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American Literature: Abolition 4632 Views


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00:03

Abolition...

00:22

Oh brain, brains.... [Zombie lincoln appears]

00:28

Excuse me I got a frog in my throat there much better what I was

00:33

trying to say is that you'll need your brains to master this lesson on

00:37

abolition in the United States although slavery was already a major institution

00:41

in America when the country was founded a serious discussion of the topic is

00:45

strangely missing from both the Constitution and from the Bill of Rights [Bill of rights and constitution documents appear]

00:49

this country's founding legal set of documents four million slaves lived in

00:53

the US back then so the issue of slavery was hotly debated at the

00:56

Constitutional Convention of 1787 the big meeting where America's founding [Founding fathers meeting at a convention]

01:01

fathers wrote the US Constitution which essentially established the US of A... word

01:06

on the street is that they hosted a killer dance party - but sadly no photo [founding fathers dancing at a rave]

01:10

evidence exists, though I'm strangely confident that Ben Franklin was their

01:14

next level twerker... Most of America's slaves were in the southern half of the

01:17

country which meant that the debate split on regional lines with southern

01:21

leaders eager to keep their profit margin sky-high by paying their workers

01:26

nothing arguing in favor of slavery and northerners being a little less gung-ho

01:30

which makes sense given that their economy was far less reliant on the

01:34

system of slavery not all northerners were staunch abolitionists however [Abolition definition appears]

01:38

abolitionists are people who want to end a specific practice in this case of

01:42

slavery some northern leaders were totally cool keeping slavery up and

01:46

running after all many northern businesses were reliant on cotton

01:50

imports from the south to survive and many Northerners themselves held racist

01:54

beliefs and saw nothing wrong with slavery in the South either way it sure

01:58

seems like a lot of folks were willing to turn a blind eye to injustice before [Lincoln pulls out a 5 dollar bill]

02:03

a price... welcome to America... Other northerners argued that the south could

02:07

keep their slaves as long as they stopped taking part in the slave trade [Southerners punishing a slave on a ship]

02:11

from Africa to America something that Europe had done a long time ago already

02:16

along with the banning of slavery altogether which hurt the continents

02:19

ability to produce cheap cotton conveniently leaving an opening for

02:23

southern slave produced cotton to fill still other northerners demanded nothing

02:27

less than full emancipation or freedom for all the slaves as the existence of

02:33

this lesson shows efforts to limit this horrendous institution

02:37

ultimately failed and slavery remained the law of the land from us 80 more years

02:41

the few agreements reached between the two sides weren't too beneficial to [Congress agreement newspaper article appears]

02:45

their cause either the delegates agreed that Congress would have the power to

02:49

end the slave trade from Africa to America but not for another 20 years in

02:53

which is kind of like saying to someone

02:55

I'll stop punching you in a few hours Congress ended up banning the slave [Uncle Sam punches a slave in the face]

03:00

trade as soon as those 20 years had passed so this had zero impact on the

03:05

enslaved people who were already in America all it did was prevent new folks

03:09

from being brought in they also made an agreement known as the

03:12

three-fifths compromise which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for

03:17

population purposes which gave the south a greater amount of political power in

03:20

Congress where the number of Representatives for a given state is

03:23

proportional to their population fast forward to 1861 a little tiff known

03:28

as the Civil War had broken out from the north known as the Union the direct [Union states highlighted blue]

03:32

continuation of the federal US government and the south which was now

03:36

known as the Confederacy before the Civil War people in the north and the

03:40

south wanted different things they were like a couple on the verge of

03:43

breaking up the South wanted to stick with the plantation economy that had [Family on a plantation]

03:47

done so well for them so far no matter how much blood had to be spilled to pad

03:51

their pockets with dollar bills while the north saw industrialization

03:55

factories galore as a wave of the future the South wanted to have control over

03:59

its own political structure while the North preferred a stronger federal

04:03

government and most importantly the South justified slavery by spouting

04:07

racist beliefs about the african-americans they had enslaved

04:10

while an increasing number of northerners were realizing that hey

04:14

owning another human being just might not be such a cool move..Well, the result

04:20

like a teenager grounded on prom night the south rebelled now don't think that [teenage boy dressed in prom suit grounded]

04:24

the north fought the civil war just to free the slaves some northerners argued

04:28

that slavery simply needed to be contained in the south rather than

04:31

spread to new territories while others were ambivalent or in some cases

04:35

supportive of slavery.. for example I was passionately opposed to slavery in my [Zombie Lincoln holds up abolish slavery sign]

04:40

personal life but felt that as president I should remain neutral on the matter

04:44

and accept the South's demands to keep their slaves. what's more my only

04:48

stated goal in civil war was to preserve the Union the United States as a country

04:53

not to free the slaves a distinction that becomes quite important when we

04:57

look at the Emancipation Proclamation signed on September 22 1862 the

05:01

Emancipation Proclamation is one of the most important American political

05:05

documents ever...This executive order basically a direct order issued by the

05:09

president proclaims that any southern state that doesn't make peace with the [People discussing Emancipation Proclamation]

05:13

Union by New Year's Day 1863 will have all their slaves freed immediately...

05:29

well the proclamation doesn't say anything either

05:31

way about enslaved people living in the north or in other American territories

05:36

in the Midwest which had not yet fallen under state control and in some cases

05:40

permitted slavery well there's tons of debate over my exact intentions with the [Zombie Lincoln holding a tin of black beans]

05:45

order but don't expect the association's now no spoilers here well

05:49

some reference my personal anti-slavery views to argue that I intended to end

05:54

the grave evil of slavery once and for all

05:57

while others say that I freed the slaves only to hurt the south's economy

06:01

thereby aiding the war effort and giving the Union Army a fresh set of recruits [Union soldiers holding rifles]

06:05

to throw into boot camp supporters of the latter opinion certainly have the

06:09

citations to back up their belief after all the proclamation explicitly states

06:13

that freeing the slaves was a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing

06:18

the rebellion which definitely implies that the main purpose here was to aid

06:22

the war effort....[mumbles]

06:34

Aso I sent a letter to the New York Tribune editor Horace

06:37

Greeley just a month before signing the Emancipation Proclamation that famously

06:41

states if I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it and If I

06:45

could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it and if I could save it by

06:50

freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that well in other words

06:53

I'm claiming that I'm a real tough guy who only cares about winning the war [People in mid-battle]

06:57

basically the freedom-loving terminator of the 1800s [Lincoln zombie places sunglasses on face]

07:00

if freeing the slaves helped me beat the Confederacy then fine but if not then

07:05

you know whatevs don't think this case is open and shut [Judge bangs a gavel]

07:07

as we've already discussed I was personally opposed to slavery which

07:12

makes it a bit silly to suggest that my personal beliefs didn't influence my

07:15

actions by the time I wrote that letter to Greeley I had already drafted the

07:19

Emancipation Proclamation making the letter seem a lot less like a president

07:23

spitballing the potential impact of ending slavery and a lot more like a PR [Lincoln writing in a room]

07:27

move meant to defend the emancipation proclamation from northerners who still

07:32

didn't want to see slavery ended well another key thing to remember about the

07:35

Emancipation Proclamation is that it only applied to slaves in states that

07:38

were currently in rebellion against the federal government the Confederacy not

07:43

to those states in the so-called border area or border state which still allowed [Border states appear highlighted]

07:48

slavery like Maryland, Delaware and Kentucky nor those on the Western Front

07:53

in other words if a confederacy got

07:56

together in their group chat that day and decided to end the Civil War [Person checks cell phone and confederacy group asks if they should quit]

07:59

well they'd still be allowed to enslave poor innocent people to their heart's

08:03

content of course I didn't expect the south to tap out just because I issued [Emancipation Proclamation knocks out a man]

08:07

the Emancipation Proclamation I just wanted to re-emphasize that my

08:10

decision to free the slaves was solely a military one tactic that would both

08:15

devastate the southern economy and slow down their military buildup and further

08:19

fill out the ranks of the Union Army while slavery didn't really end legally

08:23

anyway until the passage of the 13th amendment to the Constitution late 1864

08:27

early 65 in 1864 civil war was nearing its end so the big talk in DC was what [People fighting in a civil war battle]

08:33

to finally do about this whole slavery situation...Well the

08:37

amendment passed the Senate in April 1864 made it through the House of Congress

08:41

in January 65 and was tattooed on my back in February and then slowly [Lincoln having amendment tattooed on back]

08:47

implemented on a state level over the rest of that year well the actual

08:50

amendment itself is rather short just two sentences don't think this brevity

08:55

means the little fella is easy to grasp however look carefully the amendment

08:58

doesn't ban slavery full stop people can still be placed in slavery or

09:04

involuntary servitude if they've committed a crime....

09:13

Not the biggest distinction in the world but it's one that many commentators have

09:16

pointed out over the years regardless though the Thirteenth Amendment ended [Equality enters into a machine]

09:19

slavery it didn't end the racist system that continued to hold African Americans

09:24

back the laws that kept them segregated the racist beliefs of their lighter

09:28

complexioned countrymen and in many cases horrendous violence directed

09:32

toward them for no other reason than their skin color after all the civil [Clock ticks forward]

09:36

rights movement which was all about racism against African Americans

09:40

wouldn't occur for nearly a hundred years....

09:44

So keep in mind just because the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery [African American girl cycling in a street]

09:48

doesn't mean that it made everything hunky-dory overnight and many argue that

09:52

there's still plenty to go before true equality will be reached, well speaking of..

09:56

let's go back in time a few years and look at another one of my most famous [Zombie Lincoln talking and person draws curtain down]

10:01

speeches the Gettysburg Address well delivered on November 19th 1863 the

10:05

speech was given at the dedication of the soldiers National Cemetery in

10:09

Gettysburg Pennsylvania where the Union would fight and win the crucial Battle [People in battle of Gettysburg]

10:14

of Gettysburg just four months later my speech at Gettysburg is short and sweet

10:18

under two hundred seventy five words and lasting only about two minutes okay sure

10:23

most Joe schmo's might be more familiar with that time when Kanye West messed up [Kanye West on stage with Taylor Swift]

10:28

Taylor Swift acceptance speech but mine was a pretty big deal too but the

10:33

opening line is iconic... Four score and seven years ago... alright let's do some

10:38

math. A score technically speaking is a period of 20 years so we've got four

10:42

times 20 that's 80 plus 7 which is 87 sheesh, don't expect so much arithmetic

10:48

well the speech was given in 1863 so 1863 minus

10:51

87 is 1776 the year that the Declaration of Independence was signed and America [Founding fathers signing declaration of independence]

10:56

was born as a nation 50.. I then defined America as I understand it the nation

11:02

was conceived in Liberty dedicated to the proposition that all men are created

11:06

equal and secretly supported by a super advanced race of aliens keep it on the [Lincoln stood with a group of aliens]

11:12

low so basically I'm connecting the founding of America to the Civil War and

11:16

implying that I'm on the right side of American history in my view of history

11:19

then the Civil War is a test to determine whether any nation built on [Nation test paper appears]

11:23

these freedom-loving values can long endure if the South wins then the dream is

11:28

over but if the North wins and well America is alive and kick'n let's take a

11:32

second to think about the audience of the Gettysburg Address because the

11:35

speech was given during the consecration of a military cemetery its immediate [Lincoln stood in an empty field]

11:40

audience was the soldiers gathered there that day and any of our inter-galactic

11:44

friends you know who decided to drop in take a listen all right but there's also [Person reading Gettysburg Address in newspaper]

11:47

the wider audience of the American public who would later read my words in

11:51

newspapers and they had those back then they hopefully see them as a valid

11:55

defense of the Civil War and don't get it twisted I might say that the world

12:00

won't long remember my speech but you can be darn certain I knew my words

12:04

would spread and be read throughout America but when talking to this wider

12:07

audience I assume they have the same vision of America as I do, that it's a [Vision of a word test appears]

12:12

land of freedom and liberty, that it was founded under the idea that all men are

12:15

created equal and that our love for it can be best expressed through a killer [Lincoln playing a guitar]

12:20

guitar solo as it happened this idea that all men are created equal is at the

12:25

center of the Civil War because it's kind of hard to be equal to someone when

12:29

you're owned by them once again I'm saying these things not

12:32

just to honor the men and women who died during the Civil War but to ensure that [Person sat by a grave of civil war soldiers memorial site]

12:36

the north not the south is seen as the standard-bearer of American values and

12:41

ideals so we can say that the Gettysburg Address had two purposes on one level the

12:45

speech was simply meant to honor the soldiers who died not just at Gettysburg

12:49

but throughout Civil War but it was also meant to portray the Union as the good

12:52

guys in the Civil War by associating them with American ideals and making

12:57

them seem like total studs for good measure well the third paragraph of the [Third paragraph of speech appears]

13:01

speech begins with a nice bit repetition we cannot dedicate, we cannot

13:04

consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground repetition is a classic literary device

13:09

which gives a speech a rhythmic feel to emphasize its message in this case I'm

13:14

employing anaphora which is the repetition of the first part of a given

13:18

phrase or sentence which in this case the, we cannot part and my message

13:22

that the work carried forward by the fallen Union soldiers is still [Wounded union soldiers appear]

13:26

unfinished these soldiers are running that same marathon that was begun when

13:30

the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence and signed the Constitution

13:33

sprinting towards the goal of true freedom and equality for all because [Founding fathers sprinting for freedom and equality on a track]

13:38

this work is unfinished it's up to us to complete the mission to give America a

13:42

new birth of freedom and to ensure that government of the people by the people

13:46

and for the people shall not perish from the earth

13:49

in this way I'm once again connecting the union's efforts in the civil war to

13:53

those of the founding fathers during the Revolutionary War and arguing that [Woman walking up steps]

13:57

winning the Civil War will help move their mission of freedom that much

14:01

closer to completion but my quest for true freedom might

14:04

never be finished this lesson sure is and what did we learn well we learned

14:08

that America's founding fathers really passed the buck where slavery is [Checklist of why should we care]

14:11

concerned forcing later generations to deal with the issue themselves and

14:15

nobody did more to end slavery than yours truly Honest Abe, the Emancipation

14:19

Proclamation for example is a legendary legal document that freed all slaves in

14:24

the Confederacy though not throughout the Union the Thirteenth Amendment

14:27

finished the job a few years later banning slavery throughout the country

14:31

though some modern commentators argue that its exception when someone commits

14:35

a crime allows slavery to continue to the modern day and while my famous [TV screen showing Gettysburg Address]

14:39

speech the Gettysburg Address might not directly be about slavery the speech is

14:44

all about my personal vision of America as a land of freedom and equality one I

14:49

hope you share too now please leave me be as you can probably hear the founding

14:54

fathers are throwing an undead rager and well you do not want to miss out on one [Lincoln appears at a club with founding fathers]

14:59

of those I told you the greatest twerker of all time [Franklin twerking in a club]

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