Enslavers dominated the new federal government, controlling the Supreme Court, and the Senate. Hasan Kwame Jeffries: The third Key Concept in the framework for Teaching Hard History is that the founding documents of our nation protected slavery. The French Declaration of Rights says that, but that’s well after France became a country. England doesn’t have a statement that all Englishmen have the rights of Englishmen.” France doesn’t say this is what it means to be French. Paul Finkelman: The irony of American history is that we’re one of the few countries in the world that begin with the stated purpose: we hold these truths to be self-evident that we’re all created equal. They’re a function of hundreds of years, of what’s been happening since 1607. These are not a function of the last 50 years or hundred years. Americans who were fighting for their liberty are faced with the dilemma of “how can we fight for our liberty when we deny liberty to other people?” And so starting in 1780, some Americans will begin to dismantle slavery.Ĭhristy Clark-Pujara: Such racial disparities and divides. Paul Finkelman: During the revolution, this begins to change. You have enslaved people in southern Rhode Island growing foodstuffs for enslaved people in the West Indies.Ĭhristy Clark-Pujara: Manufacturing plants throughout the North, and in New England in particular, that produced farming implements, who are they selling those farming implements to? Southern plantation owners to be used by enslaved people. Every colony all across both South America and North America has slaves and slavery is legal.Ĭhristy Clark-Pujara: Farmers in southern Rhode Island put thousands of enslaved men, women and children to work producing foodstuffs and raising livestock for the West Indian trade. In fact, slavery is legal everywhere in the New World, from the Arctic Circle to the Straits of Magellan. Paul Finkelman: At the founding of the American nation in 1775-76, slavery is legal everywhere in what becomes the United States. Hasan Kwame Jeffries: Here are excerpts from our interviews with Christy Clark-Pujara of the Afro-American Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin Paul Finkelman, editor of the Encyclopedia of African American History and Bethany Jay, co-editor of the book Understanding and Teaching American Slavery. The second: Slavery and the slave trade were central to the growth of those colonial economies. The first is that Europeans practiced slavery long before they invaded the Americas and established the thirteen colonies. Hasan Kwame Jeffries: Chronologically, these concepts begin before there was a United States. Hasan Kwame Jeffries: This episode is a special look back at important ideas from our first season, and how they correspond to the Ten Key Concepts in Teaching Tolerance’s framework for helping educators talk about and teach the history of American slavery. And this is Teaching Hard History – a podcast from Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Hasan Kwame Jeffries: To fully understand the historic times that we are living in, it is important to comprehend the central role of slavery in our nation’s past. Because at the end of the day, that’s what our kids are going to be. Jordan Lanfair: We aren’t making students, we’re making citizens. Price Thomas: I think that understanding history, and understanding why two Black dudes can’t sit in Starbucks, but a white girl can carry an AR-15 on a college campus-why is that the way it is?Ĭhristy Clark-Pujara: You don’t know who you are as an American unless you know the history of slavery. What were they doing back in West Africa or Central Africa or wherever they came from? Tamara Spears: I feel like primary sources are what the kids can really build their facts on. Paul Finkelman: The irony of American history is that we’re one of the few countries in the world that begin with the stated purpose: we hold these truths to be self-evident that we’re all created equal.īethany Jay: I begin my American History courses saying there were Africans in Virginia before there were Pilgrims in Massachusetts. SPLC, Teaching the Hard History of American SlaveryĬhristy Clark-Pujara: It was the business of slavery that allowed New England to become an economic powerhouse without ever producing a single staple or cash crop. ![]() ![]() ![]() Bethany Jay and Cynthia Lynn Lyerly (editors), Understanding and Teaching American Slavery.Teaching Hard History: American Slavery, Classroom Videos (key concepts).Teaching Hard History, A Framework for Teaching American Slavery.
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