7 Common Myths About Black Slavery in America скачать в хорошем качестве

7 Common Myths About Black Slavery in America

Most Americans learn a simplified story of slavery: the South had it, the North opposed it, it ended in 1865, and enslaved people were largely passive. The reality is far more complex, documented, and damning. In 1860, over 1.4 million people directly benefited from slavery, with enslaved people valued at $3.2 billion—more than all U.S. railroads, banks, and factories combined. Slavery was the single most valuable asset class in the nation. Northern states may have abolished slavery, but Northern banks, insurance companies, and factories profited from it, financing plantations, insuring enslaved lives, and processing cotton. The system was integrated nationally, not confined regionally. Historical narratives were shaped to erase this reality. The Dunning School, dominant in the early 20th century, portrayed Reconstruction as a tragic mistake and enslaved people as unprepared for freedom. Textbooks filtered this narrative for generations, downplaying slavery’s centrality. Primary sources tell a different story. Seceding states explicitly cited slavery as the cause, not “states’ rights.” Enslaved people resisted constantly—through revolts like Nat Turner’s, the German Coast uprising, and Denmark Vesey’s plot, and daily acts of defiance like work slowdowns, tool-breaking, literacy, and escape. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 demonstrates how organized resistance forced Northern citizens to intervene repeatedly. Economically, slavery was thriving, not dying. Cotton exports in 1860 accounted for 61% of U.S. exports, plantations were profitable, and banks in New York and Philadelphia held mortgages on enslaved people. The domestic slave trade forcibly relocated approximately 1 million enslaved people from the Upper South to the Deep South between 1820 and 1860. Federal laws, like the Missouri Compromise, Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision, protected and expanded slavery. Opposition in the North often focused on limiting expansion, not ending slavery, while Black communities in the North faced systemic discrimination and violence. The Civil War began as a fight to preserve the Union, not to end slavery. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was strategic, freeing enslaved people only in rebellious areas. Enslaved people actively participated in their liberation, joining Union regiments like the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, risking unequal pay, equipment shortages, and execution if captured. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery legally, but loopholes enabled forced labor and white supremacy through Black Codes and convict leasing. The myth that slavery ended in 1865 obscures its ongoing legacy. Wealth accumulated from enslaved labor enriched white families for generations, while Black families were systemically excluded. The median white family wealth today is eight times that of Black families—a direct reflection of centuries of exploitation. Northern complicity, the Dunning School, and decades of erasure hid the truth, but court records, census data, letters, newspapers, archaeological evidence, and DNA show a national system of exploitation, sustained by law, violence, and economics. The suppressed truth resurfaced thanks to historians, activists, and institutions willing to confront archives. Works like W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction, slave narratives collected by the WPA, and archaeological research revealed enslaved people’s lived experiences and resistance. Universities and banks have begun acknowledging historical ties to slavery, but debates over textbooks, terminology, and national memory continue. The evidence has always existed—the question was whether people were willing to see it. What emerges is a far more accurate and urgent history: a nation built on exploitation, resisted continuously, and whose legacies persist today.