thecrashcourse:
Slavery - Crash Course US History #13
In which John Green teaches you about America’s “peculiar institution,” slavery. I wouldn’t really call it peculiar. I’d lean more toward horrifying and depressing institution, but nobody asked me. John will talk about what life was like for a slave in the 19th century United States, and how slaves resisted oppression, to the degree that was possible. We’ll hear about cotton plantations, violent punishment of slaves, day to day slave life, and slave rebellions. Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, and Whipped Peter all make an appearance. Slavery as an institution is arguably the darkest part of America’s history, and we’re still dealing with its aftermath 150 years after it ended.
I feel I should point out that “peculiar” does not mean what you think it means in this context. It didn’t mean strange or odd; it meant particular. So calling it America’s peculiar institution is just saying how endemic it was.
Which, it must be said, Britain was also at fault for.
Any POCs following me, I apologise on behalf of my nation and our history for the actions of British slavers. I can’t do anything else. I can’t make it right. I’m a middle-class white girl, I don’t really know suffering like that and I probably never can. So all I am able to do is say I’m sorry for the pain and degradation my people inflicted on yours, via slavery and empire and everything else we did.