4 Million human beings work were worth much more than all the machinery in the USA. It is almost like the workers hold the means of production and without them nothing can be build, cultivated, cooked or sold.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this series. Each week it gives me something to reflect on, and helps me to understand the world I live in. Such a wonderful resource.
Well done episode & series. It's important to add that the rise of industrial capitalism in the 19th century, which was centered in the textile mills of England, could not have happened unless it was jump started by the imported American cotton that was so cheap because the labor costs for the enslaved people who produced it were so low. Two forms of exploiting labor - one even worse than the other - intersecting & reinforcing one another.
It's incredible to know that this will be the first time some people watching this will have gotten the chance to learn these basic facts about our nation's history. It's a great first step.
This is...by far the hardest episode for me to digest. Keep in mind, I'm following the whole series already which has been nothing short of knowledgable yet grueling. But, to really examine and to put into context how much African Americans/Enslaved Africans helped build not only this economy and country...but a good chunk of Europe's and overall the worlds? We have been beyond short-handed. It motivates me like no other to make sure I'm putting money into my community, my family, and myself; thus working hard for the legacy my ancestors were never able to see. Just..yeah, beyond blessed you all are creating these, yet my heart is so heavy for the ripple effects this inhumane system created.
So grateful to you for making these ~ crash course videos , so informative and educational. My boys actually like watching these. 🥰 Lotsa love from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Great video, thanks. It's also a very good reminder for today, when so many in the Western world benefit from the exploitative labour in other regions of the world. How much of production in wealthy countries today is built on the backs of hardworking people who see little to no profit?
Whenever I talk with anyone who says "Democrats are to blame for slavery" and I feel I have to explain (gestures broadly) all of 17th to 20th century history basically back to them... its exhausting. Hopefully just sending them this video will help. Thank you for this series!!!
Slavery has happened all over the words. The Arabs enslaved Africans, the British enslaved the Slavic people, the Persians and Turks enslaved the Armenian Georgian Caucasians, the Africans themselves enslaved different African tribes.
I mean yeah that’s true and all, but our focus on this video is on Black American History and the Origin of cotton. Your statement is true about slavery happening around the world, but it’s irrelevant to the topic here.
Yes slavery happened all over the world. But race based, generational, chattel slavery done for economic reasons. Was done in the US. People who make the “everyone did slavery” argument are missing the point.
Ashame this had to be seperated into "black history", this is American history! No hate, I love these but scared for the ones I havent watched; if theyre factual, we rarely see that, I liked all the ones i've seen so far! History needs to be learned from, as it always repeats itself, sad people tell me to forget it on here, on RU-vid.
We should pay the value of the country forward to those who built it all for us. Natives get money in their 18th birthday for certain land values, and I think taxes should support black ppl. Our literal whole thing was set up by enslaved humans, soo...
If you gathered all the cotton produced in America from 1600 until the slaves were freed, the it would sell for $26 billion altogether at today’s prices. That’s the gross for all of it, not the net. The profit would be about $3 billion. That’s the MOST you can attribute to their worth because all blacks did was pick a lot of it; they didn’t refine it, ship it, establish trade routes, develop the infrastructure and machinery, etc. none of the slaves had seen cotton or even wore proper clothes until another African captured them and stole them to Europeans. 25 times more cotton has been produced in America since. Why don’t we talk about that? Henry Ford. Carnegie. Rockefeller. Each of these men were singularly more important than the slaves that arrived in America in their history. Those are the men that built America. Focus on them. We are rich and free because of them and because we had SO LITTLE SLAVERY in the United States, not too much.
