they enforce the laws prohibiting the slave trade from africa.abandoned efforts to challenge slavery through the federal judiciary. like many other important cases in the history of the federal courts, i must add had its greatest impact in the world beyond the courts. the legend of seem k inspired others and slaved people and remains a powerful tale of the quest for freedom. the widely reported court proceedings expose the fragile legal principles and political compromises supporting slavery. and the personal stories of enslavement won the anti slavery cause many new supporters. the lasting impact of armistead's passage through the federal courts was to encourage the growing opposition to slavery in the united states. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> 60 years ago on april 17th 1961, a force of more than 1400 cia trained cuban exiles marched an invasion at the bay of kids pigs on the southern coast of cuba, called regrade 25 or six. their goal was the overthrow of communist leader fidel castro. who had taken power only two days earlier in the human revolution. the vision

so the court had no way to determine a monetary value of slaves.the judge then considered spain's demand for the return of the mendy as the rightful property of spanish citizens. according to judson the spaniard's right to this property and with it the fate of the mendy depended on proof of ownership and proof that the africans were, in fact, property under spanish law. on both points judson surprised nearly everyone by ruling against the spanish claims. judson determined that the spanish planters possessed no legal evidence of ownership only passes for transporting slaves and that these documents incorrectly stated that the africans on the armistead were long-time inhabitants of spanish territory. the spanish treaty declared that any africans transported after 1820 were to be free in spanish territory, including cuba. since the testimony of several witnesses proved that the mendy had arrived recently in cuba, judson declared that they were not lawfully held property and could not be delivered to spanish officials. instead judson granted a u.s. att

their slave into that place.s a kind of negative popular sovereignty. so reasoning that way for stephen a. douglass, popular sovereignty lives. which is not what james buchanan wanted. and so buchanan and douglass come to loggerheads. the president of the united states versus the most powerful senator in the senate, both of the same political party as democrats. and when douglass comes to call upon james buchanan it's not a pretty picture. at last the president became somewhat excited on the subject and arose and said to me, mr. douglass, i desire you to remember that no democrat ever yet differed from an administration of his own choice without being crushed. don't mess with the president of your party. and then he added, beware of the fate of talmadge and reeves. two on strep rouse democrats who challenged andrew jackson and lived to regret it. i arosing with douglass says, i arose and said mr. president i wish to you remember that general jackson is dead, sir. which is the 1850s equivalent of saying, i knew an

owned slaves. so he's not saying that the problem here is some kind of demonic possession of southerners. no. these southerners are americans like ourselves. they profess republican principles and they're really good men. the problem is that in defending slavery it turns them inside out. it puts them into open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty, and criticizing the declaration of independence and insisting that there's no right principle of action except self-interest. remember the muncells. the doctrine, lincoln says, the doctrine of self-government is right, absolutely and eternally right and that was part of the strategy of stephen a. douglas because when stephen a. douglas comes to you and says let's look at popular sovereignty solve it in the territories and say that's self-government isn't it? that's democracy and let the people on the ground make the choices, that's self-government. the doctrine of self-government is right. absolutely and eternally right, but it has no

where the militia was consistently good was in slave revolts, in crushing slave revolts. so this is what led george mason and patrick henry to talk about "we must control our militia. we will be left defenseless against slave revos if the federal government controls it." and so it is that fear of sla revolts, that fear of black rebellion, the fear of blacks as a dangerous population that mt be controlled by these militias, that was essential in the drafting of the second amendment. when you think aut the bill of rights, how you've got the right freedom othe press, how you have no state-sponsored ligion, how you have freedom of assembly, the right noto be illegally searched a seized, the right to a speedy and fair trial, the right not to he cruel and unusual puniment -- and you see these incredible rights. and then you've got thisell-regulated militia? the right to bear arms for the security of the state? thatmendment is an outlier this bill of rights. and that outlier is because it was the payoff to the south to have a force unr state corol that could contain black aspira

and made the slave trade controversial as never before slave holders nevertheless won the freedom to determine the future of slavery in most of the country for most of the slaves under a constitution that protected their interests in multiple complicated and especially political ways. the three fifth clause was only the tip of an iceberg, i think, of how the nation came to be gufrd through slavery. the best metaphor i have been able to come up with for this process -- i am hoping to do better, but for now, is that the constitution hard wired slavery into the political order without even needing to mention it. not unlike, perhaps, the wiring that is so important in the walls of every building we live in. enabling the liberals of 1787 to walk away not having admitted property and man, but having done much more, or much worse. quickly, systematically, the number of free people of african decent rose. but the number of enslaved increased far more. the domestic slave trade encouraged and facilitated by the new national market moved a million people and actually undomesticated slavery, mak

his slaves.his slaves. so you can you talk the talk but if you don't can talk the talk, walk the walk but if you don't. walk the walk, if you don't free me then if you don't free me, that idea then that has got idea has very little meaning to me. very little meaning to me. the roots of power. you have to look at these actions of those people, not just but they say. that is true for any person that leaves any kind of record. but my research -- i would have been in the 19th century, that it got pushed up all the way to the 16th century. this intellectual idea of racial extermination, not the extermination of the 20th century, i want to be clear. it is a tactic of war. that means i will kill your mother, all of your significant other non combatants to make you surrender, to make you give up. to make you give in. even though native american an american people know that that is on the table, that is what it is at risk. amazingly, they still continue to contribute, they still continue to sign up to be

not the former slave owners. some of them align themselves with white americans and productivity for there's more black people look to the left they look at american native laziness, lack of productivity. in fact one of the most famous african-american leaders of the 19th century gave several speeches were spoke about how african-americans find peace in the west and how the united states should support this endeavor financially. but to support this appeal, douglas integrated native americans right in a speech to the american antislavery society in 1869 he said this. the negroes might be white men than the indian in his taste and tendencies indian rejects her civilization loves your remains with the under all circumstances and slavery and freedom. now here we can see a clear dichotomy being made between african-americans and white americans on one hand. and native americans on the other hand. the uncivilized side really with white people by using our civilization. on. the national demand and enterprising, intellig

it's transit antics slave trade. but from let's say, 1500 said the 16th century, right up until the 19th century. people were tropic africans with traffic. and then does the sense of nervousness about putting a point on? how do you do that because that's what reparations is doing, isn't it the key to you start plus it's much more than that as well. it's not just compensation for the labor era for the fall of the holocaust, of the transatlantic slave trade, but least with respect to in the ninety's phase where everything that's happened since then layman era. the. 2 black code pianos system, the chain gains sharecropping, the homestead, not being able to get the benefits of that of the g i. bill, the red line gem call are part of the mass incarceration. all of these things combine the black white, our economic wealth gap, the shelter spirits eve, the educational inequity, the cruel, punish. so it is compensation for all of that combined. and i will say this, no, i'm out. no amount of financial compensation. can it all

this is a timeline from the transatlantic slave trade database. those play ships that you see crossing from the african continent and back through to the caribbean and new and north america. they are portuguese and british, and french at spanish, from the netherlands, from america, gives you an idea of the height of the antics slave trade. what it meant, an estimate of between 12 and a half 1000000 people, and maybe up to 20000000 people from the african continent were enslaved. so 2 questions that always come up when say we reparations and talked about one, nothing to do with me to do if my government, i was around the time. i'm not responsible to. it was a long time ago. what other questions would you like to put to, i guess the comment section is right here on youtube can be part of today's discussion. whenever politics is discussed in often, slavery and conversation is a habit for them discussed in terms of the past. i think it was a one time event occurred centuries justice is just a compensation check off is the reason why african people aro

i am a free mulatto my wife and child who live at the mill where i do or slaves. my wife's name is rachel age between 1560 years and my child's name is ursula ages 11 years. now several other virginia veterans veterans told of enslaved family members when they applied for the pensions near early 19th century. thomas mahoney was a planter on a little farm not his and his rendered unable to pursue it by reason of his age and infirmity. his family resided with him or as follows his wife maema and his son jack both of which are slaves. he being a free man of color who served in the war of the revolution and and rory scott 10th, virginia regimen noted by occupation. is that of a rough carpenter, but i can get put little work and if i had more i could not do it. my wife was on my family but being a slave can render me no assistance. from here. we'll turn to the only american segregate segregated regimen not unit the worst. few very few segregated companies within regiments, but this is the only segregated american regimen. the unit most associated with african-american

it tried to antic slave trade. but from let's say 1500. so the 16th century, right up until the 19th century, people were tropic africans were traffic. and then the, the sense of nervousness about putting a point on how do you do that because that's what reparations is doing, isn't it? the key to you start plus is much more than that as well. it's not just compensation for the labor error for the fall of the holocaust, of the transatlantic slave trade, but least with respect to in the united states where everything that's happened since then slaymen era. there. 2 are black cove pianos system, the chain gains to share cropping, the homestead at not being able to get the benefits of that of the g. i bill the red line in the gym for our part, the mass incarceration. all of these things combine the black white, our economic wealth gap, the shelters receive the education of inequity, the cruel, punish with the so it is compensation for all of that combine. and i will say there is no amount, no amount of financial compensation, jen, it all compe

there's a sort of clamping down on slave communities and often gorillas serve that purpose of being slave patrols. and then the extremists were motivated by bloodlust, right? i mean, there's always a certain percentage of people in the population who find great pleasure in destruction and in murder and it's not surprising that some of them would sign up. to fight in the civil war and that some of them would find guerrilla warfare to be. the perfect place which to act out their desires, right but they cultivated gorilla bands kind of cultivated this sense of doublemake hair and this sense of individuality and that this was fun, right this was a fun thing to do to go out and hunt yankees, and i think you can see this in george mattox's photograph here with his his just the way that he's sitting with the fabulous hat that he's got with all this decoration and he's got this very elaborate shirt and vest on underneath his coat knees wearing boots, of course to signify that. he's on horseback and he's posing and i don't know if you can see the detail in this background, but he's posing in front

the fight between slave and slave breaker that took place there is emblematic of two of the themes of american history, the horrors of legally sanctioned racial violence and also the nobility of the struggle against it. and then here's actually the kicker from that piece. the professor says, quote, preserving mount misery as a public site of contemplation from democracy and december patism are given a human face also would help keep saint michael's from being merely a resort for the wealthy. a resort for the wealthy? check this out. the occasion for that call that well-argued piece in the baltimore sun that mount misery should be purchased and preserved by this country against saves in great numbers but specifically against one of the greatest americans of all time, the key role that the torture in that house played in turning on our american conscious to eventually overthrow slavery, the occasion for that call to preserve mount misery as a monument to the hell that happened there, the reason the baltimore sun published that just less than 15 years ago now was this revelation that was

the slaves enough corn to make the bread. and so this may seem maybe this isn't that bad language that he uses, they didn't work like they should. i mean, using the idea of americanness as craig will but the native americans were really looking to survive. so anything is with american and people were capable of working harder, the way they should if they were only given the model and the opportunity. and so this is strategic language use in the increase of the words and very aware that was the united states it had negotiated for the freedoms and for the land ownership, let the former slave owners. some of them align themselves with white americans and the definitions of civilization and productivity. as for five people look to move west, we see some of them also using these ideas about native americans laziness or lack of productivity or civilization. in effect for the most famous african-american leaders in the 19th century really of all times, frederick douglass gave several speeches we spoke about african-americans might f

-- a slave for life -- a slave with no rational ground to hope for freedom -- it rendered me a living embodiment of mental and physical wretchedness. that was frederick douglass is account of his own life in that lowest period in his own life. and that written accounts did more than any other to galvanize the american abolitionist movement to bring an end to slavery and of course it was not fiction. it really happened and it really happened just as frederick douglass said it did. and edward covey was a real person who really did operate a slave breaking operation at his farm to which frederick douglass was sent. and if you go back to that initial description douglas describes the farm as being on the base side and what he meant by that was that the farm was on the far side of chesapeake bay, the far side of chesapeake bay from the mainland of maryland where douglas was being sent there. and edward covey's farm of the slave breaking operation where he tortured frederick douglass and countless others was this house. and the surrounding farmland on the eastern shore of maryland on a town

any slaves were accepted. in early may, the legislature set a cutoff date for slave recruiting. free blacks could continue to enlist. despite the governor's assurances, at best, less than 150 african-americans ever joined the 1st regiment. the 1st rhode island staff was recruited. enlisted personnel were incorporated into the 2nd rhode island regiment. it was actually -- the remaining enlisted personnel were incorporated into the 2nd with the exception of a single segregated company belonging to the first rhode island. that was captain arnold's company. 60 privates. while that company remained at valley forge. this is actually a little known story. the segregated 1st rhode island was being formed in rhode island in 1778. the main never really joined. a single segregated company belonging filled with veteran soldiers, black and indian, served with washington's army and took part in the campaign at monmouth. they marched by the courthouse. early in the action, having attacked the british rear guard, they retreated withdrawing toward general washington's marching troops. general le

being a slave can render me no assistance. from here we'll turn to the only american segregated regiment. not unit, there were a few, very few segregated companies within regiments, but this is the only segregated american regiment. most associated with african-american revolutionary soldiers is the so-called black rhode island regiment n.reality it existed from march 1778 to june 1780, two years and three months. it was never large enough to form a full regiment and never served in washington after the unit joined and were consolidated to form the single rhode island regiment. while detailed discussions would take too much time let's have a brief look at events before and after the first rhode island regiment that became the only segregated continental regiment. little known about the african-american numbers in the rhode island regiment. 1775 letter noted that regiments of rhode island have a number of negroes and indians. and those numbers only increased as the war went on. all of the rhode island regiments from 1757 throug

a slave from missouri, born in 1795 named dred scott. dred scott was a slave owned by dr. john emmerson emmerson was a contract surgeon for the united states army. and his part of his service in the united states army, as a contract civilian, he like everyone else in the army at all times in history of the u.s. army, constantly has to uproot and move and go to various places. i can testify to that, there is a car carrying army brat. all right? you knew that you were only going to be about 68 months in any one location before you are going to have to move on. well, emerson has to move on to. so, he station first at fort armstrong and illinois and then he's moved to fort smelling. in minnesota, while minnesota at that point was still a territory. doctor emmerson marries he lies a sanford and 1838. last, however, he dies in 1843 and dreads caught, after the death of dr. emmerson pierre, tread scott screws suits for his freedom. in the year 1846. he lies a sound, forget by the way, transfers ownership of dred scott to her brother, john sanford in 1850. that's just a detail. so

some professed that they were slaves. someone not too long ago made the statement that the first africans that their skin was black and dirty and represented evil, so they had to be slaves. i'm going to show you that that wasn't necessarily the case because in the 1624-1625 muster -- again you have got these ship captains. these captains were salty old men. they traveled all over the world. they were captains. they knew what an enslaved person was and what an enslaved person wasn't. so the head of each of these plantations or developments or settlements was headed.by a captain. and they gave their districts these fancy names. and you can see the names of the plantations or the areas in which these angolans lived. but these sea captains who were worldly men, what they did in that same muster is they listed their legal status. and they didn't list them as slaves. they listed them as servants. so in 1624, 1625, we hear people say that slavery started all the way to the beginning. and that's not what the legal document -- tha

we do have a set of actual slaves shackles in our collection. i can tell you, the first time i saw them and held them, that feeling is incredibly powerful. the weight of those shackles is much more than you might think it would be. >> and have you shared that experience with members of the public? i am just wondering if that feels different to a person of color than a person like myself perhaps. >> , one of the challenges, or the things i'd like to do is get a reproduction of the shackle. it would be wonderful to be able to have folks come and feel them, hold them in their hands. but unfortunately it is a precious item for lack of a better word. we cannot have the public touch them or i would love to have a reproduction of the same weights and heft so we can experience it for yourself. >> i do not want to say amazing but that would be really interesting. really powerful is the word i want, thank you kimberly. a number people are asking questions about sharing your book with younger students. when the paperback edition might be coming out? and i

i mean, i knew that slave owners had, you know, children, slave holders and slaves, there were connections, children born and other kinds of connections. i knew that. but to have it talking about a person, an individual who i had been interested in before, this was like a new twist on the story. >> host: how widespread are the descendants of jefferson and sally hemings? >> guest: very widespread. i mean, madison hemings had himself 12 kids. i don't think his sons had children, many had churn. but his daughter -- had children. but his daughters had lots of kids, is so there are lots of people around the country who are hemings' descendants. and it's, i've met a good number of them and corps responded with a good number of -- corresponded with a good number of them. i've been to a family reunion with them and including some people from jefferson's legal family. but it's real widespread. they had lots of kids in those days. the generation becomes exponential at some point. >> host: annette the gordon-reed, have they been officially recognized, the hemings side of the family? >> i don't think

i'll focus on the theme of movement the displacements of the slave trade the daring risks of slave flight the progress of the union army across the south and the post-war journeys of civil war veterans to build new lives. one theme more than any other stands out in the historical sources on black veterans from virginia and that theme is the trauma inflicted by slavery and the slave trade particularly the trauma of family separation. take the case. for example of matthew gardner. conveyed by slave traders from virginia to jefferson county arkansas on the eve of the civil war gardner went on to fight for freedom as a member of the 69th usct regimen. gardeners pension file makes it possible for us to reconstruct his journey in some detail. he was born into slavery in july of 1847 and grew up on properties owned by the fretwell family of albemarle county near meacham's river depot. the fret wells owned more than 20 slaves and as we can see in their family letters in uva special collections library the fret wells reported to each other regularly on their buying and selling of enslaved men wome

so not thinking about texas as being a slave society, having been a slave society, i think sometimes from the questions i get people are confused about certain things they hear coming out of texas because they think, you know, what are these racial problems, talking about race, what is this? what's the problem here? this is a place full of cowboys or this is a white space. it's not a space of african-americans only, you know, people who have anything to do with what we think of as the old south. people that live in georgia, mississippi, places like that as slave societies, not so much texas where it actually was. so the purpose of the book was to disabuse people of that notion that it's all about the west. the wes is important, i don't want to, you know, you can't downplay that. but east texas where i grew up, where my ancestors were brought from in one case, a couple of cases from georgia and from mississippi, was a slave society. and the state is still dealing with all of that today. >> host: have you been able to trace back your family? pretty thoroughly? >> guest: not thoroughly.

their taxes have been handed to slave traders and not to the victims. not when we should be keeping the pressure on its politicians throughout the world. every country in the world benefited from the trend land, the trade and reparations to the slaves. thus, for work to call up the colonies that were, were enslaved, asked, be paid. slave owners benefited very well indeed. you know, they were paid what, what in today's money blends, i believe it began with state. business can begin to pay the commonwealth countries and africans. what is true produce and trade trade in industry. we're going to, we can see if we can see some changes placement of africans by your appearance. probably the greatest crime in, you know, she manatee lasting for hundreds of years affecting tens of millions of people. and condemning that those communities, families and nations to poverty. and purgatory for 4 centuries deep. i already thought to myself a descendant african and say communities was still paying through my taxes. i had the 20000000 pounds of compensation that was awar

you can call it slave labor.t you might -- well, you know, it is the extreme of a government who in essence owns the people, traffics in those people while the only beneficiary is the regime, mostly the castro family. we have all seen the videos of the castro's nephews and grandchildren in these huge yachts traveling in luxury throughout the world. how is that funded? it is funded by trafficking in humans, not allowing cubans to get paid direcy by companies that are doing business with the castro regime. i don't know what you want to define that. the department of state, of the united states calls what they do with their doctors human trafficking, and i believe that is absolutely accurate. >> you signed a letter this week to leading democracies around the world. you signed a letter last week to president biden. you are making key specific recommendations for what democratic allies should be doing vis-a-vis cuba and what president biden should be doing with the united states policy to cuba. let's first take the le

slavery shaped america and the slaves built the white house. i understood it but like i didn't get it. i think it is important for us to not run from a history that is painful because we are made to feel as if that is the only type of way we should consume our history. what we should consume this history and what i captioned book is what's remarkable all that's been accomplished in spite of that history or was born out of that history. i think you can see an example of that in the united states and then colonized groups people across the world. these remarkable stories of art and literature and culture that are born out of the unimaginable unfathomable circumstances. i think it is a both thing. we need tv and movies and books reflect the wide range of the black experience, the painful aspects and the joyful aspects. but we also shouldn't allow ourselves to be convinced that we talk about this too much because something i tell people is nobody would ever say sometimes people would be like there's so many movies about slavery. there is not actual

for that he was not only a slave trader, he was a slave trader of the illegal slaves brought over from you but as was his revolutionary colleague james bannon. buie was a freeloader. he was a corrupt land speculator. he was about as far from steve mcqueen as you get. so he's always been my favorite but i know a lot of people like to go on about travis just because of the facts and i'll just leave that hanging there . >> the guy that i kind of really got locked onto was a guy named juan almonte. this son of a renegade spanish priest and an indigenous woman. a child soldier wounded atthe age of eight . goes to evacuate new orleans to escape the spanish inquisition when he's 13 and returns home to join the revolution against pain and becomes a colonel in the mexican army. he goes into texas at five, speaks perfect english, gathers all this intelligence and comes back and said the americans are going to try to steal texas and he's reporting to santa ana. he becomes santa ana's speechwriter. he joins with abolitionists in baltimore and plans to bring freed slaves to texas once they push all

there were plenty of benevolence slave owners. and that is that is how most americans through the 1910s 20s 30s 40s 50s thought of slavery until you had stories like kenny stamp. come and make clear that the reason the the disparities between black and white communities in existed in the mid-20th century in the the way that they did. was intimately tied to an institution that had ended less than a hundred years ago. and so really groundings with origin point of black white inequality in shadow slavery, which seems so self-evident and obvious but really wasn't part of this sort of national and public discourse of how we understood what inequality was at that time in this country. well, i think that this is so important because when i was researching what i researched my fiction and i was really looking into colonialism and imperialism so often the the christianizing force the the taking of the savages and making them into noble. that is a very common ideology. that's found throughout the 17th 18th, and 19th centuries asked to justi

when you take that away you have instances of teenage boys saying, slave trade, slave auction, slavetaught them. >> reporter: the superintendent of the district says in a statement to parents, i am deeply sorry that a few of our students engage in racial harassment of two of our students of color. it was totally unacceptable to all of us and it should not have happened. the school disciplined the students involved and outlined multiple steps to address the problem in the community. >> it is a responsibility of our education system to include the entire story. >> reporter: but texas is now one of at least 26 states that have proposed or passed laws restricting or banning classroom discussions of concepts relating to race and racism that republican lawmakers say are divisive. >> when you look at these states that have banned critical race theory, they're banning the study of race and racism in america. and they are banning anything that essentially upsets this idea that america is this perfect, united place. >> you need to be arrested! >> reporter: but perhaps nowhere else has the issu

there were benevolence slave owners. they were saved from the savagery of africa and she had she was on her own journey at 80 years old. i've sort of unlearning so much of what she had been taught her entire life. um when we read the whitney this place in louisiana that centers the lives of enslaved people and is surrounded by constellation of plantations where people continue to hold weddings and take pictures in front of the homes of enslavers have bridal suites in former slave caverns. the whitney fundamentally rejects the idea. we can understand a plantation as anything other than a torture site, but at the same time that we should understand the people who were held at that torture site as fully human individuals. and so i went when i went with my grandparents and the rest of my wife my kids my my parents it was so powerful to see the impact that like a 60 minute tour could have on people and i was all i was almost like watching them during the tour and i thought about writing about it, but i almost wanted to preser

what, to the slave, is the fourth of july, he asked. how can black men and women enjoy that hallowed day or appreciate its significance as the birthday of this country's political freedom when white people hold securely in bondage a seventh part of the inhabitants of your country. what, to the slave, is the fourth of july? those are free black people i've been quoting. slave rebels themselves also understood our declaration's power. it was the ideals of our declaration, don't forget, that inspired nat turner to plan his 1831 virginia slave revolt for july 4th. white abolitionists too returned to the declaration time and again, finding in its famous lines a corollary to their own consciences. as virginia's john cook put it in 1829, if those words meant that no one man is born with a natural right to control any other man, then a system of slavery in which men were born the subjects and indeed the property of others is profoundly wrong. no one did more to constitute our declaration as a beacon towards which the people of the united states