The History of American Slavery

With Jamelle Bouie and Rebecca Onion

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About the Show

With the help of acclaimed historians and writers, Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore the history of American slavery and examine how the institution came to shape our country’s politics, economy, and culture.

Don’t miss Rebecca and Jamelle’s follow-up podcast, Reconstruction.

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Hosts

9: How Did American Slavery End?

The long process of emancipation.

Bonus: How Can We Get Americans to Talk Honestly About Slavery?

Jamelle Bouie talks with LeVar Burton about remaking Roots and understanding American history.

8: Runaway Railroad

Our sometimes mythical memory of the Underground Railroad, and why the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 propelled the country toward war.

7: To Do No Harm?

What modern medicine gained from slavery, and how slaveholders sought to legitimize their ideology through science.

6: When Cotton Became King

The rise of the 19th-century cotton economy brings about a powerful and frightening turn for the worse.

5: What Happened When Slaves Rebelled

How the frontier was really settled, and the volatile conditions that ripened it for rebellion.

Bonus: Listening Hard for Their Voices

Henry Louis Gates discusses slave narratives—what they’ve taught us and why scholars used to ignore them.

4: The Family Life of Enslaved People

What happened when Thomas Jefferson and other slaveholders tore apart the families they owned.

3: The Hypocrisy of America’s Revolution

Slavery during the Revolutionary War and Elizabeth Freeman’s groundbreaking “freedom suit.”

2: Inside the Slave Ship

The Atlantic slave trade during its heyday and the remarkable life of Olaudah Equiano.

1: The Terrible Transformation

Anthony Johnson and the relatively comfortable position of slaves in early America.