Slavery in the American Colonies: Crash Course Black American History #2 - Free Educational videos for Students in K-12

Slavery in the American Colonies: Crash Course Black American History #2 - By CrashCourse

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00:0-1	Hi , I'm Clint smith and this is crash course
00:02	black american history Today . We're talking about slavery in
00:05	the american colonies . In your high school U .
00:07	S . History class . There's a decent chance you
00:10	learned about mercantilism , a system in which home countries
00:14	or some other country in Western europe , established extensions
00:17	of themselves in far off places around the world to
00:21	produce highly sought after raw materials . One of the
00:23	basic concepts is that exports must always be greater than
00:27	imports to make a profit simple enough . And as
00:31	is the case with most businesses , one must consider
00:34	how to maximize their profit . And one of the
00:36	ways to do that is to minimize production costs .
00:39	This basic econ one on one . Right what it's
00:43	worth ? I never did too well in economics ,
00:45	but even I think I understand this , but how
00:47	do you reduce production costs when those costs rely almost
00:50	entirely on manual labor ? Well for the british colonists
00:55	, the answer was just to have workers you didn't
00:57	pay , which is to say , slavery in high
01:01	school . Many of our history textbooks provided broad though
01:05	not always deep overview of the role that slavery played
01:08	in the early american economy . And they don't always
01:11	make clear how slavery became illegally accepted practice in the
01:14	first place and how it contributed to the colonies .
01:17	Early economic success . Yeah . In the future United
01:29	States and what is now the state of south Carolina
01:31	. A Spanish magistrate founded the colony of San Miguel
01:34	de Guadalupe in 1526 with an unknown number of enslaved
01:38	Africans . But the colony was a failure though .
01:41	Some historians suggest that the Africans fled to the Wall
01:44	, Indians to set up their own colony . Nearly
01:46	a century later , 20 to 30 captured Africans or
01:50	20 and our negroes as they were referred to ,
01:53	arrived at point comfort Virginia in 1619 . It is
01:57	the arrival of this group that has come to represent
01:59	the origins of chattel slavery in the United States because
02:03	they were the first to arrive to an english colony
02:05	, a colony that would a century and a half
02:07	later become the United States . These captives would become
02:11	instrumental to the success of the Jamestown colony which succeeded
02:16	where previous colonies had failed . We might imagine the
02:18	first group of african captives to be foreign to the
02:21	new world , but they had already had significant contact
02:24	with Europeans , particularly those from Spain and Portugal .
02:27	They were part of a group . Historian Ara Berlin
02:29	describes as atlantic creoles . They were versed in many
02:33	languages , had some familiarity with Christianity and sometimes even
02:37	worked alongside white indentured servants . Europeans did attempt to
02:40	utilize other sources of labor before turning to enslaved Africans
02:44	, but the indentured servitude of european immigrants Post issues
02:48	that prevented columnists from extracting long term systemic labor from
02:52	them . one european indentured servants could only legally be
02:56	indentured for a contracted period of time , Usually somewhere
03:00	between four and 7 years when their contracts expired .
03:03	New indentured laborers had to be found and trained ,
03:07	which resulted in inconsistent levels of production . Secondly ,
03:11	well , european indentured servants were white and Europeans regardless
03:17	of their origin , still viewed other Europeans as fully
03:21	human . Some Europeans were reticent to discipline other Europeans
03:24	with the same harsh punishment that Africans received . Historical
03:28	evidence suggests that when mixed groups of Africans and european
03:31	servants ran away , the Africans within the group would
03:35	receive the harshest punishment . Settlers also attempted to enslave
03:38	indigenous people , but this didn't really satisfy their labor
03:41	needs . And while Europeans did not immediately give up
03:45	on indigenous labor , ongoing conflicts with native americans made
03:49	imported Africans a much more desirable source of labor ,
03:52	slavery however , had not yet been defined and codified
03:56	by law , but that wouldn't last . The colonists
03:59	would soon discover that in order to effectively govern this
04:02	emerging society , uniform policies would have to be established
04:06	in order to clearly demarcate the social and political hierarchy
04:10	before any legislation had passed to solidify the parameters of
04:13	slavery as an institution . There were some allowances that
04:17	enslaved men and women experience That would be unfathomable .
04:20	Just 20 years down the line , Anthony Johnson ,
04:23	a man who lived in captivity and who eventually worked
04:26	his way out of bondage , illustrates some of the
04:28	possibilities for black people in Jamestown Virginia before blanketed restrictions
04:32	were placed on them . While johnson's story is not
04:35	representative for all three black people in the region ,
04:38	it is helpful in understanding the process by which slavery
04:41	evolved into something more concrete . Let's go to the
04:44	thought bubble only a year after his arrival in 1621
04:48	, Antonio who later anglicized his name , experienced one
04:51	of the many bloody conflicts between indigenous communities and columnists
04:55	. That year , the power tin launched an attack
04:58	on the Bennett family plantation . Antonio was owned by
05:00	the Bennetts and was one of the few survivors of
05:02	the attack . He was later commended for his hard
05:06	labor and known service . The Bennetts then granted Antonio
05:09	who would change his name to Anthony johnson permission to
05:12	farm independently on his own land even though he was
05:16	still enslaved , he was also allowed to get married
05:19	, which he did to a woman named mary and
05:22	to baptize their Children . Eventually johnson and his family
05:25	became free though it's unclear exactly how which reflects the
05:30	scarcity of documentation that plague scholars of early african american
05:34	history records show that johnson's landholdings and property were recognized
05:38	as legitimate by the local government and after he lost
05:41	much of his home in a fire , the county
05:43	court forgave his taxes . He even defended his ownership
05:47	of an enslaved african in court , stating that the
05:50	african , Jon Cassar was not an indentured servant .
05:54	Castle alleged that Johnson had violated an indenture contract between
05:58	the two , but johnson claim did he actually purchase
06:01	castor as an enslaved worker ? Thanks thought bubble .
06:05	Sometimes johnson's story can be used in bad faith to
06:09	say , hey look , there were black slave holders
06:12	too , and people do this in an attempt to
06:15	portray slavery is something that both races participated in and
06:19	were equally culpable in . But those claims ignore the
06:23	nuances of how the very notion of slavery changed and
06:26	evolved over time . This point is significant because in
06:29	the coming years , even the right to speak in
06:31	court would be stripped from enslaved persons . Johnson himself
06:35	exemplified the shift between race and enslavement as a social
06:38	status , according to scholar , Henry louis Gates .
06:40	Following johnson's death , a court ruled that he was
06:43	quote a negro and by consequence in alien . Subsequently
06:48	his family's land was seized and his descendants faded from
06:52	the historical record between 1640 and 1660 . The rules
06:56	around who could or could not be enslaved became more
06:59	formalized in the legal system . The John Punch case
07:02	, one of the most significant during this period ,
07:04	illustrates how courts would begin to differentiate between the two
07:08	. In 1640 three indentured servants , two white and
07:12	one black , all fed up with brutal abuse ,
07:15	escape from Hugo wins plantation , but once they reach
07:19	Maryland , they were caught and they were made to
07:21	stand trial in court . The Dutchman in the scott
07:24	received 30 lashes an additional year indenture to Gwinn And
07:28	three additional years of manual labor in service to the
07:31	colony . But john Punch , the only african ,
07:35	he was sentenced to serve for the rest of his
07:37	life as a laborer . Following the john Punch case
07:41	, planters in Virginia enacted measures that would expressly establish
07:45	the connection between race and social status . These ideas
07:50	would help shape future generations of slavery in the United
07:52	States . The new laws Only further cemented the subordinate
07:57	status of black people . In 1662 , the Virginia
08:01	General Assembly adopted the rule of parties secret of interim
08:05	. The rules stated that the mother's race would determine
08:09	the child , slave or free status . This policy
08:13	would ensure that there would be no question of the
08:15	status of black women's Children , even if the father
08:19	happened to be white . Unfortunately , quite intentionally ,
08:23	this set a precedent for how black women's bodies would
08:26	be used for years to come . What's more these
08:30	legal codification , we're often justified using religious arguments .
08:35	Many christians often equated darkness or blackness with sin .
08:40	Several biblical passages served as the backbone for the negative
08:44	and superior attitudes that Europeans had towards Africans . They
08:48	were described as as savages incapable of governing themselves and
08:52	as such , they needed white rule in order for
08:55	christ to accept them . The essence of this argument
08:59	was that God intended for white men to rule over
09:03	black men . Religious doctrine would continue to be used
09:06	by many over the course of centuries in order to
09:10	justify the forced labor , subjugation and violence . Black
09:14	people experienced at the hands of their enslave . Others
09:16	understanding the conditions and development of slave societies in America
09:20	is crucial to recognizing the racial and economic disparities that
09:24	have long persisted through us . History grounding ourselves in
09:27	the origins of how captured Africans arrived in what would
09:30	eventually become the United States provides us with an important
09:34	opportunity to explore how the relationship between race , servitude
09:38	and bondage evolved . Over time , the institution of
09:41	slavery developed and changed over the course of decades ,
09:45	becoming increasingly qualified in law and more central to the
09:49	economic infrastructure of certain regions in the young colony ,
09:53	reviewing the court cases of early Africans in the Americas
09:55	provides an outlook on the specific rights and liberties denied
09:58	to Africans compared to the landowning white men who had
10:02	a voice in the early colonial society . As we
10:04	dive deeper into black american history , we will see
10:07	just how vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation someone can be
10:11	when the law does not see them as a full
10:13	person , the implications of who is and is not
10:16	seen by the law as fully human . We'll have
10:19	wide reaching implications as we move forward through american history
10:23	. There's a long way to go and a lot
10:25	more to try to make sense of . Thanks for
10:27	watching . I'll see you next time . Crash course
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