Slave Culture

The speaker discusses the slave community in America, specifically focusing on the role of fraternalism in Christianity and how it justified slavery. They also mention the resistance of African slaves and how they maintained their culture through secrecy and teaching their children. The influence of white culture on slave culture is highlighted, with the majority of white people not owning slaves. The speaker mentions the slave markets, auctions, and beatings that shaped the lives of slaves. They also mention several slave revolts, including the Orleans Slave Revolt of 1811, which was ultimately suppressed by white forces. The speaker concludes by noting that these revolts contributed to the lead-up to the Civil War. Hello, my name is Jack Haynes-Hahn, and today I'm going to be talking about the slave community and its American roots. So first to start, we're going to be talking about fraternalism in Christianity and the roles that it played in the slave culture and the slave trade. These two ideas really played off each other for this horrifying, justified cause for slavery and what they were able to do. The fraternalism being that they felt that they were saving these slaves, they were having better lives than they would have had in Africa or otherwise, which is absurd. And also that their Christian values and the Bible back these things up with literal verses that they approach twisted, even though they aren't great in context, to save all these slaves and then to push that religion onto them as well. These justifications weren't used first here, I mean, Christianity is used, the Bible and these things too, but specifically here you see paternalism and Christianity really twist together into this really bad justification for slavery throughout the South. So then next we want to talk about African culture and the slaves, really the resistance to and what they were able to maintain. One of the most interesting ways and I think one of the best ways that slaves that were able to maintain their culture definitely did is to really teach their children, the ones that were able to have children, teach them very young to be secretive, to be submissive, to keep them safe, but also if they're going to do anything, be very secretive, make sure to keep it under wraps and I think that was a main way for them to be able to pass along some of the things like keeping their name secret and passing along their unique names that they were able to and they cultivated African plants, other customs such as languages to a certain extent, but many slaves did embrace Christianity, I mean, even as just a way to survive, but also because, again, these white masters twisted the words to make it seem that if they were good slaves, submissive slaves, that they would be rewarded in heaven and so many turned to that, especially in such desperate times, to find some hope. So next, talking really about the slave culture and the white influence on it, many slave owners, so basically, I mean, maybe a misconception, I don't know, but over 70% of white males in the South didn't own slaves, white people didn't own slaves, it was mostly for elites, there were some other upper middle class people who had a few slaves, but mainly the big plantations were the elite, which were a few people. So that both shaped the culture around slaves, although white supremacy was rampant, really slave culture was for the elites, which also was passed on to a lot of slaves who were expected to be around elite culture and to act accordingly, whether they were serving or not, they saw many slaves would have seen higher culture and higher economic settings than many white people in that area would have. So, I mean, and then, you know, slave markets, slave auctions to the beatings really shifted and shaped how black people had to survive to be slaves and to raise children to be slaves. And that's why so many submitted to such things like white culture or Christianity. So there were many revolts that took place during this time, during these rough decades. Most unsuccessful, most ending in the death of slaves and the ones who weren't put to death were punished very badly. One of the largest and deadliest and, I guess, more successful of these slave revolts that you'll see came in response to and out of motivation and being motivated by the the slave revolts that took place in Haiti to over the French, which they took back the island, basically, although we're seeing some of the French did not completely let go and kept ravaging that area. And we see the results today. But this particular one, the Orleans Slave Revolt of 1811 took place in Louisiana territory at the time. Two hundred to five hundred slaves gathered. They killed a plantation owner, took his weapons, were able to arm themselves, were able to burn down three other plantations. But it was eventually put down as whites were able to mobilize and put it down. Many were put to death. There were trials, I suppose, but many were put to death and they even beheaded many and put their heads on pikes along the Mississippi River to send a message to any other revolters. So that is how most of those ended, unfortunately, and really leading up to the Civil War. Thank you.