Them in here and hopefully they fit. First of all, dianne, thank you for the introduction. That was amazing. I was thinking, i dont know who she is talking about here. Really dont. And i also want to thank a couple i could here all night thanking people. There are a couple of people i want to meng. Most important is kelly burns. Thank you for organizing all of this, bringing me here. [ applause ] getting us through the whole process of organizing the symposium itself as well as having me speak. And where is paul and nancy winsky . Paul is over there. Paul thank you for taking me to the best steak place in kansas city. Okay . Thank you. Paul has been very helpful in other ways as well. Now dianne has mentioned that my passion and i will admit this. I will knit to this. My passion is black past. Org. She said its now a 15thousand page website. Its a work based on volunteers. And you can see some of it. Yeah its being scrolled. Im not touching it you can see the scrolling. It started as kind of a project for our students at the unfortunate of washington. And we forgot to gate it. And as a consequence somebody wrote from new zealand and said, you know, share the information with us and answer questions. And we realized this is going everywhere. And then about, i dont know, six seven weeks later, i got an invitation from someone at the state department saying wed like to send you to siberia. We want your passport number and your bank account. And im thinking, this is a scam. Okay . But as fate would have it as things turned out, the person was from the state department. We really did go to siberia. We toured a number of universities in siberia. They all loved africanAmerican History. The africanAmerican History we had on the faculty website which preceded black past and at that point we decided to come home and create the dedicated website. Its about 11 years old. We continue to add people both as volunteer contributors and there are probably people in the room who contributed to black past. Certainly there are people who are going to contribute to black past. And and we continue to have those numbers grow. And the numbers grow not because of anything ive done. They grow because we have 70 0 volunteers from six continents. People writing about black past all the time. We are doing something. Is leslie moving this around . Leslie, lets type in type in the search war can you type anything . Right here. Yeah, type into the search bar lets try tp you may have to do it here. Go ahead. Okay. Your fingers are more more nimble than mine. Less we misspell ig. The obvious stuff is nicodemus. Type in sweden. Sweden. I told you. Okay. Pull it up. Then scroll down. The wifi is a little slow. Is it. But it did find 551 results. Which is fantastic. Umhum. It looks like we are waiting for something to load. Image results. Images. Web results. Where are they. Somewhere down there. There we go. Just had a big blank space. Sweden hit the first one called sweden. Here. This one. Next one up. This one here . Yes. Lets see if it gives me a link. Where are you going . Where have you gone. Yeah, go back to the very first one and see if it comes up. Nothing there. This is frustrating for me. Okay, folks. This is embarrassing. Were making this work. Sweden. Five hundred. You want that link. Hit that link. I just had to click on it. There we go now scroll down just scroll down. These are all the entries that are related to sweden on this website. Tupac in sarijevo. We connect to what 160 countries around the world. And the reason i bring this up is because i want you to know if you remember anything tonight, understand that africanAmerican History is a global process. We are never far away from that history. It is always close. Its as close as quindaro, also existing in sweden, spain, china. Lets see if we can pull up china quick. Lets see how quickly i can do it this time. China, yeah. And then well stop. First one . Yeah. Got the hang of it now. Okay thats one of the articles thats not all of the articles its one of the articles. The whole point of this i wont dwell on this and this is an article talking about the 700year relationship between east africa and china as a nation as a civilization, both of these areas of civilization. The point here is that this is a global history project. The point here is it that and i want to say this clearly. All of us are connected to africanAmerican History. There is no way you can get away from that fact. And black past is the first attempt to try to pull all of this information together. And we do it again because of volunteers. We do it because there are people who are dedicated to trying to share the information. So i urge all of you thanks leslie. Then well scroll well go back to that. Thank you. See this is why we rely on technical folks here. And give leslie a hand here. Okay [ applause ] because without her i havent wouldnt have been able to do this. This is so africanAmerican History is both the large and the small. Its the large. Its the global, the universal. As reflected in black past. And i hope everybody in here will go home and look at black past. We want to get our numbers up to 5 million visitors the first time in one year. We have already passed the 2 million mark. We have a good chance to reach 5 million. But more important than getting the numbers is to make sure the people understand that this is a global history. And understand all the vast array of information thats available to us. For too long. For too long people like me have said where can i find africanAmerican History . There is no africanAmerican History. Or eachers said we wish we could teach africanAmerican History but we dont know where to find it. There is no execution anymore. There is absolutely no excuse anymore. This is where african history resides and all it takes is a couple of clicks on the on the internet to get to it. But anyway, let me talk about the main topic tonight. And the main topic of course is the let me pull it up, the main topic of course is the africanamerican west and in particular slavery in the west and in particular how kansas relates to all of that. Now, one of the reasons i like coming to kansas city, see sides the jazz and barbecue and yes im processartaking of both lat. But one of the reigns i like come to kansas city is i consider kansas city kind of the the jumping off place or the starting point for western history. Not just africanAmerican History but for western history in general. And there are two places you can see on the skroen. You guy haves a monitor over there. Can everybody over here see this . Okay. You know the places. Independence and west port. The places where the overland trail west would go. And in a sense because of that kansas city has always played a crucial role, a pivot alrole in terms of western history. And no where is that more the case than in terms of the issue of slavery in the west. And were going to talk about that. Kansas is crucial to the coming of the civil war. Thats unfortunate. Thats unfortunate. But the kansas and missouri border are crucial to what we would know as the civil war. And the civil war of course is crucial to the changing of American History. And ill give you something just drama maybe not dramatic but think about this for a minute. I won be standing here before you if the civil war had gone the other way. In other words, there are consequences of of events in history. And those consequences are have repercussion that is extend right to this very day. Lets talk about kansas. And i would argue that the kansas missouri border is the fountain head of africanAmerican History in the west. And its the fountain head of that history because african i dont know of any other state beyond kansas that has so closely aligned. Its history itself as a state is so closely aligned to africanAmerican History. That may not make sense to you now and since we say this in missouri you may not think this is all that cool. But i im going to try to make that argument tonight. No other state, kansas there is another eight beyond kansas whose history is so intertwined with the idea of africanamerican freedom. Africanamerican liberation. Also i would argue i cant think of any other place except maybe lawrence in kansas thats more important to this history than quindaro. Im admitting to you im an expert on that. There are far more people who are more expert. And we will hear from them tomorrow. But i will say this quindaro has a history that extends beyond kansas, beyond missouri and will impact the entire nation, because as i said before it will help to bring about the war that will bring about the liberation of a whole host of black people, 4 million black people. The wyandot indians were the first abolitionists in kansas. But not the only ones and well talk about that in turn as well. But here bear with me as i the sort of digress a minute im sorry i should have brought this up earlier. These are scenes from quindaro. I havent been there. Im going there on saturday. Im looking forward to literally touching the history thats so important to all of us in this room. But i start this lecture not with that place, kansas, missouri. I start with it with a larger tale, a larger story. And thats the story of slavery in the american west. Few historians link slavery to this region. We like to believe were sort of froh of the curse of slavery. Certainly people talk about the curse of slavery. And they say the west was never afflicted with that curse. I argue differently. There were black slaves in every state and territory in the west up until 1860. Let me repeat that. There were black slaves, enslaved black folks in every state and territory in the west up until 1860. Indeed the vast majority of blacks coming to the west were themselves involuntary migrants. By involuntary migrants i mean they were brought as slaves into into this region. There are some areas that are almost obvious in terms of the question of slavery. Texas. Texas in 1860 would have 182,000 enslaved people. I want to put that in perspective, guys. One third of the population of texas was enslaved by the other twothirds. Or put it another way, of the 50 counties in texas there are at least 17 that were predominantly black. And predominantly black means that they were predominantly slaves. I wont say this. Ill let you read the quote from c. A. Gracier and we see how the quotes work. Can everybody read in . Okay then ill have to read it. This is texas judge c. A. Phrasier. Writing in 1860. I have no doubt of the right of a civilized and christian nation to capture the african wherever he may be found and subject him to labor. Meaning slavery. Than i have one of our people to capture a wild horse on the prairies and reduce him to labor. This is a powerful justification for slavery. I want you to see the picture here. This is brownsville, texas. Brunsville, texas as far south as you can go and remain in the United States. So slavery touched every corner of texas before the civil war. But i will also remind you the slavery touched other areas as well. These are former slaves in the indian territory. I wish we had more time to talk about the indiana yn territory. Slaves in utah. I wish we had more time to talk about the Mormon Church and slavery. There were slaves in the oregon territory. As i said, this slavery was a universal institution at least as far as the west was concerned. There was no corner that was free of slavery. There were enslaved miners in california. One third of the blacks who mined gold in california in the 1850s were enslaved people. Let me repeat that. One third of the people who mined gold. We think of gold as a quint essentially male occupation where free people mine and make money. Enslaved people were involved in that as well. Slavery in california. People think of berkeley today and they think of the radical politics. Its hard for us to imagine that in berkeley in 1858 there were enslaved people. Think about that. Berkeley. If there is any place in the west that wouldnt that one would not identify with slavery it would be berkeley yet there were slaves there. Slavery in san francisco. We dont usually think of slavery in san francisco. But this is an ad for a fugitive slave. An ad for a fugitive slave from sacramento. Slavery is the institution. Its an institution that spreads all throughout california. There is a myth or an idea let me put it like. There is an old idea that historians for a long time argued, the idea that slavery couldnt extend beyond the 100th meridian. And they argued it can flourish only in areas with adequate rainfall. There is not adequate rainfall beyond the 100th meridian. But youve seen slaves could be cowboys, gold miners, slaves could work in any occupation that existed in the west. And there were those advocating for that thing. The 100th meridian, is hardly the natural boundary of slavery. This is slavery in texas. You can see the counties, predominantly black counties seen here. There is brazoria counties typical of the slave counties. It was an overwhelmingly black county. And it was overwhelmingly black because it was overwhelmingly enslaved and for the bend and a whole host of others representing them. A picture at the bottom a plantation home reflects on the shave culture in texas. But this is oregon. Yes, we might say, okay texas an extension of the south. Nobody would argue ogren isnt a extension of the south. Look at the statement should i read this as well . Let me set this up. What representative William Allen is a representative in the oregon territorial legislature. He is in the debate in 1857 with an antislavery legislator thomas drier. Here is what he said in 1857. The gentleman he is talking about he is talking about drier. The gentleman says slavery does not exist here meaning in oregon. Well it has been proved upon this floor that slavery does exist in this territory in several counties. There are some in benten and lane and polk and yamhill and i know not how many other counties well sir slavery property is here. It then becomes our duty to protect that property as recognized by the constitution of the United States. How many of you before tonight ever imagined shavery in oregon . Okay three people. Four people. I mean, this is this is what i meanwhile by slavery existing every. And indeed my argument my argument is basic. That essentially the country the nation was divided between north and south. But the north by 1860 being free territory. The south obviously being dedicated to the institution of slavery. And here is where the west comes in. The west is the great prize for that that both the north and south were seeking. They want to determine, both northerners and southerners want to determine the course of history in the west. Will that course be a history of freedom . Or will it be a history of slavery . Thats the great debate thats going on. And in many ways that explains what happens in kansas on the kansas missouri border were talking about later on. But ill tell you one thing. If there were people who were generally involved in the debate over slavery, there is one graup that had already settled that question. And thats africanamericans. Africanamericans in the west were to a person dedicated to the destruction of slavery, whether they were enslaved or whether they werefree. Im spending a little bit of time talking about one of those guys. This is george bush. My george bush as opposed to president george bush. Let me give you a bit of background here. George bush was a black man, a racially mixed background. He was married to a white woman. He had i think six or seven kids. And in 1844 he decided that he was going to take his family he was a farmer. And of all places clay county. He was a farmer in clay county. And he was going to take his family to the west because he understood that being a free black farmer in clay county was a compromise. I wont read well yeah ill read all of this. John mint o remembers george bush. John mint o was a younger person who bee fred friend bush on the trail process. This was what bush said near soda springs. This is mint o wright about this. I struck the road again in advance of my friends near soda springs is in what is now idahoter there was g. W. Bush. Joining him we went to the spring. Bush was a mulatto he had mean and also a white woman for a wife and a family of five children. Not many men of color left a slave state, missouri, obviously so well to do but it was not the nature of things that he should be permitted to forget miss color. As we went along together we riding a mule and i on foot, he led the conversation to this subject. He told me that he should watch when we got to oregon what usage was a water to people of color and if he could not find a freemans rights he would seek the protection of Mexican Government in california or new mexico. He said there were few people on the train that i would say as much to as he had just said to me. I told him i understood. Understand what george bush is saying. He is going to oregon. He understands that there are restrictions on black freedom in oregon and he is willing to go somewhere else. For him,are restrictions on bla freedom in oregon. And he is willing to go somewhere else. So, for him, the oregon trail is not just going to get land. It is going to get freedom. It is going to try to find a place where he can have freedom. So, the bush party does come out to oregon. And, they decide not to stay on the south side, the Willamette Valley side. They decide to move north into what is now washington territory. They are the first nonindians, they create the first non indian settlement in washington territory. Because of that move, others will follow. And eventually, washington territory will be divided, broken away from oregon, to become a separate territory. Upstate. So, even my own state has a history that is tied to the institution of slavery. Slavery of this is to the institution of slavery. Let me talk very quickly about the next example. This is charles mitchell. I know no one in this room has heard of charles mitchell. And rightly so. Charles mitchell was a 13year old boy. Let me go back. 13yearold boy. Enslaved boy. And olympia, washington territory. He was enslaved by a State Government official in olympia, washington territory. Abolitionists helped him to escape. He slipped onto a vessel that would go from olympia north to british columbia. He was originally discovered, he was thrown into the captains cabin, held there. Because the assumption was that once the ship got to victoria, he would be taken into custody, and he would be brought back to olympia. And the attempt to gain his freedom would fail. Heres what actually happens. Ab