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Social Studies 5: The Roots of African Slavery 18 Views

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Description:

Whether it was the native people or Africans brought over by boat, early European settlers in the U.S. didn't seem to care too much about using people for their own benefit. Brace yourselves, this isn't a pretty part of the past, but it's something everyone should know.

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English Language

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Transcript

00:04
[Coop and Dino singing]
00:13
Honest question – have you ever tricked a sibling or friend into doing your chores for you? [Little sister doing washing chores]
00:18
Maybe it's your night to take out the trash,
00:20
but you swear up and down that it's definitely your brother's? [Boy taking trash outside]
00:22
Or maybe you had your little sister clean up your room by telling her there's hidden treasure somewhere?

00:27
Heh, that one’s actually kind of brilliant…
00:29
Though that doesn’t make it right! Well that’s sort of like what happened at [Ship arrives on shore]
00:32
the beginning of the Americas.
00:34
Except instead of chores, it was working on expeditions, or in mines and plantations.
00:39
And instead of innocent trickery, it was slavery.
00:42
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that much like tricking your sibling into doing the dishes [Boy with lots of dishes].
00:46
It was a million times worse. First, the Spanish and Portuguese settlers
00:50
enslaved Native Americans to help with their expeditions. [Spanish settler and native american in forest]
00:53
Then they began to bring over African slaves in the early 1500s.
00:56
From then until the mid-1800s, the Spanish and Portuguese brought over half of the
01:01
Africans sold as slaves in the Americas.
01:03
And just keep in mind, the 1500s to the 1800s were not the best time for basic human decency. [Soldiers marching and slaves running]
01:09
If you somehow get your hands on a time machine, we don’t recommend that particular time in the past.
01:14
You know what, just to be safe, maybe you should use your time machine to go to the future…
01:18
check out the iPhone 800S, or something… Unfortunately, the English colonies weren’t [Girl holding an iPhone]
01:22
much better. They brought over about a quarter of the African slaves, but instead of working
01:26
in mines, they worked on tobacco plantations.
01:28
So, yup, the history of cigarettes is just as bad for the soul as actual cigarettes are [Cigarette butts in an ashtray]
01:33
for the body. The Europeans quickly realized that having
01:35
slaves they didn't have to pay made their lives a whole lot easier.
01:39
And we assume their brains just weren’t developed enough to consider what it did to [Slave in a vegetable field]
01:42
the slaves’ lives.
01:44
So the Europeans passed laws that made it so the children of slaves also became slaves,
01:49
and allowed slaves to be bought, sold, and traded.
01:51
Seriously. That’s not something made up for a really horrifying movie. [People watching old movie in theater]
01:55
The slave traders at the time developed such a need for slaves that they would ship them
01:58
from Africa in overcrowded and unsafe cargo ships, causing many of the Africans to die
02:03
before even getting to the New World. [Slaves in a ship cargo block]
02:05
And if they didn't die on the boat, they would often die in the New World, if not from disease,
02:09
then simply from being overworked and mistreated. [Gravestones of slaves]
02:12
So have we convinced you to take your time machine to the future yet?
02:15
And if we have, uh…could we come along? We're excellent road trip buddies. [People driving and alien appears in the back seat]
02:18
Seriously, you can pick all the music.
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