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US History Lecture 08 — Transcript

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0:00Hello and welcome to today's lecture.
0:03Now we have talked about the for trade
0:06in the past
0:08but I like to go a little deeper now
0:10into it. Now in terms of the forrade
0:13beside one aspect that I've already
0:15highlighted which is the fortrade was
0:17characterized by lots of cultural
0:19synratism and what I mean by that is
0:21essentially a mixing of cultures of the
0:24culture of different native tribes of
0:26the French of those British who will
0:28participate into it. There's a lot of
0:31cultural exchange taking place, creating
0:33a middle ground between all these
0:36different groups. And unlike the classic
0:39tales of conquest, this is a ground
0:41where people come together as allies,
0:44then as enemies, then as allies, that
0:46there's a lot more room for negotiations
0:48and no partner in this equation has a
0:50lot more power than the others. So, it's
0:53kind of different from what we see in a
0:55lot of the other stories of European
0:58native contact.
1:00Now, the main things that natives wanted
1:03from the for trade were usually goods
1:06made of metal. Guns, knives, axes, pots,
1:11um even something as simple as a needle,
1:14a sewing needle. You know, you can sew
1:16clothes with a needle made out of the
1:18bones of an animal. But a steel needle
1:20is much more lasting and more precise.
1:23or you can cut down a tree with a stone
1:25axe, but a steel axe will be sharper and
1:29will get the job done faster. So, a lot
1:32of these tools produced by European
1:35technology were highly desirable um on
1:38the part of the natives and the natives
1:39in exchange traded the force of some
1:42animals.
1:44Now one of the one item that will be
1:47introduced into this one thing that
1:50Europeans did not like about the native
1:52approach the for trade is that native
1:55societies were based on a subsistance
1:57economy which means that
2:00you just need as much as you need to
2:02live on there's not a whole lot of room
2:05for accumulation of wealth you know once
2:07I have my gun my ammo my axe my needle
2:11my cooking pots my whatever other items
2:14may have desired.
2:16You don't need to keep trading all the
2:17time. You at some point you can slow
2:20down because you have all the items that
2:22you want. That's more a subsistence
2:24approach. The Europe European approach
2:27being based on a protocol in which
2:30wealth is measured in money. There's
2:33never a point when it's enough. You
2:35know, you can always make more money and
2:36more profit is better than less. So,
2:39they wanted to keep the trade going all
2:41the time. And one item that could help
2:44do the trick was alcohol because like
2:47any good drug alcohol once you develop a
2:49taste for it you can constantly be
2:51craving more. So alcohol was sometime
2:54push as part of the for trade much in
2:56the way a street pusher would where the
2:58first time it's for free. It's like hey
3:00you know thanks for the trade. Here is a
3:02few bottles of whiskey. Check it out.
3:04Hope you like it. And when the next time
3:07the natives you traded with come back
3:09and say, "By the way, that stuff you
3:11gave us wasn't bad. Do you have any
3:13more?" Now you can start charging them.
3:16Not much, cuz you don't want to scare
3:18them, just a little until they develop
3:21more of a taste for it. Then you can
3:22charge more until alcohol itself can
3:25become a big part of the for trade. And
3:28this is done in a way to break down
3:32the hesitancy on the part of some of the
3:34tribes to keep trading all the time
3:37because the problem with trading all the
3:39time is that it will have some long-term
3:42very negative
3:44impacts on the environment.
3:47The first and most obvious is uh just
3:50the numbers of animals over hunting. You
3:53know, when you go in and hunt for food,
3:57once your stomach is filled, there's
3:59only so much more you want to hunt. Then
4:01you leave the animals alone and you give
4:03them a chance for their numbers to
4:05bounce back. So in the next season, you
4:08still have all the animals you want to
4:11be able to hunt. You know, you often
4:13hear almost in stereotypical fashion the
4:15notion of American Indians being great
4:18stewards of the land and only take what
4:20they need. Well, even though that's not
4:22always true, it's mostly true in the
4:25sense that in order to stay alive as a
4:28hunter, you need to make sure that you
4:31allow for the animals numbers to bounce
4:33back from one year to the next.
4:35Otherwise, you run out.
4:38Traditionally, that's what most native
4:39societies did. However, once you become
4:42part of a system that requires you to
4:45constantly go out hunting, whether
4:47you're hungry or not, that's not the
4:49point. you need to keep the profits
4:51going. Then you start hunting past the
4:54points where animals can replenish their
4:57numbers.
4:58You begin over hunting. You begin
5:01killing off way too many. And so that
5:06when that happens and your hunting
5:09ground are getting depleted, now you
5:11have nothing left to trade. You know,
5:14you are dependent on the for trade by
5:16now after a few generations. And yet the
5:18fourth trade is bypassing you because
5:20you no longer have the animals that keep
5:22the for trade alive.
5:25And so this creates the second major
5:28problem of the for trade which is a
5:30dramatic increase in intribal warfare.
5:34You know what you have here is if a
5:36tribe is getting bypassed because their
5:38hunting grounds are depleted.
5:41very likely this is a tribe that has
5:43traded with Europeans for a few
5:44generations
5:46which means they have better access to
5:48guns than other tribes. So maybe further
5:51west there are other tribes whose
5:54hunting grounds are still well stocked
5:57and they don't have that many guns
5:59whereas you have guns and not many
6:01animals. It's a match made in heaven
6:03because you can now think that maybe you
6:05didn't like those guys that much to
6:07begin with. you can invade their lands,
6:10kill them, and take over their hunting
6:12grounds. So, intertribal warfare will
6:15become a lot more vicious as a result of
6:18the for trade. What become known as the
6:21beaver wars since beavers were some of
6:23the main animals hunted in the for trade
6:26become an actually real big deal with
6:28some of these, you know, tribes like
6:30theoy going against tribes like the
6:32eurons and other algians. And you know
6:35it gets really complicated so I won't
6:36bother you with all the names. Basically
6:38lots of conflicts in North America will
6:41take place as a result of these
6:44rivalries over the for trade.
6:47Other impacts of the for trade. Well of
6:50course diseases will be passed along the
6:52same way as um force are passed along.
6:56So it will have an impact on native
6:58population.
7:00Also, he will tend to favor the
7:02leadership of younger men and because
7:06the younger men were the ones who are
7:07most active in war and trade which are
7:10going to become the most important
7:12activities during the for trade for
7:13native people. So the older peace chiefs
7:17will lose control to younger leaders and
7:20in many cases the status of women which
7:24usually northeastern native society was
7:27pretty high. Women had a lots of rights
7:29and privileges
7:31tend to diminish a bit as a result of
7:34men, the ones being involved as hunters
7:37and warriors, gaining more ground
7:40because of the activities that the fort
7:42trade favors.
7:44So these are some of the long-term
7:46consequence of the for trade. Now,
7:48nobody put a gun at anybody's head
7:51saying you have to participate in the
7:53for trade, but it does become uh it does
7:57become something that's difficult to
7:59resist and that the long-term impact may
8:02not be something that anybody has
8:04foreseen, but is not particularly
8:07positive.
8:08Occasionally there are even some wars uh
8:11well away from the Great Lakes. Like for
8:13example, there's a war known as the
8:15Yamasi war pitting this one tribe, the
8:18Yamasi
8:20against the English in the Carolas.
8:24And what happened there is that the
8:25English had um
8:29they had started take they were using
8:31some kind of very heavy-handed tactics
8:34in dealing with the Yamas. They would
8:36give them goods on credit and then they
8:39would manipulate the interest rates to
8:41make sure that the Yamas could never pay
8:43back their original loan. And then they
8:46would demand the land in payment or
8:49people being enslaved as payment
8:52and the MSA didn't particularly like it.
8:54So they rebelled against the English
8:56traders, killed some of them and tried
8:59to get rid of English traders out of the
9:02Carolas.
9:04But in this war they failed in being
9:06able to create a common native alliance
9:10since some large tribes like the
9:12Cherokee were approached by English
9:15traders and whereas the Yamasi
9:17approached the Cherokee saying hey you
9:19guys are natives we're natives we have
9:21this in common let's fight British
9:24British traders would approach the
9:26Cherokeis saying we have no problem with
9:28you we never had any issues with you is
9:30the Yamas who don't pay their debts and
9:33you know to show how friendly we are,
9:35we're going to give you all these gifts
9:37if you fight on our side. And what end
9:40up happening is that a bunch of Cherokee
9:42villages choose to fight on the British
9:44side. Most of them stay neutral and the
9:47small minority join the Yamas.
9:50So the failure to get the Cherokee to
9:52join will basically spell doom for the
9:54Yamas will be defeated by the English.
9:58So again, this is not typical. Most of
10:00the conflicts in the for trade are more
10:03natives versus natives, but is
10:06definitely something that could and
10:08occasionally did happen.
10:10Now, as part of the for trade, let's
10:15look at the role of religion. You know,
10:16whereas
10:18the Spaniards could
10:21push natives to be forcibly converted
10:26because they conquered them. So they
10:27could kind of do whatever they wanted
10:29with them. The British were really safe
10:32for a few exception, not that interest
10:34in converting natives. They were more
10:36thinking the sooner you guys die the
10:38happier we are. So we can take over
10:40land. Converting you is not really a
10:43priority.
10:45The French wanted to convert them much
10:47like the Spaniards. But unlike the
10:49Spaniards, they did not rule over them.
10:52So they had to do so by persuasion. They
10:54had to send missionaries. usually Jesuit
10:57missionaries to try to convince the
11:01tribes to join
11:03and also just to show you how each, you
11:07know, even speaking of Christianity is
11:09an overgeneralization because the
11:11Puritan interpretation of Christianity
11:13was very aggressive. So natives as a
11:16bunch of devil worshippers and push the
11:18Puritans into wiping them out.
11:21But other variations of Christianity,
11:23for example, the Quakers.
11:25So their belief was that you would
11:28always have to be peaceful, never start
11:30wars. So as a result of that, they were
11:33much more fair to native tribes. They
11:37struck better deals. They, you know,
11:40they're both the Puritans and the
11:41Quakers are Christian, but one version
11:44of Christianity is pushing British
11:46people to murder natives and another
11:48version of Christianity is pushing them
11:50to be friends with natives. So there's
11:53not a one-onone equation between
11:55Christianity equals this behavior. It
11:58very much depended on which
11:59interpretation was prevalent.
12:03So in any case um one thing that I
12:06should mention when it comes to the
12:08influence of Christianity and
12:10missionaries is that in many cases
12:13native women and again I'm generalizing
12:16because there are exceptions to this but
12:18there are plenty of cases of native
12:19women resisting the efforts of
12:21missionaries
12:23and a lot of these has to do with the
12:26fact that the kind of message that
12:29missionaries were pushing
12:33included a world view where men had a
12:36lot more power than women.
12:40In the Judeo-Christian tradition, women
12:42I mean starting from the story of the
12:44first to woman Eve who's the one who
12:47mess it all up and disobey God and
12:49convince Adam to eat from the forbidden
12:52tree. And as a result of this, God kick
12:55out humanity out of the Garden of Eden.
12:57And there's the whole tale that women
12:59from now on will be punished by being
13:02subject to painful child birth which I'm
13:05not exactly sure how before these babies
13:08were supposed to pop out but in anyway.
13:10And the other thing is that women will
13:12be subservient to men. Men will rule
13:14over women. So the very notion of
13:17patriarchy, the very notion of a
13:19male-dominated society was kind of
13:21enshrined as an article of faith in the
13:24pages of Genesis.
13:27Now for women who have grown up with
13:29that worldview, no biggie, no surprise.
13:32They are kind of used to it. But for
13:34women, like many native women were used
13:37to having a very high degree of personal
13:39freedom of rights, of all of this, and
13:43suddenly European priests show up
13:46telling them that they should sign up
13:48for a system that basically turn them
13:50into secondass citizens.
13:52Doesn't take a genius to figure out that
13:54most women would not be jumping up and
13:57down saying, "Yes, please let me sign up
13:59for this." Really made no sense to them.
14:02You know, the
14:04the gender roles the Europeans brought
14:07with them were much more extreme
14:11and less
14:14offering less freedoms to women than the
14:17gender roles that most tribes embraced.
14:20So as a result of that many native women
14:23were not exactly thrilled about this.
14:28Now let's switch gear completely. Let's
14:30look at an entirely different topic
14:32that's of course going to be a very big
14:34topic but one that we haven't touched on
14:37yet and that's the issue of African
14:41slavery.
14:42Now, there are some people, for example,
14:44there was um presidential candidate in
14:47the 1990s, Bob Dole, who actually argued
14:49that we shouldn't really be discussing
14:51slavery in school because it makes you
14:54feel less patriotic, which I mean, in an
14:58odd weird kind of way, I guess that
15:00makes sense if the goal, but the goal of
15:01history is not to make you patriotic.
15:03The goal of history is to learn what
15:05really happened without too much of an
15:07agenda.
15:08And of course, the story of slavery in
15:10the US is a big one.
15:13the way
15:16let's start in a more general sense. You
15:18know, slavery is something that has
15:19existed in many many many many human
15:22societies throughout history and each
15:25society has found ways to justify it.
15:29Um, exploiting somebody else's labor has
15:32always been a big deal in many human
15:35societies.
15:37And in addition to exploiting labor and
15:39other really
15:41disturbing but true function of slavery,
15:44there was a lot of sexual slavery. You
15:47know, people being enslaved in order to
15:49provide free sex to uh slave owners.
15:54So in any way, the
15:58Europeans in North America tried many
16:02different approaches to slavery.
16:03Enslaving African people was not the
16:06only approach.
16:08They would try enslaving natives. The
16:10Spaniards definitely did it and some the
16:13British did to some degree. Not as
16:15common.
16:16One of the problem with enslaving
16:18natives though is that they would uh run
16:21away. They knew the land better than you
16:23did and they could disappear and um
16:28and you never catch them again because
16:30this is their land and they know it
16:31better than you do. So that was a
16:33problem.
16:35Indenture servants, essentially other
16:38Europeans,
16:40not exactly slaves, but kind of. The
16:43problem with indentured servants was
16:45that on one level, they
16:50they look like everyone else in your
16:52society. So if they could escape and go
16:55to some other town, they could blend in
16:57more easily. And also some people didn't
17:00like twins slave people of the same skin
17:03color and uh were also Christian
17:07made them a little uncomfortable.
17:10So African slavery solved for Europeans
17:14both of those problems because unlike
17:17native people,
17:19Africans would not know the land well
17:23and would not have villages and
17:25community to join once they escaped.
17:28Also unlike native people, they did not
17:31they shared many of the same diseases
17:33with Europeans. So they were not quite
17:35as susceptible to them, which means they
17:37lasted longer. In other words, a better
17:39investment in terms of slavery.
17:42And unlike indentured servants, they
17:45were at least early on they were not
17:47Christian and because of their skin
17:49color, they stood out as different. So
17:52they couldn't blend in in some other
17:53town like indenture servants.
17:56So all of these made the choice of
18:01enslaving Africans an attractive one for
18:03Europeans.
18:06The the places where they will draw from
18:09will be the west coast of Africa. So the
18:11straighter path to the Americas.
18:15You start seeing a little bit of the
18:17Portuguese trading for slaves on the
18:19coast of Africa in the 1400s. But this
18:21the African slave trade will boom
18:25following the discovery of the Americas
18:29and the prime destination. And this some
18:31by the way we'll get to crazy numbers.
18:33You know it's estimated that several
18:36millions of people. One estimate I read
18:38suggests that about 11 million Africans
18:41were transported to the Americas.
18:44The bulk of them will go actually not to
18:48what will be the United States. They
18:49will not go to North America. The bulk
18:52of them will go to the Caribbean and to
18:55South America.
18:57That's where the vast majority ended up.
19:00But some solid numbers also ended up
19:04going to North America.
19:07The bunch of different Europeans got
19:10into this trade. the Portuguese, the
19:12Dutch, English, French, Swedes, German,
19:16some from
19:18British colonist in New England and so
19:20on.
19:22And the way it was set up is that they
19:23would go visit the west coast of Africa,
19:26usually make a deal with some coastal
19:28tribes so that they could enslave their
19:31tribal enemies and then bring them to
19:33the coast and sell them to European
19:35slave traders.
19:38If you wanted to join the slave trade in
19:41this fashion, great. You would receive
19:43access to guns and to other European
19:46tools in exchange for slaves. If you
19:49didn't want to join, well, that was kind
19:50of a problem and there's a bit of an arm
19:52race here because let's say you're an
19:54African tribe on the coast of West
19:55Africa and they are approached by
19:58Europeans offering you to be part of the
20:00slave trade that you can go enslave
20:02people you don't like and will pay you.
20:05Let's say you don't like it. you don't
20:07want to be part of the slave trade.
20:09Well, guess what's going to happen? All
20:11your neighbors,
20:13all bunch of other tribes are going to
20:15get guns by participating in the trade
20:18and you are going to be without guns.
20:21Take a wild guess who's getting enslaved
20:24next.
20:25So in some way tribes had to join the
20:30slave trade whether they wanted to or
20:32not because if you didn't you would have
20:35less weapons and you would be more
20:37likely to be enslaved yourself. So there
20:40was a bit of an arms race there where
20:42whether willingly or unwillingly you had
20:44to be part of the slave trade.
20:48The whole
20:50trade itself was I mean I'm sure you
20:54guys have heard a million times how
20:55awful it was, but it really really was
20:57awful.
20:59The trip could take anywhere between 3
21:01weeks to 3 months from Africa to the
21:04Americas, depending on the season and
21:06the winds and everything.
21:08very common for about 10 to 20% of
21:12anybody loaded up onto the ships to die
21:14before they reach the Americas
21:17because conditions were filthy. They
21:20were overcrowded.
21:22They sanitation was non-existent.
21:25So many many people would get sick and
21:28die during the journey.
21:30But for the slave traders, it was more
21:33convenient to just keep business as
21:35usual than it was to try to provide more
21:37room and better sanitation because
21:41just a 10 or 20% loss was remade by just
21:45packing the ships full of people. And so
21:49what if 10 or 20% die, you can still
21:51make a bunch of money. Whereas if you
21:52have to give more room and more
21:54sanitation, you may have less people
21:56dying, but you also have less people on
21:58the ship and so you make less money.
22:00So that's kind of the logic why it was
22:03done this way.
22:06The profits involved in the slave trade
22:08were so high that many Europeans built a
22:12fortune on the slave trade. And some of
22:15these guys became so rich that they
22:17would later be the people who will
22:18finance the industrial revolution since
22:21they were the ones who had the money to
22:22invest. So there's an odd connection
22:25between slavery and the industrial
22:28revolution.
22:31As far as uh early forms of resistance,
22:35you know, many times people tried to
22:37rebel as long as the ships were still
22:40within sight of the coast of Africa, but
22:44by the time they were in the middle of
22:45the ocean, people kind of gave up. So,
22:47their main form of resistance would be
22:49suicide at that point.
22:52Once they arrived in the Americas, they
22:54were kind of washed up, put up at the
22:57slave market where people would uh at an
22:59auction where people would bid on them.
23:03And that's
23:05the process of how it was done.
23:10Now one of the issues that one of the
23:14things that happened initially is that
23:16the early African slaves come into
23:18Americas they often end up sharing the
23:20same quarters with indentured servants.
23:24They share the same lives with
23:25indentured servants. So, not
23:27surprisingly, they began to build
23:30alliances across racial lines
23:34to the point where slave owners realize,
23:37whoa, whoa, whoa, maybe we're making a
23:39mistake here. Because now we have a lot
23:41of people, both white and black, who
23:43don't like us very much, and they are
23:44joining together. We need to figure out
23:47a way to keep them divided.
23:50So one way to do that was to use divide
23:52and conquer to begin teaching
23:56indenture servants in a way as weird as
23:59it may sound teach them racism. You know
24:02instill the idea that no matter how
24:04humble their status was by being white
24:08they were superior to black people. They
24:11would be treated differently from black
24:12people. you kind of throw them more a
24:14bone whereas enslaved Africans would be
24:17treated much worse to kind of try to
24:20create jealousy between the two try to
24:22create uh conflict between the two so
24:25rather than joining together against you
24:28they are too busy hating on each other
24:30and that's so much easier than for not
24:32to have to deal with major rebellions.
24:36Even laws were passed against
24:38interracial sex precisely for the sake
24:41of avoiding these unions in this case
24:45physical but on every level between
24:47black and whites between you know no
24:49interracial marriages among them and so
24:52on and so forth. So, some of the first
24:55laws against interracial sex and
24:57interracial marriages were passed in the
24:591600s.
25:01And some of them, as weird as them may
25:03sound, they were not struck down in
25:06United States by the Supreme Court until
25:081967,
25:10which is insane when you think about how
25:12recent that is. But there were still
25:14laws in the book against interracial sex
25:16and interracial marriages in in the
25:181960s in US, which is a crazy statistic.
25:22But in any case,
25:25in terms of divide and conquer, in
25:27addition to keeping indentured servants
25:31and um and African slaves separate and
25:36try to pit them against one another.
25:39There was also an effort to try to keep
25:44enslaved Africans separate and against
25:46one another. not only by buying people
25:49from different tribes where they
25:51wouldn't speak the same language. So it
25:53would be a little harder to organize
25:55but also to split them between house
25:59slaves and field slaves.
26:02Now the difference between house slaves
26:05and field slaves goes something like
26:08this. The idea was that field slaves
26:11were those who as the name imply work in
26:13the fields which was brutal hard
26:16physical labor. usually subjected to
26:19fairly heavy punishments if they slacked
26:22in their work. The only advantage to
26:24being a field slave was that you would
26:26get to spend once the day of work was
26:28over, you are in the barracks with other
26:32enslaved Africans sharing the same
26:34quarters. So at least there's some
26:36companionship there.
26:38house lives at the advantage of having
26:41usually easier work, not quite as
26:43backbreaking as picking cotton in the
26:45fields or things like that. You would
26:48work inside the main house, being a
26:51cook, a nanny, a maid, uh something
26:54along those lines, which was easier
26:57work, but the downside was that you are
27:01constantly surrounded by just the people
27:03who enslaved you. you sort of lack the
27:06companionship of other people dealing
27:08with the same circumstances. And this
27:10division of course worked to the
27:12advantage of the slave owners because
27:14the goal was to keep the interest of
27:16field slaves and our slaves separate so
27:19that again it would be harder for them
27:22to join together. So this idea of divide
27:25and conquer was kind of a big deal when
27:27it came to um to slavery. One
27:31technological invention that had a big
27:33impact on slavery was in 1793 the
27:36invention of a machine known as the
27:38cotton gene. The cotton gene was a
27:41machine removing the seeds from cotton
27:44without destroying the fiber in an
27:46automatic fashion. Now this made the
27:49process of getting cotton much cheaper.
27:52As a result of this there was increased
27:54demand for cotton because since the
27:58price for for overall the the product
28:00was cheaper then many more people wanted
28:02to buy it for clothes. So this led to um
28:06increased demand which of course led to
28:08increased demands for slaves to work the
28:11cotton fields. So that was another
28:13aspect. Now
28:16life as a slave as you may imagine was
28:19not exactly fun. There were many many
28:22many many challenges to it. There was of
28:25course violence. You know the whole
28:27system of slavery cannot exist without
28:29violence. There were brutal physical
28:31punishments for any infraction that were
28:35not that rare.
28:37Creating families was extremely
28:39difficult because at any moment any
28:42member of the family could be sold. So
28:45building longlasting bonds in a
28:47environment where you don't control
28:49anything is pretty difficult.
28:52Also highly unpleasant but common side
28:55of slavery was rape. So
28:59African, initially African and later
29:01African-American women being um
29:05completely vulnerable to rape by the
29:07slave owners
29:09also pose some challenges in terms of
29:11family life or for example, you know,
29:14the men in their life being completely
29:16powerless to stop that from happening.
29:19You know, these were all things that
29:20really mess with their heads. um in
29:23addition to that this is for the male
29:25side and of course for women being the
29:27targets of rape on a regular basis
29:30horrendous to say the least. So there
29:32was and by the way when I say rape in
29:34some cases it may be violent in some
29:37cases is not it was just pressure that
29:39you know in if you say yes your life
29:43will be made a lot easier by the slave
29:45owner. So while it may not fit the
29:48picture of violent rape, he was raped
29:49nonetheless since you weren't really in
29:51a position to say no anyway.
29:54So these were of course really disturbly
29:58ugly stories regarding slavery and
30:00unfortunately they were very common
30:03in terms of religion. Early on there was
30:07no
30:09there was no effort to convert Africans.
30:13If anything, it was actually some
30:15Europeans enjoyed the fact of being able
30:17not to convert them because that meant
30:20it made it easier on them to enslave
30:22people who are non-Christians than
30:23people who are Christians.
30:26But eventually
30:28this changed and in time there was more
30:31effort to convert them to Christianity
30:33and in some way this was used to justify
30:35slavery. He was like, "Hey, you are
30:37giving up your freedom and your labor,
30:39but in exchange, we are bringing you the
30:41light of God to you. So really, we're
30:44doing you a favor."
30:46Now, not surprisingly,
30:49the kind of messages found in the Bible
30:51that slave owners emphasized were all
30:53those messages that led to people
30:55accepting their lot in life. You know,
30:57your reward will be in heaven. Just
31:00respect earthly authorities, respect
31:02your masters, that kind of stuff. Of
31:05course, many enslaved Africans focused
31:07on very different messages. All the
31:09tales of Jewish people escaping slavery
31:11in Egypt. All the messages that there's
31:15no difference in the eyes of God between
31:17a slave owner and a slave. All these
31:21things that you know each one want shape
31:23Christianity what they wanted it to be
31:25to a large degree.
31:28in terms of resistance is actually
31:31rather puzzling sometime to notice the
31:33largecale rebellions were extremely rare
31:37in North America. Hardly ever happened.
31:40There were only a couple, you know,
31:41there's the Net Turner rebellion, very
31:43famous from 1831.
31:46Other than that, not very often.
31:49Why?
31:51Well, for fairly obvious reasons that
31:54your chances to succeed with a
31:56large-scale rebellion were next to
31:58nothing. And if you were caught and
32:02defeated, you could look forward to
32:05torture and death and nothing else. So,
32:07needless to say, not many people wanted
32:09to set up a big rebellion when the odds
32:12of success were so small.
32:15Unlike this, by the way, is different
32:17from what happened in places like Brazil
32:19or the Caribbeans where people would
32:22rebel in some cases in major ways and
32:25then set up uh fugitive communities in
32:28the wild. This didn't happen much in
32:30North America. The main forms of
32:33rebellion that you see were things like
32:37escaping, that was, you know, probably
32:39one of the more common ones, try to run
32:42away, particularly young men,
32:46breaking tools, um, trying to get away,
32:49faking stupidity to do as little work as
32:52humanly possible. Uh, you know, the
32:54racist stereotypes of the times was that
32:57slaves were stupid and inferior anyway.
32:59So you would play to that stereotype to
33:01get away without being punished by just
33:03playing the stupid role of oh you meant
33:06I was supposed to clear 40 acres I only
33:09clear four. I'm so sorry I'm my mistake.
33:13You know trying to cater to white
33:15expectations regarding um regarding
33:19African intelligence where really you're
33:21just playing them so that you could try
33:23to do a little less work out of these
33:25people who are trying to squeeze every
33:27ounce of labor out of you. Those
33:30were some of the most common kinds of uh
33:34resistance. Large scale rebellion
33:37definitely not common at all. So that's
33:40something to keep in mind.
33:43And with this we are done for today's
33:46lecture.

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