE "'WHICH DRAGGED YOUR FATHERS FROM THEIR NATIVE COUNTRY AND SOLD THEM AS BOND MEN IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
'" ABSALOM JONES, PHILADELPHIA.
Egerton: IN AN ODD WAY, THE PROHIBITION ON FURTHER AFRICAN IMPORTS AS OF JANUARY 1, 1808 ACTUALLY STRENGTHENED SLAVERY IN A PLACE WHERE IT HAD BEEN THE WEAKEST.
THE BAN CREATED AN ARTIFICIAL SCARCITY OF BLACK LABORERS AND CONSEQUENTLY, IMMEDIATELY AN INTRA-AMERICAN TRADE BETWEEN THE UPPER SOUTH BETWEEN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND AND THE LOWER SOUTH SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA EMERGED.
Man: "MY PURCHASER ORDERED ME TO CROSS MY HANDS BEHIND "WHICH WERE QUICKLY BOUND WITH A STRONG CORD; "AND THEN HE TOLD ME THAT DAY "THAT WE MUST SET OU FOR THE SOUTH.
"I JOINED 51 OTHER SLAVES "32 MEN AND 19 WOMEN.
"A STRONG IRON COLLAR WAS CLOSELY FITTED "BY MEANS OF A PADLOCK AROUND EACH OF OUR NECKS.
WE WERE HANDCUFFED IN PAIRS WITH IRON STAPLES AND BOLTS.
" CHARLES BALL.
Narrator: THOUGH SLAVERY WOULD VANISH FROM THE NORTH IT WOULD FLOURISH ON THE NEW FRONTIER AND PROVIDE A MARKE FOR THE SURPLUS OF SLAVES IN THE UPPER SOUTH.
CHARLES BALL WAS BORN INTO SLAVERY IN MARYLAND AS HIS PARENTS HAD BEEN.
HE WOULD BE ONE OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS FORCE-MARCHED INTO THE DEEP SOUTH AND WEST.
Egerton: IF ONE WAS BETWEEN THE AGE OF ROUGHLY 18 AND 30 YOU HAD ABOUT A ONE-IN-THREE CHANCE OF BEING SOLD TO SOUTH CAROLINA OR TO MISSISSIPPI.
SOME MASTERS AND JEFFERSON FALLS INTO THIS CATEGORY TRIED TO SELL WOMEN WITH THEIR CHILDREN.
BUT FOR SLAVE MEN THEY WERE NOT REGARDED AS BEING PART OF THE FAMILY.
AND IF WE THINK ABOU SOMEONE SUCH AS CHARLES BALL WHO IS MARRIED, WHO HAS CHILDREN HIS FIRST THOUGHT WHEN HE'S CAPTURED, WHEN HE'S TAKEN HE MAKES THE REQUEST THA "CAN I AT LEAST SEE" WELL, HIS FIRST THOUGH IS THE ISSUE OF THE FUTILITY OF ANY RESISTANCE AND THEN HIS THOUGHT IMMEDIATELY GOES TO FACING THAT QUICKLY.
THIS IS A FAIT ACCOMPLI.
AND HE SIMPLY ASKS, "CAN I SEE MY FAMILY BEFOREHAND?" AND ONE OF THE THINGS TO ME, WHEN I READ THIS, IT JUST IT SENDS A CHILL DOWN MY BACK THAT THE RESPONSE THAT HE GETS IS "YOU CAN GET ANOTHER WIFE IN GEORGIA.
" Man: "WE ALL LAY DOWN ON THE NAKED FLOOR TO SLEEP "IN OUR HANDCUFFS AND CHAINS.
"THE WOMEN, MY FELLOW SLAVES, LAY ON ONE SIDE OF THE ROOM "AND THE MEN, WHO WERE CHAINED WITH ME, OCCUPIED THE OTHER.
"I, AT LENGTH, FELL ASLEEP "BUT WAS DISTRESSED BY PAINFUL DREAMS.
"MY WIFE AND CHILDREN APPEARED TO BE WEEPING "AND LAMENTING MY CALAMITY "AND BESEECHING AND IMPLORING MY MASTER ON THEIR KNEES "NOT TO CARRY ME AWAY FROM THEM.
"MY LITTLE BOY CAME AND BEGGED ME NOT TO GO AND LEAVE HIM "AND ENDEAVORED, WITH HIS LITTLE HANDS TO BREAK THE FETTERS THAT BOUND ME.
" CHARLES BALL.
Man: "IN THE FIRST PLACE "IT IS IMPOSSIBLE IN THE NATURE OF THINGS "FOR THE BLACKS IN THE NORTH TO EVER BE RECONCILED TO THE WHITES "WHILE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF THEIR COUNTRYMEN "ARE GROANING, BLEEDING AND DYING "BENEATH THE FROWNS OF DESPOTISM IN THE SOUTH.
"SUPPOSE AN ARMY OF THEM SHOULD MARCH ON PHILADELPHIA.
WHAT HAVOC WOULD A HANDFUL OF INFURIATED NEGROES OCCASION.
" THOMAS BRANAGAN.
Narrator: SINCE 1793, THE BLACK POPULATION IN PHILADELPHIA HAD GROWN TO OVER 10,000 SOULS.
MANY WERE REFUGEES FROM SLAVERY.
THERE AND THROUGHOUT THE NORTH FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES HAD BUILT CHURCHES AND FORMED MUTUAL AID SOCIETIES TO HELP THE FUGITIVES AND THOSE NEWLY FREED.
AND ON APRIL 11, 1816 THE AFRICAN METHODIS EPISCOPAL DENOMINATION UNITING CONGREGATIONS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED AT RICHARD ALLEN'S BETHEL CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA.
ALLEN WAS CONSECRATED ITS BISHOP.
Raboteau: ARGUABLY, THE A.
M.
E.
CHURCH WAS THE MAIN BLACK INSTITUTION FOR MOST OF THE 19th CENTURY.
IT SERVED AS A FORUM FOR POLITICAL ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION.
IT SERVED AS A PLACE WHERE BLACKS COULD EXPRESS THEMSELVES IN A PUBLIC ARENA.
IT SERVED AS A FOCAL POIN FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES.
Narrator: AS THE BLACK POPULATION IN NORTHERN CITIES GREW SOME WHITES WORRIED THAT THE PEACE AND SECURITY OF THE NATION WAS AT STAKE.
THREE TIMES FROM 1805 TO 1814, BILLS WERE INTRODUCED TO BAN FURTHER BLACK IMMIGRATION INTO PENNSYLVANIA AND BY 1816, BLACK CITIZENS WERE SHUT OU OF PUBLIC CELEBRATIONS ON THE FOURTH OF JULY.
THAT YEAR, A GROUP OF WHITE POLITICIANS AND MINISTERS ME IN WASHINGTON, D.
C.
TO DISCUSS THE PROBLEM OF FREE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES.
Winch: YOU GENUINELY HAD INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE CONCERNED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA WHETHER IT BE FROM PURELY RACIAL MOTIVATION THAT THEY DID NOT LIKE THE PROSPECT OF LIVING ALONGSIDE BLACK MEN AND WOMEN WHO WOULD BE FELLOW CITIZENS OR WHETHER IT WAS BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO PROTEC THEIR SLAVE INVESTMENTS AND FELT THAT FREE BLACK PEOPLE WERE LIKELY TO INCITE THE SLAVES TO REBELLION.
Narrator: ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, 1817 THE CONCERNED STATESMEN GATHERED IN WASHINGTON FOUNDED THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY WITH SUPPOR FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
ITS MISSION WAS TO RESETTLE FREE BLACK PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES.
THE A.
C.
S.
WOULD LIST AMONG ITS MEMBERS PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE THE AUTHOR OF "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER" GEORGE WASHINGTON'S NEPHEW AND A FAMOUS ANTl- COLONIZATIONIST FROM TENNESSEE NAMED ANDREW JACKSON.
THIS IS THE SAME GENERATION, BEAR IN MIND THAT FORCED THOUSANDS OF GEORGIA CHEROKEES TO MOVE TO OKLAHOMA.
SO THE IDEA OF MOVING PEOPLE AROUND TO MAKE THIS A MORE PERFEC WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY WAS NOT NEARLY AS IRRATIONAL AS IT OFTEN SEEMS TO US.
Narrator: DAYS AFTER ITS FOUNDING THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY CONTACTED JAMES FORTEN A WEALTHY BUSINESSMAN IN PHILADELPHIA'S BLACK COMMUNITY.
THE A.
C.
S.
HOPED FREE BLACK PEOPLE WOULD SEE THEIR FUTURE IN A PLACE LIKE SIERRA LEONE ON THE COAST OF WEST AFRICA.
Egerton: THERE WERE A GOOD NUMBER OF FREE BLACKS MODERATELY PROSPEROUS BLACKS BARBERS, ARTISANS, TAVERN KEEPERS WHO SIMPLY HAD HAD ENOUGH AND DECIDED TO GO.
THEY WERE WEARY OF ENDLESS WHITE DEMANDS FOR DEFERENCE.
THEY WERE TIRED OF GETTING OFF THE SIDEWALK WHEN A WHITE MAN WALKED TOWARD THEM.
THEY DECIDED, AS THE ANTEBELLUM PERIOD DRAGGED ON THAT AMERICA NEVER WOULD GIVE THEM AN EVEN BREAK.
Narrator: PAUL CUFFE, A BLACK SHIPPING MERCHANT FROM MASSACHUSETTS WROTE THAT THE CITIZENS OF SIERRA LEONE WERE INSTILLED WITH EVERY PRIVILEGE OF FREEBORN CITIZENS.
ON JANUARY 15, 1817, A MEETING WAS CALLED AT BETHEL CHURCH TO RESPOND TO THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY'S PROPOSITION.
Winch: THIS WAS A MEETING THAT ABSOLUTELY PACKED BETHEL CHURCH WITH 3,000 MEN CONSTITUTED THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE ADULT MEN IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY.
IT WAS A TREMENDOUS MEETING, AND LED BY THE VERY PEOPLE THAT THEY HAD THE GREATEST REASON TO RESPECT: RICHARD ALLEN, ABSALOM JONES, JAMES FORTEN MEN WHO HAD PROVEN THEMSELVES OVER AND OVER AGAIN WHOM THE COMMUNITY WAS ACCUSTOMED TO LOOK TO FOR LEADERSHIP, FOR ASSISTANCE, FOR GUIDANCE.
Narrator: THAT NIGHT, FORTEN AND OTHER LEADERS ARGUED IN FAVOR OF SETTING SAIL FOR AFRICAN SHORES BUT WHEN A VOTE WAS CALLED, FORTEN LATER WROTE "A 'NO' WAS HEARD THAT SOUNDED AS IF IT WOULD BRING DOWN THE WALLS OF THE BUILDING.
" THE ASSEMBLY GATHERED THAT NIGH ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTIONS WITHOUT ONE DISSENTING VOTE.
Man: "WHEREAS OUR ANCESTORS, NOT OF CHOICE "WERE THE FIRS SUCCESSFUL CULTIVATORS "OF THE WILDS OF AMERICA "WE, THEIR DESCENDANTS "FEEL OURSELVES ENTITLED TO PARTICIPATE "IN THE BLESSINGS OF HER LUXURIANT SOIL.
"WE WILL NEVER SEPARATE OURSELVES VOLUNTARILY "FROM THE SLAVE POPULATION OF THIS COUNTRY.
"THEY ARE OUR BRETHREN BY THE TIES OF CONSANGUINITY OF SUFFERING AND OF WRONG.
" Narrator: A POLYGAMIST A FORMER SLAVE WHO HAD PURCHASED HIS FREEDOM WITH MONEY WON IN A LOTTERY A MAN DESCRIBED BY HIS ACQUAINTANCES AS MEAN AND INTOLERAN OF HUMAN FRAILTY DENMARK VESEY SEEMED AN UNLIKELY CANDIDATE TO UNITE SLAVES AND FREE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE FIGHT FOR THEIR LIBERTY.
AS THE PROPERTY OF A SLAVE SHIP'S CAPTAIN, JOSEPH VESEY FOR NEARLY HALF HIS LIFE DENMARK WAS WELL ACQUAINTED WITH THE HARSH REALITIES OF THE TRAFFIC IN FLESH.
I THINK THA HIS OWN EXPERIENCES BEING BORN A SLAVE IN ST.
THOMAS LIVING BRIEFLY BEFORE THE REVOLUTION IN ST.
DOMINGUE, AS A SLAVE BEING FORCED BY CAPTAIN VESEY TO GO DOWN TO THE DOCKS AND EVEN BRING ASHORE SLAVES WHO WERE BEING IMPORTED INTO SOUTH CAROLINA AND GET THEM TO THE SLAVE PENS IN CHARLESTON REMINDED HIM THAT THIS WAS NOT A WORLD OF BROTHERHOOD.
Narrator: IN 1816, DENMARK VESEY AND OTHER BLACK METHODISTS IN CHARLESTON ELECTED TO SEPARATE FROM THE WHITE CHURCH.
BY 1820, THERE WERE SOME 3,000 MEMBERS OF THE CITY'S AFRICAN CHURCH ACCOUNTING FOR NEARLY A THIRD OF THE MEMBERS OF THE A.
M.
E.
DENOMINATION NATIONWIDE.
THE CHURCH WAS OPENING THIS HORIZON.
PEOPLE WERE EXPERIENCING THIS CONVERSION SO THAT ALL OF A SUDDEN THEY SEE THEMSELVES AS A PART OF THIS LARGER WORLD THIS LARGER GOD, THIS COSMOS, WHERE THEY HAVE RIGHTS.
Narrator: WHEN WHITE AUTHORITIES SHUT DOWN CHARLESTON'S AFRICAN CHURCH CHURCH MEMBERS DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO ORCHESTRATE A PLAN TO FREE THE SLAVES OF CHARLESTON.
THEY WERE LED BY DENMARK VESEY.
VESEY CALLED A MEETING TO ORGANIZE THE STRIKE EXCLUDING, HE SAID SLAVES WHO ACCEPTED PRESENTS OF OLD COATS FROM THEIR MASTERS AND THE PASTOR IN CHARGE OF THE AFRICAN CHURCH.
Man: "I, ONE NIGHT, MET A VESEY'S A GREAT NUMBER OF MEN.
"VESEY SAID THE NEGROES WERE LIVING SUCH AN ABOMINABLE LIFE "THEY OUGHT TO RISE.
"I SAID I WAS LIVING WELL.
"HE SAID THOUGH I WAS, OTHERS WAS NO AND THAT IT WAS SUCH FOOLS AS I THAT WERE IN THEIR WAY.
" FRANK.
Narrator: THE NUMBER OF CONSPIRATORS IN VESEY'S PLO WAS ESTIMATED TO BE IN THE THOUSANDS MAKING IT THE MOS FAR-REACHING INSURRECTION PLANNED IN NORTH AMERICA.
(flames crackling) Raboteau: DENMARK VESEY'S PLO AGAINST CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA WAS ONE OF THE MOS SIGNIFICANT OF THE ATTEMPTS TO STRIKE AGAINST SLAVERY BY AMERICAN SLAVES.
IT WAS PROBABLY THE MOS ELABORATELY PLANNED OF THE CONSPIRACIES THAT WE KNOW ABOU AND IT'S INTERESTING IN SEVERAL REGARDS.
ONE OF THE WAYS IN WHICH IT'S INTERESTING IS THAT IT APPEALS TO BOTH BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY AND TO AFRICAN CON JURE.
Man: "JACK PRITCHARD CALLED ON ME.
"HE'S SOMETIMES CALLED 'GULLAH JACK,' SOMETIMES 'COUTER JACK.
' "HE SAID, 'PUT INTO YOUR MOUTH THIS CRAB CLAW "AND YOU CAN'T BE WOUNDED.
' "HE SAID ALL HIS COUNTRY BORN PROMISED TO JOIN "BECAUSE HE WAS A DOCTOR THAT IS, A CON JURER.
"HE SAID HIS CHARMS WOULD NOT PROTECT HIM FROM THE TREACHERY OF HIS OWN COLOR.
" WITNESS NUMBER TEN, A NEGRO MAN.
Narrator: UNLIKE GABRIEL 20 YEARS BEFORE VESEY PLANNED TO SPARE FEW WHITES BUT LIKE GABRIEL HIS INSURRECTION ENDED BEFORE IT BEGAN.
VESEY WAS INFORMED ON BY ONE OF HIS MEN AND CAPTURED AND SENTENCED TO DIE.
Man: "DENMARK VESEY, I IS DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE "WHAT INFATUATION COULD HAVE PROMPTED YOU TO ATTEMP "AN ENTERPRISE SO WILD AND VISIONARY.
"YOU WERE A FREE MAN, WERE COMPARATIVELY WEALTHY "AND EN JOYED EVERY COMFORT.
"YOU OUGHT TO HAVE KNOWN THAT SUCCESS WAS IMPRACTICABLE.
"A MOMENT'S REFLECTION MUST HAVE CONVINCED YOU "THAT THE RUIN OF YOUR RACE WOULD HAVE BEEN THE PROBABLE RESULT.
" LIONEL H.
KENNEDY, PRESIDING MAGISTRATE.
Narrator: IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE VESEY CONSPIRACY WHITE CITIZENS OF CHARLESTON TORE DOWN THE AFRICAN CHURCH BRICK BY BRICK.
Raboteau: IT WAS IMPORTAN TO RAZE THE CHURCH.
IT SHOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE BLACK INSTITUTIONS FOR A SENSE OF BLACK INDEPENDENCE AND AUTONOMY.
IT'S THE SAME REASON THAT BLACK CHURCHES ARE BOMBED OR FIRE OR BURNT TODAY.
IT REPRESENTS A SENSE OF CRUCIAL AUTONOMY FOR BLACK PEOPLE AND AN AUTONOMY WHICH IN CHARLESTON HAD TURNED DANGEROUS.
IN ONE FRIDAY, LATE IN JULY OF 1822 THE STATE EXECUTED IN ONE MOMEN 22 OF VESEY'S FOLLOWERS.
INSTEAD OF USING THE REGULAR GALLOWS THEY SIMPLY TOSSED ROPES OVER AN OLD WALL KNOWN AS "THE LINES" THAT WAS BUILT IN THE NORTHERN PART OF CHARLESTON.
Narrator: THE 22 WERE ALL SLAVES.
A CRUDE PLATFORM WAS BUIL FOR THEM TO STAND ON.
BUT THE PLATFORM WAS SO LOW TO THE GROUND THAT WHEN THE SLAVES FELL, THEIR NECKS DIDN'T BREAK AND THEY WERE SLOWLY STRANGLING TO DEATH.
(gunshot) TO HASTEN THEM TO THE GRAVE THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD RODE DOWN THE LINE SHOOTING EACH OF THEM IN THE HEAD RELOADING AS HE WEN FROM ONE MAN TO THE NEXT.
(gunshot) (gunshot) Narrator: THE YEAR BEFORE VESEY WAS EXECUTED, MISSOURI WAS THE SECOND TERRITORY CARVED OUT OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE TO BE ADMITTED TO THE UNION.
DESPITE PROTESTS FROM THE NORTH THE COMPROMISE OF 1820 ALLOWED MISSOURI TO COME IN AS A SLAVE STATE.
BUT THE SOUTHERN STATES WERE FORCED TO AGREE TO A NEW LINE DRAWN ACROSS AMERICA ABOVE WHICH SLAVERY COULD NOT EXPAND.
THERE WAS NOW OFFICIALLY A BORDER BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH AND BY 1830 THERE WOULD BE FEWER THAN 3,000 SLAVES LIVING ABOVE IT.
WRITING IN 1820, THOMAS JEFFERSON EXPRESSED THE OPINION THAT THIS LINE WOULD NEVER BE OBLITERATED AND THAT EVERY NEW IRRITATION WOULD MARK IT DEEPER AND DEEPER.
Jefferson: "AS IT IS, WE HAVE THE WOLF BY THE EAR "AND WE CAN NEITHER HOLD HIM, NOR SAFELY LET HIM GO.
JUSTICE IS IN THE ONE SCALE AND SELF-PRESERVATION IN THE OTHER.
" Narrator: IT WOULD BE JEFFERSON'S LAST CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLIC DEBATE.
THOMAS JEFFERSON DIED ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1826.
Egerton: WHEN JEFFERSON DIED ON THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF HIS MOST CELEBRATED DOCUMENT, FOR WHITE AMERICA IT WAS A MOMENT TO PONDER THE MEANING OF THE REVOLUTION AND TO MAKE A NEW COMMITMEN TO REVOLUTIONARY IDEALS.
FOR THE ROUGHLY 200 SLAVES WHO LIVED ON HIS HILLTOP IN MONTICELLO IT WAS A MOMEN OF ENORMOUS TRAGEDY.
JEFFERSON HAD ALWAYS LIVED WELL BEYOND HIS MEANS.
HE DIED IN GREAT DEBT, WHICH MEANT IT WAS QUITE CLEAR THAT HIS HEIRS WERE GOING TO LIQUIDATE.
Narrator: IN HIS 83 YEARS THE AUTHOR OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY HAD FREED THREE SLAVES.
HIS WILL FREED FIVE MORE.
JEFFERSON HAD WRITTEN THAT HE WANTED TO BE REMEMBERED BY FUTURE GENERATIONS FOR ONLY THREE THINGS: THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WHICH HE WROTE; THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, WHICH HE FOUNDED; AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
BUT JEFFERSON OWNED FIVE WORKING FARMS IN 1826 AND OVER 200 SLAVES.
HIS LIFE AND HIS DEATH WOULD COME TO MEAN SOMETHING FAR DIFFEREN TO THOSE WHO HE ONCE SAID LABORED FOR HIS HAPPINESS.
Woman: AN INVENTORY OF THE ESTATE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, DECEASED.
AND THIS IS DATED THE SEVENTH DAY OF AUGUST, 1826.
NEGRO MAN, BARNABY, WHO'S VALUED AT $400.
NEGRO WOMAN, BETTY BROWN, WHO'S WORTH NOTHING.
CRITTA, NEGRO WOMAN WORTH NOTHING.
NEGRO WOMAN, ELLEN $300; NEGRO MAN, PETER HEMMINGS $400; NEGRO, SALLY HEMMINGS $200; NEGRO MAN, WORMLY $200; NEGRO WOMAN, URSULA, AND HER YOUNG CHILD $300; NEGRO WOMAN, ANN, AND HER YOUNG CHILD $350 AND IT GOES ON DOWN.
IT LISTS ALL OF HIS SLAVES.
THIS NEGRO WOMAN, URSULA, AND HER YOUNG CHILD AND A FEW OF HER OTHER YOUNGER CHILDREN WERE SOLD TO THE UNIVERSITY FOR $1,100 ALONG WITH SOME OTHER HOUSEHOLD GOODS.
Narrator: TO SATISFY JEFFERSON'S ENORMOUS DEBTS 130 SLAVES WERE SOLD IN ONE AUCTION MOST AWAY FROM THE ONLY HOME THEY HAD EVER KNOWN.
Man: "WHAT GOOD MAN WOULD PREFER A COUNTRY COVERED WITH FORESTS "AND RANGED BY A FEW THOUSAND SAVAGES "TO OUR EXTENSIVE REPUBLIC "STUDDED WITH CITIES, TOWNS AND PROSPEROUS FARMS "EMBELLISHED WITH ALL THE IMPROVEMENTS "WHICH ART CAN DEVISE OR INDUSTRY EXECUTE "OCCUPIED BY MORE THAN 12 MILLIONS OF HAPPY PEOPLE "AND FILLED WITH ALL THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY, CIVILIZATION AND RELIGION?" ANDREW JACKSON.
Narrator: IN 1828, ANDREW JACKSON WAS ELECTED THE SEVENTH PRESIDEN OF THE UNITED STATES ON A PLATFORM THAT PROCLAIMED HIM CHAMPION OF THE COMMON MAN.
IN MANY STATES WHITE MEN NO LONGER NEEDED TO OWN PROPERTY TO VOTE AND THE COMING OF PHOTOGRAPHY WOULD ALLOW ORDINARY PEOPLE TO CHRONICLE THE NATION'S RAPID EXPANSION.
IN 1830, THE FIRST U.
S.
RAILROAD WOULD OPEN FOR BUSINESS AND BY THE END OF THE NEXT DECADE THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN CITIZENS WOULD SEEK THEIR FORTUNES IN THE WES TAKING SLAVERY ALONG WITH THEM.
Blight: WHAT'S BLOOMING NOW IS THIS, IN MANY WAYS, GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN OPTIMISM.
BUT AT THE SAME TIME THERE'S ALL OF THIS OPTIMISM THIS FAITH IN PROGRESS IN AMERICA THERE IS BEGINNING TO BE A REAL FEAR THAT WHAT'S ALSO SPREADING ACROSS THIS CONTINEN IS A PROBLEM THAT SOMEDAY THE COUNTRY'S GOT TO FACE; THAT SOMEDAY THERE HAS TO BE A SOLUTION TO THIS CONTRADICTION OF SLAVERY IN A LAND OF LIBERTY AND FREEDOM.
Narrator: BY 1827 THE LAST VESTIGES OF SLAVERY IN THE NORTH WERE CRUMBLING.
THAT YEAR, NEW YORK FREED ALL 10,000 MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN HELD IN BONDAGE IN THE STATE.
BUT IN A NATION OF 12 MILLION FEWER THAN THREE PERCEN WERE FREE BLACK PEOPLE.
Man: "THE MORE YOU IMPROVE THE CONDITION OF THESE PEOPLE "THE MORE YOU CULTIVATE THEIR MINDS THE MORE MISERABLE YOU MAKE THEM.
" "YOU GIVE THEM A HIGHER RELISH "FOR THOSE PRIVILEGES WHICH THEY CAN NEVER ATTAIN AND TURN WHAT WE INTEND FOR A BLESSING INTO A CURSE.
" ELIAS B.
CALDWELL.
THE RIGHT TO VOTE, THE RIGHT TO SERVE ON JURIES THE RIGHT TO BE ELECTED, THE RIGHT TO SPEND MONEY FREELY WHATEVER MONEY YOU HAVE WITHOUT SOCIAL RESTRICTIONS THE RIGHT, LATER ON, TO SERVE IN MILITIAS, TO MIGRATE WEST ALL THESE, OF COURSE, ARE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES.
BUT IN THIS PERIOD IN PARTICULAR THEY GET DEFINED AS THE RIGHTS OF WHITES.
THEY GET IDENTIFIED SO THA CITIZENSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES BECOMES EQUIVALENT TO WHITENESS.
Narrator: AS SLAVERY DISAPPEARED FROM THE NORTH A NEW CHORUS OF SCIENTISTS REPRISED THE AMATEUR SUSPICIONS THOMAS JEFFERSON HAD VOICED A GENERATION EARLIER.
DOCTORS MEASURED SKULLS AND IDENTIFIED DISEASES THA ONLY AFFLICTED BLACK PEOPLE.
ONE CONCLUDED THAT "IN BODILY STRUCTURE AND ECONOMY THEY WERE CLOSER TO APES THAN TO EUROPEANS.
" IN PHILADELPHIA, DR.
CHARLES CALDWELL PUBLISHED TWO LONG ESSAYS ON THE INFERIORITY OF AFRICANS.
Lapsansky: THERE'S A SEQUENCE OF ATTACKS ON AFRICAN AMERICANS' SELF-ESTEEM ATTACKS PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTACKS THAT CULMINATE IN THE LATE 1820s IN THE WORKS OF A CARICATURIS NAMED EDWARD CLAY WHICH ARE REPRODUCED AS HUGE BROADSIDES AND THEN AS SMALL, ALMOS BASEBALL-CARD SIZE THAT DO CARICATURES OF THE PROGRESS THA AFRICAN AMERICANS HAVE MADE.
THE EDWARD CLAY CARTOONS ARE INDEED DOCUMENTATION OF A SOR AS WELL AS RIDICULE.
THAT'S PART OF WHAT MAKES THE RIDICULE SO SHARP.
BY 1830, THERE ARE ABOUT 15,000 AFRICAN AMERICANS IN PHILADELPHIA ABOUT A THOUSAND OF WHOM ARE ECONOMICALLY AND SOCIALLY IN A POSITION TO LIVE A KIND OF MIDDLE-CLASS URBAN LIFE.
Winch: THESE PEOPLE ARE REGARDED BY THE WHITE COMMUNITY AS LEGITIMATE TARGETS THE BUTT OF ANY KIND OF ILL FEELING, RATHER OBNOXIOUS HUMOR THAT ANYBODY FEELS THEY WAN TO LEVEL AGAINST THEM.
AND VERY CLEARLY THAT IS SOMETHING THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THERE IN CERTAIN SEGMENTS OF THE WHITE COMMUNITY EARLIER BUT HADN'T SURFACED IN THE WAY IT WOULD DO IN THE 1820s, 1830s.
Narrator: IN THE 1830s A NEW CHARACTER APPEARED ON AMERICAN STAGES FIRST CALLED "JIM CROW" THEN "ZIP COON," "SNOWBALL," "SAMBO.
" A WHITE FACE BLACKED BY A BURNT CORK GAVE BIRTH TO A NEW AMERICAN MYTH THE HAPPY SLAVE THE BLACK MAN IN HIS NATURAL CONDITION.
Man: "ABSURD AS MAY SEEM NEGRO MINSTRELSY "TO THE REFINED MUSICIAN, IT IS NEVERTHELESS BEYOND DOUB "THAT IT EXPRESSES THE PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEGRO "AS TRULY AS THE GREA MASTERS OF ITALY REPRESEN THEIR MORE SPIRITUAL AND PROFOUND NATIONALITY.
" THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE.
AT THE SAME TIME MINSTRELSY EXPLODES AS THIS POPULAR ART FORM ACROSS THE NORTH IT IS THE VERY TIME THA FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES BEGIN TO FORM IN NORTHERN CITIES ON A LARGE SCALE.
AND THESE FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES, OF COURSE ARE CONCERNED PROBABLY AS MUCH WITH ANYTHING ARE CONCERNED WITH CREATING THEIR OWN SENSE OF DIGNITY THEIR OWN SENSE OF PLACE, THEIR OWN SENSE OF BELONGING.
Narrator: ON SEPTEMBER 15, 1830, RICHARD ALLEN NOW AN OLD MAN GATHERED 40 DELEGATES FROM BLACK COMMUNITIES IN NEW YORK CITY, WILMINGTON, BALTIMORE AND BOSTON FOR THE FIRST NATIONAL NEGRO CONVENTION.
THE ASSEMBLY COMPOSED AN ADDRESS TO THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR WHICH BEGAN WITH A REFERENCE TO THE FAMOUS PHRASE OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE "ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.
" Lapsansky: I THINK THA THE REAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY AS OPPOSED TO AFRICANS KIND OF SCOOPING THEMSELVES TOGETHER AND TRYING TO MAKE A COMMUNITY THAT THE REAL CONSCIOUSNESS COMES WITH THAT CONVENTION IN 1830.
THEY'RE NEVER AGAIN WITHOUT SOME ORGANIZATION THAT MEETS NATIONALLY AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR AND GETS TOGETHER AND TALKS ABOUT "WELL, WHERE ARE WE NOW? AND WHAT'LL WE DO NEXT?" Narrator: OUT OF THE NATIONAL NEGRO CONVENTION MOVEMEN WOULD COME BOYCOTTS OF SLAVE-PRODUCED GOODS STRATEGIES FOR ENDING SEGREGATED PASSAGE ON STEAMBOATS AND STAGECOACHES AND A CALL FOR SLAVE REBELLION IN THE SOUTH.
Man: "GO LOOK INTO THE BACK STREETS AND CROWDED CELLARS "OF LONDON AND NEW YORK "THE METROPOLITAN CITIES OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLD "AND YOU WILL SEE A CONDITION "OF SQUALIDNESS, HUNGER AND SICKNESS "FOR WHICH YOU WILL LOOK IN VAIN AMONG THE SLAVES OF THE SOUTH.
"THE NEGRO RACE IS NOWHERE UPON THE BROAD FACE OF THE EARTH "MORE ELEVATED IN MORAL CHARACTER THAN AMONG THE SLAVES OF THE SOUTH.
" THE REVEREND IVESON L.
BROOKES.
IN PART BECAUSE OF THE GROWTH OF THE COTTON ECONOMY THE WHITE SOUTH, ESPECIALLY THE LOWER SOUTH SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA BEGAN TO ARTICULATE A FAIRLY NEW IDEA WHICH WAS THAT SLAVERY WAS NOT A BAD THING IN ANY WAY BUT THAT IT WAS A POSITIVE GOOD FOR ALL CONCERNED; THAT IT ALLOWED FOR WHITE AMERICAN CIVILIZATION TO ADVANCE BY TAKING WHITES OUT OF MENIAL LABOR; IT ALLOWED FOR AFRICANS TO BE CIVILIZED BY BRINGING THEM INTO CONTAC WITH ALLEGEDLY SUPERIOR WHITE CULTURE AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.
Narrator: IN HIS NARRATIVE, PUBLISHED IN 1836 CHARLES BALL WROTE THA "THE SLAVES WERE READY ENOUGH "TO RECEIVE THE FAITH, WHICH CONDUCTS THEM TO HEAVEN ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR SUFFERINGS.
" BUT THEY WERE NOT SO WILLING "TO SIT DOWN IN PARADISE WITH THE WHITES WHO HAD OPPRESSED THEM ON EARTH.
" Ball: "THE NEGRO'S HEAVEN WILL BE NO HEAVEN TO HIM "IF HE IS NOT TO BE AVENGED OF HIS ENEMIES.
"I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE "THAT THESE ARE THE FUNDAMENTAL RULES OF HIS RELIGIOUS CREED "BECAUSE I LEARNED THEM IN THE RELIGIOUS MEETINGS OF THE SLAVES THEMSELVES.
" CHARLES BALL.
Washington: THERE IS A SENSE OF A PROVIDENTIAL JOURNEY IN THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE COTTON GIN AS A METHOD OF OF EXPANDING SLAVERY AND CREATING HAVOC IN BLACK LIFE THROUGH THE SEPARATION OF FAMILIES THROUGH THIS INCESSANT LABOR WHICH SEEMS TO BE ABLE TO GO ON IN PERPETUITY.
FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS IT REPRESENTS A PERIOD WHEN THEIR IDEA OF PROVIDENCE IS THAT THIS IS NOT PLEASING IN THE SIGHT OF GOD.
Narrator: THOUGH BLACK SLAVES MADE UP ONLY A SMALL FRACTION OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANS IN THE EARLY 19th CENTURY, MANY WHO CONVERTED SEIZED EAGERLY ON THE IDEA OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION.
ONE WAS A SLAVE PREACHER NAMED NAT TURNER.
TURNER'S ACTIONS IN THE SUMMER OF 1831 WOULD FORCE AMERICA TO FACE ITS DEEPEST FEARS AND HELP A MOUNTING ABOLITIONIST MOVEMEN GAIN THE ATTENTION OF THE NATION.
Man: "WHILE LABORING IN THE FIELD "I DISCOVERED DROPS OF BLOOD ON THE CORN "AS THOUGH IT WERE DEW FROM HEAVEN.
"AND AS THE BLOOD OF CHRIS HAD BEEN SHED ON THIS EARTH "AND HAD ASCENDED TO HEAVEN FOR THE SALVATION OF SINNERS "IT WAS PLAIN TO ME "THAT THE SAVIOR WAS ABOU TO LAY DOWN THE YOKE "HE HAD BORNE FOR THE SINS OF MEN AND THE GREAT DAY OF JUDGMEN WAS AT HAND.
" NAT TURNER.
GOD, IN THE OLD TESTAMEN OFTEN WORKED THROUGH ACTS OF VIOLENCE AND OFTEN PROTECTED THE ISRAELITES THROUGH ACTS OF VIOLENCE.
AND IT WAS IN THAT TRADITION THAT NAT TURNER SITUATED HIMSELF.
HE WAS AN AVENGING MESSIAH WHO HAD COME TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THE SINFULNESS OF THE SLAVEHOLDING SOUTH.
Narrator: NAT TURNER WAS BORN IN THE YEAR 1800 THE WEEK BEFORE GABRIEL WAS HANGED.
IN 1825, TURNER VOLUNTARILY RETURNED TO BONDAGE AFTER SUCCESSFULLY MAKING HIS ESCAPE.
THE SPIRIT HAD APPEARED TO HIM, HE SAID AND TOLD HIM TO RETURN TO HIS EARTHLY MASTER.
BUT IN 1828, THE SPIRI APPEARED TO HIM AGAIN.
Turner: "I HEARD A LOUD NOISE IN THE HEAVENS "AND THE SPIRI INSTANTLY APPEARED TO ME "AND SAID THE SERPEN WAS LOOSENED "AND CHRIS HAD LAID DOWN THE YOKE "HE HAD BORNE FOR THE SINS OF MEN "AND THAT I SHOULD TAKE IT ON AND FIGHT AGAINST THE SERPEN "FOR THE TIME WAS FAST APPROACHING "WHEN THE FIRST SHOULD BE LAS AND THE LAST SHOULD BE FIRST.
"AND IMMEDIATELY THE SEAL WAS REMOVED FROM MY LIPS AND I COMMUNICATED THE GREA WORK LAID OUT FOR ME TO DO.
" NAT TURNER.
Narrator: NAT TURNER CONFIDED HIS INTENTION, HE LATER EXPLAINED TO FOUR MEN IN WHOM HE HAD THE GREATEST CONFIDENCE.
IT WAS AGREED THAT THEY WOULD PREPARE A DINNER, ARM THEMSELVES AND THEN BEGIN GOD'S WORK.
THE ISSUE HERE IS "GOD MADE US TO BE FREE.
"GOD IS EMPOWERING US TO CLAIM THIS FREEDOM WHICH GOD HAS PROMISED TO US.
" AND SO WHAT WE SEE IS THAT, UH WITH NAT TURNER THE KEY CONCEPT IS DELIVERANCE.
Narrator: THE WORK OF DEATH BEGAN ON AUGUST 21, 1831 AND LASTED FOR 36 HOURS AS MORE THAN 40 SLAVES JOINED TURNER AND HIS MEN IN OPEN REBELLION.
IN THE END, AT LEAS 55 WHITE PEOPLE WERE DEAD.
AN ABOLITIONIST NEWSPAPER IN BOSTON, THE LIBERATOR REPORTED THAT "WHOLE FAMILIES HAD BEEN CUT OFF NOT A MOTHER, NOT A DAUGHTER, NOT A BABE LEFT.
" PUTNAM MOORE, THE YOUNG BOY WHO LEGALLY OWNED NAT TURNER WAS MURDERED IN THE BED WHERE HE LAY SLEEPING OUTSIDE JERUSALEM, VIRGINIA.
IT'S HORRIFYING.
THERE WERE THERE WERE YOUNG CHILDREN WHO WERE KILLED.
BUT YOU CAN YOU CAN FEEL THE RAGE AND YOU CAN FEEL THE ANGER AND YOU CAN WONDER WHETHER SLAVERY EVER WOULD HAVE ENDED WITHOUT THAT SORT OF RAGE.
Narrator: NAT TURNER WAS HANGED, AND THEN SKINNED, IN 1831.
AND FOR THE FIRST TIME, POLITICIANS IN VIRGINIA SERIOUSLY CONSIDERED A PLAN FOR ABOLISHING SLAVERY BUT COULDN'T BRING THEMSELVES TO DO IT.
SLAVERY WAS THE SOUL OF AMERICAN PROGRESS.
WITHOUT IT, MANY ARGUED, THERE WOULD BE NO FUTURE.
BUT TO THE GROWING ABOLITIONIST MOVEMEN TURNER'S REBELLION WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
Man: "WHAT WE HAVE SO LONG PREDICTED HAS COMMENCED.
"THE FIRST DROPS OF BLOOD, WHICH ARE BUT A PRELUDE, HAVE FALLEN.
"THE FIRST FLASH OF LIGHTNING HAS BEEN FELT.
"THE FIRST WAILINGS OF A BEREAVEMEN WHICH IS TO CLOAK THE EARTH HAVE BROKEN UPON OUR EARS.
" THE LIBERATOR, SEPTEMBER 3, 1831.
[Captioned by The Caption Center WGBH Educational Foundation.]
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 THE NATION GROWS RICH OFF THE BLOOD AND SWEA OF ENSLA VED AFRICAN AMERICANS.
THE COUNTRY IS ON THE BRINK OF CHANGE AS ABOLITIONISTS IN THE SEGREGATED NORTH IGNITE UPRISINGS FOR FREEDOM.
WHAT WAS ALSO AT STAKE WAS THE WHOLE FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES.
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.
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.
THEY HAD DIFFEREN 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.
McDONALD'S IS PROUD TO SUPPOR THIS PRESENTATION OF AFRICANS IN AMERICA.
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