Transcript
Laura Packard (0:01)
Care Talk with Laura Packard is a podcast covering healthcare in America from a progressive perspective. Our healthcare system is broken and we all know insurance companies are out of control. If you don't have health insurance or don't understand the differences between insurance plans, or have surprise medical bills out of control prescription drug costs, or can't get the care you need, listen to Care Talk with Laura Packard weekly on Tuesdays. What's going to happen to your health care under the Trump administration? From prescription drug prices to health insurance costs, from health care for seniors and people with disabilities to reproductive care, from care for veterans to public health, including vaccinations, healthcare experts answer your questions every week and they go in depth on Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care act, private insurance and more. Go to healthcarevoices.org caretalk or search for CareTalk with Laura Packard on your favorite podcast app App to listen Today this
Kelly Therese Pollack (1:00)
is Unsung History, the podcast where we discuss people and events in American history that haven't always received a lot of attention. I'm your host Kelly Therese Pollack. I'll start each episode with a brief introduction to the topic and then talk to someone who knows a lot more than I do. Be sure to subscribe to Unsung History on your favorite podcasting app so you never miss an episode. And please tell your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, maybe even strangers to listen to.
Narrator/Host of Unsung History (1:37)
Captive Africans first arrived in Virginia in 1619, forcibly shipped there aboard the White lion to provide unfree labor for the colonists. The colonists were already extracting labor from white indentured servants and from enslaved Native Americans, but the labor shortage was so acute that the colonists began to import enslaved people to British North America from Africa in such huge numbers that by 1700 there were more than 25,000 enslaved Africans living there. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the people that the colonists enslaved and forced to labor resisted this fate by fleeing or by fighting back enslaved people. Running away was such a problem that by 1641, the Maryland General assembly passed an act against Fugitives which declared it a felony for any apprentice servant to depart away secretly from his or her master or dame, then being with intent to convey him or herself away out of the province. Those who assisted the so called fugitives could also be punished by servitude or death. The General assembly later added that in order to apprehend the fugitive servants, constables could pursue with hue and cry, or in other words, with a passe comitatus, a group of citizens deputized to enforce the law. As the enslaved labor force shifted quickly to one that was primarily africans or those of african descent. Lawmakers reacted by creating racialized legislation. A 1680 law in Virginia outlined, quote, it shall not be lawful for any negro or other slave to carry or arm himself with any club, staff, gun, sword, or any other weapon of defense or offense, Nor to go or depart from his master's ground Without a certificate from his master or mistress or overseer, and such permission not to be granted, but upon particular and necessary occasions. A decade later, south carolina took things a step further by not just requiring that enslaved people carry passes, but also by granting authority to all white civilians, Just by virtue of their skin color, to interrogate any person with darker skin and to demand to see their pests. By 1701, South Carolina law expanded the power of those white interrogators, Giving them the authority to assault or even kill any black person who refused to show their pests. And when constables in charleston needed help catching runaways, they could call a posse comitatus and impress white men into service in search of runaways. White enslavers worried not just about the loss of their enslaved workforce, but also about violent rebellion by the enslaved. Armed uprisings were not frequent, but the threat was real. So concerned were lawmakers in south carolina about potential threat that in August 1739, the General assembly passed a law requiring that all white men carry loaded pistols into church when they attended services. The law also required that church officials report those who did not. Just weeks later, on September 9, their fears were realized when an enslaved man named jemmy, who was later called cato, Launched the largest slave rebellion in british north america. Near a branch of the stono river, Jemmy and his troops raided a warehouse, Beheading two white men and stealing weapons. They marched to the beat of a drum and shouted liberty. While seeking out enslavers to kill and stealing additional guns. They were caught while celebrating when the lieutenant governor spotted their camp and gathered a posse who killed 30 of the rebels and captured more who were sold into slavery in the west indies. Cato fled and may have made it to florida. In the aftermath of the stono rebellion, the south carolina legislature adopted a 20 page slave code that presumed that every black person was a slave unless the contrary can be made appear. Enslavers, including women, Were required to assume monthly patrol duties in their patrol districts. Those patrolling in the district were not just required to demand passes from black people, but also to search the living quarters of the enslaved. Other colonies developed their own patrol systems, Sometimes in the wake of rebellions like stono during the American Revolution, the British took advantage of the desire of enslaved people to escape and in an attempt to destabilize Virginia, Lord Dunmore declared martial law and proclaimed that all indentured servants, Negroes or others who joined the British army would be given their freedom. Dunmore was forced out of Virginia, but other British officers pursued similar strategies. When the British surrendered in September 1781, they refused to return former slaves to the Americans. The British commander, Sir Guy Carleton, produced a book of Negroes for Washington that listed where around 3,000 formerly enslaved people had settled, including in Nova Scotia, London and Sierra Leone. Promising freedom to the enslaved may not have won the revolution for the British, but it continued to spur the fears of enslavers in the southern states. During the Civil War, the Union army pursued similar tactics. With so many white men in the south busy fighting and unable to patrol, enslaved people began to emancipate themselves, running toward the Union army and freedom. At first the Union army had no policy to deal with the self emancipators. But as early as May 1861, Union Brigadier General Benjamin Butler began hiring former slaves. And in the summer of 1862, the Union began to accept self emancipated men into the army. The January 1863 Emancipation Proclamation legally freed all enslaved people in the Confederacy. Although in practice, until those areas were liberated by the Union army, many people remained enslaved. In December 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, outlawing slavery everywhere in the United States, including in the border states that had been exempt from the Emancipation Proclamation. The end of slavery though, was not the end of white violence against black people in the United States, especially in the South. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Gautham Rao, Associate professor of History at American University in Washington D.C. and author of White Policing American Slavery.