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Week 5: Slavery and the American Empire — Transcript

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0:02Hello and welcome back. Last week we
0:05looked at slavery in the age of the
0:07American Revolution and African-American
0:09experiences in that period um through
0:13service in the military and beyond.
0:17This also brought us to the questions it
0:18posed for inclusion inclusion and
0:21exclusion in the new American republic.
0:24And so we'll be expanding on that theme
0:26today as we examine the end of the
0:28American Revolution and the empire that
0:31it established.
0:33To begin today, I want to share with you
0:35our case study, which is the story of
0:37Prince Hall, pictured here. He lived
0:40from 1737 until 1807.
0:44Um Hall was likely born in Barbados
0:47around 1738.
0:49uh and later was brought across the
0:52middle passage to Massachusetts on a
0:55slave ship where he was enslaved by
0:57William Hall, a leather worker in
1:00Boston.
1:01During his enslavement, Prince Hall
1:03learned the leatherworking trade, a
1:05skill which would later provide him with
1:07some degrees of economic independence.
1:10On April 9th, 1770, William Hall granted
1:13Prince Hall his freedom, citing 21 years
1:17of faithful service. The manu mission
1:20document marked the beginning of Prince
1:22Hall's journey as a free man and a
1:25community leader. In 1775, so around the
1:29um beginning of the Revolutionary War,
1:32Hall and 14 other African-Ameans were
1:35initiated into Freemasonry by a British
1:38military lodge. Remember that both the
1:41English and the Americans had each tried
1:43to reach out to African-Americans to
1:45serve on their side during the
1:48Revolutionary War. So after the war,
1:51they were den um denied membership in uh
1:57American lodges due to racial
1:58discrimination. So Prince Hall and the
2:01others who were inducted into
2:02Freemasonry under the British system
2:04were denied that under the American
2:06system.
2:07Hall petitioned the Grand Lodge of
2:10England and in 1784 secured a charter or
2:14a contract to create the African Lodge
2:17number 459.
2:20This became the foundation of what is
2:22called Prince Hall Freemasonry
2:25which provided African-Ameans with an
2:27early platform for leadership, mutual
2:30aid, and community organization. And
2:32today, Prince Hall Freemasonry still
2:34exists and is still an institution in
2:37African-American communities.
2:40While the war still raged on, Prince
2:43Hall began to notice the inconsistencies
2:45between the American patriots call for
2:47freedom and the continued enslavement of
2:50black Africans.
2:52In 1777, he argued to the Massachusetts
2:57legislature, so to the Americans, that
2:59slavery was incompatible with the
3:01principles of liberty proclaimed during
3:03the revolution.
3:06Hall along with other African-Americans
3:08submitted this petition calling for the
3:10abolition of slavery altogether in
3:13Massachusetts.
3:14It also highlighted the hypocrisy of a
3:17nation fighting for freedom while
3:19denying it to enslaved individuals
3:21within its borders. While the petition
3:24did not immediately lead to abolition,
3:28it contributed to a growing anti-slavery
3:30sentiment in Massachusetts, which
3:32ultimately led to the state's Supreme
3:34Court uh ruling slavery unconstitutional
3:38in 1783,
3:40the year that the Revolutionary War
3:41ended.
3:44Beyond abolition, Prince Hall advocated
3:46for the rights and protections of free
3:48Africanameans,
3:50including the establishment of schools
3:52for black children. In 1798, his efforts
3:56led to the creation of a school in
3:58Boston. Though these schools faced uh
4:01continued resistance and challenges for
4:04funding,
4:05Hall played a central role in fostering
4:08this solidarity among free
4:10African-Americans in a post-war Boston
4:14through mutual aid societies or
4:17societies where people would provide one
4:19another with resources
4:21um and also moral guidance. Uh Hall
4:25encouraged self-improvement, education,
4:28and community organization as these
4:30pathways to equality. And his devout
4:34Christian faith influenced by the great
4:36awakening also informed his belief in
4:39moral and spiritual upliftment as uh
4:43essential tools for social progress.
4:47So I feel that his story illuminates
4:48these inherent contradictions of a
4:50revolutionary nation born out of appeals
4:52for freedom for all but built on the
4:55backs of the enslaved. So even as Hall
4:57used his freedom to advocate for the
4:59liberties of those enslaved like he once
5:01was and even joining in these
5:03institutions like Freemasonry which were
5:05dominated by powerful white upperassmen.
5:09Um, the new nation had quickly aligned
5:13limits to revolutionary rhetoric as
5:16these lines drawn on the nature of one's
5:19race. The efforts of Hall and others
5:22also mark the beginning of slavery's
5:24abolition in the north. But southern
5:27slavery would become even more
5:29entrenched in the post-war period as
5:32cotton and sugar economies grew into the
5:35west and south and other new territories
5:38which had been won in the revolution.
5:42Leading politicians of the revolutionary
5:44period like Thomas Jefferson were quick
5:47to declare uh that they had found
5:50slavery to be an immoral act, but that
5:54an even more immoral act would be to
5:57free blacks who they viewed inferior and
6:01unable to take advantage or thrive under
6:03a system of freedom. So in the
6:06Declaration of Independence, Jefferson
6:08was the author of the line which had
6:10excited so many enslaved people that all
6:13men are created equal.
6:15And yet Jefferson himself enslaved over
6:18600 people at his Montichello plantation
6:22in Virginia. Even as he worked to ban
6:25the importation of the enslaved into his
6:27home state in Virginia, he believed that
6:30to free slaves altogether would spark a
6:33race war. Instead, Jefferson hoped to
6:36kick the ball down the road and for
6:38abolition to come about naturally when
6:41slave owners consented to free their
6:43human property altogether.
6:46Given the massive amounts of wealth
6:49accumulated through slavery and even
6:51more entrenched across the South,
6:53Jefferson knew that this was
6:55unrealistic, that no slave owner was
6:58ever going to simply release 600 of his
7:02enslaved people. the basis of his
7:05wealth, this would never happen. Um, so
7:08Thomas Jefferson here is being a little
7:10bit uh
7:13duplicitous. He's arguing for this
7:16immorality of slavery, but also holding
7:19on to it tooth and nail.
7:23Part of the reason for Jefferson uh
7:25believing that free blacks were unable
7:27to coexist in a white society was that
7:30foundationally Jefferson believed black
7:33people to be biologically inferior to
7:36whites. In 1788, Jefferson wrote this. I
7:42advance it therefore as a suspicion only
7:45that the blacks, whether originally a
7:47distinct race or made distinct by time
7:50and circumstances,
7:52are inferior to the whites in the
7:54endowments of both the body and the
7:57mind.
7:58It is not against experience to suppose
8:01that different species of the same genus
8:04or varieties of the same species may
8:06possess different qualifications.
8:09Will not a lover of natural history,
8:11then one who views the gradations in all
8:14the races of animals, with an eye of
8:16philosophy, excuse an effort to keep
8:19those in the department of man as
8:22distinct as nature has formed them. This
8:25unfortunate difference of color and
8:27perhaps of faculty is a powerful
8:30obstacle to the emancipation of the
8:33these people.
8:36Effectively, Thomas Jefferson is using
8:38this language, this scientific language
8:40of natural history and philosophy
8:44to argue that historically or
8:46biologically there must be some
8:47differences between whites and blacks
8:49which make up for the fact that whites
8:51were so often in systems of power and
8:54blacks seen as subservient and caught in
8:57the system of slavery. Of course, as
8:59we've worked our way through this class,
9:00we've seen the system of slavery unfold
9:03step by step. We know this to not be
9:05true. That this is not a biological or
9:08instinctual
9:10uh reaction to these systems, but that
9:13they are reacting and built upon several
9:16economic geographic um systems.
9:21Okay. Thomas Jefferson himself engaged
9:25in decades of horrendous sexual acts
9:28with enslaved individuals at his
9:30plantation. One such wings pictured here
9:33on the slide. She was the mother of
9:35several of hers and Thomas Jefferson's
9:37children. So even as Jefferson tried to
9:40end the importation of slaves into
9:42America, he fully believed in the system
9:45of hereditary slavery in the states and
9:47believed that it was valuable to the
9:49American economy. He wrote that he
9:52considered a woman who brings a child
9:54every 2 years as more profitable than
9:57the best of the man of the farm. uh what
10:01she produces is an addition to the
10:02capital while his labors disappear in
10:06mere consumption. So Jefferson um is a
10:10true believer in this system of slavery.
10:13And I want to just take us a little bit
10:16further into the future. In 2000,
10:19Jefferson and Sally Heming's sixth
10:22greatgrandson pictured here on the
10:24right. His name is Shannon Lenier. He
10:27published a book tracking the history of
10:28direct descendants of the founding
10:30fathers and their slaves. And here he
10:33was posing for a picture and Lenir
10:36purposefully chose not to wear a wig
10:38when he was replicating Jefferson's
10:40image. He said, "I didn't want to become
10:43Jefferson. My ancestor had his dreams
10:47and now it's up to all of us living in
10:49America today to make sure no one is
10:51excluded from the promises of life,
10:54liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
10:59Despite these sentiments like
11:00Jefferson's scientific racism prevailing
11:03across the South, thousands of white
11:05southerners did ultimately join together
11:08to liberate their slaves. Um while
11:11states like Massachusetts and Vermont
11:12abolished slavery during the revolution,
11:15other northern states like Connecticut,
11:17Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and
11:20Pennsylvania also enacted what were
11:22called gradual emancipation laws.
11:26um in the early republic.
11:29These laws would create a decadesl long
11:33uh freedom process
11:36um which would exploit the fitness and
11:39labor of an entire generation of
11:41African-Ameans
11:44um but would ultimately lead to the
11:47freedom of the children of those who
11:49were already enslaved.
11:52For those who were successfully freed
11:54from their bondage, the reality was
11:56rarely full participation in the new
11:59American nation. Culturally, slavery was
12:02associated with degradation or
12:04inferiority, just as Jefferson had
12:06justified enslavement earlier.
12:09Whites were often unwilling to view free
12:12blacks as their social equals and
12:14certainly did not view them as their
12:16political equals who shared the
12:18privileges of citizenship.
12:21uh to have the rights of citizenship is
12:24to have the rights of your own autonomy,
12:26to be able to practice free speech, to
12:29to vote, to have a right of a free trial
12:32under under the law.
12:35All of this was uh often denied to free
12:38blacks in the post-war period. To combat
12:42this isolation, free blacks looked
12:44inward to their own communities,
12:46exercising their newfound autonomy to
12:49establish churches, schools, and
12:51organizations which were meant to lift
12:53up their communities where the new
12:55nation refused.
13:00Between 1776 and 1797, all but three of
13:04the original 13 states had voted to ban
13:07the importation of slaves from outside
13:10of the United States. The Northwest
13:13Ordinance also concluded that several
13:15western territories upon becoming states
13:18would be added to the Union with bans on
13:21slavery, though slavery would be allowed
13:23in the new southern territories south of
13:26the Ohio River. However, when the
13:29leaders of the early republic met to
13:31discuss the formation of a new United
13:33States Constitution in 1787,
13:36they voted to extend slavery and the
13:39slave trade until at least 1808.
13:42The Constitution left slavery up to
13:45individual state legislatures, rejecting
13:48plans uh which had come from
13:49Pennsylvania to enact gradual
13:52emancipation laws nationwide.
13:55So the constitution protected the
13:57interests of uh the slave states in two
14:01major ways.
14:03First was the fugitive slave clause
14:06which created the legal right for the
14:08return of runaway slaves. Prior to this
14:11clause, escaped slaves might hope to
14:13find freedom upon reaching the borders
14:15of a free state in the north. This
14:17clause worked to return those who had
14:20escaped even in states where slavery was
14:22abolished.
14:24Second was the question of
14:27representation in Congress.
14:29Representation in the United States
14:31Congress was based on population. So the
14:33higher the population, the more
14:35representatives a state would be able to
14:37send to Congress and therefore the more
14:40power it holds for pushing uh for laws.
14:43southern states while they denied the
14:46humanity of enslaved Africans um their
14:49human commodity and legal property.
14:52These southern representatives argued
14:54that slaves ought to be counted as
14:56three-fifths of a person.
14:59This is called the three-fifths
15:01compromise. And the three-fifths
15:04compromise greatly expanded the power of
15:06the slave holding south as they were
15:10able to count a majority of their slaves
15:12as people making up the state and
15:14therefore represented in the House of
15:17Representatives.
15:20As the slave populations increased in
15:22the South after the war, the South grew
15:25a disproportionate voice in Congress
15:27which perpetuated the institution of
15:29slavery all the more. In fact, in 1790,
15:33there were nearly 700,000 enslaved
15:35people in the South. And by 1860, there
15:38were almost 4 million. 3-fifths out of
15:41each of those uh numbers would be
15:44counted towards representation in
15:46Congress. The presidency and the Supreme
15:49Court were each dominated by the South
15:51until the Civil War, which would be a
15:53long-term consequence of the
15:55three-fifths clause.
15:58The Constitution uh set a 20-year limit
16:01for states to continue their
16:03participation in the international slave
16:05trade. In 1787, it might have seemed
16:08like slavery was moving towards
16:10abolition. However, by the 1790s, two
16:14new cash crops emerged in the South,
16:16sugar and cotton, and the invention of
16:19Eli Whitney's cotton gin fueled the mass
16:23production of cotton.
16:25Several southern states entered uh the
16:28Union as states where slavery was legal.
16:31Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana,
16:34Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, and
16:38Arkansas all saw the backbone of their
16:41economies tied to cotton production and
16:43slave labor.
16:45Ongoing conflict with the British over
16:48the Atlantic's trade routes by sea,
16:50which cut off textile production to the
16:52states also helped to spur the growth of
16:55the cotton trade. And the climate of the
16:59southern states like coastal Georgia and
17:01South Carolina was particularly suited
17:03to expanding the trade into a commercial
17:06crop. So, let me throw you some numbers
17:09your way to illustrate this shift. By
17:121793, about 150,000 pounds of cotton
17:16were produced in the South each year. By
17:191815, the cotton boom had produced over
17:22100 million pounds of cotton. And this
17:25mass commercialization of cotton was
17:28only possible through the labor of
17:30slaves. The demand for more slaves in
17:32the south equaled the quest for profits.
17:36So to help fill this demand for labor,
17:39southern states made use of fugitive
17:41slave acts to raid maroon communities,
17:43those groups of refugees who had escaped
17:46and formed their own communities on the
17:48outskirts of the colonies during the
17:50war. They also began to import slaves
17:53from within the United States from
17:56states which had seen diminished use of
17:58the slave economies after the revolution
18:00like the north or the Chesapeake. So
18:03this internal migration of slaves saw
18:06nearly 170,000 enslaved Africans um and
18:10African-Americans transported to the
18:13south which was able to skirt those
18:15international bans on slave importation
18:18after 1808.
18:22Work on the cotton plantations was
18:24immensely difficult. The nearly 200day
18:28growing season required backbreaking
18:30work such as clearing land, planting the
18:33cotton, pressing it into bales, and
18:35followed immediately by preparing a new
18:37crop.
18:39Those working on cotton fields worked
18:42all year long. In other words, as the
18:45scale of cotton production grew and
18:47grew, um, so too did the work of
18:50enslaved Africans.
18:52Slaves hoping to take care of their
18:54families had to wait until long past
18:56nightfall to grow their own crops or to
18:59take care of their families. So building
19:01community within plantations was
19:03therefore very difficult in the south as
19:06families were separated and broken up by
19:08sale.
19:13By 1800, the new United States had taken
19:16advantage of interimperial rivalries
19:19against the French, British, and Spanish
19:21to expand their own borders westward
19:24into the nation's interior or westward.
19:27Uh, one major event leading to the
19:29expansion of the nation's boundaries was
19:31the Haitian Revolution, which was a
19:33massive slave rebellion from 1791 until
19:371804, which frightened the slave owning
19:40class worldwide and inspired a
19:42generation of African-Americans who
19:45envisioned their own rebellions to bring
19:47about political freedom.
19:50The Haitian Revolution taking place in
19:52the French plantation colony of Haiti
19:54was led by this man, Tusant Lovaturure,
19:58and saw over 100,000 slaves launch a
20:02massive revolt against their owners and
20:04shut down sugar production altogether on
20:06the colony. Napoleon Bonapart, the
20:09French general and leader of France at
20:11the time, was unable to reinslave Haiti.
20:15France's loss of this wealthy colony of
20:18Haiti caused the French to sell off its
20:20Louisiana territory to the American
20:23President Thomas Jefferson for only $15
20:26million.
20:30The Louisiana Purchase of 183 doubled
20:34the size of the United States. The
20:37treaty that transferred Louisiana to the
20:39United States promised that all free
20:41inhabitants would enjoy the rights,
20:43advantages, and immunities of citizens.
20:47But the reality was that free blacks in
20:49the territory suffered a steady decline
20:52in status. And the new American
20:54legislature soon adopted one of the most
20:57punitive slave codes in the south,
20:59forbidding blacks to quote ever consider
21:02themselves equal of whites and limiting
21:05the practice of manumission or freedom
21:08as well as access to the courts.
21:10Increasingly, whites assessed uh black
21:14people as merely enslaved regardless of
21:16their political standing.
21:20Outside of the plantations, cities in
21:22the south also grew uh saw an enlarged
21:25population of enslaved people after the
21:27revolution.
21:29Urban businessmen used slaves to haul
21:32goods or for domestic work much as the
21:34system of slavery had appeared in Europe
21:37for some time past. Even so, slavery was
21:41not as entrenched in urban areas
21:44and free blacks became more and more
21:46common uh even in southern cities. An
21:50exception was the city of Richmond,
21:52Virginia, which used industrial slavery
21:54for the production of milling grain
21:56there in the city into flour.
22:00Slaves were often hired out or rented by
22:03contracting one's slaves elsewhere in
22:06the city. Some of these people though
22:08contracted involuntarily were able to
22:11find a degree of independence by this
22:13separation from their owners and many
22:15practiced living out or these long-term
22:18arrangements away from their owners.
22:22Conversely,
22:24um there was a large free black
22:25population in Baltimore uh produced by
22:28widespread manum missions among Baptists
22:30and Methodists who had been caught up in
22:33the great awakening revivalism.
22:35Uh these free blacks used their freedoms
22:38to provide a community uh and many
22:41sheltered other runaways who might be
22:43able to blend in there in the large free
22:45black population.
22:49The tensions of urban slavery and
22:51discontent would be evident in Gabriel's
22:54rebellion in Richmond 1800. Hearing tell
22:57of the grand success of the Haitian
22:59Revolution and other slave rebellions,
23:02an enslaved black man named Gabriel, a
23:05blacksmith living on a tobacco
23:07plantation, hoped to exploit social and
23:10political tensions among whites in the
23:12state in the leadup to the 1800
23:14election, which pit southerner Thomas
23:17Jefferson against northerner John Adams.
23:21Gabriel's plan was to form a group of a
23:24thousand slaves to attack Richmond's
23:26wealthy, but leaving the poor untouched.
23:30These revolutionaries saw themselves as
23:33united around a just cause, as the
23:35memory of the American Revolution and
23:37its promises of liberty still remained
23:40fresh and unfulfilled.
23:43The plot fell apart as two enslaved
23:46individuals told their master of the
23:48conspiracy, who therefore told the
23:51governor of Virginia, future President
23:53James Monroe, and Monroe organized a
23:56militia assembled to track down the ring
23:58leaders of the group. Gabriel and 25
24:01others were executed.
24:05After word of this plot spread across
24:07Virginia, white owners looked over their
24:09shoulders and worried about their
24:11enslaved and free black populations. The
24:14result was again harsh slave laws or
24:17black codes which limited the movement
24:20of blacks regardless of their legal
24:22status. Gatherings of blacks even to go
24:25to church were banned. The rights of
24:28free blacks were also infringed as black
24:30boatmen, for example, were banned from
24:33uh gaining their own ship licenses and
24:36their families put under patrol in their
24:39own neighborhoods and required papers
24:41proving their freedom to prevent
24:42reinslavement.
24:45In Virginia, a long-term consequence of
24:48Gabriel's rebellion was that legislators
24:51removed the manum mission laws and made
24:53the process of freeing black slaves
24:56incredibly difficult. Additionally, any
25:00blacks who were made free were required
25:02to leave the state within a year or
25:04become subject to reinsslavement.
25:08In the North, by 184, every state had
25:11abolished slavery or passed a law to
25:14gradually eliminate the system. Gradual
25:17emancipation gave slave owners in the
25:19north plenty of time to find ways to
25:21sell their slaves southward. New states
25:24like Ohio required proof of free status
25:28um and the result of similar black laws
25:30as found in the South. Limits on black
25:33freedom were also placed by the
25:35naturalization act of 1790
25:39uh which prevented blacks from becoming
25:41citizens of the new republic altogether.
25:44For blacks, freedom and this post-war
25:47period did not mean full participation
25:50in the nation which had fought for
25:53demands of liberty.
25:56Abolition movements began to emerge in
25:59the mid 1770s. Anti-slavery societies
26:02such as the society for the relief of
26:04free negroes unlawfully held in bondage
26:07were founded and often located in
26:10Pennsylvania uh which had a high
26:12population of anti-slavery Quakers. Um
26:15again drawing on that inner light and
26:17equality of people.
26:20Uh several significant figures from the
26:23revolution such as Benjamin Franklin and
26:25Thomas Payne were founding members of
26:28these societies.
26:30uh and they protested the kidnapping of
26:32blacks and pushed for greater regulation
26:35and enforcement of emancipation laws.
26:38By 1820, there were fewer than 20,000
26:42slaves in the north compared to the
26:44millions of slaves in the south. And
26:47those who achieved freedom in the north
26:50uh helped to form those mutual aid
26:51societies such as the free African
26:54society in Philadelphia founded by
26:56Absalom Jones pictured here. These
26:59societies pledged to support black
27:00communities and help purchase freedoms
27:03for those left in the system of slavery.
27:07These societies expanded across the
27:10nation and were founded by dues paid by
27:12its members. So these funds were used as
27:14a safety net for their communities to uh
27:18face down sickness, disability, burials,
27:21and pensions for the elderly or to help
27:24take care of orphaned children.
27:28From these societies came uh black
27:30churches which led special services for
27:33African-Americans after the Great
27:35Awakening.
27:36One such church, the Bethl African
27:38Methodist Episcopal Church, bit of a
27:41mouthful, opened its doors in 1794,
27:45electing their own bishops to serve the
27:47needs of the congregation. Many of these
27:50were built by funds of the mutual aid
27:52societies to serve as gathering spots
27:54and to meet the needs of newly freed
27:57Africanamean men and women economically,
28:01educationally, religiously, and
28:04politically.
28:06African-American women were vital to the
28:09success of these churches as women were
28:11eventually brought into the fold as
28:13preachers such as Jireena Lee who you
28:15see pictured here on the slide who
28:17joined Bethl Methodist and led prayer
28:19groups as a lay preacher. In 1819, the
28:23story goes that during a worship service
28:25at Bethl Church, a guest preacher began
28:27struggling with his message uh and
28:30abruptly stopped preaching, just stared
28:32into the into the crowd.
28:35Um, as he was there, just at a loss for
28:38words, Jireina Lee sprang to her feet
28:40and began preaching, picking up where
28:42the minister had left off.
28:45After Lee's sermon, she was afraid that
28:48the bishop would punish her for
28:49preaching without permission. But on the
28:51contrary, that the bishop was so
28:53impressed by Lee that he officially gave
28:56her authorization to preach the gospel.
29:00So freedom granted uh blacks the ability
29:02to educate themselves and their families
29:05to learn and read and write which was
29:07often illegal in the slave states.
29:10Exslaves hoped that through education
29:12they might leverage their skilled labor
29:14with an ability to compete socially with
29:16whites and widespread discrimination
29:20made this difficult but not impossible
29:23as blacks worked to improve their social
29:25status.
29:28As the numbers of free blacks grew, so
29:30too did hostility from anxious whites.
29:34Insults were a daily occurrence, even
29:36within states with larger populations of
29:38free blacks. Black institutions were
29:41often the focus of racial violence, as
29:43mobs targeted black churches and their
29:45congregations.
29:47The War of 1812 solidified these
29:50divisions as the American Army and local
29:52militias each place restrictions on
29:55land-based military service um making it
29:58uh impossible for black men to serve uh
30:02in um the military. Even so, a
30:05significant portion of the war was
30:06fought on the Great Lakes and
30:08African-Americans did make up a
30:10significant number of the American Navy,
30:12so on water. uh and they served
30:15admirably.
30:16In Philadelphia, another 2500 or so
30:20black volunteers helped to prevent
30:22British attack um as combatants. And in
30:25the South, Andrew Jackson oversaw
30:27another regiment of free black
30:29volunteers who fought in a segregated
30:31unit.
30:33Despite fighting for their nation,
30:35states across the North began to
30:38disenfranchise free blacks, uh, shutting
30:41them out from political participation.
30:46Even as white abolitionists argued along
30:48racial lines, they suggested that blacks
30:51needed to be reformed to match white
30:53society or to remove them from the
30:56nation uh altogether through re
30:59relocation campaigns like the
31:00colonization schemes which would send
31:03African-Ameans back to Africa. In doing
31:07so, white abolitionists were building
31:09off of efforts from their British
31:10forebears who had created Sierra Leone
31:13as a refuge for free blacks from London.
31:16Um, but that had never reached much
31:18success. The American Colonization
31:20Society or the ACS uh began meeting in
31:231816 hoped to persuade southern slave
31:26owners to accept abolition by proposing
31:29the vast relocation of their black
31:31slaves outside of southern white
31:34society. To do this, the colony of
31:38Liberia was established on the west
31:40coast of Africa, but only some 11,000
31:44African-Ameans immigrated to Liberia,
31:47including some 7,000 who agreed to
31:49immigrate in exchange for their freedom.
31:54Ex-slaves like Prince Hall therefore
31:56faced an America which did not live up
31:58to the promises of freedom during the
32:01revolution.
32:03Freedom appeared as a promise to white
32:06citizens as blacks were at best excluded
32:10from political participation by the
32:121830s or had been openly assaulted or
32:15criminalized by anxious whites across
32:18the nation. The postrevolutionary years
32:21faced political, social, and economic
32:24upheaval that cemented slavery in the
32:26south and empowered disenfranchisement
32:29of free blacks even in the north.
32:32pitting this vision of a new nation with
32:34a continuation of the slave empire that
32:36the British had established.
32:39So in light of growing hostility, new
32:42approaches to abolition would run up
32:44against these entrenched slaveolding
32:46economies of the south as the nation
32:49expanded its borders westward, which is
32:52where we will go next week.

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