Transcripts For CSPAN2 Vincent Brown Tackys Revolt 20240713

Books he says a person should read in their lifetime. Watch book tv this week and every weekend on cspan2. On the president and ceo of the museum of American Revolution. Its wonderful to have so many familiar faces in the audience, we also Live Streaming this evening and we will be on tv so we will live on forever and ever at 3 00 a. M. When you cant sleep. [laughter] ive got text from my father the following morning thank you are on television again. Im curious, or of hands, how many of you are visiting for the first time this evening . Welcome all of you. You are surrounded by many of our members, members of our founding members of the museums, revolution society, this is a fellowship of people who are great supporters of the museum. We are very pleased to partner with trust, you will see that up on the screen here and i know tim but all i can see is darkness. Tim and joe mclaughlin, thank them for making this possible. [applause] its a real pleasure to welcome doctor Vincent Brown this evening, often we are welcoming a good friend to the museum here this evening. Prince was one of the group of scholars who consulted with us during this development of the exhibitions and interactants for the museum here. Long before the shovel was in the ground and steel began rising here in philadelphia, we were tapping his brain for exciting stories of the American Revolution. It turned into some of the great personal stories and our core exhibition here. Charles warren professor of American History and professor of african American History at Harvard University. He is the author of the rebirth garden, which won the James E Riley prize and merle prize. If you have an opportunity to go on one, dont do it right now on your phone but when you get home, hes developed an online interactive map in jamaica, 1761 and its a graphic narrative so you can go online, show a lot of themes and you may even speak about this during your talk this evening. Its a great online resource and hopefully we begin to use it for educators in classrooms. Hes received guggenheim and fellowships, his documentary in the heart of blackness was broadcast nationally on pbs and received a from our word and charles is the best documentary, you will definitely want to check that out. In 2017, for those of you who were here april 19 when we opened the museum of the American Revolution, Vincent Brown was one of our absolutely stunning keynote speakers from we went back and read your transcript of your comment that continue to inspire us. You mark recently i have seen him interviewed on the cbs sunday morning piece about the museum. All of these pieces are available on the museums website. Search for museum. Org, you will be able to find all the information. We have a sizzle reel to in introduce sizzle brown. Then we are going to warmly welcome him. Can motivate people to heroin. High ideals and encourage to carry them out. We appreciate the efforts of common women, men and children of all sorts. Losses as well as victories. The determination to turn those losses into lessons. This revolution is, and should be a living history. The aspirations of the present as it was in the dreams and deeds of the past. This history is contradictory, tragic and ironic as often as it is heroic. It also has a virtue of being closer to the truth. So i am grateful, deeply grateful to this exhibit for having the courage to talk about truth. The only a proud history of National Origin but multifaceted account of how one might have experienced a time of such turmoil. [applause] i did not expect the sizzle reel. [laughter] now i can lay back and relax. I appreciate that. Thank you so much for that lovely introduction. Maybe over generous introduction but it was fantastic. Also, thank you for the fantastic work you do here at the museum and for inviting me to speak this evening. I want to thank hannah and alex for arranging my appearance here, ryan and david for holding down the tent. And thanks to all of you for coming out tonight. I appreciate you and your interest in history. Especially your interest in history you dont know and you would like to explore. I really appreciate that. Its kind of a long coming for me anyway because i consulted early on the museum but also because of the opening but also because of the curator here, a graduate student of ours at Harvard University. He doing amazing work and im proud of him, its nice to be here to help support that. [applause] im honored to have them in the audience with us tonight. [applause] one of the leading lights of early American Revolution history in the country but also especially Harvard University where he was instrumental in hiring me. [laughter] im not sure why you did it but im so grateful that you did. Thanks for coming. Im honored to be with you here man popping we can all catch a bit of revolution together before its too late. In 1776, Great Britains most important american colony was on the verge of insurrection. Colonist perceived the government in britain was conspiring against the rights of imperial subjects. They had a pot against the english liberty, they long enjoyed. At the dinner table, they discussed america open, those infected with imperial government 12 on about the topic of american rebellion. The chicken jamaican columnist saw an opportunity. It is at a critical junction with the british entry into yet another imperial work. They had exaggerated accounts of french and spanish military buildup and probing and calculated 30 slaves to every white person, ready to drink the attempts of any enemy in a general massacre. On july third, resident of troops left for port royal, scheduled to depart america by the end of the month. Throughout that parish, enslaved people gathered frequently in housing, grounds and open fields to hold serious conversation which stopped suddenly on the approach on anyone they did not trust. They were strategizing. Now or never, they thought, is the time to make themselves masters of the country. The moment seemed like a successful uprising but this American Revolution was not to be. As so often happened with rebellion, the trade in conspiracy unraveled. The british in jamaica considered the property of their predicament in 1776, rather than looking ahead to 13 colonies on the north american continent, they looked to the past. The slave insurrection of 1750, which had been the most dangerous threat to the British Empire today. He reflected on the differences between the unrest of 1760 and 70 and 76, mostly in terms of the nature of warfare with their own slaves. 1776 her moment in the United States of america. They announced the separation of the 13 colonies from Great Britain. When referring to the origin of the nation, the data secures the broader context of the time. It deflects attention for the fact that 26 colonies in america, not just of 13 fabric away. By far the most profitable significant and politically connected of the were in the caribbean. This chart compares empire in 1774. British american as a whole and 13th north american colonies that became the United States, the british caribbean direct the 13 colonies into three regions, seven, mid atlantic and new england. Colonist held nearly 70 of the wealth and British American graph because of the Property Holders being much smarter in the caribbean. When you break it down by region, qc wealth increased as he moved south. According to the degree the colonial economy depended upon enslaved labor. When you examine the property, and astonishing drop in the british caribbean were 90 of the population made up of enslaved black people. White people were stupendously rich, mostly more than 17 times the wealth of those in the 13 colonies. The average private wealth of a freak right colonist in jamaica, single most lucrative american colony was nearly 58 times greater a similar cellar in new england. Military deployment distributed to protect that wealth. Often, warships assigned to jamaica as much as this whole american continent. This led to expanding why Thomas Hutchison couldnt get as much support as he needed as soon as he wanted policymakers with rebels rose up in massachusetts in 1770. Before that, the british were well aware that they now know represented the peak of entry in crisis and concern. More than 1000 black people in jamaica in 1770 and next year. It destroyed tens of thousands. The repression followed from over 500 black men and women were killed in battle executed or driven to suicide. Another 500 were transported from the island. One planter whether we extend the plan from the multitude of the conspirator and the difficulty of opposing it to a variety of places at once, this revolt was more formidable than any known in the west indies. According to two slaveholders in history, one of them being edward do here, rebellion that the instigation of an african man who had been a chief in guinea and organized and executed by people from the gold coast. West african region stretching between the rivers, they established reputations for military proud. Displacement forced migration and rebellion, it shows houston slave trade matched what i call the warfare. The slave trade spread throughout the america, some who had been leaders or soldiers, suddenly found themselves uprooting and landscapes, scattered by trade current and planted into unfamiliar territories to be rebuilt in their lives. Inevitably, some of them determined that only war could end their bondage. Mostly, people who found themselves caught up in expansionary wars, across the ocean and sat down in alien land to exploit and brutalize them, new conflicts promised to liberate them or offer serving masters, slaves might take up arms for whichever faction presented the process of a better life. This process from a native pla plant, transplantation and adaptation to a strange new one, this familiar, cultures change. The transformations in african religion, expression and identity by fueling africanamerican and authentic history in a common frame. A similar approach, my approach here shows how the turmoils the daily hostilities of life generated a militant response, they travel to groups and started across the americas back to europe. Thats what happened when those socalled pilates broke out in conspiracies in the 17th and 18th century. St. John, new york and jamaica and stretching throughout the north atlantic america. Jamaican direction 1760261 followed by further uprising and 55 and 66 were among the hardest and most consequential of these. For what observers could believe, the tactics of the rebels, they had many soldiers in africa. They arrived in the americas with military training and discipline or at least some knowledge and evasive tactics in africa. Some scholars suggest american slaveholders might be seen as extensions of african work. This prospective review of the conflict networks of migration line, trans Regional Power and conflict that gave the political history of the 18th century some of its most distinctive contours. Warfare is not the first step to envisioning a map of atlantic slavery shows how political and military practices travel, take root and grow in the environment. Even as the slave trade forced people to remake and renegotiate their affiliation, the massive dispersive about across the atlantic scattered military conflict throughout the americas. The story of the qualities shows how african warfare was with multitude, not as a direct continuation of previous struggle but as the outgrowth of immigrant experience. British slaveholders value them, planters generally help for Agricultural Labor but said, at the same time, they are a dangerous rebellious distribution. There were dangerous and kept in bondage perhaps in part for the same reason slave traders found in abundance source of potential workers. In the 17th and 18th century, they witnessed the transformation of major empire. They have in the region. Fueled by farm sales from european traders, the worst that attended these contests produce captives for sale the europeans on the coast. They also produce turbulent environment in which complex military campaign involves european and african rivalry, multiple alliances, negotiations and treachery, the context on how a suspect, a single ethnic group in africa, they are not discernible group in africa. According to the research on the subject, there were members of the organization of coke nationals, who socialize with aid one another. A nation in the americas. This was a phenomenon. A creative category comprising people who share or could understand the languages, recognize and familiar practices broaden similar strategies for corporations. There is no direct gold coast where shared languages were not superseding local divisions. Having taking its name from an important cultural time in the 17th century, it was both social glue religious institutions. The mutual aid society, and a place to enjoy entertainment. As the base of social communion and environment will military prison was a common experience, National Gatherings could provide for people to plan, organize and state revolt. When they did so, they draw upon their previous military experiences. However, as a category of belonging, it was crosscut by many identifications. They spoke more than one language and came from different regions and kingdoms with a variety of expenses. Just as important, one in jamaica in slave society. No similarities could resolve all the difficult negotiations of multiple interest and expenses even with patriots making friends and foes through politics of belonging that was meant to be clear about the in jamaica is urgent of the identity itself. In the face of continual assault on their personal and collective dignity, they distinguished themselves by their political commitment as much as by ascribed classification. Among the core of montys different ideas of how to limit society and how to destroy altogether shape rebelliousness as they recalled prior expenses in africa. In the atlantic or press, nothing was more important than learning brother how to form oil unit, alliances and coalitions in the face of superior power. They had one through hard experience, on the gold coast, before coming to africa. When i learned new and different particulars in order to make war on the matters. The former slave and military veterans of the seven years war, assigned slavery itself is a perpetual state of war. This is not war in the conventional sense between distinct armies erected by the rulers of the state, rather mastery of work by its nature of forcible assault to be met with silence ignited against the fraud and cruelty of slaveholders. Through the slaveholders, are you not hourly of an insurrection . Is not a rhetorical question. Since the early days of Jamaica Slave Society holders, the rebellion slaves in society, a war always wrote by how much there is no quarter given in it. He had been in jamaica in 1772 where the islands from the uprisings of the previous decades, its an entire world can organize around violence and counterattacked on a continuous scale. He enslaved and often characterized bondage as a permanent state of low intensity work, talking regularly about how they might reject that work. Its never been more apparent than the era when violence appeared an extension and enslavement transformed europe, africa and the americas as they interacted across the atlantic ocean. European conflict extended the dominion of agriculture. African captive and trade and slaves. Star and continuously. These amounted to slave war, war to enslave work to expand slavery and war against slaves, by the enslaved, against slaveholders. Combat zones, political alliances and enemy combatants. It had four concepts into one. Extension of wars on the african continent, it was a race war between black and white slaveholders. It is a struggle among black people or the terms of the belonging for effective control as local territories and the establishment of their own political legacies and it was, most immediately, at the heart of the battles of the seven years war. The titanic global conflict between Great Britain and european rivals. Each of these struggle, different clients that converged the jamaican instructions in the 1760s. Charting the court against new stories of territory and movement, again, they braced together the histories of europe, africa and america. As an example, of the principal leaders, he fought in each of these campaigns, the official on the gold coast and probably engaging in combat with political rival captured and enslaved by a ship captain, he fought in navy battles against the french. He was the driver on the plantation, keeping up in subjection for a time before the uprising that the british could call a race war. In these struggles, he connected on a small scale, everyday violence of enslavement and course labor to the grand scale of imperial geopolitics. Thats where the interlocking patterns of state, labor and militancy across distances, these wars within force were elements of empire, and insurrection. Integrated history takes us far to the plantations, beyond masters and slaves and outside the locations for observing violence. Slave work in jamaica formed not in intertwined soldiers who fought in europe, north america and africa, sailors who crisscrossed the end by the world for slaves swept up in many conflicts on both sides of the atlantic ocean. Tracking the movements of puppeteers from workers, captives and ordinary fighters, exposing the shape of the marshall as it peaks integrate volcanic network, constituting World History from below. Im going to fight you read my account for yourself, hopefully. [laughter] no spoilers here. You can get a glimpse on these maps, im sorry to smoke but you can get a general sense of how complicated this revolt was even over these first few months across several parishes of the island. For now, let me just sketch some of what i think are the revolt under appreciated reverberation, to give you a sense of why i think it was so important and how i hope the book can model the kinds of connections in distance places across locks long spans of time. He displayed at the American Revolution by decade and a half and three ducats. One of the first greatest abundance of what historians call the age of revolution. Yet, it hardly known outside of jamaica to people who are historians, empire or athletic slavery. This is despite the fact that the influence of the signal moment of the era, the reorganization of British Imperial government in north america and at the beginning of the movement to abolish the transit atlantic slave trade. In the aftermath of the revolt, jamaicas house of assembly passed new passes and commercial duties. The Colonial Government committed to attacks on parchment paper ascertained by stent, something that they would attempt a few years later for all of america. Jamaica in 1760 was explicitly to address the cost of the revolt. I continued until december 1763 was replaced at too great a burden for the wealthiest in the contentious 1765 that would route the colonists in north america, 1760 tax for local instance for a parchment larger commitment rather seven years war. Policymakers celebrated military victories in north america, africa and the caribbean, they contemplate the threat to their most vital. November 7, 1760, 2 weeks after the death of king george the second, the board of trade considered official account of the insurrection. It raises the question of how expanding empire might contain its internal antagonist. In this moment, a new policy would take shape. They worried over the government of america for more than a decade since the conclusion of the previous work in 1748. Demographic, economic and Strategic Value increased dramatically in the first half of the 18th century the complexity had grown in tandem. British members of parliament were spurred into reform effort by the behavior of north american columnist in the seven years war. In the midst of the conflict, the authority of government. Elected officials allowed slavery violation of the navigation act in trading with the enemy. And commerce often failed to supply enough local troops and resources to the war effort. This coincided with a dramatic shift from a permissive fundamentally restrictive philosophy Colonial Administration and funded and widespread convictions the colonies had too many privileges and the privileges are to be reduced. News of the slave war in britain was profitable connie, strengthened the policymakers resolved. In this, was held by shift in attitude in jamaica. Jamaican columnist rested and dependent in the north american counterparts but the slave direction in the slave holders and the impact gratitude along with the troops, george the third and the trade. If not for the forces the cornea government sank, they were in all likelihood become a prey to the slaves. They resented the influence of intervention as well as new taxes. However, unlike so many in north america, their experience was encouraged to remain subject to imperial command, even passing stanback to help finance their own security. They did not like many imperial reforms but they had them. After the seventh years work which jamaica had as a model imperial control, policymakers preferred the north american colony. Unlike the submission, these are inspired by backlash that would split the British Empire in 1776. They offered a rationale and reform of corneal slavery. The rebellion, concerned britons had a pragmatic plant for the security columnist by limiting the dependence on the slave trade in the condition of the slaves. Ironically, perhaps perversely, edward pflaum had a Significant Impact on the antislavery discourse. An argument a principal thats upon for slavery were africans, especially Cora Monteith and the idea that a native born population was retractable. They could afford that and scatter them, establish better conditions in child rearing in christianity, they might be more secure in their possession. They can also save money on the ever rising prices of flavors. Raising up native populations for farmers referred to improvement of plantation. And a kinder and gentler slavery. The beginning of the 19th century, people who campaigned against the slave trade would invoke to argue that they would enhance the internal security of the British Empire. In this way, jamaicas tribunes indirectly helped nurture the emerging anti slave trade movement. Africans had inspired first to restrict the slave trade, responding to 1712 uprising in new york city, and pennsylvania and primitive 20 pounds impartation, citing a part in insurrection, not only on the island with the mainland of america. As a reason for the action. After the revolt in 1739, tacony enacted a moratorium on the importation of africanamerican and they found they could not do without them. I made 1760s, other colonies tried again. Virginias legislators increased duties on importing slaves in 1767, 1769 in 1772. Ginas governor explained colonists had just apprehended the most dangerous consequence of importing africans, not only in preventing increase but also lessening their numbers. He believed the country would manifest the total explosion of them. I colonial concern, virginias duty acts. Restrictions were more successful and pennsylvania. In 1761, when it appeared regularly, tacony was a mischievous consequence, and slaves into this problem. With their security at stake, when he helped to prohibit trade entirely. In 1761, the company increased import duties on slave and extended enforcement in perpetuity. 7073, they imposed and finally in 1780, the connie past abolition of slavery. As much that they might express slaveholding and it was quite genuine. They were also aimed at discouraging the arrival of potentially insurgent africans. The presence of africans, many others empathize with them. The Abolition Movement to the beginning, african drew so pathetic responses especially in places like the caribbean. Many british and north american readers were horrified by the brutality of british nationals and by the violence. Execution must were more widely with the growing popularity and that christian morality which helped to imagine a nation as a community, founded in persecution. For some, this community extended to include the enslav enslaved. African rebels came as victims, sacrificing cruel tyranny of slaveholders. One circulating at the time from they argue given the terrorism of slave, higher law authorized violence against slavery. The deprived of their liberty and help slavery as they have none to appeal to, they involve and repel that force with force. To recover their liberty, destroy those and not only self but in the duty of others, white as well as black to assist where they can in their attempt to deliver themselves out of slavery and rescue them in the hands of their lands. Others willing to go this far, at least in print, the pennsylvania Election Foundation leads in abolition. Hes frequently invoked higher law doctrine against the trade of human beings. So in opposition to war, induce them to see the violence in slave trading as an unconscionable evil. The slave trade was a constant resourceful war for the line of reasoning through the early 19th century. Even some who could not condone this labor could condemn those. In 1764, they asserted what the and planters were, arbitrary and cool government, having for so long for those fellow creatures. They reverberated strong and the rights of the british colony asserted and proved the same year. Of right to american the intimidation, they declare that calmness by the law of nature, free porn. As all men are white or black. They marked calmness by evoking their brutality to be enslaved. A parametric campaign or the slaveholder, william, who was a pragmatist. The literary celebrity to milt johnson goes to the next direction at a dinner party. By the end of the century stories against slaveholders and gruesome executioners, promotes an emerging antislavery consciousness, which enabled the campaign to turn the British Public against the slave trade and slavery in the 19th century. When this all happened, like most in his direction, it ended badly. They were killed, publicly executed and displayed or banished from the island. They had taken no part in the fight. Looking back on the perspective, one can see the outcome was never really in doubt. They had rebellion from the start. It would not win the connie from the british at the north americans with you to have tickets later and by 1804, taking the french. The rebels did not know they failed. They acted in the hope of success. Even in the business of war, and connie with foreign and domestic enemies, the could find the power beyond the reach of the slaveholders. They could even challenge the combined forces of the British Empire and find an enduring place in popular memory. To the 1760s, they represented watershed in the course of athletic history. Regional political drawn by the worst that open New Territories for cultivation from slave trade and enhanced. Another record of historical movement. Channel people into solidarity and give meaning and belonging. Tradition friend from foe and by standards and redirected priorities of governing authority. Since jamaica was a commercial or military British American empire, the preferable settlement and overseas military stronghold, what happens was bound. Yet, the legacy of the 1760s is ambiguous. They helped stimulate the effort to provoke a greater challenge of north american continent. If the jamaican revolt anticipated the revolution offering a beacon of hope to the enslaved, they also left black people on the island divided. The car montys augmented the reputation as formidable fighters, hoping to cast doubt on the slave trade while at the same time, strengthening the association between blackness and social danger. Even in the United States, as late as the mid 19th century, anxiously referring to troublemakers as khakis among us. Perhaps the biggest nature of these explained by the register the imagination today. The war shaped the era, the narrative of the rise in progress of freedom. Even though such small dirty wars epitomized the relationship between laborers, communist and global power. They were scared by the obvious consequences of the American Relations which seemed to speak more directly to the western history of liberty. Relative obscurity of this event is also due to the reluctant to acknowledge smooth revolt as an active form. You things terrified the wealthy and powerful more than a prospect of losses to the poor and weak, which signified a world turned upside on. Dominant people develop conventions for conflict, maintaining their honor and victory and defeat and recognizing violence as a regular feature of political struggle. Between the powerful and those they dominate by daily habit, theres no limit to the lengths they may go to maintain thursday primacy. They had massacres to be sure they disarm them, too. They refused to admit they were legitimate enemies democrat the past and present struggled of people because slaveholders who had a draft of this history subsequent historiographer escaped their points of view. They had a fresh perspective on the landscape. In the study, the project have taken arise in the coming of general emancipation, which pointed to post revolutionary era in athletic history. The 19th century, when the process of emancipation went from haiti to brazil has come as a discrete epic with the animated force of historical change, although that certainly did have a world historical transformation. Emancipation is the master sign of freedom, the ultimate strategy centuries of antislavery struggle to the 19th century when the efforts reached it. Throughout the Atlantic World, the hope of yours in emancipation or following by dominance by former slaveholders. The antagonism established in slavery, it had liberties. Legacies of slavery persisted through the 19th and 20th Century Power with continuing manifestation in the present. Head, struggles against white power were continuous macho. During and after slavery. Slaves constantly fought for the space to develop their own notions of belonging for status and fairness beyond the masters reach. The slave in the 1760s and jamaica can be stories of heroism defeat, most rebels were killed, executed or forced into slavery. They inspired future generation but they, too, would fight slaveholders. However, in their courage and ingenuity, these insurgents charted the landscape of force implementations of the powerful government official. They reveal a geography of hope and possibility in the making, fugitive territories are cap through political struggle difficult to maintain the alliances and in most cases, yet to be one. Thank you. [applause] how do you do it . Whatever way you bend. [laughter] im just providing symmetry object. We do have one again for our audience if we have time for a couple of questions, if you want to raise our hand, please make sure youve got the mic when youre speaking. Another thing on the seats, you had a survey and we would love it if you give us feedback on the program with suggestions for future talks. Feel free to leave that in the back afterwards. We also have a few books, there was a run on the bookstore, but we are going to have some signed book plays available for those of you, if youd like to have one to take on, you can come back and pick up. Our next revolution speaker on may 19, speaking about her book, sister republics where we will shift to the relationship of the Young American republican to latin American Revolutionaries. Please thank you so much for that excellent presentation and pardon my rudeness for holding a glass of wine here along with my question. This was an electric presentation of the theme i became familiar with reading the slaves because which you probably are very familiar with. For those who are unfamiliar with that, spoke about the lack of appreciation of the comprehensive efforts over the centuries to abolish slavery that were participated in by many, many people so we dont really appreciate that in our study of American History that this was such an International Effort but specifically for your work, youve pinpointed a very interesting point. In america, quakers were at the forefront of the evolutionary movement, their efforts led mostly to discussion. They were nonviolent. It led to discussion and yet, the baptists in jamaica did a different thing, they were led by violent revolution and revolt and that effort seems to have prompted the response of the British Government to eliminate and abolish slavery whereas the more peaceful approach did not. Do you have any comment as to that difference . I do have some thoughts. Let me go back to the way i think a lot of times we approach history. Sometimes we look for heroes in first causes and the things we want to say, this is what matters among other things. We separate out all of the things that really matter, to concentrate. Its what your country trait it tries to put the religious reformers of the 18th century beginning with the quakers moving through a lot of the dissenting evangelicals who but the movement in Great Britain against the slave trade against the enslaved and their continuous slavery over centers. I dont really approach history looking to give to the people i like art dont like. Im trying to figure out is how complex causes interrelate. How is it that those religious reformers are responding to the efforts of the enslaved when they see them . How does it help stimulate their movements and organization for the slave trade . How all of these things come to factor in the consideration of policy makers . Not choosing one or the other but how do reformers find them in that predicament . Reformers on the one side building their political connections and enslaved workers on the other work refusing to do with their masters want them to do. How does it compel them to make those choices . Thats what im trying to do here. One of the problems is, we have spent so much time idealizing invalid rising religious reform tradition, beginning with the quakers, we have time considering what the enslaved or drink themselves . They havent seem to matter as much. Im trying to rebound that picture so we can get a complete sense of the predicament of people who are thinking well, maybe slavery is not going to work much longer. As you mentioned, 1831, the back steps leads the largest slave a role in the British Empire, was the largest of all. Petra may really give up the game but they had already been conditioned by decades and generations of slavery reformers in britain think theres another way to do this. Trying to convince policy makers, slavery was not the only way to make money so trying to not develop the comprehensive picture of how the decisions are made and who struggles matter is what im after here. Does that make sense . First, then we will go back. First of all, im not an academic, i was fascinated by your presentation in terms of what goes on in the world today. Learning from history is to provide perspective on what goes on today. The issue of looking to work docile, more manageable people that the business interest can dominate and utilize, i was curious, and those enslavers certainly were rational people looking the world as a business person. With that in mind, why were the coromantee being tarted in the gold coast for importing slaves rather than cash it appears that there history of being unmanageable, aggressive, militaristic and not subject to being controlled, why would these importers go to the gold coast and try to bring in that group of people . Becomes the largest in the British Empire is all led by native born to the island, not by africans at all. That does not save you. The problem with slavery is known what but more specifically why they felt they were particularly good Agricultural Laborers, one they had a long relationship with the gold coast with the british have been trading on the gold coast for some time in a trading relations with the developed there over generations. They knew how things operated and had a network in place there. They were familiar with how things would work and that facilitated the trade. They do not necessarily have all the choices they wanted to go wherever they did but they were responding as much to supply as to their own demand, right . That is one thing. Second thing is they had a certain admiration because they recognized these marshaled people as being familiar in some ways. The british had, by the late 17 centuries 18 century, become quite militaristic themselves. And so, they recognized in the marshall cast of people something they could admire something that conferred on or upon them by having mastered them. The way i say this is crude and i apologize if it is offensive but its almost like the way people when they domesticate wild horses, it confers more mastery upon the person who can domesticate it. That is their sense of the court on montys practice continues on with stereotypes but other people. The british and other people as well have this ideas of who marchal racists are so in 19th century sheiks became a characteristic marshall race and they draft them into specialized military units within the British Empire. They do the same thing in the 20th century with the zulus, not so much drop them into the army but using them as particularly tough people who they can admire in some way, especially because they can now subjugate them. There is a love hate relationship or a way to desire fear is a better way to put it. They desire to master these because they are such a challenge and this gets into a psychology and i dont want to go too far down that road but you can see that plain out certainly over the course of the 17, 18 century. Could you please talk about a very early stage of mechanics of a slave rebellion . What im thinking specifically of is if slavery is well understood and known to be this constant state of war within the plantation, how do the slaves get the knives they used to kill their masters or to attack the armory . Do they start with knives or do they start with guns . Are the nice things they are working with in their slave occupations but if so, why are they allowed to take them home, so to speak if the whites are being killed and between plantations, how do these things spread, do they turn to there was that quote about 400 people knew it but kept it quiet and do they turn to have a signal that such a such a time many plantations will rise or do plantations see one neighboring plantations where it succeeds and it spreads like that . Im interested in how it even begins in a situation where the slave owners know this could happen and presumably are doing everything they can to stop it and prevent. Rate question. I could go into a lot of details in this book but let me Say Something more generally. This is society in which 90 of the population is enslaved. If that means that you are depending on some enslaved people to help keep control of other enslaved people which means that they have the instruments of that control. The men i mentioned is in fact the driver on that navy sea captains plantation and as a driver hes got a position of authority over other slaves on behalf of the overseer and yet if he decides to turn on the overseer and the plantar using the authority granted by them to organize a rebellion that plantation might be quickly lo lost. Right . Theres got to be a careful negotiation between the owner or the overseer and that person of authority who is enslaved and theres you have to give special favors. An independent house, access to the implements and tools for hunting. Knives and sometimes even guns. So you are trusting that they are so keen to protect their access to those with special that they will continue to remain aligned with you rather than aligned with the population. In that these linguistic divisions, ethnic divisions and religious divisions help. You like to keep that 90 of the inlay population divided among themselves and offer some special favors to people who will help you keep control of that so you can manage the situation. More directly yes, a lot of them have came knives and dont collect all the canines at the end of the day. When they do, theyre not that that many people guarding him and all you to do is convince one person who is guarding the canines to let you have a canaanites. When you have those came knives is used on the picture that the representation of the initial storming of the fort where they collected muskets and powder to lead the next parts of the rebellion so they removed pointtopoint and gathering what weapons they can and trying to gather other people into the revolt. Among the signals that the report is succeeding as a fire. They set these plantations alight so everyone whos been told sorry, everyone whos been told around the area that the revolt will happen knows when the fire goes up that now is the time and that is when they overwhelmed the one person that might be guarding cane knives and that plantation and that is how it works by those signals and by the fact that if they have done their organizing work properly, again, i did divide friends from bose over a long period of time when things go off things can happen quite quickly. I spent much more time going into the mechanics but that should give you the general sense of how it works. Early on in your presentation you had a slide that 16611675 in the most frequent destinations and you talk about the various islands so how was it the term in some cases you tens of thousands of people and other cases you had hundreds of thousands of people so how is it determined that some went to barbados, easternmost islands and some went to jamaica so how were those destinations determined . That depends on the Merchant Networks and largely demand. And also what kind of particular Merchant Networks connect to what kind of places. So, the trait at the gold coast every european power is involved to some degree but the british, the dutch and the danish are taking greater numbers of people from that particular region of coast and other european slave trading powers. Those people that the british, danish and dutch are taking our coming to their biggest most productive most profitable colonies. Jamaica gets the lion share of those in part because they have so many planters demanding so many workers that they have a network to the gold coast and a lot of the planters have invested in ships trading to the gold coast because they prize people from that particular region because they know people who traded in that region regularly and have long contacts and so they wind up getting greater numbers of people than people in those more marginal colonies. Right . If youve got to region that is favored by merchants than the number of people coming, the percentage of people coming, the scale of the trade will be determined then by who in the colonies has the business relationships to connect to that source of supply. Does that make sense . And one of the best ways to go and look at how this plays out over time is the trans lack slave trade database where i drew those numbers from. That database has a record of about 35, almost 40000 ships now and is trying to come up with an accurate estimate of regional departures and destinations across the atlantic for the entire four centuries of the trait. Frontier and then thank you. I wanted to see if you could speak to how you view this history in a contemporary context. We look at the persistence of White Supremacy over centuries and centuries and the reality of it still today, what is your view of all this history and how it has evolved and what we, today, can learn from it to address these incredible inequities that still persist along racial lines . Great question. A question that takes me away from my work as a historian but i will speak to you as a citiz citizen. [laughter] and why im particularly engaged with this kind of history. In part, because some of the troubles that i see in our society. I think a couple of things. One, there are continuous patterns that endure over a very long periods of time. Right . The origin of the word slave is derived from sloth because slavic peoples were traded across the baltic sea slave trade for a very long time before it would become the fall of constantinople and the movement of european traders out across the mediterranean into the atlantic where they began to rely evermore heavily on enslaved africans to do the kind of work but the word is still with us, right . The pattern slavic is still in our language. I do think about that with the expectations that come with social relationships as well. Over centuries african typical features came to signify low social status. Right . Even after the end of legal slavery those features still came to signify dissent from those social status. Even in places where the laws were radically different like in latin america where the laws werent the same you still find a dissociation between blackbean a typical features and low social status because of those centuries of slavery. Those expectations take different forms in the way the laws were in way, culture works and the way society is organized. Thats an abstract way of saying that we are still contending with those enduring patterns. And yet, one thing that is important to me is that people were fighting against those discriminations even at its height. Even at its most extreme, even during slavery. Those struggles are as continuous as White Supremacy itself. Her white power itself. Or racism itself. I want to emphasize that its only those struggles or mostly those struggles going back to the previous question which helped to change things for the better and so that is my engagement with this history in terms of the present. Understanding that the situation we find ourselves in today has historical origins and that the patterns may be a long time ago but the struggles against those discriminatory patterns are continuous too. I want to identify with those. Not just to get a sticker but because we are still living that history. [laughter] if i could quick final question before we go and adjourn for some book signing at times. I wanted to ask you about your engagement with landscape, the museum of the American Revolution here on the third and chestnut street, the kind of history of american slavery in american liberties is woven into the neighborhood that we are sitting in and im curious as a transatlantic story that youve told how much of the landscape of your story have you been able to travel to and see and how that affected your perspective in your work . Thank you for that question. I want to answer it a couple of ways. The driving ideas behind this book is that we can remap the way history looks and reshape our conventional expectations for who matters, what matters and where things matter. Im trying to integrate the map of the Atlantic World so we can see how things that happen in west africa reverberate through the americas. Things that happened in jamaica reverberate back to europe. Fundamentally that is the address for the process but i dont just want to see that on a twodimensional map from 30000 feet. I try to look at that in a particular landscape that im talking about so we can see the connections between what happens in west africa and what happens in a particular parish in a particular plantation jamaica and what might happen in london or even in boston or philadelphia later. Your question was did i spend time in those landscapes . Some. Certainly in west africa i spent quite a bit of time on the gold coast going too many of those slave ports, those castles. Some of them are now World Heritage sites and almost like tourist traps which are impressive and you can go and look but dont have the kind of feeling of the horror and the terror that i imagine must have had in 18th century. Its only when you get out to some of the smaller fourth and it turns out theres a fort called which was in the mid 18th century the most heavily trafficked fort on the gold coast but has not become the World Heritage site. It hasnt been, you know, read on and just up and they are not a lot of tourists but i went there with another historian, two or three in one Early Morning just before sunrise driving out from albina to and there i was on the beach at the sport and theyre my imagination in some ways, knowing what i knew about history and being in the place could give me a sense of engagement with that history there was much deeper than i found in the wild tourist did forts in cape coast castle. That was quite powerful. Again, nothing that was conveyed directly by the history but by my investment of imagination and being in that place in the same thing has happened in various places in jamaica as i thought about this history. Very much its a history of how it is at one can accept different landscapes so they can tell a story that looks quite different than the National Histories that we generally kn know. And q for that. Can we think vince four [applause] thank you all for being here. If you would like a book signing or a chance to speak with vincent we will turn out to the hallway. Thank you for being here. [inaudible conversations] weeknights this week we feature book tv programs showcasing what is available every weekend on cspan2. Tonight, books and reading. First, pamela paul editor of the New York Times book review offers her thoughts on how to get children interested in reading books Marianne Wolf explores how our brains process reading print versus digital media. After that, book seller and publishing executive on the 1000 books he says a person should read in their lifetime. Watch book tv this week and every weekend on cspan2. Sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on after words, abc news chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl provides a behindthescenes look at the Trump Administration in his book, front row at the trump show. Hes interviewed by michael mccurry, former White House Press secretary in the clinton administration. Give enemy of the people which is a phrase which i spent time in the book about the origins of that phrase and its a very ugly phrase that has been used by stalin and hitler and used by the french revolution and basically the justification was that it was the people targeted by the law under which we were found guilty and beheaded. The actual law uses that phrase, enemy of the people. Watch after words with jonathan carl, sunday and 9 00 p. M. Eastern on book tv on cspan2. Well, as regular viewers of book tv no all of the major book festivals this spring have been canceled due to the coronavirus. Booktv was scheduled to be lied in tucson and los angeles and cover festivals in new orleans and san antonio as well. All canceled. We know the effect it is having on book fairs and large gatherings but is it having an effect also on bookstores and smaller businesses . Mitchell kaplan, runs a chain of bookstores in coral gables, florida called books books