Slavery and the North what you didnt learn in history class

[Music]

in the days

following the killing of george floyd at

the hands of the police

i watched a major debate unfold online

on the one hand many people saw this

killing

as a repeat of history it reminded them

of slave patrols

armed men keeping slaves from leaving

their enslavers

but many others disagreed this killing

happened

in minnesota they argued minnesota never

had slavery

american school teachers teach the civil

war as pairs of opposites

the union fought the confederates the

north fought the south

freedom versus slavery innocent versus

guilty

if you went through american k-12

education

there’s a good chance that you believe

that the union

and the north had nothing to do with

slavery or

that the north freed the slaves but

here’s the problem with that

it’s not true this simplified version of

history

lets people from the north look down on

the south

we so badly want to be the good guys

that we forget

that slavery was an economic institution

you didn’t have to own slaves to benefit

from slavery

america’s economy grew in the north and

the south

from slavery free states and slave

states

are not opposite they’re both part of

one

larger system until we face the truth

about this history we won’t be able to

solve today’s problems

that come from this history several

years

i have studied how money from slave

states

came to free states first i looked at

deeds

for land that enslavers bought in the

north

then i studied businesses in the north

that needed money from slavery for

survival

slavery fueled america’s economy until

1865

even in the free north and slavers made

money two ways

one way was by selling the things that

their slaves made

or grew for them the other way was by

selling the slaves

most slaves grew their crops in the

south which had better climate

and soil for farming but the money

didn’t stay in the slave states

and slavers spent money across the

country and the fact that

enslavers spent the money means that

people in the free north

took the money and then the north spent

that money from slavery

to expand their cities and towns cities

like saint cloud

and saint paul are by the mississippi

river this made it easy for people from

the south

to just sail up and spend their money

without that money

those cities would not have grown as

they did

in the early 1800s americans crossed the

mississippi river

and settled in the west native americans

were already on that land first

but our country stole their land from

them and fought them for it

and then our country sold that land to

people who wanted to buy it

and some of the buyers were in slavers

the moment that they bought that land

their money from slavery

became part of the economy there

some people who settled in the west saw

how much money

that enslavers were spending on land

they started selling land too

many of these people were sons of

enslavers but they did not want to own

slaves

like their parents did but they asked

wealthy enslavers that they knew back in

the south

to buy land from them these new

northerners

wrote ads in southern newspapers and

those ads

appeared right alongside ads for sales

of slaves

some enslavers bought land in the west

but they live full time in the south

the business from choteau and company

was run by

enslavers from the slave state of

missouri

at first this company owned american fur

company

which sold furs from the northwest

the company later shifted to selling

land in that area

this means that the people who work for

american fur company

and choteau and company lived in the

free west not the south

but their salaries were directly funded

by slavery

without slavery they would not have had

jobs

even though they did not own slaves and

they lived hundreds of miles away

another way that free states benefited

from the slave economy was through

tourism

southerners traveled north every summer

to escape the heat and for months each

year they spent money on

room and board food and other items

in the free north the richest

southern visitors were in slavers and

some free cities and towns

allowed them to bring one or so one or

two slaves with them for visits

after all when the summer ended the

slaves would be going back

it was a loophole of sorts northerners

looked the other way

willfully ignoring the horror of slavery

to benefit from tourism

and after all the free states would not

have slavery year round

so it was no big deal for them

when minnesota territory became a free

state in 1858

its residents did not force its tourists

to free the slaves

they brought with them again the slaves

would only be around for a few weeks

and the state badly needed enslavers

money

in fact minnesota later tried to change

into a slave state some of the lawmakers

who voted for slavery

had sold land to enslavers they wanted

to keep having southern buyers

this is what i mean when i say that

history is more complicated than what we

teach in high school

free states and slave states are not

opposites

they both benefited from slavery it’s

not enough

for people in free states to say

we never whipped anybody we never bought

or sold anybody

we just took money from people who did

it matters that people in the free north

took the money because

that money made the north what it is

today

that money came from sales that

separated family members away from each

other

that money came from whippings and other

violence that kept slaves working

we are all part of this same awful

history

in recent years some communities that

have roots in slavery have begun talking

about those roots

colleges and former slave states have

websites

about those roots so could colleges and

free states

museums across the south have exhibits

about their community’s roots

so could museums in the north you have

to be willing to admit to a horror

admitting to a horror means that you’re

saying that

you are not separate from what america

did

you are not separate from what america

is

instead admitting to the horror makes

you american

for some people putting slavery at

america’s core

is unpatriotic to them saying that

america did a bad thing

is saying that america is bad this is

not true

saying that america did a bad thing is

key to helping america heal

slavery made the south sick and it made

the north sick

too the sickness shows through

inequality

and police brutality knowing how america

got sick

is how we help america get better

today all of america’s legal slaves are

dead

but the places they built are still here

the country they built is still here

their work is as american as the fourth

of july

they matter as much to this country as

the founding fathers do

so learn about how slaves

shaped free states learn about how they

lived

and suffered when you learn about them

you honor them and when you honor them

you honor america thank you

you