Our members, our revolution society, this is a wonderful people who are great supporters of our music. We are pleased to partner with harvard for trust, you will see him up on the screen here. I know tim but all i can see is darkness out there. So lets thank them for making these possible. [applause] its a real pleasure to be welcoming doctor Vincent Brown this evening as is sometimes the case but not all that often, we are welcoming a good friend to the museum here this evening. Prince was one of the group of scholars who consulted with us during the development of the exhibitions and interactants of the present here. Long before jacques was in the ground and the steel began rising here in philadelphia, we were tapping his brain for stories of the American Revolution. It turned into great personal stories and our core exhibition here. Prince is a Charles Moore professor of africanAmerican History. And Harvard University. If you have an opportunity to go online, dont do it right now on your phones but when you get home, he developed an online interactive map calls slave map, its a narrative so you can go online and share a lot of the themes and you may speak about this this evening but its a great online resource helpfully will begin to be used by educators in classrooms. Hes received guggenheim fellowships, his documentary in the heart of blackness was broadcast nationally on pbs and received the oconnor the award and chosen as the best documentary of the hollywood festival. In 2017, for those of you who were here april 19 when we opened the museum of the American Revolution, Vincent Brown was one of our absolutely stunning key note speakers. We went back and read your transcript and comment that day, they continue to inspire us. More recently might have seen him interviewed on cbs sunday morning piece about the museum. All of these are available on the museums website. Weve got a little sizzle reel to introduce Vincent Brown because we thought you ought to get at least that same treatment. We welcome Vincent Brown. It can motivate people to heroin. Encourage to carry them out. We appreciate the efforts of common, men children of all sorts. Losses as well as pictures. The determination to turn the lawsuit into lessons. The revolution is and should be a living history. The aspirations of the present as he was in the dreams and deeds of the past. This history is contradictory, tragic and ironic as often as it is heroic. It also has a virtue of being closer to the truth. So im grateful, deeply grateful to the exhibit for having the courage to tell the truth. Its not only a proud story of National Origin but an account of how one might have experienced a time of such turmoil. [applause] i did not expect this sizzle reel. Now i can lay back and relax. I appreciate that. Thank you so much for that of the introduction. Maybe over turners introduction but it was fantastic. Also, thank you for the fantastic work you do here at the museum. And for inviting me to speak this evening. I want to think hannah alex for arranging my appearance, ryan and david for holding down the tent and thanks to all of you for coming out tonight. Very much appreciate you and your interest in history. Especially the history you dont know and you would like to explore. I really appreciate that. Its kind of a homecoming for me in a way because i consulted earlier on the museum but also because of one of the curators here, a graduate student of ours at Harvard University. He doing amazing work and im proud of him, its nice to help be here to support. [applause] im honored to have factor in the audience with us tonight. [applause] one of the leading early american and revolution history the country but also Harvard University where she was instrumental in hiring me. [applause] [laughter] im not sure why you did it but i am grateful that you did. Its great to see you. Thanks for coming. Im honored to be with you here im hoping that maybe you can catch a bit of the spirit of revolution together before it too late. In 1776, Great Britains most important american colony was on the verge of this direction. Calmness proceed the government in britain was conspired against the subjects. A plot against the english liberty they long enjoyed. At the dinner table, they discussed americas open sedition, those affected with imperial government and the topic of american rebellion. As the jamaican communist debated liberty, their slaves saw an opportunity. The island was at a critical junction with the british entry into yet another imperial war. Calmness treated graduating account of french and spanish military buildup in the caribbean and calculated the there were 30 slaves to everyone present. Ready to join the attempts of any enemy in a general massacre. July 3, they prepared for royal, scheduled to depart the islands were north america by the end of the month. Throughout that, people gathered frequently in houses, grants and open fields. To hold serious conversations which stopped suddenly upon the approach of anyone they did not trust. Now or never, they thought. The times to make themselves for the country. The moment seems like there was uprising but this was not to be. The trade in the conspiracy unraveled. When the british in jamaica considered the gravity of the predicaments in 1776, often looking ahead to the last of the 13th colony, he looked to the past. The direction of 1760 which had been the most dangerous throughout the British Empire to date. Theres differences between the 1760s and 1776. Mostly in terms of the nature of warfare with their own slaves. 1776 marks a moment in the United States of america. The declaration of independence met 13 colonies from Great Britain, referring to the nati nation, a broader context of the times. The attention for the fact that britain had 26 colonies in america. By far the most military significant and politically connected were in the caribbean. This chart compares private wealth in various regions in 1774. It divides territories in british america as a whole and 13 north american colonies became the United States. They divide 13 colonies into three regions. Seven, bit atlantic and new england. Congress held nearly 70 of the wealth and british america. It is much larger than the caribbean. When you break north america down by region, cutie the growth increase as you move south. That is according to the degree the economy depended upon in slave labor. When you examine the average amount of property held, an astonishing amount dropped. The british for the ring, 90 of the population there. Mostly for then 17 times the wealth in the 13 colonies. The average private wealth of jamaica was the most lucrative american colonies with 58 times greater than new england. Military deployment distributed to protect that wealth. Often, warships assigned to not American Continents. This was explaining why hutchinson couldnt get as much support as he needed as soon as he wanted for british policymakers. Before that American Revolution, the british were well aware that they now know as tax, represented in the crisis and it was generally a source of overwhelming concern. Taking advantage of the work against the opponents from more than 1000 enslaved people on jamaica launched an uprising on april 7 and continued into the next year. Over the course of 18 months, they destroyed tens of thousands of pounds worth of property. During the depression followed, over 500 were killed in battle, executed or driven to suicide. They are transported from the island. The consider the extent of the plan, the multitude of the conspirators and difficulty opposing interruption with a variety of places at once. This was more than there. Jamaican conflict rather than being here, the rebellion instigation of an african man who had been chief there. It is organized by people called for monty from the post. The west african region. They had an established reputation. Their displacement forced migration and rebellion should have the slave trade mast what i call the warfare that convulsed the 18th century Atlantic World. The slave trade spread throughout the americans. Some have been leaders or soldiers. They found themselves uprooted, scattered by great work and current and replanted into unfamiliar territory to rebuild their social lives. Inevitable, some of them determined they could and their bondage. Mostly Common People who found expansionary wars across the ocean sat down in aliens land with a fertilized them. They promise to liberate them and rewards to serve their masters. They presented a better life. This process for transplantation and adaptation to a strange new one, its familiar for cultural change. The transformation in african religion, expression and africanamerican atlantic history and a common frame. A similar approach here showed how the turmoil is placement in the daily hostility implantation society generated a militant response that traveled, took root and started and reverberated across the american and back. Thats what happened when they broke up in conspiracies in the 17th and 18th century. St. John, new york, manteca and jamaica. The jamaican direction of 1760 to 61 followed by further uprising and 65 and 66, among the largest in march consequential of them. From what observers could lean, it was clear many had been soldiers in africa. They arrived the military training, they learned that in africa. Some suggest that american slavery might be seen as extensions as african war. In perspective, the conflict network of migration, trans Regional Power and conflict that gave political history of 18th century and most extinct. The warfare was the first step to envisioning a map of atlantic slavery that shows how political and military practices travel, take root and grow in the environment. Even as they forced people to negotiate, the africans across the atlantic scattered throughout the americas. They show how african warfare reconstituted, not with previous journal but the group of immigrant experience. British slaveholders value this. Planters generate help for Agricultural Labor but at the same time, they are a dangerous rebellious disposition and promote disturbances. There were dangerous people keeping in bondage perhaps in part, for the reasons they traders had an abundant source of potential workers. The 17th and 18th centuries went through the transformation of empires. They had each other in the region. The sales from european traders, the worst produce those on the coast. They also produce the turbulent in which the complex military campaign involved with european and african rivals, multiple alliances, negotiations and directories. The context in the cold course like a single ethnic group in africa, they were the core, according to the subject, there were members of the organization of co nationals. They called them a nation in the america. This was a phenomenon. A created category comprising people who could understand. Those language is. They brought in similar strategies within the corporation. There is no direct ethnicity on the gold coast where they supersede the divisions. Having taken the name, an important coastal town from the 17th century, it was both social groups and religious institutions. Mutual society, and a place to enjoy entertainment. As social community and environment with mentalism and, experience, National Gatherings could have people plan, organize and stage reports. They drew upon their previous experience. However, as a category of belonging, monty was cut by other identifications. He spoke more than one thing which it came from different religions and kingdoms. Just as important, one in jamaica was a role in society. It could resolve all the typical negotiations with interests and experience. Even with their compatriots, people made friends and foes in politics belonging, it was meant to be or want to in jamaica is urgent in itself. Assault on the personal and collective dignity cannot distinguish themselves by the political commitment as much as by described patients. How to live in society, and how to destroy it altogether. Shape the rebelliousness even as they recalled prior expenses in africa. In the atlantic warfare, nothing was more important than learning whether and how to form the unit, alliances and coalitions in superior power. The enslaved with them on the gold coast before coming to africa. With a front new and different particular in order to make war of their masters. Made subject provided by slaves of the perennial anxiety to a slaveholder that says there is no quarter given and it and in 1772 reeling from the uprisings of the previous decade. To see how the entire world could be organized with the counterattack on a continuous Scale Holding that black people other times and places where they characterize a permanent state of low intensity war is never been more apparent to slave would transform america the european imperial conflicts of agriculture african battles the transatlantic trade masters of human property struggled with one another these clashes amount to a borderless slave war to expand slavery and again slaves were against slaveholders. And those had diverging and overlapping provocation of combat zones and political alliances. And to have four conflicts at once. It was a race war between black slaves and right weight placeholders. And that was one of the hardest fought battles of the seven years war with the global conflict between Great Britain and the european rivals. Each of these emerged from the jamaican insurrections of the 17 sixties charting their course to new stories of place in territories and movement and a new cartography the histories of europe and africa and america. One of the principal leaders the elite official on the gold coast to engage combat with political rivals captured and enslaved and fought naval battles against the french and the driver on that sugar plantation and then to be called a race war. And every day violence of enslavement and course labor to the grand scale of geopolitics. Each of this mask interlocking patterns across vast distances to elements of empire and diaspora. And to take us far from the plantations beyond masters and slaves from racial violence. The slave or from those soldiers of europe and africa those empires and slaves that were swept up on both sides of the atlantic ocean. That shapes the our pal ago archipelago from the World History from below. Now, i will let you read the account for yourself. [laughter] no spoilers. You can get a glimpse of the way to have two small but a general sense of how complicated this revolt was even the first few months across the parishes of the island. So for now let me just talk about those underappreciated reverberations why think it was so important and how i hope the book can model the kinds of connections from distant places against her own span of time. To anticipate the American Revolution by a decade of a half in the evolution by three decades. To be considered one of the great events the age of revolution and it is hardly known outside of jamaica with the British Empire or atlantic slavery. This by the fact the signal moments of the era with those colonist of north america and the beginning of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. In the aftermath of the revolt jamaicas house of assembly passed new taxes in commercial duties the new government committed to a tax on parchment and paper some that they would attempt a few years later for all americans but the jamaicans damp act was for the direct costs of the revolt and then it was replaced for the wealthiest colonist as a model from the more contentious stanback that would while the colonist in north america the tax was an instance of a larger reform effort stimulated by the seven years war. Policymakers celebrated military victory the diaspora and the caribbean with a threat to the most vital colony. Two weeks after the death of king george the second the border trade consider the jamaican insurrection of how expanding the empire to be contained as an internal antagonist. A new policy would take shape a new statesman had worried for more than a decade for the previous war in 1748 the Strategic Value had increased dramatically in the first half of the 18th century in the complexity has grown in tandem. British members of parliament were spurred to a reform effort by the behavior during the seven years war in the midst of the conflict the governors and elected officials for the navigation act of treating with the enemy and failing to supply enough local troops and resources and as the historian explained this was a dramatic shift from the permissive and restrictive philosophy of Colonial Administration in london amplify the widespread conviction the colonies had too many privileges and they ought to be reduced. News of the slave or in britain the most profitable colony strengthen the problem one policymakers resolve when this would help with the shift in attitude by the colonist in jamaica jamaica colonist had been as independent as the north american counterparts but it reminded slaveholders of the benefits with the gratitude along with a request for the more troops to trade if not the lives and property of the loyal subjects have become a prey to the slaves slaveholders of jamaica are resented the influence as well as new taxes however unlike so many north america the experience curse them to remain subject to imperial command to help finance their own security. They did not like many imperial reforms. After the seven years war with jamaica having served as a mode model, policymakers preferred new legislation for the north american colonies these policies inspire the wellknown backlash of the British Empire 1776. If the jamaican insurrection hope to save the colonies after the rationale of reform of colonial slavery. The rebellion concerned of that pragmatic plan for the security of the colonies by limited dependence of the slave trade in ameliorating the condition of the enslaved and ironically the work of the historians had a Significant Impact on a budding anti slavery discourse. Not even the threats to colonial slavery for the insurgent long promotes the idea the slave born population would be more retractable and that they could just avoid working the slaves to death and continue to scatter them by sale establish better conditions for childrearing and encourage christianity that slaveholders might be more secure in their possessions and they could also save money on the crisis of imported labor. Raising up nativeborn populations reformers constantly reform refer to as the improvement of plantation leading to a kinder and gentler less menacing slavery. Since the beginning of the 19th century people campaigning against the slave trade would argue ending the traffic would hurt the British Empire so that helps to nurture the anti slave trade movement and to inspire those first efforts of the Transatlantic Slave Trade responding to the 1712 uprising in new york city the Pennsylvania Assembly prohibited a 20pound duty to say the insurrection not only of the island but the mainland of america. After the revolt in 1739, that colony enacted a ten year moratorium on africans. And in the 17 sixties other colonies try again virginia legislators attempted to have a duty on imported slaves 1767, 69 and 72. As explained to british officials colonist just apprehended the most dangerous consequence not only presenting their increase but to lessen their number. He believes the interest of the country requires the total expulsion of them. By colonial concern they disallowed all of these duty acts restrictions were more successful in pennsylvania. In 1761 revisited jamaica slave or regularly the colonies assembly noted the consequences attending the practice of importing slaves into the province many hope to prohibit the trade entirely in 1761 the colonies passed a law to extend enforcement into perpetuity in 1773 pennsylvania finally passed an actual abolition of slavery as much as these laws expressed opposition to slaveholding and that was genuine he is also aimed at discouraging the arrival of the insurgent africans. If most fear the presence of africans many others empathize in the evolution movements beginning african rebels through sympathetic responses from people and places that fewer number than the caribbean many british north american leaders work for one horrified by their brutality of their co nationals accounts of execution circulated more wildly with the Christian Christians of the british hope to envision their nation of the World Community from death and religious virtue and for some this imagine community and african rebels have a sacrifice to a cruel tyranny of slaveholders one pamphlet circulated of the two dialogues of the man trade of natures higher law to authorize violence all the black men now on plantations deprived of their liberty as they have none to appeal to to repel the force and to destroy the oppressors and not only so but white as well as black to assist those miserable creatures of they can in the chance to deliver themselves out of slavery and to rescue them out of the hands of their cruel tyrants. A few others are willing to go this far. That the intellectual slave trade abolition for the British Empire he frequently had higher law doctrine against the trade of human beings among fellow quakers to induce them to see the violence as the unconscionable evil that the slave trade was a constant source of for was the reasoning to the early 19th century. Even some who cannot slave revolt could condemn slaveholder that they asserted used to the arbitrary and cool government having for so long tasted the sweet of oppressing their fellow creatures that was strongly as the british colonies asserted improved in the same year his defense of the right of the american settlers of the Imperial Administration declared colonist are freeborn as all men are white or black. Know when england they mocked americans to be oppressed by their brutality to the enslaved anti slavery rhetoric led a Parliamentary Campaign against William Bedford who was an advocate in the early years of the American RevolutionSamuel Johnson famously raises a toast at an oxford dinner party by the end of the century stories of revolt against slaveholders promote the antislavery consciousness which ultimately enable the campaign to go against the slave trade in the 19th century. This all happened too late for the rebels themselves like most insurrections the war ended badly they were captured and banished from the island from those that took no part in the fighting looking back one can see the outcome was never really in doubt the balance of forces doomed to the rebellion and they could not blame the colony for the british as they would do two and a half decades later. But the rebels did not know they would fail even in the business of war and a colony garrison for battle they could find fishes in the landscape beyond the reach of their grip and even challenge the combined forces of the British Empire in place and popular memory. The revolt through the 17 sixties shows how a watershed of history if the map had been drawn of the territories for cultivation and to enhance state power the rebellion has another record of Historical Movement to channel people into new solidarity to partition friends from foes and bystanders through governing authorities since jamaica helped the British American empire the most profitable settlement and stronghold what happens varied widely the legacy of the 17 sixties is ambiguous at the close of the sevenyear war britain kept its price colony and tackys revolt had a imperial effort of the north American Continent if they anticipated the revolution to the enslaved they also left a black people divided where cora montys as formidable fighters at the same time with social danger even the United States as late as the mid 19th century shave holder one slaveholders referred to those among us. And the imagination today and with the rise in progress as though such dirty wars epitomize the relationship between labor and commerce. And it seems to speak to the history of liberty in the security on obscurity of these events reluctant to acknowledge slave revolt as an act of war. More than the losses to the poor and weak to signify a world turned upside down in those nationstates to maintain their honor and victory and defeat with that for a political struggle between the powerful there is no limit to maintain their supremacy and then to disavow them they refuse to admit they are legitimate enemies with the past and present struggles of some powerful people because slaveholders saw the first draft with the historiography trained to escape their point of view. And as a fresh perspective of the landscape in the study of slavery taking it to be the general emancipation that points to the post revolutionary era the 19th century the process of emancipation from haiti to brazil comes to contain sharp relief as the animated force of historical change although that did bring transformation come emancipation binds the ultimate aims of century of the antislavery struggle to the 19th century so throughout the Atlantic World and in most cases followed by the assertion of dominance of slaveholders the antagonisms to establish slavery the shape that has a tenuous liberty it persisted through the 19th and 20th centuries rain of white power with the manifestations but yet struggles were continuous during and after slavery they constantly fought to develop their own notions of belonging and status not just reach the 17 sixties in jamaica through heroism and defeat most were killed and forced back into slavery to inspire future generations and also fighting against the longest odds. However in the courage and ingenuity charting the landscape of force and the limitation that they never meant to show. Revealing a hope of geography impossibility fugitive territories and those that were difficult to maintain paradoxical and in most cases yet to be one. Thank you. [applause]. We do have a microphone for our audience we only have time for a couple of questions. We also have just a few books there was a run on the bookstore but actually we will have some signed bookplates available if you would like to have one of those to take home to a fix to a book that you can come back and pick up. The next read the revolution speaker is may 19 speaking about her book our sister republic shifting our gaze to the relationship of the younger republic. Professor thank you so much for that excellent presentation. Excuse me for holding a glass of wine with my question. [laughter] but this was and electric presentation of the scene that i became familiar with reading the slaves cars which you are probably very familiar with which for those who are unfamiliar with that comment spoke of the lack of appreciation of the comprehensive efforts over the centuries to abolish slavery that participated in by many people so that we dont really appreciate that in our study of American History that this was such an international effort. Specifically for your work , you pinpointed a very interesting point. In america quakers were at the forefront of the abolition or re movement their efforts led to discussion they were nonviolent leading to discussion and yet the baptist in jamaica did a different thing and were led more by violence and revolt and that effort seems to have prompted the result will the response of British Government to eliminate or abolish slavery as a more peaceful approach did not. Do you have any comment to that difference . I do have some thoughts. Go back to the way we approach history which is sometimes looking for heroes and first causes and the things we want to say to the thing that really mattered with the religious reformers of the 18th century moving through those dissenting evangelicals against the enslaved and their continuous efforts of antislavery over centuries. I dont approach history like the people i like or dont like. Im trying to figure out how complex causes and how is that those religious reformers are responding to the efforts of the enslaved and how did that help to stimulate their movements of organization for the slave trade. And not choosing one or the other and then to build their political connections and refusing to do with a masters want them to do. And to compel them to make those kind of choices. We have spent so much time idealizing that religious reform tradition. And they dont seem to matter as much. To get a complete sense of the predicament of the people thinking maybe slavery will not work for much longer. And those that become the largest slave revolt in the British Empire. That is when they give up the game. With decades and generations of anti reformers in britain. And then that much more comprehensive picture and this is really what i am after here. First of all i am not an academic but i was fascinated by your presentation in terms of what goes on in the world today. Learning from history to provide perspective on what goes on today. The issue of looking to more domicile or manageable people the business interests can dominate and utilize and those enslavers were rational people looking at the world as a business person. With that in mind why word the mountains be the target for the golden close one coast to import slaves . It appears the history of being unmanageable of militaristic and not subject to being controlled. Why would these importers go to the gold coast to bring that group of people . There are all kinds of stereotypes especially with the people they enslave and with each other but often they are based on the exaggeration of something they can see. They are wrong ultimately about the nativeborn populations being more dos ill in 1831 rebellion is the largest is all led by people who were nativeborn to the island. So that doesnt save them the problem of slavery is slavery itself. But more specifically why they thought they were good Agricultural Laborers they had a relationship with the gold coast they had trade relations developed over generations so they knew how things operated how to network in place so they were familiar with how things that would work. They didnt necessarily have all the choices they wanted but they were responding as much to supply as to their own demand. Second, there was a certain kind of admiration to recognize these people the british by the late 17th century had become quite militaristic themselves. So they recognize something they could my are in the people and that could serve upon them it is crude when i say this and i apologize but its almost like the way people want to domesticate wild horses its more upon the person who can domesticate so that is the sense of the cora montys. But the british have idea of the marshall race when the poon job he is a characteristic race and they draft them into specialized military units in the British Empire to do the same thing with the zulu. To valorize them as particularly tough people they could admire in some way especially because there is that lovehate relationship they desire to master them precisely because they are such a challenge i dont want to go so far down into the road of psychology but you can see them play out through the 1h and 18th century. Could you talk about the very early stage specifically if slavery is well understood and then to be a constant state of war with that plantation how do the slaves get to kill their masters or attack the armory . Do they fight with knives or guns . Or working with those slave occupations and then between plantations there was the quote about 400 people. Do they have a signal that such and such a time with those neighboring plantations . I am very interested in how that begins in a situation where the slaveholders know this could happen. Its a great question on to Say Something much more general so does that mean you have to help keep of other enslaved people so the man that i mentioned is a driver on that plantation and then is on behalf of other slaves but yet use the authority granted by them to organize the rebellion so there has to be that the overseer and that person of authority who is enslaved and access. So you are trusting they are so keen to protect their access that they will continue to align with you rather than the enslaved population and when those religious divisions you would like to keep that 90 percent to offer some special favors so you can manage the situation but more directly, a lot of them have canines they dont collect all of them at the end of the day and so yes not many people are guarding them once you have that cane naive then they storm the fort where they had muskets and powder to lead the next parts of the rebellion so then they were gathering the weapons that they can and trying to gather other people into the revolt so they set these plantations alight everybody that has been told the revolt will happen they were told now is the time and those are the ones that were guiding the weapons on that plantation and that is how it worked by signals and the fact if they had done the organizing work properly friend from foe carefully over a long period of time when things go off they could happen quite quickly i can spend much more time going into the mechanics but that should give you a general sense of how it works. Early in your presentation you had a slide of 1661 through 1765 and the most frequent destinations that you talk about the various islands. How is it in some cases you have tens of thousands are other cases you have hundreds of thousands, how is it determined son went to barbados for some went to jamaica . How were those destinations determined . It is largely demand and also what kind of Merchant Networks connect to what kind of places so the trade of the gold coast every european power is involved with the british and the dutch and the danish take greater numbers of people from that particular region of the coast they and other european slave trading powers so those people that they are taking are the biggest and most productive colonies so jamaica gets the lion share because they have so many planters demanding so many workers and they have a network through the gold coast because they prize people from that particular region they have long contacts so they wind up getting greater numbers of people. If you have a region that is favored by merchants then the number of people coming the percentage of people coming the scale of the trade is determined who in the colonies has a business relationship to connect to that source of supply. Does that make sense . Looking at how this plays out over time is the database going through those numbers it has almost 45 or 40000 ships trying to come up with an accurate estimate of regional departures and destinations for the entire four centuries of the trade. Can you speak to how you view this history in a contemporary context . With White Supremacy over centuries and the reality of it still today. What is your view of all of this history and how it has evolved and today what we need to learn from it to address the these incredible inequities that operate along racial lines. Great question that takes me away from my work as a historian but i will talk as a citizen and why i am particularly engage with this kind of history. Because of the troubles of society. There are continuous patterns that endure over a long period of time. So the origin of the word slaves is derived from the slavic people from the slave trade for some time before the fall of constantinople and the movement of european traders out across the mediterranean in to the atlantic relying on the enslaved africans to do the work with that pattern is still there in the language i do think of those expectations over centuries i dont see a typical feature to signify the social status and even after the end of the goal slavery they still came to signify that even in places where the laws were radically different like in latin americ america, you still find associations because an african typical features and those expectations take different forms in the way the law works and culture works in the way society is organized that is an abstract way to say we are contending with those enduring patterns but fighting were people are fighting against that discrimination even at its height and most extreme and during slavery the struggles were as continuous as White Supremacy itself. Or white power itself. Or racism itself. Went to emphasize only those struggles will change things for the better. So understanding the situation we find ourselves in has historical origins but the struggles against those discriminatory patterns are continuous. Because we are still living that history. A quick final question. I want to ask you about your engagement the American Revolution the history of american slavery and liberty woven into the neighborhood. As a transatlantic story how much of the landscape of your story have you been able to travel to and how has that affected your perspective . Thank you for that question. One of the driving ideas behind this book we can remap and reshape the expectations for who matters so we are trying to integrate to see how things in west africa things in jamaica would reverberate back to europe and the geographic process but i dont want to see that from 30000 feet by try to look at the landscape that im talking about to see that connection between west africa between parish or plantation in jamaica at what might happen in london or boston so your question is did i spend time . Some. Certainly in west africa i spent quite a bit of time in ghana on the gold coast at the castles and now some are like tourist traps they are impressive but they dont have the feeling of those horror and the terror. It turns out there is a fort which was the most heavily trafficked it has not been redone but one Early Morning just before sunrise and there i was on the beach at this fort and my imagination knowing what i knew about the history and being in the place could give me a sense of engagement much deeper than i found at Cape Coast Castle and that was quite powerful nothing to convey directly but my investment of imagination to be in that place in the same thing happened in other places in jamaica. Very much its how they connect different landscapes that looks quite different than the National Histories that we generate. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] pointsn cspan2