Tv. So, we will live on forever and ever after 3 a. M. When you cant sleep. [laughter] i will get a text from my father the following morning saying you are on television again. Im just curious a show of hands i like to ask how many of you are visiting for the first time this evening to the museum wax wonderful. Welcome to all of you. You are surrounded by many of our members, members of our founding members of the museum and society into this is a wonderful fellowship of people who are great supporters of the museum. We are pleased to partner with trust and you will see them up on the screen. I know Tim Gillespie but i know all i can see out there is darkness but lets think them for making the revolution possible. [applause] it is a pleasure to be welcoming doctor Vincent Browne this evening. As it is sometimes the case but not often w that often we are ay welcoming a good friend to the museum here this evening. Vince is one of the group of scholars have consulted in the E Development of the extraditions for the museum here so long before the shuffle was in the ground into the steel beam in philadelphia. Some of these turned into some of the great personal stories in the core exhibition. The Charles Warren professor of American History and professor of africanAmerican History at Harvard University hes the author of the garden that won the James Raleigh prius and award. If you have an opportunity to go online, dont do it now on your phone but hes a developer of slave revolt and jamaica 1760, 61 and it is a narrative you can go online and even may be speaking about this during the talk this evening, but its a great online resource and hopefully will begin to be used by educators and classrooms. Hes received a guggenheim fellowships, his documentary in the heart of blackness was broadcast nationally on pbs. It was chosen as the best documentary at the hollywood black Film Festival so i definitely check that out. Now 2017 for those of us are herthatare here on april 19 whee open a museum of the American Revolution, then the vincent brn was one of our keynote speakers that we read the transcript but continued to inspire us and view more recently might have seen him interviewed on the cbs sunday morning peace and all of these are available on the museums website, search for the museum of the American Revolution, or amrev. Org to find out that information. We have to introduce Vincent Brown and thought you ought to get the same treatment. We are going to warmly welcome Vincent Brown. It can motivate people. Loyalty to a cause. Ideals into the cartridge to carry them out. We appreciate the efforts of common women, men and children of all sorts. There are losses and victories and the determination to turn them into lessons that history of the revolution is and should be a living history as it was in the dreams this kind of history is messy and contradictory, constant and ironic as often as it is heroic it also has the virtue of being closer to the truth. So, im grateful, deeply grateful to the curator of this exhibit for having the courage to tell the truth. To show us the story of National Origin but a multifaceted account of how one might have experienced the time of such turmoil. [applause] i did not expect this. [laughter] now i can lay back and relax. I appreciate that. Thank you for the wonderful introduction. Also thank you for all of the fantastic work that you do here at the museum and for inviting me to speak this evening. I also want to thank anna for arranging my appearance here, brian david for hosting, holding down, and thanks to all of you for coming out tonight. I very much appreciate you and your interest in history and especially your interest in history that you dont know and that you would like to explore. I appreciate that. Its kind of a homecoming for me because one of the curators here was a graduate student of ours at Harvard University and he is doing amazing work. I am so proud of him and it is kind of nice to be here to help. [applause] im extremely honored to have laura in the audience tonight. [applause] with the American Revolution history in the country but also especially at harvard and diversity where she was instrumental in high hearing and i am so grateful, not sure why you didnt find still grateful, so its great to see you. Thanks for coming. I am so honored to be with you here and im hoping maybe we can all catch a bit of the spirit of the revolution together before it is too late. In 1776, great britains most important american colony was on the verge of insurrection. Colonists proceeded that they were conspiring against the rights of the subject. They feared a plot against the english liturgies and the long enjoyed. Those dwelt upon the topic of american rebellion. As these jamaican colonists debated whether they com come lw an opportunity. Ththe island was at a critical juncture with the british entry into yet another imperial war. Colonists exaggerated accounts of developers in the caribbean and calculated that there were 30 slaves to every white person ready to join they said the attempt of any enemy and a general massacre. On july 3, the troops prepared for a rendezvous scheduled to be part of the island for north america by the end of the month. Throughout the parish, people gathered frequently in houses, grounds and open fields to hold very serious conversations but stopped suddenly upon the approach of anyone they did not trust. They were strategized and now or never if they thought was the time to make themselves masters of the country. The moment seemed like a successful uprising because americabut thisamerican revoluto be. As it so often happened with the slavslave rebellion, the plot ws betrayed and the conspiracy unraveled. When the british and jamaica considered the gravity of 1776 rather than looking ahead to the loss of the colonies, they look to the past back to the insurrection 1760 which had been the most dangerous threat to the entire debate. They reflected on the differences between 1760 and 1776, mostly in terms of the nature of warfare with their own slaves. 1776 customarily arks the moment in the origin of the United States of america when the declaration of independence announced the separation of the 13 colonies from great britain. When referring to the origin of the nation though, the date obscures the broad context of times. It deflected attention from the fact that britain hope to 26 colonies in america, not just the 13 that broke away. Southern and midatlantic and new england. 70 percent of the wealth and. One british america but when you break it down you can see wealth increase as you move south, that is they depended upon in slave labor. In astonishing disparity drop and 90 percent of the population three white people were stupendously rich boasting 17 times the wealth of those in the 13 colonies. But yet the average private wealth of a free white colonist in generic one jamaica was 50 times greater of a settler in new england. Military deployments distributed to protect that wealth. Often nearly as many as to the whole of the north American Continent and to have greater influence from the north american peers this is to explain what Thomas Hutchinson needed as soon as he wanted from british policymakers from the 17 seventies. Before that American Revolution that we now know as tachys revolt the crisis in slave revolt of overwhelming concern take advantage of britain sevenyear war the uprising began april 7th , 1760 continuing into the next year. Over the course of 18 months they managed to kill 61 and destroy tens of thousands of properties for over 500 black men and women were killed in battle, executed or driven to suicide. Another 500 were transported from the island for less. To consider the extended secrecy of the plan the multitude of the conspirators of those of the places at once this revolt was more formidable than any of the west indies burqa according to two slaveowners of an african man named tacky organized executed by people from the gold coast stretching between the two rivers had that reputation for military prowess their displacement and forced migration and rebellion show how the slave trade masks the warfare of the 18th century Atlantic World. The slave trade spread throughout the americas somewhere leaders were soldiers and found themselves scattered by trade winds and currents and replanted into unfamiliar territories to rebuild their social lives. Inevitably some of them were in war against their bondage those that found themselves caught up in that war cast across the ocean and set down in alien land were brutalized renewed conflicts promised to liberate them or to serve their masters blades looking at the prospect of a better life this process of adaptation familiar to students of cultural change but of african religion and expression and identity with the africanamerican and atlantic history and a similar approach shows how the turmoil life of Plantation Society generates a response that travels and sprouted across the americas and back to europe that is what happened when they broke out in a series of revolts in the 17th and 18th century india, st. John, antigua and jamaica the archipelago of insurrections from north american the jamaican insurrection of 60 and 61 followed by further uprising 65 and 66 the most consequential. For what observers could glean it was clear there were many soldiers in africa full cadre arriving in military training and discipline with these tactics that were learned and as they suggest that could be seen as extension is an african war. This perspective reveals the complex networks of migration trans Regional Power that gave the political history of 18 centurys most distinctive contours. Warfare is the first step to envision slavery that shows how those practice one practices travel and take root and grow in disparate environments. Even as a slave trade force people to negotiate their affiliations, the africans across the atlantic scattered the seeds of military conflict throughout the americas. The story shows how it was reconstituted not as a direct continuation but the outsource of experience. British slave owners valued cora montys highly for Agricultural Labor but at the same time the rebellious disposition to promote disturbances. They were dangerous people to keep in bondage and part because i found the gold coast to be a good source of workers they witness the transformation of major empires which vied for each other fueled by arms sales from european traders they produced great quantities for those on the coast they also produced a turbulent environment in which military campaigns involved with europeans on african rivals multiple alliances negotiations and treachery this context was highly suspect those from the gold coast or any single ethnic group in africa and those who were according to the best research on the subject the subject of co nationals forming what contemporaries called the nation in the americas. This was a phenomenon a category comprising people who could understand the language recognizably and similar strategies there was no direct antecedent where shared languages were not enough to supersede getting their name from an important coastal town the cora monty nation was a social glue and religious institution functioning as a Mutual Aid Society and a place to enjoy entertainment. For social communion in the environment with militarism and brutality was a common experience for people to plan and organize and stage revolts when they did to one so they drew upon their previous experiences. However cora monty was cross cut by others they spoke more than one language and came from many different regions and kingdoms just as important once in jamaica they served different roles so no amount of cultural similarity could dissolve those negotiations even with their compatriots as a made friends and foes with politics of belonging to make that debate as much as the identity itself in the faith of continual assaults to distinguish themselves by the political commitment and among the cora montys the worst abuses and how to destroy it altogether even as they recall their prior experience. In the turbulent world of warfare more than how to form loyal unit alliances and coalitions they had won this wisdom on the gold coast where they learned the particulars in order to make war on their masters. Of the military veteran of the seven years war famously defined itself as the perpetual part of for it was not conventional between the state armies recognized by the state but rather mastery was by itself to met with resentment against the cruelty of slaveholders. Are you not of the insurrection cracks it was not a rhetorical question since the early days of jamaica thereafter considering the enslaved as irreconcilable and an enemy rebellion was the anxiety even more terrible they had been in jamaica in 1772 reeling from the uprising from the previous decade and then to go through their counterattack so where the enslaved characterize their bondage as a permanent state of low intensity war talking regularly how they would wage the war. Warfare migrants veteran warfare with the expansion to transform europe and africa and the americas as they interacted across the Atlantic Ocean european conflicts extending from capitalist agriculture african battles these clashes amounted to a slave wall and war against slaves precipitating that fighting slaves again slaveholders. And then with the other wars with the allocations and enemy combatants it with those concepts the extension of war of the african continent it was a race war between black and white and a struggle among black people what were the terms for effective control as local territory and the establishment of their own political legacy . And one of the hardest fought battle of the seven years war. And those into the interactions of the 17 sixties charting their course to get new stories of territory and movement and a new cartography with africa and america. As an example the principal leaders also known by his african name had a new type of campaign the elite official on the gold coast engaging, with political rivals captured and enslaved fighting naval battles against the french the driver on the sugar plantation before the uprising of the british to call the race war. As they engage in these struggles the everyday violence of enslavement to the scale of geopolitics. This interlocking power of migration and power to connected that constituent elements to integrate that was far from the plantations beyond the relations between masters and slaves to observe racial violence those who fight in europe and north america and those who crisscrossed those who were swept up both sides of the Atlantic Ocean tracking movements of profiteers and ordinary fighters exposed in the shape of the archipelago of World History from below. Now, i will let you read hopefully yourselves. [laughter] sorry you cannot read the text you can get a general sense just how complicated the revolt was even with the first few months and those that underappreciated to give you a sense of why i think its so important and then to model so to anticipate the American Revolution it can be considered of what historians call the age of revolution and yet despite the fact to influence two of those moments the realization of British Imperial government and to abolish the Transatlantic Slave Trade. In the aftermath of the revolt jamaicas house is new poll taxes and commercial duties and those for all america the jamaica stamp act was made explicitly to address the cost of the revolt that is replaced at too great a burden of the wealthiest columnist one colonists. And the 1760 tax of a far larger reform effort and as the policymakers north America Africa and the caribbean has a threat to their most vital colony. And then to reach out the board of trade with that jamaican interaction. That might contain the antagonist. And those that would take shape and since the conclusion of the previous war of 1748 to increase dramatically in the first half of the century and the complexity and then to be spurred into the reform effort. And elected officials and with those troops and resources this coincides with a dramatic shift to a fundamentally restricted philosophy to amplify the widespread conviction the colonies had too many privileges for co news of the slave for the most profitable colony strength and the policymakers resolve them and held by a shift in attitude. And those slaveholders of the benefit so as not if not for the forces the lives and properties would become afraid of their slaves and with the imposition of new taxes however somebody in north america that would encourage them to remain subject to imperial command to help finance urban security. They did not like imperial reform after the seven years war serving as a model policymakers preferred wrath of new legislation for the american colonies these policies and spared the one is by the backlash if the jamaican insurrection helped to shape material conflicts may also offer a rationale for the reform and to enhance the security of the independence of the slave trade to ameliorate the enslaved ironically the work of the historians on the impact of the budding discourse and this threat especially to the coromantee insurgents promoted the idea it would be more retractable that they could avoid to scatter them with better conditions for child rearing of christianity and can be more secure in their possession raising up nativeborn populations and then to lead to a kinder and gentler less menacing slavery. And then to argue enhance the security of the British Empire and then to nurture the slave trade movement. And with those first responding to the 1712 uprising in new york city the Pennsylvania Assembly not only of the island as the reason for their action. That was a ten year moratorium since they c