a wonderful time here seeking the change she and being part of it.

it was quite a shock to move from texas having been born and raised in virginia seeing it firsthand. i was contacted [inaudible] a 15-year-old girl who walked into a liquor market grocery store in march, 1991 she picked up a bottle of orange juice and put it in her backpack with the $2 in her hand the shopkeeper thought she was trying to steal

it so a fight began. it was one of the major cases that began the eruption that we now know as the 1992 riots to. >> host: and booktv has talked to you about that before. >> i hope it is in your archives where people can learn more about her book and the events of that time. >> and it is that we are here to talk about her work with his slavery. what is the answer to that question? >> slavery is a bondage that has been part of who we are as a people since the beginning if

you look at every major civilization in the world, the chinese, latin america, north america come every plac, every d slavery and we still have it today. it's one of those institutions we created and turned a blind eye to. >> we will get into the contemporary and a little bit, but how did he gain? >> some societies had to work and some didn't. one had a hierarchy in the society and of those were administrators etc. who decided they wanted other people to listen tv to work for them.

slavery is being used as a form of conquering labor in the way of indicating wealth. slavery is all of those things. >> is american slavery unique? >> is unique to a certain extent. what a lot of people don't understand is that it is an institution from the 15 hundreds

when the spanish first arrived until 1865 it became very socialized. what else is unique in the united states is that it's the largest institution of slavery in the americas. often times people think about brazil or latin america but that's no place where their 4 million on the ground. why did it begin in the states and by africa?

>> it began in the americas at the time of discovery. they were already organized in their own societies and trading systems and so there were very few. there was ivory, gold, spices. those were the kind of things that initially were traded between europe and africa. but also at the same moment began to discover the americas and decided that the wealth is a cultural pursuit the desire or

the need of the labor so that the tanning they begi began to e for people who could now be used in these colonial sites where the agrarian economy was being developed into the labor-intensive crops and then of course later cotton was introduced and became a basis between the americas, africa and europe and they were pushed into the trade. >> was their slavery in europe? >> there was slavery in every

place. they were similar to the slave societies. there were so many in that part of the world at the time. one of the interesting things it does encourage globalization trade around the world with these goods from africa, europe and asia and the americas. >> when was it outlawed in europe and when did the u.s. become the center? >> everyone outlawed slaver slan thata different time so we lookt it in europe ending were dwindling i should say in the period of the 18th century at

about the same time the slave trade and you have france and england for example ending on their territories but maintaining it in their colonies. >> brenda stevenson, were they aware of what was happening? >> those that were taken to the americas and europe went to spain and portugal and england and france and other places in europe as well. they had these societies just like everyone else in the world.

some of them had been taken as slaves so they were with this but most didn't know the extent of the brutality. it is a brutal institution no matter where you find it. they are denied control of their lives, their body, labor capacity.

>> all 13 colonies in the u.s. have slaves. other parts the not allow a. of course they were enslaved in the americas so when they colonized they also have an indigenous forms of enslavement. >> when was it being abolished in the colonies? were their slavery is living up

to? >> b.c.e. for example 1776 and virginia is great for the british who can gain your freedom and that's one of the first emancipation proclamations is one of this he did it in order to get the soldiers. he was out there in norfork virginia trying to figure out what to do with. that was one of the first if not the first. the american revolution brought a kind of moral conflict to those persons who were the founders of our nation and

people began to abandon the institution of slavery so we see slavery had disappeared and was outlawed in most of the other territories that became the united states of america. it did allow them. suggested the slave trade could be ended by et no eight and it was and it did although there were people that were smuggled in afterwards about 50,000 or so but it's after the american revolution we began to see that slavery sexualize sectioned off.

it's the what is series by the press and that's to give the reading audience an opportunity to learn about important issues and topics and world history so we give them a broad introduction to the topics whether it is slavery, african american historyafrican-americar history, whether it's the french revolution etc.. they capture the imagination when you didn't have a chance to take that class from college. it gives you an opportunity to learn something and it's a fairly short format. there's a lot of first-person accounts in your book. it was the center of slavery in the colonial period and it remains important up to the time

of the civil war so i kind of grew up in this history in a way so my research is done in the south in virginia, north carolina, south carolina, texas etc.. i want people should understand from the position of those that are enslaved. i think they focused on the perspectives of those that owned slaves and so we had a great revision that occurred in the 1970s which people ge began to focus on but what did the slaves themselves think and what kind of documents provide their

perspective so that's what i try to do is to their voices into what i write a write >> is there an extensive archive? >> there were a lot of voices one of the things that happened in the great depression is the government paid for people to go out and capture u.s. history and one was the work project association which went into the south and they began to interview aging men and women who had been enslaved, this was past generations of people who'd been enslaved to find out what's where their memories and experiences so we have that archive but we also have others where people have written their stories as a kind of freedom we have some very early accounts

that come out of the 18th century. so the abolitionists wanted people to understand what the institution was like so they could get people to abandon it so we had a lot of applications that i am period as well. was there a small abolitionist movement in the state's? >> they would run away as soon as they basically landed a. it's still in the harbor before they even had a chance to be sold or just arrived and can't speak any english, don't know

the names. these were the first true abolitionists that arrived and said i have to get back to africa, back to some place in that way and then we have the quakers and methodists early on as well. they began to push themselves into and create an abolitionist movement. it was a common occurrence. people were always plotting in the part of the institution that affected them but most of them

were realized because someone would spill the beans. [inaudible] in charge of controlling a the government, the patrollers. they were always on the lookout for the persons that were plotting. one of the things the masters understood is no one wanted to be enslaved. they were trying to figure out how to keep them in bondage when they were trying to figure out how to get out of it.

why did we learn about that slave revolt? >> it realized some of the great horrors of the institution. it is great theater that they arrived in the middle of the night and slept people's throa throats. it was a brilliant young man who was literate. he truly deeply believed he'd been chosen to do this and that is one of the common things i see in the leadership.

he had this sense and imports since i've been chosen to do something great. so we remember this particular revolt because 40 white people were killed from almost hundreds of black people were killed in retaliation. there was a public trial in which matt cherne turner was a r talked about god choosing him for this task. it was an enormous credibility to the movement just getting on its feet at the moment to say to people this is what will happen if you continue to enslave

people. ivar at great risk for having people in this kind of condition living with you. it changed slavery dramatically in the country because the walls affecting enslaved people and particularly free black people changed after that. they could no longer learn how to read and write. they were pushed out of southern states for a year. there were still some family members are enslaved and occupations you were not allowed to have. so it really didn't change and caused any restriction.

>> how large was the population in this period? >> is about one tenth of the population so if you have 200,000 in 1820 or so then you have about 200,000 of color. most of them were in the northeast and the midwest but also you have large populations the largest was in baltimore maryland and there was a large number in other cities to. >> what was the impact of. beecher stowe's uncle tom's cabin? >> it was very impactful and important. she captured the brutality of

the institution and in so captured the imagination of the world. that became the most important book of the 19th century read more than any other book except for the bible. translated in so many different languages even in chinese and also it was so popular the press had to work really 24/7 to produce enough copies. was the big hit of this century. even edison, thomas edison had in early silent movie of uncle tom's cabin.

>> did excel in the south? >> it did although it was also abandoned the south. it is a propaganda machine and proslavery advocates from the 1820s onward. people were productive teaching them christianity. there was a whole for proslavery

machinery that fit into the industry of the time. the man that wrote the hymn amazing grace was a slave trader. >> he was so affected by the horror of it but that is when he gave it up and became an abolitionist and wrote the song amazing grace. >> the south in 1861 was the richest part of the nation. at the very top slaveholders

with politicians on the state level as well as a national level. they said the industrial revolution of the northeast so it was in a good place financially. there were 4 million people at the time and it was a place that was not slowing down in the institution of slavery they wanted to reopen the trade and they wanted merritt territory to expand and territory in latin america particularly the caribbean and central america to expand their plantation.

what's interesting is this was happening in the united states and slavery was booming at the time they began to dwindle. britain had emancipated slaves in the 1830s. the. it was still pushing for slavery and it was thriving in these places. >> abraham lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation in 1863. any affect?

>> one of the things that's interesting is they are so interested in so invested in freetown the forces arrived and they go behind union lines. any time a force came down to fight the masses. the proclamation of 1863 did give legitimacy to those that were allowing those military men who were allowing slaves to come and stand behind the lines and

work behind the lines. april 65 is when the war ended. what happened to this leaves the next day? >> in some places like texas for example they were free into june and they never thought it would impact them in texas and that's why you see this gap in time. some people left the plantations immediately because of the notion of being able to walk free. some people went on to the next plantation to get away from the

person who defend their owner and some people stayed. they didn't feel like they have any other place to go. there were all kinds of responses and it did take a bath of organizing by the societies who came down initially to establish schools and educate people for the vote to be part of the electorate and to prepare black men to become ministers to christianize those that had been slaves. it took a great effort of kind of organizing these people that have been oppressed intellectually, socially, culturally to be prepared to

become citizens of the united states. >> you write 20 to 30 million people are still enslaved. who are they and where are they? >> they are everywhere. they are mostly children and women and one of the greatest truths is most of the people have been children and women and those we consider the most vulnerable in our society's. that is one of the differences during this era that we were talking about. you have equal numbers of men and women. most of them are very young of course throughout and across time it's mostly been women and children as it is today they are

in africa, asia, europe they are in the united states. documents are taken away from them and they are forced into prostitution. they have no control over what happens to them. they are the most vulnerable people. then there are those that are enslaved and people are subjected to slave trading.

they would trade their children to pay for their deaths. >> brenda stevenson teaches history at ucla. this is what is slavery on booktv two. >> i got a pile of books but i chose one because it links all of my passions. i went to seminary before so now the politics of fear is pretty toxic. everyone is talking about civility and ethics and virtue and of course everything we do is politics.