reno william was in the place. he 1st saw a room in the middle room. ah, you can understand, you know, say screwed up. i understand the role that slavery plate, who was already a very prominent institution by the time united states became a nation. it actually defined the nation. slavery didn't just end and go away. we, as a country were formed out of a compromise with slavery. the southern colonies were not willing to be part of a union part of a national government. in last, the institution of slavery was protected and the price of protecting that institution was disproportionate power to the south,

politically. and it carries through today. and we possibly could have lightened some of the consequences of slavery if there had not been such a concerted effort to maintain the differences between blacks and whites is kind of like an infection. i think, you know, it may go away, but it always bubbles back up to the top eventually. i think that's what's happening nail lee. mm. there may, may, and we, so all of me may, it was all be angry because i'm what's going on right now. why does nothing ever change here? why does this keep happening over and over again?

i was born in greensboro, north carolina, into a privileged world where the idea of white supremacy was rarely questioned. as a child, the only black people i ever interacted with in a meaningful way were the people who worked for us. i felt a huge amount of sadness as a kid, seeing how they, and other african americans were treated in the south. i didn't understand it. i knew something was deeply wrong, but it was not ok to talk about it. to sorrow, anger, and lingering questions about the racist south of my childhood shadowed me into adulthood. to my surprise, i discovered that my own uncomfortable journey to talk about this was connected to an untold hidden history of our nation.

ah, the trans atlantic slave trade took off in the early 18th century and produced huge profits. one of the reasons why the united states is such an advanced country is because, oh, not only slavery, but the slave trade. we know that slavery was financed from places like new york, rhode island, new port in boston. one of the reasons wall street was created in the 1st place was to finance the slave industry. everything from buying slade to even mortgaging them . what you see is not only the building of more ships which employees, workers,

you're thing, the building of insurance companies, because africans are revolting and you need to have insurance policies. you see the construction of banking because these void does have to be financed. and therein you begin to see the seeds, the copes of it, advanced economics of them, and the rise of capitalism is clearly on the backs of slavery and the slave african . it was astonishing to me that many of the 1st africans in the american colonies weren't slaves, but indentured servants for a while poor black and white worked alongside each other. the connection between europeans and africans was actually quite robust. lot of marriages formerly,

informally, lot of children formerly upon the probably much greater integration between people of african descent and european descent. and we have today indentured whites and blacks worked for their so called masters for 5 to 7 years. africans went from indentured, servitude to enslavement. gradually one person, one law and one colony at a time it started with a dispossession of native americans. so the concept that they didn't actually have title to the land or deserve the land because they weren't christians. so all of us law around land and the accumulation of land by the english and french and spanish was based upon that. europeans fell completely comfortable going into africa and enslaving people who are also, he's ins, non christians, and bringing them to the new world to south and central and north america. and so,

slavery was justified by this. it allowed the conquerors to fill righteous that they were in fact, doing favors to whoever they encountered. it was all re defined as a benevolent process to most of those 9 american means white country was founded by 2 groups, angels and saxons. christian protest in english speaking thought things could bound up together just being christian was not distinction enough to separate who was entitled to civil rights and respect and resources. so christianity became divided into white christians and really white male christians and everybody else. there was a racial supremacy and a religious supremacy. intertwined. ah,

yes. $1000.00 black and white virginians rose up together in rebellion against rich planters in $1676.00. the rebels wanted more wealth and power. in the new america, nathaniel bacon led the uprising back on the spot, a political movement, economic movement was people demanding democracy a chance to participate and running the colony, but in the colony and demanding land. there were these people coming together more along class lines than race lines. and even though the colonial government was eventually successful, that really scared down the lead decided to split both groups and start creating whiteness. and the colonies, and part of the charge for the men was to be drafted into the slay patrol to manage the slaves for the leads. and they always had this role of allegiance to the leads

and managing those underneath for the leads. this notion of divide and conquer to keep poor whites always knowing that they were not at the bottom, no matter how degraded you may be white your way. and there's one group really, very simple enough. but it was a very incurs virginia, where my ancestors originally settled was the 1st colony to pass harsher slave laws that legally sealed this new alliance between rich planters and poor white. the 1st white privilege that we see in this country is what was given to indentured servants, as they were creed up to have some land to have the ability to be in the militia, in the sleigh patrols together cloth and tools and other things when they were

released, they just still didn't have economic power, but they had benefits as white people. and at the same time, in slave africans had nothing. they had no rights, no property, nothing in their name at all. ah, growing up, i knew both sides of my family own slaves, but there was never much of a conversation about it. our family history haunted me enough to make this film. my most famous ancestor was a guy named edmund pendleton, who was a judge planter and slave owner. pendleton was my uncle, 6 times removed. i had known a bit about pendleton's life. but in my research for this film, i discovered more details than i ever bargain for. i pendleton was tall, handsome. he was charming. he was

a brilliant man. he was an arch conservative. what we would to day called right way extremist. he went from being an arch conservative to being a spokesman for the revolution. ah, pendleton became the 1st acting governor of the virginia colony. and i was proud to learn that he played a major role in helping to establish the new nation pendleton drafts, the virginia resolution for independence. and that says that the delegation be instructed to propose to declare the united colonies free and independent states. absolved from all allegiance or dependence upon the crown or parliament of great

britain. he wrote all those words which were then given to a pony express rider who carried them to philadelphia. when they got to philadelphia. they said, virginia says independence and all the other colonies fell into place. but i was really disturbed to learn that pendleton was also asked to write a controversial line in the virginia declaration of rights. words that would institutionalize white supremacy and reverberate throughout u. s. history. i have written a little bit about virginia found or edmond pendleton, and there's not a lot of people that know all very much about admit pendleton and frances is related to edmund. as i understand the history, they said wait a man, we can't have these principles of liberty applying to slaves. and so he comes up with the line basically that signals and kind of coded language to the other slave

owners, that they're going to exclude the slaves from liberty. that all men by nature are equally free and independent and have certain rights. and he came up with the line when they enter into a state of society, which everyone understood to mean that the slaves would be excluded. ah, ah, ah. bring you the very latest every out the day. this is not snow from everyone handle . with the now we know you

do earth is he is a sphere if you will, fast, you will fall off the and and the other side already came home and you about home. so i would like to envision that does it actually address it is just like that? no, on the actual return from the other side with aah, place were even considered human. so how would they ever be accepted into civil society? but still, slavery was controversial. i wondered, did pendleton and the other founding fathers have a more pressing reason to break from great britain?

london had moved in somerset case in 1772. to abolish slavery with an a one. there was a lot of fear and suspicion on this side of the atlantic that that particular decision would have legs. i was always taught the revolutionary war was about things like freedom and taxation without representation. so was independence from great britain, really much more about preserving slavery. almost every founding father was the slave owner. slavery was an integral part, not just of the southern economy, but the entire northern economy. so it was just completely integrated into the thinking of the wealthy men that wrote the constitution. so the fact that the constitution is a perfect instrument is just bogus from the star. if you admit,

and this is the only truth, are you going to arrive at that because it did not ban the slavery and it left it in there and then left it as an open ended question. slavery is definitely one of the root causes of the current political malay that we have today. my uncle led virginia ratification of the us constitution in $1788.00, which included the 3 5th compromise. slaves were counted as 3 fifths of a voter. both slaves couldn't vote because the south had more slaves than the north . this gave the south one 3rd more congressional seats. an electoral vote for the next 73 years. slaveholding interests would dominate the government until the outbreak of the civil war. not surprisingly, 5 of the 1st 7 u. s. president were from the south and were slave owners.

the stories of i've done the service because you would think of there all these genteel men with wakes and bringing ideas. we're coming up with all of these project. some plans, yes, they get their hands dirty fighting the redcoats, but then his back to dreaming up the bill of rights and constitutions. and that'll bring in ideas and without the sort of mock and the grime and the dirt and the blood that's being shad to build this. the sliding never learned in school that many more slaves and is commonly acknowledged, insisted the brutality, or tried to escape. others organized and rebelled against their treatment. a successful and bloody revolution led by slaves in nearby haiti established the 1st black land republic in the world. this revolt terrified american slave owners like my ancestors who feared flavor rebellion would spread to the u. s. in the midst of

this national nightmare, there were white people who opposed slavery. ringback there was a growing unease that this might actually be wrong. that morally, it was hard to justify high northern states had started to either eliminate or gradually abolish slavery. what, what our country look like today. if the remaining 8 states had followed this path, but we didn't, instead, we deepened our commitment to slavery with even harsher laws. one of the main architects of those laws was my uncle, edmund pendleton, international pressure and the successful revolution in haiti forced the u. s. congress to ban the importation of new slaves. so what did southern slave owners do to maintain and grow their profits?

they bred more and more slaves. if you travel in virginia today, i think of charles city, which is not far from richmond. you'll find evidences today of virginia as this great breeding colony for your breeding africans, like breeding count, demand for slaves excluded because of eli whitney. the invention of the cotton gin cotton became the most profitable commodity in the world. in this era, 1000000 out of the 2000000 slaves in the us were brutally separated from their families and forcibly marched to the deep south to plant and pick cotton. this sight blends into the city landscape of new orleans was one of the nation's

busiest slave auction blocks. yet there was not even a plaque or a marker, acknowledging the suffering that took place. here it was and is a familiar white washing of history. the kind peddled to me in school books throughout my childhood. i feel haunted by the spirit of the slave who had been so terrorized here. the frenzy for profit produced by cotton and the sale of slaves in the new states also increased the physical violence against them. more productivity came through extreme punishment with overseers even calculating how many lashes on the back of a slave might generate one more pound of cotton. this cruelty and the forced separation from their families led more slaves to try to escape

the united supreme court. sanction a law the to the slaves, but requires the country to hunt slaves no matter where they are. there's no provision for that in the constitution. so we had this extremely broad reading of the rights of slave owners, which basically says the state can deputize every citizen united states, the hon, down slavery by the slave state in that country is going to all this length to protect slavery. oh, you run by now, i was seeing deeply troubling pattern in our history, white people, whether they own slaves or not. clearly had a state making sure that the majority of blacks were maintained as slaves. but by the mid 18 hundreds, networks like the underground railroad, were helping thousands of slaves flee to canada. and the non slave

u. s. states. the immense pressure over slavery led to the start of the american civil war in 18. 61 hanging in the balance where the lives of 4000000 in slave human beings, whose monetary value now exceeded that of all manufacturing and commercial enterprises combined. oh the sharon slave speak had broken away from the us, forming the confederacy. the american civil war was fought for. flor persecute,

save the union. me. when i was shown, i heard stories about how bravely my ancestors fought, and how much the family lost in the war, the northern aggression. to win the war. president abraham lincoln issued his emancipation proclamation in 18. 63, bring southern slave. so they could fight for the union, only with the wars end were northern slaves finally fried. ah, men and women told you only slaves. you're afraid you can do whatever you want to do. there a moment where moment our history is o l i. all of you, it all free now. yeah, good. all going home is called sometimes a day or jubilee. well, it was the little ju believe,

because everybody was uncertain. lex are uncertain. and they did say, how free is free. oh, free is re. the idea that this 4000000 people were set free without any kind of reparation. they had worked their ancestors at work. they helped to build all of the institutions that we think about in the south and in the north, before they're on before the revolution. and they got, they receive nothing. no, probably we have no clue. no, we didn't have not heard yet. did wrong the best you could. white settlers for getting cheap land in the west under the homestead act. understandably freed blacks pointed land in the south, where most of them still lived. but instead,

the federal government abandoned the freed slaves and sold confiscated southern land to northern whites and the railroads. pressured by abolitionists the federal government amended the constitution by passing the reconstruction amendments, which officially end in flavor and gave us citizenship to ex slaves. the amendments were supposed to protect, freed slaves against future, describe $3040.00 conflicting when it was designed to try to interrupt the institution of slavery, which requires a re articulation of the entire country and the entire country identity. now, just from the south, up with the entire country revenue reconstruction more important than anything else. live black men, women to some extent. black men learned the uses. political power

by 1870 black males could now vote and vote they did in record numbers. 3 blacks were even elected to the u. s. senate. not until 1967 was another black elected as a u. s. senator, with the white feared more than anything else. the reconstruction may succeed in my succeed at reordering. so society waits in an intense hatred for blacks. one to get ahead. a successful black was a dangerous black, an incompetent, illiterate black hose, no threat. his labor was valuable. but the black had got out of his place, his part, anything above the place to which she had been assigned. that is the kind of black,

the whites could not tolerate. with. so the country started in that road and then they were neg, and they decided tote basically to create another expression of racial dominance. the southerners wanted to control these 4000000 people that had been free. they still needed them to do the work. they also needed them to understand and to know their place in this was something mad, even northerners would come to understand and agree with that. the states were really free to do whatever they wanted to do in terms of controlling this inferior people as they continue to see them.

now we know, you know, as he is a sphere in your fast, you will fall off the and and the other side when he came home and you're back home . so i would like to envision that the does it also the unit we live in is just like that. you're on the action. do i need to? i'm from the other side. and there is james all down through here, holiday larry, over here. so you're camps were always a little nicer than this evidence of absolute poverty. just mayor, people in our city and other cities all across america are living like this, where the original lead and village. so that opened up in 2018 right now. there's 31 homes on the property. it's a little over 4 acres with 31 homes and a community center. unfortunately, a lot of people don't make it out of edition more homelessness and i'm just really

happy with it. oh, bad you with. ah, i want to make no sense, you know borderline to nationalities and you various as emerge. we don't have authority, we don't have a vaccine. the whole world needs to take action and to be ready. people are judgment. 2 common crisis with we can do better, we should be better. everyone is contributing each in their own way. but we also know that this crisis will not go on forever. the challenge is going to response has been massive. so many good people are helping us. it makes us feel very proud

that we are in it together with your channel machinery, the geography, the nucleus. you too. but john the nucleus. you and then the sub boshoway she can. hi sharon, this is rob lee with kaiser. yeah. latoya this new group move. she been hosting online and kelly with a quote and i renewed my financial and i to assure that tangent of land didn't get to. i learned that she gave us times too much cookie. i had them of the fact not only not that i'm requesting from us, i don't know if he asked him to you me act he had to pay to put him on with the

money that i can live with . ah, top stories right now. the simmering situation on the border with ukraine is expected to dominate the thoughts of russia's top diplomat. a star gala pro prepared to speak to russian media in an hour's time. off these editor in chief margarita some on yeah, will be among the journalists quizzing. the forum minutes step. meanwhile, the pentagon says more military aid will be heading to ukraine, including lethal weapons. but it comes as washington repeatedly tells russia to deescalate tensions with its neighbour. ah, also ahead to potentially fatal blow to boris johnson's leadership meet emails suggest the u. k prime minister may have prioritized pets over people doing the

chaotic evacuation.