American history tv, now and over the weekend on cspan3. Every saturday night American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures and history. Why do you all know who lindy boreden is and raise your hand if you heard of the dean harris murder trial. The deepest cause where well find the true meaning of the revolution was in a transformation that took place in the minds of the american people. Were going to talk about both of the sides of the story here, right. The tools, the techniques of slaveowner power. And well also talk about the tools and techniques of power that were practiced by enslaved people. Watch history professors lead discussions with their students on topics ranging from the American Revolution to september 11th. Every saturday 8 00 p. M. On American History tv and lectures in history on podcasts. Find it where you listen to podcasts. Now a conversation on slavery and native american displacement. University of richmond professor discussed the expansion of slavery in western migration effected native americans from the civil war moving them further from their ancestoral lands. If you want more information about the trail of tears there theres a nationalle trail of Tears Association, you can Google National trail of Tears Association and it will get you to the website. Got that right. Okay. Well, thank you for your raft attention this morning and i think youre in for more surprises this afternoon. Our first speaker is ed airs and i feel he is a gentleman who needs no introduction but ill still introduce him. Hes been named National Professor of the year. Hes received national humani humanities medal from president obama at the white house. Served as president of the organization of american historians and won prize for distinguished writing in American History. He served as the founding chair of the board of the American Civil War museum and hosts the future of americas past, a Television Series that visits sites of memory and meets the people who keep those memories alive. Hes executive director of new American History and we all know him from when were driving around in our cars as one of the American History guys. An online project design that has promoted the student in all of us to divide into history and to see it in new and unexpected ways. He is a University Professor and president ameritus at the university of richmond. Please welcome ed airs. Hello, everybody. Weve had wonderful talks abo about were going to go back and come up to today if my talk and were going to try to integrate native history, africanAmerican History, and whitesouthern history in a way thats not usually done. We usually separate our history out by ethnicity rather than weaving it together. Well see how it works. This is an experiment. Ive not given this talk before. Lets put my glasses on so i can see what i have written. This is the idea. Were going to cover all this land. One thing we have in common from millenia is this landscape. This is the different soils of the south. Heres the thing is that the south expanded with a speed and size few could have imagined in 1790 when lind lindsey started the story. Three migrations create the the south over the next 70 years. 10s of thousands of Indigenous People driven from their lands, millions of farmers across continents of europe and millions of enslaved people moved to new plantations. The path of migration began from many sources and flow the to many sources at the same time. We can trace those paths maybe well be able to see how these stories wove to together. So what weve see is slavery defined much of what happened in this story. Slavery concentrated on the richest land and yet spread everywhere in the south. Most white southerns didnt own enslaved people yet they went everywhere settlers went. The migration of nonslave holders allowed the slave south to expand as fast as the north. So this is what we have to try to figure out. Is how does the displacement and survival of native americans fit into this story . So in 1790, after centuries of continual conflict and change, Indigenous Peoples maintained a presence in every part of the southeast of north america, from atlantic, to the gulf to the plains, some reduced to small and isolate the groups, some bound themselves with other refugees of slavery to form alliances. Neighboring towns incorporated words from europeans, and people born in africa. They regularly communicated, traded and cooperated with one another, often across great distances on welldefined and heavily travelled groups. The purple arrows are reminding us that they are not waiting for the white people to show up, they had their own history, living and breathing and all of this happening as the American Revolution is being fought. You got it keep everything in movement all along. And some of these people enslaved one another and found ways to live a mid loss and gain of threat a mid growing population of spanish, english and french and then americans. Sand with and with the pressures from the white settlers, the tensions within and among the native peoples grew more urgent while some indigenous men and women embraced idea of private property and some became christians and others embraced older, more traditional ways of life. So mobility defined the lives of these folks and increasingly they find themselves in stetermf sovereignty and territory and boundarie boundaries. Those are ideas create in tandem with the people moving on to their land. The cherokee. Choct choctaw. On the map, areas with varying shades of blue, people are decreasing. With various shades of brown people are increasing. The brighter the blue the more people are leaving. The brighter the brown, the more people are going. You will see we have it broke down by different racial groups. This is white population change. The first decade of the american nation between the American Census and you will see virginia is blue from beginning to end here. People are fleeing virginia and most of white people are going to the north. But here in the first decade they go down the shendoa valley, to east tennessee, hang a hard right to central kentucky. This is the first frontier of the south and the first decade of cottons expansion, moving to the up country of South Carolina. You will recognize from our earlier talks this is land occupied by the cherokee. As you can see, all of the lands with diagonal lands on them are lands still in native possession in 1790. So this is the black population change at the same time. Well toggle back and forth. You will see white people are not moving to the same places that they are taking enslaved people. Enslaved people here are moving to the piedmont of virginia and of what becomes georgia and South Carolina, at the same time that they are moving enslaved people to blue grass region of kentucky. In the next decade, what you will see is that how rapidly this is growing. This is where Andrew Jackson would be moving into as a part of this bright pattern, because he moves from Western North carolina, into central tennessee. Central tennessee like blue grass of kentucky is rapidly growing. Look at georgia. Lindsey was telling us about georgia. What youre seeing there is that white people are moving up to the very boundary of cherokee land. And they are pushing into it as hard as they can. But youll also see in this first decade, theyre moving to the mississippi river, to louisiana. So we sometimes think of this, especially those from virginia as west ward migration. But migration is moving in multiple directions at once. This is black population change at the same time. You will see black people are being concentrated. This is the pattern we will see all along. Where they are abused by white people. The trade of slave people is relentless. And it is very efficient. In nashus, mississippi, a french town was beginning to grow as the beginning of the sugar trade in louisiana, later we will see enormous kpons kwenss. Consequences. And theres pressure on the cherokee who are living where the cotton kingdom is expanding. This is 1810, 1820. The black population change. You can see already that no sooner do white people take black people into areas and then they start moving them. You can also see now, look at southern alabama. So we know this is occupied by native peoples. Already white people are taking black people into that area. So heres the thing to understand about all of this. Is that, even while the laws that lindsey is telling us about are being framed, white people are not waiting, theyre pushing, infiltrating lands owned by native people, and they are taking slavery with them wherever they go. This is 1810 to 1820, the decade that embraces the war of 1812. This is when Andrew Jackson first surges into prominence of course by freeing new orleans but by taking millions and millions of acres of land from Indigenous People as a result of that war. So some of the native people ally with the british or the spanish as ways to protect themselves. When the american win what they find is that they are forced treaties, you heard about the treaty of dancing rabbit creek. Its sort of a consequence of all this. You are seeing white people are still moving into the upper south. Black populations far more concentrated in the plantation districts. So you got picture all that. Now what were talking about here, this is something thats happening globally. This is the creation of whats called a Settler Society. These are englishspeaking colonies, former colonies around the world and the idea is white people claim the right to take land from the Indigenous People as a destined path towards civilization. It is Settler Society because they are displacing native people through forced migration or death rather than incorporating them as you might find in other colonial societies, think of settler societies australia, uj so of a ricka, United States, er depend on break neck demographic groups. We talked in the first lecture about the enormous doubling natural growth of the white population but is also the case of the africanamerican population. This is the only society in western hemisphere where enslaved population reproduces itself. By 1808 the International Slave trade is closed but enormous enslaved population of africanamerican people is within the south. Now the United States is unusual as a Settler Society because you dont have to come from england to australia or new zealand. These are people generally moving within the south. You got cheap land, valuable commodities, high profits, assumed racial cultural superiority. Drove and justified the migration of millions of English Speaking people in every hemisphere in the 19th century. United states is the main example of this. Heres the main difference for the south. This is the only place where white Settler Society possessed control over a third ethnicity to use in their expansion. All of those other places white people come and displace Indigenous People, in American South they displace Indigenous People and bring enslaved people with them. It feeds a feverish growth and expansion in a lost the legal cases you heard about this morning. American south is not the only enslaved society jamaica, brazil and other places where white settlers are on big plantation, here this is the only ruling class that uproots itself and moves and recreates its society over again. Thats why kentucky, tennessee, and matter of fact, most of the south is. Its that other white southerners, with or without enslaved people, moving across the south and recreating the south. So the south is completely unique element. A different kind of combination. It has all of the energy of the american north. But the power of the enslaved population that it controls. So as we are seeing and think about how short of a period this is. Sometimes people talk about the old south. At the time of the civil war most of the south is about as old as subdivisions in chesterfield county. This is 1820, only 40 years from the war, look how little of mississippi has been settled by white or black people. Not to mention texas or arkansas. So this idea of the old south, we can say it here, 1831, you heard from jamie about just how old we are, but most of the south is not old at all but is a product of this vast expansion. And what youre seeing too is that this is not just the result of the cotton gin which descends and causes American History. These white people that enenslaved people are going to find something to do with the slaves they control whether sugar in louisiana or raising cattle in southern alabama near nashurb nashus. The main crop of kentucky and tennessee is livestock and hemp. So this is not the cotton south, its not cotton who causes the it, no, its people who are causing it. I get fired up. [ laughter ] so what we see is that as this cotton frontier expands, this gives a clear idea, again, look at georgia, look at what heat, white people have brought black people to the very edge of a land that they can claim. So there are treaties with the cherokee in georgia almost every four or five years as this pressure as they take more and more and more of the land. And lot of times before it is taken its infiltrated. You have people coming in, trying to fenagle their way in the land, sometimes intermarriage or trading, so forth. You have enormous demographic pressure bimdiuilding of white settlers and enslaved population. So you seen this map. If you go back to 1719 and remember how much of that land was occupied by native people. How rapidly it is, this map is now in every present aition so far and will be later, is what the situation is by 1830. Sets up a lot of the scenes of the zrdrama that lindsey has to us about. But starting in 1830 this does not slow down. Look at this. You see the cherokee being surrounded now on every direction by the enslaved population, from the south, and coming from the east, but look at mississippi and alabama beginning, so its the choctaw and the chickasaw. Western tennessee infiltrated as well. At the same time what is happening to native peoples, its slavery driving this relentless push. This is white population change. This shows you something else. You see in georgia. Look at them already leaving up country South Carolina. Why . Theyve already used up the land. Look had you fast this is happening. So the white people are no sooner are they settling in a place, look at blue grass, kentucky. That was just 30 years ago they were settling there. Now theyre leaving and moving to places that are new. So were living in the least mobile time in American History right now. Our population is moving less right now than it ever has in American History. This is moving as fast as it ever does. We think about western migration. Look how the south is defined during this time. You see white people are moving and then the richest are taking enslaved people with them. You know the story of 1830s how these folks are being driven from their homes. Give some sense of the total numbers of all this. In 1830 native people still occupy about 25 million acres of ancestoral land. About 60,000, cherokee, chicago, choctaw and creeks live in the april latchian mountains and couldnt move willingly. Those in west george, east tennessee fought against white settlers and Office Holders through legal means, through inventing printed languages, newspapers, and also converted to chrisianity or p turned Communal Land into private property and cultivated cash crops. And purchase africanamerican enbrooks laiched people. Enslaved people. Re in each step the cherokee seeded land losing nearly 7 million acres in those years in addition to the 14 million they lost between the American Revolution in 1800. Now faced with such relentless pressure some cherokee decided they would do better farther west before removal. Some moved to arkansas, missouri and texas in the 1820s but most held on in the 1820s and Andrew Jackson im assuming this is an accurate quote, build a fire under them, he said in 1830, when it gets hot enough theyll move. Settlers didnt wait for land issues to be determine bid law before they moved in. Determined by law before they moved in. So the 1830s culminated the displacement of Indigenous People they already took 100 million acre from them in the south. Most of the native people lived directly in the path of the richest cotton lands. Why, because they knew where the rich land was. They had been having their own farms. Theyre along the rivers necessary for the transportation of cotton. So you see, this is the growth of slavery in the 1830s. Now look at virginia. Sometimes we talk about chocko bottom. Heres a remarkable fact. Look how many black people are being taken from throughout virginia and yet virginia remains the largest slave state all the way until the civil war. More people held in bondage here than anywhere else, also more people sold out of virginia than anywhere else. One way to think about this is this would have been one of the most dangerous places to have lived if slavery because any day your children could be sold from you. This voracious hunger of alabama, and mississippi, and now look up and down the mississippi river, going over to louisiana. We also know that in louisiana they would, and you can see, look how densely it is burning down there, the sugar regions. They wanted young men and so 90 of the men they would buy here in virginia, 90 of the people they would buy would be males and the women they bought were actually girls, soon as they could possibly have babies and theyd have children until they could have children no longer. Infant morality was horrific. What do these dots mean . It means 2 horrific. It means 2 million enslaved people were moved within in the south in two decades. 2 million, americans moving other americans. Okay . But you can see now how the displacement of the American Indians is tied to this voracious expansion of slavery and of the south. This was white population changed in the same decades. One thing youll notice, theyre not the same. Most white people dont own slaves. You cant afford the land where the big slave holders move down to alabama, and they take their 12 enslaved people and they get the best land, so youll go somewhere else, youll go to northern mississippi. But look at what the result of all this is. As soon as the nativeamericans are driven away, white people are rushing in. You can also see the abandonment of land they had occupied just a few decades earlier. You see it expanding into texas and arkansas and now South Carolina is picking back up again. 1850s, look how fast slavery has filled in with enslaved people. As we put all these pictures together, but look how the upper south is depleted of enslaved people. Why . Because theyre being shipped to the south. As we picture all of these histories in motion and interaction, we have to see how the relentless pressure against native peoples is a part of the creation of the very south and of the United States. This is not a marginal story. This is central to the creation of the United States and central to the creation of the American South. Now, heres something thats interesting to think about. Though thousands of native peoples were removed in the 1830s, thousands remained. Though most lost their land others managed to old onto theirs. Though white people proclaimed their indifference with to indimginous peoples many intermarried with those, and they too found companions among native peoples. The cherokee of georgia and north carolina, the seminoles of florida demonstrated one generation after another the flexibility and fluidity of American Indian life, the identity of people understanding with one another and the past. The federal census is no help because i cant make these kinds of maps for American Indians because this is all from the census, and the census did not count them in the same way. So its very frustrating to have the make the maps in which American Indians are just defined by that territory. But they are throughout all of this history even after the removal to oklahoma. After the removal to oklahoma in the 1850s and earlier the horrific losses of people, once they arrived in indian territory devastating contagious disease had killed up to a third of the native people who had survived to force marches. Efe of the nations settled into the eastern part of the territory where the sland scape resembled those which theyd been driven east of the mississippi. The three largest nations claimed about 13,000 people each in 1860 while the heech of these nativeamerican peoples owned large numbers of in . Slaved africanamericans. The cherokee and choctaw registered 2,200 and 2,300 respectively. Enslaved people accounted for an even larger share of population with nearly a third of the total seminoles held in slavery. So we know what happens after this. The white south says, okay, its clear what weve got to have, the right to keep expanding, and the civil war is a result. Its a direct result of this expansion. The leaders of the would be nation of the confederacy demanded the right to take their human property into yet more territory to be taken from yet more native peoples. They gambled everything on that investigation of the future, a vision based on generations of migration at the defeat of confederacy and the end of slavery transformed the south from a unique Settler Society to a new society, one without a blueprint or example to follow. Now, oklahoma witnessed the history of the new south in especially concentrated form. After the civil war the federal government punished the native peoples who had aligned with the confederacy. The member of the five tribes were forced to relinquish rights to railroads. Their territory took on the new name of oklahoma, red people in the language of the choctaw. The federal government forced natives peoples to relinquish shared land and settle on individual allotments. Year after year land was taken from that originally reserved for native peoples until only a small portion of the land remained in their hands. White officials and socalled reformers worked to make American Indians into socalled independent citizens. Over several decades and after legal decisions sovereign identity shifted to a focus on the land to partnership and particular native people. This transition alienated American Indians from the land even as it made their bodies the vehicle of identity. This is particularly dangerous in the south at a time when legal segregation is gripping the region and overt racial prejudice filled the nation. White settlers viewed anyone claiming native identity with suspicion suspecting they were actually socalled colored people by association with afric africanamericans. So claiming membership of a tribe garntied some form to citizen and tribes began keeping rolls of those recognized as tribal citizens. The practice has varied and generated within American Indian tribes and white officials and claimants. Now, the lives of American Indians you can see where most people live in the south in 1860, and its where slavery is strong. Now were switching to 1910, 1920 and we start seeing a national pattern. What were seeing here you can see oklahoma now, and you can see in 1910 or 20 that the south is actually growing pretty well among white people. That same decade whats this . This is the great migration, okay . This is when africanamerican people finally have a chance to make lives in the north, and you can see where theyre leaving. Theyre leaving the great places where theyve been held in slavery. Its very interesting to think about today the political future of the nation is going to be determined in South Carolina which is a direct consequence of all this migration and the fact other states are going to determine who can win the vote to become president of the United States. A lot is going to determine on the demographic patterns created right here, under slavery and then in the jim crow south. So you can see where black people are living during this time. During this period the lives of American Indians with roots of the south changed the dramatic ways in these decades as well. 1920 to 1930 white people, and you see more black people are leaving and you can see the small the powerful dots of all the cities of the north, right . Thats the population that we recognize today of the socalled urban population. Thats black people leaving large parts of the United States for the cities of the south but also the cities of the north. Now, the new deal offered some opportunities for the native people, especially the cherokee. World war ii saw more than 25,000 native people fight for the United States gaining recognition and gratitude. Laws in the 1950s pushed American Indians as tribal identity increasingly became disconnected from allotments and reservations American Indians including those with ancestral ties to the south became more determined to main thane their tie tuesday one another. The freedom rights act and the black freedom struggle inspired activism by American Indians. By 1998 gave some american tribes the opportunity to open gambling casinosen their lands. American people saw that to protect their tribal lands and saw that to declare their pride in their ancestries. Tribes across the south determined a wide array of strategy tuesday determine who belonged to their people depending on their history. And native people became more active in places where their ancestors lived. And we certainly see this in virginia where people as we heard eloquently before 400 years ago the attempts at displacement are still here, still have the identity. Heres a remarkable example well end with. American indians registered 39 of the federal census between 2000 and 2010 growing twice as fast as a population as a whole. The apparent resurgence was partly upon a definition. In 2000 americans were first presented the opportunity to selfidentify with more than one race, which tells you a lot about American History that you couldnt do that before then. Almost half of those who claimed American Indian and alaska native identity claimed it along with another racial identity. About two thirds of the race other than native was white followed by about equal proportions who claimed black ancestries who or claimed to be white, black and native. Those americans who claimed native backgrounds in combination with other backgrounds the south tied with the west at about a third of the population. About twice as many as in the midwest and nearly three times that of the northeast. This history were talking about today continuing echoes well see. Now, the souths share of the selfidentified native population grew during the first decade of the 21st century advancing at 48 . The three states with the most rapid growth were all southern. Texas, north carolina, and florida. The tribe with the largest selfidentified population was the cherokee with 819,000 people. So lets look at the maps that from todays census that reflect the selfidentification. Thats latinamerican immigrants. This is also showing white people leaving. Okay, this is selfidentified seminole people in 2000. You see not surprising both anchors in florida but also in oklahoma. The creek. Selfidentified choctaw people. Now, this is i look forward to talking to people who know a lot more about this than i do. As you see im covering all 237 years of southern history for everybody who lived but whats not surprising is the anchors and choctaw in oklahoma, but the places where they were before removal. Chickasaw youre seeing some of the same patterns. And so what youre seeing is that even though people are removed theyre still there. How was it that this happens . Okay, that it reminds us that the arrows from the little green boxes are missing part of the history of people who maintain a spiritual and physical connection with the land, who found ways to maintain their connection with these places in the south from which they were displace by slavery and white mobility. So what do we make of this . This is strange turn in southern history especially as people otherwise recognized as white are eager for a connection to a people who their ancestors persecuted and drove from their homes. On one hand this is arguably a heartening change from most of American History. On the other hand, the claim of widespread selfidentification is a Major Political problem for native people themselves who established citizenship standards within their own nations. While some claimants may express sincere beliefs in their ancest ancestry others may seek to leverage that identity from material social gain. So you can see the ironies of all this, theres no understanding this is my main point. The history of the law, its very important. These are histories of millions of people who were acting on what that law is saying. People who are making their own histories. And what were seeing is that American History doesnt feet into the neat categories of which we often try to fit it, and that people dont fit into the neat racial categories in which the census has tried to force them, and left to themselves people recognize americans have more connections among themselves than we might have realized. So on one hand this is politically problematic. On the other hand, it suggests that maybe people are beginning to understand that American History isnt nativeAmerican History, is africanAmerican History. Without understanding any of this you cant understand all of this. Thats my message for today. Thanks very much. So it looks as if that torrid pace through all of American History still left five minutes, so who would like to ask an easy question . Yes, microphone is coming your way. Its coming from both directions. Do you have a map of the population of selfidentified cherokee people . You know, i do. It did want make it into this slide. And i will tell you what it shows, a vast area. There are more selfidentified cherokee people across the country than any other people. I dont know how this didnt make it into the slides, but this will be in my book out this fall, and its a wonderful gift for any holiday occasion. But you can see a pattern of it being anchored in oklahoma, but its across the south, yet people are selfidentifying as cherokee, and we all remember the president ial candidate who was identifying as cherokee and all that. It is the group its my understanding who most often other people imagined themselves belonging to through blood or some connection, right . So if i showed it the map would be far more than any of the other native groups that ive shown. So i was hoping nobody noticed that, but thanks for calling it up there by extension especially on cspan. How do identify define frontier . I nsaid that word i didnt really mean to because i dont think thats actually a good way of thinking about it. You know, if we look back on, you know, when all this is being first created yeah, and the first splieds im showing is theres no such thing as an empty space. Kentucky, or the people first moving up from where im from kingsport, tennessee and long island the cherokee are trying to fight them off and saying we dont want you here, but that would be the area. Theres nowhere in the south that was an empty frontier. It was all created by displacement of various sorts. The question is were there native vil mgs or were the areas hunting grounds which were not to wide eyes as deeply occupied. But, yeah, kentucky is the first place that this the pattern of the south recreating itself as fast as it possibly can creates. So you think about this basically people are making small versions of virginia all across the south. When you get enough money to build a Plantation House youre kind of mimicking eastern virginia. I dont know if thats what you were getting at or not. If i said that word i regret it because i dont actually you should. Thats the reason we started with all the Indigenous People that lived here for 10,000 years. White people were late and scattered arrivals. But relentless. And if you think about how many millions of people all these dots represent, you know, what it suggests is its a demographic tidal wave, you know . And that you can see that the accomplishment of native peoples to hold that at bay for as long as they did is actually what this story tells me. Is there another question . If not is there one . Yes, all the way back in the dark. Thank you for the presentation very much. Thank you. I read recently in a local paper theres a cherokee tribe whos local, and they are seeking virginia recognition. Are you involved in those efforts . There are people who know a lot more about such things than i do. Would anyone like to answer that question . Does anyone want to answer that question . Cherokee never lived in virginia, end of story. Was the extent of our territory, never lived in virginia, we dont live here now. Ill say one more question since i didnt have to answer that one. To the answer to that question there is a group of cherokees off the turnpike and they actually have a museum out there. Its a small cherokee museum. They were very friendly, and they are trying to get some recognition. And i knownothing about it, so i kind of hate to end my presence on the stage by admitting woeful ignorance but i think kidding aside ive had to learn about a lot of this in order to write this book. Its humbling the complexity of the history of these peoples. And trying to and to say anything thats true about all of them is really challenging except whats amazing to me is their determination to endure. And i think were all richers as a result of that determination. Thanks, everybody. [ applause ] youre watching a special edition of American History tv. During the week while members of congress serve their districts due to the coronavirus pandemic. Tonight the ook city bombing beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern looking back on the morning of the attack, the investigation and the arrest of the perpetrators and how the attack has been remembered. American history tv now and over the weekend on cspan 3. Every saturday night American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures in history. Why do you all know who liszy borden is, and raise your hand if you had ever heard of this murder, the gene harris murder trial before the classes . The deepest cause where well find the true meaning of the revolution was in this transformation that took place in the minds of the american people. Were going to talk about both of the sides of this story here, the tools, the techniques of slave owner power. And well also talk about the tools and techniques of power that were practiced by enslaved people. Watch history professors lead discussions with their students on topics ranging from it American Revolution to september 11th. Lectures in history on cspan 3 every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv, and lectures in history is available as a podcast. Find it where you
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