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An age of invention and mass production, propelled by a new mechanism – the corporate research lab – leads to a surge in material wealth like the world has never seen. How does a new nation, the United States, overtake its parent as the leader of the surging capitalist order? And what does it all mean in the lives of ordinary people? By John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with Woody Holton, Robin Alario, Edward Baptist, and Brad DeLong. Story editor: Loretta Williams. Music by Michelle Osis, Lilli Haydn, Alex Symcox, and Goodnight, Lucas. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music. Art by Gergo Varga and Harper Biewen. "Capitalism” is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, in partnership with Imperative 21. 

When Lee got the results back from his DNA test, he was stunned to discover that he had pages and pages of white cousins. All his life he'd been under the impression that 95% of his DNA traced to West Africa. This discovery opened up a new historical pathway, one that traces all the way back to 17th century Wales. In this episode, Lee takes us on the journey to discover his white ancestry. Later, Lee sits down with two newly-found white cousins to understand how differently history shaped the Black and White sides of one family. TranscriptLee Hawkins (host): We wanted to give a heads up that this episode includes talk of abuse and acts of violence. You can find resources on our website whathappenedinalabama.org. Listener discretion is advised.My name is Lee Hawkins, and this is What Happened In Alabama.[intro music starts]Back in 2015, I took a DNA test and found out some pretty shocking information. I always thought that I was 95% West African but it turned out that nearly 20% of my DNA was European. This revelation raised so many questions for me and led to years of research that would change my understanding of my own upbringing forever. Today I'll share that with you. We're going to go all the way back to 17th century Wales to uncover the path my ancestors took from Europe to the American South and how that, through slavery, led to me.I'll talk with experts and newly discovered white cousins to explore the history that connects the two sides. I want to find out how my family's experiences on the opposite ends of slavery and Jim Crow shaped our beliefs and our understanding of American history. But you'll get a whole lot more out of it if you go back and listen to the prologue first – that'll give you some context for putting the whole series in perspective. Do that, and then join us back here. Thanks so much. In many ways, the seeds for this project were planted in 1991, during the first trip I remember taking to Alabama.[cassette tape turning over, music starts] Tiffany: He would play an album on repeat. That's my sister, Tiffany. I call her Tiff. It's 1991, she's sitting in the backseat of our family's car, driving from Minnesota to Alabama. Tiffany: Dad used to like still stay up to date on, you know, pop culture, current music. There were certain songs that he would be like, “Oh, I like that,” you know, like Tony! Toni! Toné! It Feels Good. And things like that.My dad hated flying. He'd seen too much in his life, and he related flying to so many of the musicians he loved: Otis Redding, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Holly. They were all his contemporaries, and they all died in air crashes. So instead, we drove.I was 19 years old, and I was attending college at the University of Wisconsin Madison. At that time, I had just really gotten into the school newspaper. I was thinking about becoming a journalist or maybe a lawyer, but at that point, writing was more intriguing to me. I was excited about this family trip to Alabama, and I had no idea what was coming.Tiffany: Yeah, so Alabama, it's been kinda a, a mystery for me throughout my life because I wasn't able to ask questions that anyone would ask when you're wanting to know things about your parent.One of the big reasons my dad wanted to go to Alabama was to interview my great-Uncle Ike. He was the eldest patriarch of the family in Alabama, and he owned a farm near Greenville, dad's boyhood town. But most importantly, because he was in his 90s, he knew a lot about family history. And Dad had a lot of questions. I remember getting to Uncle Ike's and sitting in the living room, and across from me sat a caramel-skinned, white-haired man. For me, his reflection was like looking into a mirror and adding 70 years.Uncle Ike was in his early 90s, but those high cheekbones and blemish-free skin made it harder for me to believe that he was a day past 75. It was also hard to believe we were actually in Alabama, with Dad finally standing before his legendary, long-lost uncle, with a tape recorder in his hand. It was a trip we'd been talking about for months. Dad wanted to learn as much as possible about the Alabama family he left behind. Lee Sr.: Well, it's definitely, it's been a blessing to get to see you. As interested as I was in journalism, I was far from having the experience and interview skills to feel confident taking the lead. Plus, I knew that Dad needed this, so I deferred to him. The fact that he grew up there meant his questions would be far better than anything I could just randomly think of. But hearing his questions and how basic they were showed me just how far he'd strayed from his Alabama roots. Lee Sr.: Let me see, um, you were telling me about my father Lum. Now, how many brothers and sisters did he have? Most of the conversation was going over family tree details. Simple things like, how many siblings did my father have? And what were their names? We sat in that living room and asked Uncle Ike questions for just over an hour.Uncle Ike: I understand that all of them were named [unclear].Lee Sr.: Oh, we had a aunt, uh –Uncle Ike: Colby…When Uncle Ike answered, I struggled to catch every word of his southern accent. It was so thick, I thought it might even be a regional dialect, one that was unique to what my dad always humorously called, “LA,” Lower Alabama. I marveled at how quickly Uncle Ike started reciting family members. Even at his age, his recall, it was as swift as a rooster's crow at dawn! Lee Sr.: Oh yeah, Aunt Jem. I remember her…As we talked, my eyes began to drift to the fireplace, which was decorated with family photos. There, I saw a framed, weathered photo of a white man looking like he'd been plucked from a vintage Field and Stream ad. He appeared part outlaw, part GQ model. He was in hunting attire. There were hounds at his heels, and it looked like he was gripping a musket. Why, I thought, would Uncle Ike have a picture of some random white man hanging over his fireplace? Lee Sr.: Now this, what's this guy's name? Is this George Pugh up here on this picture? Uncle Ike: No, that's Isaac Pugh. Lee Sr.: That's your father? Uncle Ike: Yeah. They called him Ike, but his real name was Isaac. That made him my great-grandfather, Isaac Pugh Senior. I looked closer at the photo, into his eyes. His gaze was a determined one, as if he was daring me to look into the records and find out more. Who was this white man?[music starts]That day was more than 30 years ago. Since then, I've learned so much more about our family history. Seeing that picture of Isaac Pugh Senior on the mantel opened up an entirely new branch of my family tree – a white branch – that I had no idea existed. Digging through the records and existing research, I was able to trace that line all the way back to 17th century Wales.I recognized that I couldn't fully understand my family's experiences in America without uncovering the history of our white blood relatives on the other side of enslavement and Jim Crow. I had so many questions. Why did they come to America? What did they do when they got here? And most importantly, how were they connected to me? [sounds of a boat on water, sea gulls]In 1695, a man named Lewis Pugh boarded a boat near his hometown in Northwest Wales to sail for what was then called, “The New World.” The journey was long and grueling. Many people didn't survive. But the ones that did held on by a combination of luck and faith. Faith that the land that they were headed towards would help them prosper. He landed in Virginia, likely as an indentured servant. Several years later, he met and married a woman named Anne. The couple purchased land in Richmond County. They built a home, had seven kids, and many more grandchildren. Two of their great-grandchildren, the brothers Jesse and Lewis Pugh, decided to move south to Alabama at the start of the 19th century. The first thing they had to do was to get land. And to achieve that, they had to overcome one major obstacle. Chris: Well, it's important to remember that whites wanted Indian land from the moment they first stepped into the Americas. And so Indians have been removed since 1492, of course. This is Chris Haveman.Chris: Let me just talk briefly about terminology and the use of the word “Indian.” I've interviewed dozens and dozens of Native people throughout my career, and prior to talking to them, I always asked how they would prefer to be identified, and almost universally they say “Indian” or “American Indian.” Now, these folks tended to be a bit older, and as the younger generations come of age, the term seems to be falling out of favor, and when it does, historians including myself will adapt and adjust accordingly.He's an author of two books on the removal of Indigenous peoples from Alabama and Georgia to present-day Oklahoma, and a professor at the University of West Alabama.I've come to Professor Haveman to help me get a lay of the land in 19th century Alabama, when Jesse and Lewis Pugh arrived in the state around 1810.When the brothers got to Alabama, they were in Muscogee territory. The Muscogee were a loose union of multiple Indigenous groups, and they had millions of acres. Tribal leaders also use the name “Muscogee Nation.”Chris: Really, the story begins after the War of 1812, when whites decided that they really wanted that, that nice, nutrient rich soil in central Alabama. Over the years, throughout the 17 and early 1800s, this land was whittled away through treaties.The federal government started sending commissioners down to remove the Muscogee – and to do this, they had to coerce them into signing treaties first. This was done all over the American South and the rest of the country – and by the time the removal really got going, the Muscogee nation had already lost a large part of their land. But they were resisting. Chris: Commissioners were sent out, and Indians did not want to give up their land. And so a lot of times they resorted to threats, they resorted to some other shady tactics. And you had whites streaming into the Creek Land and they would, you know, just establish their farmstead illegally in the Creek Nation. Sometimes it would just overrun a Creek homestead and kick the family out and commandeer their crops for their, as their own. A lot of times they would get Creeks hooked on alcohol and uh, sell them merchandise on credit, get them indebted to them, and then they'd force them to give up their property as collateral. And things get really, really bad. Lee: What was the philosophy that was used to justify that? Chris: Conquest. The whites wanted it, and they were gonna take it regardless. There was no real justification, moral justification for it other than whites had the racist premise that they were civilized and the Indians were “savages” and that the whites could make better use of the land than Indians.Jesse and Lewis Pugh became landowners, both running plantations. They founded a church in Troy, Alabama, called Beulah Primitive Baptist Church. It still stands today. In my research, I found an article honoring the church. The paper hailed the brothers as “those daring ones, who braving the perils of the wilderness, came here and reclaimed this fair land from the planted savage.” The “planted savage,” I now know, refers to the Indigenous people who lived on the lands across the American South and beyond.Professor Haveman told me that on top of forced removal, there was a great deal of Muscogee land ceded by the tribe, but the conditions of these transactions make it hard to say how voluntary these handovers actually were. Chris: In 1832, the federal government gives a proposition to the Creek Indians, and they say, ‘Look, if you cede the rest of your land to us, we will allow each head of family to take 320-acre plots of land.' And this is where everything really goes downhill for the Creek Indians, because they gave up their sovereignty, uh, in exchange for a title or a deed. But what it does is basically, and I think you have to ask, it was so one-sided in favor of the federal government. You have to ask yourself, ‘Why would the Creek Indians agree to this?' And I think that they agreed to this because whites had illegally trespassed on their land so much between 1827 and 1832 that they realized that you know, whites usually liked a deed or a, you know, a title to their land, a piece of paper, something you could say, “This is my land.” And I think the Creeks tried to adopt that in order to stave off this encroachment that whites were giving on their land.So they, they had this deed and this title, and they thought that that would prevent whites from streaming onto their land, but it didn't. It actually, it just opened up massive amounts of fraud for them. And so you had 5 million acres of land in the Creek Nation in 1832. When this was ceded, all 5 million acres of land went to the federal government, and then parcels of 320 acres were then given to each Creek family. If you add up the over 6,000 families times 320 acres, it only comes out to like 2.1 million acres. And so almost 3 million acres of land will now be opened up for white settlement. And so the thing that they were trying to prevent – whites from encroaching on their land – is now gonna become legal.[music]On a January evening in 1837, Lewis Pugh was in his plantation fields in Alabama with his overseer. By this point, he owned land and enslaved people. That night, a man quietly snuck onto the roof of a house that overlooked the Pugh family cemetery on the plantation. The man fired a rifle from the top of the house, killing the overseer. Immediately afterwards, a swarm of 60 Muscogee swooped down on the plantation field. They killed Lewis, one of his sons, and an enslaved baby, who was in his mother's arms. Four enslaved men tried to defend themselves, the women, and the plantation. The Muscogee killed them too. The story captured the country. Lee: It was in every major newspaper across the country, uh, that Lewis Pugh, a prominent white settler, had been killed, um, and murdered by the Creek Indians. Why do you think it was so important that it be framed in that way? Chris: It made national news because the thing whites feared the most was an Indian uprising. And it's one of the reasons that whites who, um, had no means to become large-scale cotton planters still wanted the Indians gone because they were constantly terrified that Indians would rise up and attack them. Uh, and they had, you know, somewhat of a legitimate reason to be scared because whites treated the Indians so terribly and stole their land and, you know, created all these problems for them.It's clear that the Muscogee didn't just fold and concede their land. They retaliated, determined to defend it. And I can't help but think about it from the perspective of those enslaved people who died, fighting alongside their enslaver, to protect his life and his land – that's how closely their lives were intertwined. I'm still very curious about them, because they, too, might've been my relatives. Not long after I took that DNA test and first found out about the Pughs, I found a last will and testament belonging to Jesse Pugh, the brother of Lewis Pugh, the man who was murdered by the Muscogee in Alabama. In the will, it stated that Jesse enslaved a young girl named Charity, who was kept in bondage by the family into her adult years. Not long before Emancipation, she gave birth to a biracial son who she named Isaac Pugh. That was the white-looking man whose photo I saw on the mantel at great-Uncle Ike's house. Isaac Pugh, my great-grandfather. Doing my DNA test couldn't have been any simpler. I went online and ordered the $100 test, and the next day, I got a small box in the mail. Inside, I found a vial, and returned my saliva sample the following day. In just a few weeks, I got an email with my DNA results. It shows you who your cousins are, from first, all the way to distant. I had pages and pages of cousins, including many who were very, very white. I'm talking blond with blue eyes. There were a lot of Pughs in there. I was stunned by the sheer volume. One genealogist told me he had never seen anybody with so many pages of cousins who had also taken DNA tests. At that point, I had more than 216 fourth cousins or closer. One of the descendants was a man in his late 80s named Lloyd Pugh. We both descend from Ann and Lewis Pugh, but our relation wasn't close enough to show up on my DNA chart.Lloyd lives in Petersburg, Virginia, and last year I went to his house to meet him with my producer, Kyana. You'll sometimes hear her in the background throughout the interview.Lee: It's a nice, quaint neighborhood with a lot of brick homes in a colonial-style design typical of Virginia, I think. I met Lloyd through a man named Jim Pugh, another newly discovered cousin, but coincidentally, I've known Jim for 30 years through my early work as a journalist, back in Wisconsin. He was a PR guy for the state chamber of commerce. Every month, I called him for a comment on the employment rates. I wouldn't say we were friends back then, but we definitely liked each other. And then, through an odd twist of fate, I found out that we were related. Jim: When you reached out to me and say, “I think we're cousins,” I was like, “What?!” Let's do a call.I'd always noted that he had the same last name as my Grandma Opie, but it was only through an exchange on Facebook after I'd taken the DNA test, that Jim and I compared notes and figured out that we were both tied to the Pughs of Wales. Once Jim and I reconnected, he told me he had an elder cousin who was a family historian of sorts. That person was Lloyd Pugh.Lee: Oh, he has, okay, an American flag on his house and one on his car. [laughs] And here we are. [seat belts unbuckling] Let's go get started. Lloyd has worked on this long before genealogy exploded in the mainstream. His research is in the archives of the Library of Virginia. He has binders full of information he's gathered over the years on the Pughs. Lloyd: That book right there is one that's on the early, early Pughs. Lloyd is 88 years old. He's a tall, lean, active guy, full of warmth and southern charm. He was born and raised in Petersburg, a city known for being the site of a nine-month siege back beginning in 1864 that ended up costing the Confederacy the Civil War. Lloyd is absolutely fascinated with the Civil War, especially the Confederate side. He has tons of relics in his home, everything from swords and rifles to cannons, decommissioned bomb heads, and bullets. He also has a huge painting of General Robert E. Lee, hanging right above his couch. Lee: Why do you have a picture of General Lee in your front room? Lloyd: Because it's a part of my heritage. It has nothing to do with being anti-Black or slavery. It's just part of my heritage in that I had three grandfathers that served under Lee. [music starts]Lloyd and I couldn't be more polar opposite in our views about the Confederacy. But I didn't go to Virginia to condemn or to convert him. I went to his house to talk to him about history, our shared history. And he was interested in talking about it too. So he and his daughters invited Jim and I over, and we had a conversation that helped me understand how the white Pughs would come to shape the Black side of my family for generations. [music]Lee: Well, thank you everybody. Um, the man of the hour is Lloyd. Because Lloyd has done a tremendous amount of work around the Pugh family history. And really, I want to thank you, Lloyd, for opening up your home and showing us this museum of incredible Civil War history that you have, and also helping me gain a better understanding of my own history.Um, it's, uh, it's bittersweet to understand how we're connected, but it's also, the power of it is that I wouldn't know this history if we hadn't worked together to understand it and to identify it, and part of my goal in doing this work is to inspire other people across racial lines to do this work. Um, and it is hard, but we both love it, right? Lloyd: Right. Lee: Okay, so, uh, you've done a tremendous amount of work on the Civil War, and we'll get into that, but you've also done a lot around the Pugh family, and I think it's important to talk first about how the Pugh family got to America.Lloyd: There were actually three migrations. One migration of Pughs went to Norfolk, and from Norfolk, they went down through North Carolina, South Carolina, on into Alabama, and in that direction. Lee: That's my line. Lloyd: That's his line. Our line of Pughs landed at, uh, Richmond County, which is the upper neck over on the, uh, near the, on the east, west side of the Chesapeake Bay, and they migrated on down through, uh, came this way, Chesterfield, on to Amelia County, and eventually they end up on the, uh, east side of the Appalachian Mountains.And the third group came in, in New York, and they migrated down the west side of the Appalachian Mountains into Tennessee and Kentucky on down in that direction. So there are three distinct lines of Pughs, and I was happened to be the one that migrated down through the Chesapeake Bay into Richmond County.Lee: What did the Pughs do here initially? Lloyd: Farmers. Tobacco was king in Virginia. They raised other crops. They had to raise, uh, food crops, but the money crop was tobacco. Tobacco was critical to the expansion of the slavery economy in America, so it doesn't surprise me that the White Pughs were involved in the tobacco trade. But through talking to Lloyd, I learned more about their interactions with Black people, specifically through a man named John Boyd Pugh. He's Lloyd's great-grandfather, and he fought on the Confederate side of the war. In fact, he was so committed to the Confederacy and the slavery it represented, he refused for months – after being captured and imprisoned near the end of the war – to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. It blew me away to learn how deeply committed people I share heritage with were to white supremacy – John Boyd Pugh and others believed devoutly in it. They practiced it, and were willing to die for it. And after the war, he became an overseer for a prominent family named the Baylors.Lloyd: And the Baylor family, signers of the Declaration of Independence, founders of Baylor University, some kind of way found out about my grandfather, John Boyd Pugh, and they offered him the oversee of New Market Plantation, which is in Milford, Virginia.His salary was one fourth of all the crops, plus $50 a month salary. And so he took the job, and he moved from Albemarle County with his family up to Milford to New Market Plantation. And he was the overseer of that plantation, right there at Bowling Green, Virginia. When I heard that, my mind went back to all the books I've read in my research, including The Half Has Never Been Told, by Edward Baptist, which clearly outlined the role of overseers as the drivers of productivity on plantations, many using whipping and other torture techniques to get the most out of enslaved Black people. Baptist explained that on many plantations, overseers held the enslaved to strict quotas. They'd weigh the crops and assess the work at the end of the day, and if the quota wasn't met, the person would be whipped in front of all the other enslaved people, to make an example out of them.Hearing that I not only share heritage with enslavers, but also overseers, I was absolutely stunned. I began to see how far back the whip could be traced in my family.Lloyd stipulated that because John Boyd Pugh did his overseer work after Emancipation, he believes he probably wasn't involved in whipping. Lloyd: When John Boyd went to Newmarket, this was after the Civil War. So they had to have hired labor. And I think, I doubt that there were the whippings and the lashing and so forth when you have hired workers because they could say, “I'm leaving,” and just walk off the farm, so, yeah. To be fair, it's possible that Lloyd is right – maybe John Boyd Pugh was one of the few exceptions; an overseer who never resorted to violence. But I doubt it, and here's why: in my research, I found the archive to be packed with proof that whipping continued to be a foundational aspect of overseer duties for decades after Emancipation into Jim Crow.Lee: This is the hard part, you know, for me, because, you know, I think when I first talked with you, Jim, you were telling me that your great – great-great- grandfather was an overseer. And I didn't know – or you didn't know – what an overseer was, and when I looked at, you know, a lot of these movies that you see, the overseers are the guys that drove the production of the, of the plantation. Um, and that, for me, is just, that's inextricably tied with the capitalistic, sort of, reality of building America and how so much of the productivity was driven at the plantation level. How did you feel when I explained, especially the part that whipping was a big part of overseer work? How did you feel about that?Jim: Well, you know, you don't really know what you don't know until you find out. And that's when you learn about it, you know, 'cause you don't, you think of, um, overseeing, uh, like a agricultural operation today, you wouldn't have that 'cause you have machines, you know? So, um, but yeah, that was pretty, pretty shocking to find out about that, but it's also the reality of what, the way the world was at that time, you know. [music starts]My mind went back to that interview with my Uncle Ike in 1991, when he told us about Grandma Charity. He told us that when he was a kid working on his father, Isaac Pugh Senior's farm, she would beat the kids if she felt they weren't being productive enough. This, from a woman who was enslaved by Jesse Pugh, a cousin of John Boyd Pugh. It's almost as if, once she became emancipated and the family got its own farm, she became the overseer, and her grandchildren, the free labor. Lee: I've been always fascinated by the way, when we built our country, just how deeply rooted it was, not just in slavery, but also in the establishment of the land, how people got their land, you know, um, particularly from, from the Indigenous people.And I think that the problem, just in my opinion, is that everything is so controversial that people have decided they don't even want to even begin to study this work. And there, of course, are many, many academics who write powerfully beautiful detailed accounts of all of this history. Um, Doug Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name, um, Edward Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told.And in a lot of this stuff, they give really detailed accounts of the economy of slavery and also the Civil War, and the way all of the different range of realities that were at stake as our country was starting to form itself into what we now know today. Um, when you study the Civil War and the Confederate side of it, what, how do you relate to that history in terms of your un– do you know anything about John Boyd Pugh or was the, the oral history lost?Lloyd: I knew absolutely nothing. No one in the family shared anything, ever shared anything with me. And what was learned, learned through my research. Clearly, family secrets are preserved on the white sides of the family, too. Dark secrets like the violent role of overseers, the fact that land was stolen, and the identity of white men who fathered Black children, were not often openly discussed. And those lies of omission make it harder for future generations of whites to acknowledge the causes of generational disparities and trauma – through ignorance or cognitive dissonance. But this work – especially the DNA testing – exposes the lies, and people doing it have to prepare themselves for unsettling discoveries. This work isn't about agreeing on everything. It's about opening up the family bibles and records to access information that neither side would have without the other. So it requires a rare form of tolerance, and a spirit of unity as opposed to division on the issue of genealogy. The truth is that I feel like I was blessed. I was fortunate to stumble on a white guy who I'd known for 30 years, and we discovered we were cousins. We already had trust between us, and he opened up the door for me to meet Lloyd. And the timing was perfect. Lee: I think for me, and especially the fact that, that you're basically a Republican dude [laughs] who, uh, you know, really like, and deeply rooted in the Republican party, um, and, and that you're a Republican dude who took me through to make this introduction so I could meet Lloyd so that we could study this together, to me, defies all of the conventional wisdom, which is that we're all divided and we're all, um, to be, you know, enemies on the other side of the issue.Jim: Well, Lee messaged me. I had posted about the, the trip where we did, we followed Lee's retreat back to Battle of White Oak Road. I think that was our last stop, and then we came home. And Lee, he said, ‘I, I see your, I think we're related.' And I said, I messaged him back and, and I'm thinking, ‘I don't want to put a bunch of this stuff in writing,' right? 'Cause I'm being like, it's not, this is sensitive stuff. I mean, we're dealing with race, and this is a war –Lee: You knew the political, the political – Jim: Yeah, I'm working in operatives, and he was working for the Wall Street Journal! And I'm thinking, ‘This is gonna be, this is not, this is gonna end bad,' right? So I, I said, “Lee…” He's like, “I think we're related.” He goes, ‘I've been doing family research. There's Willoughby and Spotsworth –.' And I said, ‘Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That sounds about right.' He said, ‘Can we do a call?' 'Cause I'm thinking, I want to, I want to turn off the typewriter. There's nothing good that's gonna come [Lee laughs] from this if it's typed forever and ever.And we did a call, and he's like, ‘Yeah.' And I said, ‘Well, how do you know?' He said, ‘I did 23andMe. And my DNA goes back to Wales,' and I said, ‘Well, you know, welcome to the family.' [laughter]Lee: And then I said, ‘I want my reparation.' Jim: Yeah.[laughter]And as the conversation continued, we drilled down deeper into the undeniable proof of our ancestors being enslavers, and Lloyd plainly stated the facts: Lloyd: Okay, let me, let me confirm that. I'm looking at the will of John Pugh in December 1827. His will, one negro hired by the name of Harry, worth $300. One woman, Judy, worth $200. One young man named Abram, $400. This is actually in the will, so that goes directly in our line, so there's, I mean, that's the proof of our line owning slaves.Lee: Do you feel guilty about it? Lloyd: No. Lee: Tell me what you think about it.Lloyd: It was a, it was a time. It's just like the Confederate statues in Richmond. It was history in a time, and you can't destroy it. Even though they've taken them down, they're still there in the minds of people, and they are people who are gonna keep them alive.Jim: But we're not white supremacists. Lloyd: No. Jim: We're not white supremacists, and that's the thing people need to understand. It's so easy to just shortcut from, ‘You're a conservative Republican or you're a libertarian or whatever' to, ‘You're a white supremacist,' and that's just not the case. I don't hold white people of today responsible for slavery and the actions of their ancestors. We're not responsible for the sins of our forefathers. But we should take responsibility for the present and the future by being transparent and honest about history. I know I joked with Jim about reparations, but that discussion isn't just between the white and Black families tied to slavery; it's between Black American descendants of slavery and the U.S. government, which includes states that enforced racist laws. Contrary to what many assume or imply, reparations wouldn't be about individual white citizens personally compensating Black people; it would be government obligation, funded by taxpayers like any other public expense – infrastructure, education, or foreign aid. Taxpayers don't get to opt out of funding highways they don't use, just as those from families who didn't own slaves can't opt out either. Slavery fueled America's economic rise – on the backs of Black people, largely on stolen land – a legacy from which today's Americans still benefit, no matter when they came here. [music starts]All in all, I spent two days with Lloyd, his daughters, and Jim. We had dinner and we talked a lot. He told me more about his life, like how he spent most of his career as an educator and superintendent, even helping oversee the desegregation of schools. I realized our families share many common values despite all our differences.Lee: When you hold all these documents and all the binders you've made, thinking of all the Pugh history, what do you feel?Lloyd: First of all, I feel thankful that I'm the result of all of that, that I'm able to carry on the family line. I just look at the Pugh family across the years as just good, sound, solid business people who did what they were supposed to do, and stayed out of jail, and paid their taxes, and didn't beat their families, and just good old southern Christian families is the way I look at it. The information I received from Lloyd deepened my understanding of why so many slavery-era customs appeared in my childhood. It helped me with my quest to begin to trace the whip back to the very plantation where it started. For me, that's part of where the healing comes from – not from any kind of validation I'd seek from Lloyd and Jim, but from the information that's allowed me to draw my own conclusions and undertake my own healing work. The Pugh family history is intertwined with America's story, from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War and into the Jim Crow era. Lloyd and I come from the same family, but our experiences reflect opposite sides of the American history it's rooted in. Meeting Lloyd helped me piece together our family history. It also triggered a need in me to uncover the story of how the white Pughs in America treated the most disenfranchised and exploited person in this saga, my great-great-grandmother, Charity, the matriarch of my family.That's on the next What Happened In Alabama.[outro music]CREDITSWhat Happened In Alabama is a production of American Public Media. It's written, produced and hosted by me, Lee Hawkins.Our executive producer is Erica Kraus. Our senior producer is Kyana Moghadam.Our story editor is Martina Abrahams Ilunga. Our lead writer is Jessica Kariisa.Our producers are Marcel Malekebu and Jessica Kariisa. This episode was sound designed and mixed by Marcel Malekebu. Our technical director is Derek Ramirez. Our soundtrack was composed by Ronen Lando. Our fact checker is Erika Janik.And Nick Ryan is our director of operations.Special thanks to the O'Brien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism at Marquette University; Dave Umhoefer, John Leuzzi, Andrew Amouzou and Ziyang Fu. And also thanks to our producer in Alabama, Cody Short. The executives in charge at APM are Joanne Griffith and Chandra Kavati.You can follow us on our website, whathappenedinalabama.org or on Instagram at APM Studios.Thank you for listening.

Slavery was an integral part of the American republic from the moment of independence until the abolition of the so-called “peculiar institution” with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. The social and economic impact of the slave system, however, are much larger in terms of both time and geography. In this episode, Bob and Ben speak with Edward Baptist about slavery's origins, its evolution, and how enslaved people's work laid the foundation for modern capitalism. He also shares stories of the people who suffered under- and those who profited from- the inhumane system of American slavery. Dr. Edward E. Baptist is Professor of History at Cornell University and author of The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (Basic Books, 2014), which won the 2015 Avery O. Craven Prize from the Organization of American Historians and the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize. This is an enhanced rebroadcast of RTN #117, which originally aired on January 14, 2019. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Ed Baptist, Cornell history professor, joins Paul and Annette to discuss the Freedom on the Move database and related pedagogical projects. This work by Baptist and many other scholars, educators, and volunteers aims to shift the narrative surrounding slavery in America, bringing together tens of thousands of newspaper “wanted” ads for freedom seekers. These ads inadvertently bear witness to the names, lives, and personalities of self-liberators who otherwise have been effaced from history—while also highlighting the complicity of mainstream newspapers and their subscribers in attempting to subjugate “runaway property.”    

Whitney commandeers the slave narrative along with a motley crew of allies, to prove that Whites can own and tell the truth about slavery. But first, the duo ‘forge a new nation' in media, as Erika revisits a role she played on a miniseries - Ona Judge, the “beloved” runaway slave girl of George Washington. Later, New England patriot Katrina Browne owns her grisly, family legacy as the largest, slave-trading family in America. And bestselling author, Edward Baptist, describes the human cost and atrocities built within the industry of slavery, by conjuring up the lore of the dreaded “whipping machine.” Meanwhile, Erika reclaims the narrative, calling in a favor and advice from the ultimate disrupter, Rev. Al Sharpton. Finally, it's Dow versus Alexander, when the pair asks, “What's in a name?” Whitney compares his centuries-long, British-American family history, from The Book of Dow to the smoky, white shroud covering Erika's African-American history, and slave name, Alexander.  Clips from "George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation" are courtesy of MGM Media Licensing. For more info about this episode, please visit https://reparationsbigpayback.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Dr. Edward E. Baptist and Dr. Hassan Jeffries are working together to reclaim stories around the runaway enslaved. This is the work that Bill Perkins is using to create the narratives. #FreedomontheMove

After the Civil War, a surprising coalition tried to remake the United States into a real multiracial democracy for the first time. Reconstruction, as the effort was called, brought dramatic change to America. For a while. Reported and produced by John Biewen, with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. The series script editor is Loretta Williams. Interviews with Victoria Smalls, Brent Morris, Eric Foner, Kidada Williams, Bobby Donaldson, and Edward Baptist. Music by Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas Biewen. Music consulting and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.  Photo: Historian Bobby Donaldson of the University of South Carolina, at the South Carolina State House, Columbia, SC. Photo by John Biewen.

In the decades after America’s founding and the establishment of the Constitution, did the nation get better, more just, more democratic? Or did it double down on violent conquest and exploitation?   Reported, produced, written, and mixed by John Biewen, with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. The series editor is Loretta Williams. Interviews with Robin Alario, Edward Baptist, Kidada Williams, and Keri Leigh Merritt. Music by Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas Biewen. Music consulting and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music. 

Jane, Dara, and Matt discuss the 1619 project and its critics Related reading: “The 1619 Project” New York Times Magazine “Henry Clay, Edward Baptist, and the Whipping Machine” by Bradley A. Hansen “Cotton, Slavery, and the New History of Capitalism” by Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode “Capitalism and Slavery” by John J. Clegg, New York University “Slavery and Anglo-American capitalism revisited” by Gavin Wright, Stanford University White paper -------------------------------------- Join the Weeds Facebook group! News comes at you fast. Join us at the end of your day to understand it. Subscribe to Today, Explained Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reading from The Half Has Never Been Told, by Edward Baptist, Karen discusses the fragile sanctity of white manhood and their violent journey to protect it.

Karen discusses the the groundbreaking book on slavery, The Half Has Never Been Told, and takes a look at the men who created the government of the United States and thus presided over the prime economic system: slavery and black bodies. This is part of an ongoing book series.

Slavery was an integral part of the American republic from the moment of independence until the abolition of the so-called “peculiar institution” with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. The social and economic impact of the slave system, however, are much larger in terms of both time and geography. In this episode, Bob and Ben speak with Edward Baptist about slavery's origins, its evolution, and how enslaved people's work laid the foundation for modern capitalism. He also shares stories of the people who suffered under- and those who profited from- the inhumane system of American slavery. Dr. Edward E. Baptist is Professor of History at Cornell University and author of The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (Basic Books, 2014), which won the 2015 Avery O. Craven Prize from the Organization of American Historians and the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize. The Half Has Never Been Told is available as an audio book on libro.fm. Road to Now listeners can go to libro.fm & get a 3-month membership for the price of one (3 audiobooks for just $14.95) w/ promo code RTN. Click here to get The Half Has Never Been Told or get started by checking out our libro.fm playlist, which features books by past RTN guests. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on this and all other episodes of RTN check out our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com

Lauriann Deaver is a history instructor for Southern New Hampshire University who recently recorded a conversation about her research on the collapse of the Teton Dam in eastern Idaho in 1976, and the response to that collapse from the state and federal governments and from local civic and religious organizations. That conversation will be available separately as an episode of History Soundbites. In this episode of Filibustering History, Rob and Lauriann discuss her research, her background, and her future endeavors. This episode’s recommendations: Edward Baptist, The Half has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (Basic books, 2016). https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/edward-e-baptist/the-half-has-never-been-told/9780465097685/ Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016). https://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/The-Other-Slavery/9780544947108 Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Teaching Hard History” Report: https://www.splcenter.org/20180131/teaching-hard-history Lauriann Deaver can be reached at l.deaver@snhu.edu. Rob Denning can be reached at snhuhistory@gmail.com or r.denning@snhu.edu. James Fennessy can be reached at j.fennessy@snhu.edu. Follow us on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/FilibusterHist.

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 12th and final study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 book, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, a Racist Suspect, created this text to concentrate the enslavement and desecration of black bodies as essential to the foundation and success of the United States. He confirms that the torture and forced labor of black people was an extraordinarily efficient industrial system and would not have ended naturally on its own. The book chapters are named after body parts to emphasize how the White slave system embodied complete war on black bodies. Last week's installment covered the infamous Dred Scott decision. Eliza Emerson (a White Woman) refused to allow Dred and Harriet Scott to purchase themselves from her. Baptist stresses how Emerson's interest was beyond money; she wanted a universal declaration of White dominion over black bodies. Baptist also explained how despite John Brown's terrorist efforts, Whites in the north who opposed slavery also hated black people. But they refused to permit White southerners to intimidate and dominate them as if they were niggers. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

Happy Black History Month (Black Fist Emoji)! In this episode we explore how Black History is celebrated in different parts of the world; discuss differences between BHM celebrations in the US vs UK; share the things we learnt thanks to BHM; shoutout some of our black heroes: Lewis Howard Latimer, Madam C.J. Walker, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin and Toussaint Louverture; and demand our fucking reparations from white people. Resources: • Excerpt from Edward Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told - http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/11/19/slavery-economy-baptist • BBC’s Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b063db18 • PBS’s Black in Latin America - http://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/about/ What we are currently watching/reading/listening to: • Rihanna’s ANTI Album • Mat Johnson’s Loving Day • HBO’s Game of Thrones • Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You Show was mixed by Ifeoluwa Olokode, and theme music is "Ayo" by the über talented Femi Leye

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 11th study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 book, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, a Suspected Racist, constructed this publication to concentrate the enslavement and desecration of black bodies as essential to the foundation and success of the United States. He confirms that the torture and forced labor of black people was not an inefficient industrial system, nor would it have ended naturally on its own. The book chapters are named after body parts to emphasize how the White slave system embodied total war on black bodies. Last week's installment outlined how a puny number of northern Whites began to oppose the southern system of slavery/White Supremacy. Baptist states that Whites who opposed the "Slave Power" mostly "hated black people." The antislavery advocates were primarily concerned with Southern bullies bogarting national politics and dictating affairs to northern Whites. Baptist explains how this conflict between northern and southern whites dominated pivotal events like the Mexican War and the theft and statehood of California. White Supremacy was assumed even among White rivals as there were too many "nameless and mongrel breeds" in Mexico to allow the entire territory into the "government of the white race." #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 10th study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 text, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, a possible Race Soldier, crafted this work to concentrate the enslavement and slaughter of black bodies as fundamental to the foundation and prosperity of the United States. He verifies that the torture and forced labor of black people was not an inefficient industrial system, nor would it have ended naturally on its own. The book chapters are named after body parts to accentuate how the White slave system embodied complete war on black bodies. Last week's session described how lying, corrupt, enslavers absconded to Texas when their farms went bust. Baptist momentarily includes how White Women "dramatically" increased their public support of slavery during the 1840's - contrary to the commonly praised Harriet Beecher Stowe. We also pondered on one of the more provocative sentences in the book: "Historians have repeatedly confused 'manhood' and 'resistance' when they have written about slavery." Perhaps Mr. Baptist has a difficult time conceptualizing black "manhood" in the form of Nat Turner or the negro who killed a White overseer in Mississippi. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 9th study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 publication, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, a possible Race Soldier, shaped this book to concentrate the enslavement and desecration of black bodies as central to the foundation and triumph of the United States. He provides confirmation that the torture and forced labor of black people was not an inefficient industrial system, nor would it have ended naturally on its own. The book chapters are named after body parts to accent how the White slave system represented total war on black bodies. Last week's installment described in blistering detail the routine rape of enslaved black people. Baptist suggested that black females utilized their sexuality to negotiate a mildly better circumstances for themselves; this could be an act of Racism by the author. Baptist detailed Andrew Jackson's assault on the 19th century "banksters" and how his efforts were to produce a more equitable playing field for all White men. Chapter eight (Blood) provides comprehensive detail on how the enslaved black population was at the root of the United States banking and credit system. More credit meant more slaves. More slaves meant more money. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade Cash App: http://cash.app/$TheCOWSCALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 8th study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 publication, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, a Racist Suspect, framed this book to concentrate the enslavement and mutilation of black bodies as pivatol to the foundation and success of the United States. He provides confirmation that the torture and forced labor of black people was not an inefficient industrial system, nor would it have ended naturally on its own. The book chapters are named after body parts to emphasize how the White slave system represented complete war on black bodies. Last week's session described the counter-racist offensive by Virginia icon Nat Turner. Whites across the nation modified their surveillance and control of negroes in response the Virginia uprising. Since Turner used the Christian Bible to vindicate and mobilize his insurrection, Racists adjusted their religious code to prevent further anti-slavery crusades. Baptist also provided a fascinating history of the word "fuck" and how the sexual plunder of black people was a primary force behind the slave empire. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 7th study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 publication, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, a Suspected Racist, authored this text to highlight the enslavement and mutilation of black bodies as fundamental to the foundation and success of America. He provides confirmation that the torture and forced labor of black people was not an inefficient industrial system, nor would it have ended naturally on its own. The book chapters are named after body parts to stress how the White slave system constituted total war on black bodies. Last week's session detailed how Whites codified religious practices to further support their system of torture and oppression. Baptist quotes a Kentucky enslaver who said, "The great God above has made you for the benefit of the Whiteman, who is your law maker and law giver." Importantly, the book also acknowledges black people who rebuked the religion of White Supremacy and saw the hypocrisy of Whites paying lip service to brotherhood and righteousness while they stole and tortured multitudes of black people. This week's session explores Virginia legend and attempted counter-racist Nat Turner. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 6th study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 publication, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, a Suspected Racist, constructed this book to locate the enslavement and mutilation of black bodies as fundamental to the construction and success of America. He provides evidence that the torture and forced labor of black people was not an inefficient industrial system, nor would it have come to a natural conclusion on its own. The book chapters are named after body parts to emphasize how the White slave system represented complete war on black bodies. Last week's session highlighted that what White enslavers did to black people should be classified and articulated as torture. He meticulously details how White Brutes thought of newer and more sinsiter means of violating black people and breaking their will. Baptist also explained how the slave system is egineered to force black people to work against individual and collective self interest; every ounce of black labor and ingenuity is to benefits Whites. Last week's session concluded with the importance of slave songs and dance. It's no surprise that minstrel shows and blackface became wildly popular and formed the foundation for American entertainment. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 5th study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 publication, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, a Racist Suspect, authored this book to center the enslavement and mutilation of black bodies as essential to the construction and success of America. He contends that the torture and forced labor of black people was not an sloppy industrial system, nor would it have come to a natural conclusion on its own. The book chapters are named after body parts to stress how the White slave system represented complete war on black bodies. Last week's session detailed the methodical evolution of White violence as a means to manage black people. Baptist details how Whites were encouraged to share information and techniques on better controlling niggers. The section also provided enormous evidence of the effectiveness of White Terrorism. The productivity of enslaved black people increased at astronomical levels. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss Star Wars, marriage and income inequality, and Tamir Rice.  Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The Force Awakens is the latest entry in the Star Wars franchise. Niki argued that the optimistic Star Wars movies are a departure from the dystopian anxieties apparent in earlier science fiction films such as Godzilla and Them! which were responding to the nuclear age. Natalia remarked this Star Wars moment is taking place within our culture’s current love affair with Wonder Woman, a topic she has written about.A recent New York Times article by the economist Tyler Cowen argued that “assertive mating” – where people of similar class and educational backgrounds marry – is contributing to income inequality. Natalia pointed to Nancy Cott’s Public Vows as an indispensable guide to the history of marriage and Christine Whelan’s Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women for understanding more about the phenomenon Cowen describes. Neil mentioned the “Princeton mom” who gained notoriety by encouraging Princeton undergraduate women to use their college years to find their husbands. Niki suggested the “opt-out” phenomenon of highly-educated women who choose to be stay-at-home mothers revealed another way income inequality shapes marriage and family choices.The murder of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy gunned down by police while playing with a toy gun in a Cleveland park, has drawn comparisons to Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African-American boy killed by a white mob in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Natalia recommended the historian Edward Baptist’s recent essay, “Ferguson and Fatherhood,” which discusses “The Talk” African-American families have with their sons about how they must protect themselves in public. Natalia also noted that Stacey Patton’s tweet comparing Tamir Rice to Ralphie, the white Cleveland boy of the movie “A Christmas Story” who famously plays with his toy guy, became an internet sensation and inspired virulent racist backlash. Neil argued Rice’s fate ought to be seen in contrast to the story of Ethan Crouch, the white Texas teenager who killed four people in a drunk driving accident but was found not guilty after his lawyers presented an “affluenza” defense. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia discussed Barbara Ehrenreich’s essay “The Selfish Side of Gratitude” and the web series, “Namaste, Bitches.”Neil commented on the absence of Hitler’s name in the current national road tour of The Sound of Music.Niki recommended the Amicus podcast, particularly its recent “Judging Tribal Courts” episode.

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 4th study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 book, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, a Suspected Racist, crafted this text to clarify that the enslavement and mutilation of black bodies is the foundation and central economic venture of America. He evidences that the shackling and forced labor of black people was not an inefficient industrial system, nor would it have come to a natural conclusion on its own. The book chapters are named after body parts to stress how the White slave system represented total war on black bodies. Last week's session described an 1811 insurrection in the Louisiana territory. Hundreds of black people demonstrated maximum black self-respect and strategized about killing Whites and liberating themselves. Whites overwhelmed the freedom fighters, and Baptist emphasizes that this was yet another incident that galvanized Whites to refine and upgrade their domination over black people. Chapter three explained "right-handed power" as the ability to dictate and control what will happen in the future. The establishment of credit exponentially increased this concept and allowed for the continued purchase and subjugation of black human beings. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 3rd study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 publication, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, a White Man, constructed this book to center the enslavement and mutilation of black bodies as the foundation and central economic enterprise of America. He contends that the torture and forced labor of black people was not an inefficient industrial system, nor would it have come to a natural conclusion on its own. The book chapters are named after body parts to emphasize how the White slave system represented total war on black bodies. The Economist pilloried the book, charged that "Mr Baptist has not written an objective history of slavery. Almost all the blacks in his book are victims, almost all the whites villains." They eventually apologized and retracted their review. Last week's session emphasized the common, ritual rape of black people that remains an essential component of the White Supremacy system. Baptist highlighted the colossal impact of the Haitian Revolution, and how Whites deliberately minimize and obscure this rebellion when discussing world events. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the second study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 publication, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, a White Man, wrote this book to center the enslavement and torture of black bodies as the foundation and central economic enterprise of America. He contends that the shackling and forced labor of black people was not an inefficient industrial system nor would it have come to a natural conclusion on its own. The book chapters are named after body parts to signal how the White slave system represented total war on black bodies. The Economist delivered a stinging review of the text, charged that "Mr Baptist has not written an objective history of slavery. Almost all the blacks in his book are victims, almost all the whites villains." They ultimately apologized and withdrew their review. Last week's installment detailed how slavery is regularly diluted and distanced from the methodical cruelty against black people it rewarded. Baptist also highlights that even Whites who did not directly benefit from slavery saw allying with White enslavers as serving the greater White good. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the premier study session on Edward Baptist's 2014 publication, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism. Baptist, Cornell University historian and a White Man, authored this text to concentrate enslavement and mutilation of black bodies as the foundation and central economic enterprise of America. The book chapters are labeled after body parts to stress how the White slave system represented complete war on black bodies. The Economist offered a scathing rebuke of this book, charged that "Mr Baptist has not written an objective history of slavery. Almost all the blacks in his book are victims, almost all the whites villains." They ultimately, apologized and withdrew their evaluation. INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

Mark Twain supposedly said (he's misquoted for a lot of things, because he's so quotable; think about that) "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."  That's certainly true, about a lot of things; and it's certainly true of the hard truths of American slavery. This week Al Zambone is joined by Bob Elder, Assistant Professor of History at Valparaiso University and, like Al, a historian of the American South. It's the first time on Historically Thinking that there is a book discussion without the author present. The book is one of the most acclaimed and discussed titles in American history in quite some time: Edward Baptist's The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. While agreeing that the half may not have been told, and if it was a lot of people were holding their fingers in their ears, the two historians also think that...well, listen for yourself. For Further Reading Edward Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism Trevor Burnard's Review of Baptist, and Baptist's Response Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History Robert William Fogel and Stanley Engermann, Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Slavery Herbert G. Gutman, Slavery and the Numbers Game: A Critique of Time on the Cross