WEBVTT - Minding Their Business 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.520 Hey, y'all, Eve's here. I know you're ready to get 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:05.600 into this episode, but really quick. We have been loving 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:09.080 connecting with y'all over black storytelling, and if you've really 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:11.600 been loving the show, then we would really appreciate it 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:14.200 if you would leave us a rating and review, subscribe 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:16.840 to the show, and share it with your friends. Thanks y'all. 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:22.239 Now time for the episode. On theme is a production 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:50.360 of iHeartRadio and fair Weather Friends Media. Okay, Katie, close 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.360 your eyes. I want you to put yourself back in 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:55.440 eighteen forty five of what. 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:03.880 I know. But stay with me. Okay. Right, You're in Natchez, Mississippi. 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.679 So you're right on the Mississippi River and it's the 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:12.640 dead middle of summer, so you're practically melting. The smell 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.399 of hot grass is floating in the air. The bugs 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:20.520 are out and about, and the air is still like 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.120 not a breezeen site. 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.920 You are making me a cheat, I know. 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:32.959 And to add insult to injury, you're on the Mailrose Plantation. Well, 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.399 to be specific, you're in the dining room of the 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:36.039 main house. 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:37.520 You're enslavers. 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.640 The hert sogs are having lunch with a few visitors. 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:46.520 They're laughing sharing stories, and your friends, who are also enslaved, 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.480 are entering the dining room. Occasionally they're dressed up in 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:54.240 fancy clothes and they're serving the visitors, and you're enslavers 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.040 elaborate meals. You know, the hert sogs have to show 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.360 off how wealthy and uppity they are to their esteemed guests. 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:04.600 Okay, okay, hurts ofs go off. 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:09.040 So they're stuffing their faces to their hearts content. But you, 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:12.799 on the other hand, you can feel hunger rising from 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:16.680 the pit of your stomach, and like your friends, you 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:21.920 are working. You're operating the punka, which is a large 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.720 ornate wooden fan that hangs from the ceiling in the 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.320 middle of the room, and you're sweating as you use 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.360 both hands to pull the cord to the punka, but 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.160 you have no choice. The fan swings back and forth, 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:38.880 keeping the dinner guests cool and keeping flies away from 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:43.799 the food. You're struggling, okay, but nobody's paying you any 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:48.480 attention anyway. It's a task that makes you miserable. But 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:53.080 there is one upside. You get to hear everything. The 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:59.440 happy chatty diners are saying, I'm Katie and I'm Eves 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:05.600 today's episode minding their business, So being nosy can be 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.520 frowned upon. Sometimes being a nosy neighbor is not seen 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.120 as a good thing. Black folks say they like to 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.840 mind their business and don't want others and theirs. But 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:20.480 you know, sometimes it campaign to be intensely observant, you 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:21.080 know what I'm saying. 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.919 But you know I keep my ears to the streets. 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:25.560 Do you are you a nosy person? 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:26.120 Girl? 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:29.720 If you look up nosy picture right there, there's me 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:31.320 first definition. 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:36.720 So why do you hold being nosy in such high esteem? 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:41.680 Seemingly well, I feel like when you're really observant, you 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.200 be peeping shit like way before other people keep it 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:45.840 like people peep it, but they people too late. And 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:47.760 you're like, I been dow that, I've been knew that 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.680 by him. You're not surpriseding me. You think you got 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:52.880 some tea. This is some cold tea. 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:54.600 You're like, I already knew because I've been watching it. 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:57.600 I've been watching it. I just been you know. Oh, 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.520 you might not say nothing at first, but you just 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:03.960 keep it in your back pocket for a rainy day. 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.760 I feel you. So, do you remember those punka fans 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:08.760 we talked about. 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.600 I mean, yeah, you just had me operating them, sweetie fair. 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.160 Okay, sorry I had to take you there. But those 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:18.599 were installed in some Antebellum plantation homes in the South 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.919 in the eighteen hundreds. Were they a common thing, Well, 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.040 punkahs weren't in every home, but they weren't in many 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:29.159 upper class white homes. People had to be able to 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.560 afford them to have them made, and because they had 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.560 to be manually operated, they had to have enough slaves 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.479 to be able to put someone on that very specific 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:39.520 tedious task. 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:42.320 So having a punkah and having someone to operate it 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:44.120 could be like a status symbol of sorts. 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.240 Yeah, exactly, and even more than that, it was an 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:52.280 ostentatious display of wealth. In some instances, the person operating 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:54.880 the fan would be in a back room, hidden away 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.600 from the visitors who were there. The visitors would get 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:01.720 their air and enjoy their meal without being burdened by 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:04.719 having to see the slave working while they ate because 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:08.240 God forbid. Okay, But most of the time with punkas, 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.960 the slaves were right there in plain sight. 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:11.680 On purpose. 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.080 Enslavers wanted their guests to see the kinds of luxuries 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.640 that they could afford. They wanted to draw attention to 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.520 their custom punkahs and their frivolous use of laborers. But 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.760 the silver lining to this grueling job was proximity. Enslaved 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.960 people would have access to the conversations that white folks 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:31.239 were having over their meals. 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:32.880 That meant that. 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:37.320 Slaves could reflect that surveillance and exploitation that the elites 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:38.440 had subjected them to. 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:41.080 So they took advantage of a bad situation with a 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.560 little espionage, a little intelligence gathering, if you will. 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.159 Yeah, And they did this in a couple of ways. 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.520 They used that time to gain insight on how the 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.440 elite moved, spoke, and behaved. So, like you were talking 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:55.760 about being nosy, you get a little extra information and 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:56.880 you can use it in your favor. 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:57.880 They did that. 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.760 But when the conversations got a little bit more interesting, 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.240 slaves could pick up on information about events happening in 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:08.159 their communities and around the world. Doctor Dana E. Bird 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:13.000 talks about this in her twenty sixteen essay Mode of Power, Fans, Punkahs, 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.279 and fly Brushes in the Antebellum South. In the essay, 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.760 she points to a quote from Booker T. Washington's in 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:23.920 nineteen oh one autobiography, when I had grown to sufficient size. 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.720 I was required to go to the Big House at 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.560 meal times to fan the flies from the table by 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.880 means of a large set of paper fans operated by 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.560 a pulley. Naturally, much of the conversation of white people 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:40.160 turned upon the subject of freedom and the war, and 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:41.600 I absorbed a. 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:42.480 Good deal of it. 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:45.800 Washington doesn't talk about what he learned or what he 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.240 did with the information, but this shows that he did 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.640 retain information that he gathered while working the fans. Punkahs 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.320 were away in so while the white folks were care 0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:00.880 free and loose with information, slaves were attentive in steadfast 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:02.960 about taking what they needed from the situation. 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:10.560 I'm really intrigued by the foolishness of white people, Like 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.840 I don't know, it's it's not like you like trusted 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.320 the people you're enslaving, But maybe you just thought they 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:19.360 were like so dumb or just like so loyal to 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.440 you or something. I don't know. Like me, if I'm 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.320 oppressing somebody all day, every day, twenty four or seven, 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:27.840 why I'm not gonna have them cooking my food, right, 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:30.160 And I'm not going to have them sit there while 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.400 I'm just talking, you know. But they did, and they 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:35.720 saw it as a flex I'm very intrigued by that, 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:37.520 like what was going on in that head? But I mean, 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:39.480 you have to be like sick in the head to 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:43.240 even enslaved people. So maybe it's just like, yeah, it's normal. 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:43.840 I guess yeah. 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:46.040 I think they saw that people were still being enslaved, 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:49.080 they saw that slavery was still a very widespread practice, 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:50.440 and they were like, this is working. So I guess 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.200 I have complete and total control over their minds. I'm 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:55.160 controlling everything they do on a every day basis. So 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:57.280 I guess there are still people to this day who 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.960 think that people enjoyed their slavery, like they were happy 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.040 be to be enslaved. 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:03.040 Giving them meals and. 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:06.239 Right, they were fine, they weren't. 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:10.120 They exaggerate all of these instances of a severe torture 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:12.920 that they're showing and trying to depict in like movies 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:16.760 and the expressions of slavery today. So I would imagine 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.480 that back then too, that was amplified even more so. 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.440 The cognitive dissonance that was happening for them was probably 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:25.320 very strong, sure, and had to exist for them to 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.800 keep enslaving people in the first place and doing things 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.160 like cooking, letting them cook for them. So I don't know, girl, 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:32.920 do I even want to dig that deeply into that 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:33.679 kind of psyche? 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.079 Do we want to do that I already had to 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:40.040 put maybe someone else that's their ministry. Maybe so. 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:44.480 But I also think it's like fascinating, and doctor Bird 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:47.400 talks about this and her work just how there was 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.479 so much to this thing that was just an architectural 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.600 future of the home. Like there's class implications of it 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:56.800 from simply the white elite standpoint, because it's not like. 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:58.040 All white people had it. 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.560 I mean there were also class implications and quote unquote 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.600 owning slaves too, so that was part a factor in it. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.640 But there's this separate history of the punkahs themselves being 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.840 constructed in different ways based on what somebody's class was. 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:16.319 So sometimes people would use this really nice, expensive mahogany 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:20.400 wood and sometimes they would use wallpaper, for instance, to 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.400 create these kinds of fans. So even the fans themselves 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:27.439 were able to symbolize different levels of wealth and class status. 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:29.320 On top of the fact of like what kind of 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:32.800 presence the slave had there, Like was it enslave person 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:34.200 in the room with them, or were they not in 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.280 the room with them. And also there were people who 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:43.080 acted as fans. So there's a layer of remove when 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.240 you're thinking about the punk of fans, because there is 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.200 a human who has to pull the cord there to 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.319 make the fan move. But then there were other people 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:56.240 who used large feathers to just fan over the food 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:58.840 when people didn't have punka fans, and that person would 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.760 sit in a swing above the table, taking that feather 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.719 and moving it back and forth in order to keep 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:06.520 the flies away from the food. 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.760 Is that what Berker T Washington was referred to or 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:10.959 was he doing the punk of fans? 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:12.360 I think he was doing the punk of fans by 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.200 the way that he described it. Operated by a pulley. Yes, 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:17.240 operated by a pulley, and that's what they were. There 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.400 were police, there were different kinds of pulleys. Sometimes they 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:21.720 were chained. Sometimes there were records. If you look at 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:25.920 the pictures and the descriptions which slave narratives, there are 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.400 descriptions of punkahs and of people doing the fanning. And 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.120 there was one slave narrative. I can't remember who the 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.160 enslaved person was who told this narrative. I'm sure it 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.679 was a common occurrence. They were talking about how when 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:40.280 they would use these large feather fans. What he said 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.480 in the narrative was like, if I wasn't minding my business, 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.400 then this large feather that I was fanning over the 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:47.360 people might end up dipping into their food. 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:49.080 If I was like falling asleep, or. 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.920 I wasn't being attentive enough, if I wasn't minding my business, 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.719 then they would be like, what you're doing, Yeah, get 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:58.200 on your job. 0:10:58.360 --> 0:10:59.920 I'm sure they wouldn't say it that nicely. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:01.280 No, absolutely not. 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:14.000 So we know that covert communication was one way that 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:18.640 enslaved people planned escapes and resistance efforts. Written and verbal 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:22.920 communication were encrypted. One kind of covert communication that many 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:27.280 people are probably familiar with is song. A song's tempo 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:31.160 and lyrics could have hidden meanings, providing refugee slaves with 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:35.040 instructions as they made their way to freedom. For instance, 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:39.840 runaways traveling on the underground railroad were called passengers, and 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:44.440 safe houses were called stations, and sometimes enslaved people opted 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:47.920 to change the language all together. For example, people could 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.160 speak Creole with one another and pass along important information 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:56.000 right under enslaver's noses. Messages were also hidden in quilts 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.960 and in riddles, and of course spying was one way 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:05.280 that black folks gathered valuable intail. So think of Harriet Tubman. Okay, 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:07.840 we've heard of Harriet Tubman, the spy. We know that 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.760 that's one thing that she did. She got information from 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.560 enslaved people about Confederate maneuvers, and then she took that 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:19.080 intelligence to union forces. And that begs the question, how 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.600 did those enslaved people get that information easdrop it? 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:24.920 Yes, so it's not. 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.680 Like Confederate soldiers were sharing this information with slaves intentionally 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:34.160 and freely. Enslaved people were just present and they were listening. 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.320 Evesdropping was such a simple form of resistance, but it 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:42.400 was powerful and subversive. White folks desire to keep their 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:45.840 servants close could end up being the reason for their downfall. 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.200 Even when they were quiet, Enslaved people were not just 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:55.480 silent and submissive. Evesdropping was a form of indirect resistance. 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:59.160 The enslaved people and the enslavers still went about their 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:02.040 day to day big business in the meantime. The work 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:05.800 didn't topple the institution of slavery, but slaves shared the 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.720 information that they gleaned while they worked, and this could 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:13.720 help make their lives easier under the horrible and oppressive circumstances. 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.120 It could also just help keep them more informed. So 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.840 did the enslavers just have loose lips? You would think 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:21.400 they would try to make sure our folks wasn't getting 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:26.440 their sensitive information. They did try to guard information a 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:28.920 lot of the time. They were careful about how much 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:34.200 they said around their slaves. But imagine how isolated enslaved 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.560 people were on plantations. It was hard for them to 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.160 learn what was going on outside the very small bubble 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:44.400 they were given access to, so they were motivated to 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.400 get news about their communities and the world beyond. In 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:49.960 an interview for the Federal Writers Project of the Works 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:54.840 Progress Administration, a former slave named Benjamin Russell said the following, 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:59.800 how did we get news? Many plantations were strict about this, 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:03.880 But the greater the precaution, the alerter became the slaves, 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.319 the wider they opened their ears, and the more eager 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:11.560 they became for outside information. The sources were girls that 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.920 waited on the tables, the ladies, maids, and the drivers. 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:17.880 They would pick up everything they heard and pass it 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.480 on to the other slaves. News already took a while 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.320 to travel for free folks, so it could be really 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.440 delayed in getting to enslaved people, if it ever did 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:30.320 at all. This was the case with news about the 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.640 Civil War. Many enslaved people couldn't read and had to 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.400 get news about the war through word of mouth. A 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.600 lot of enslavers didn't want them talking about the war 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.400 in the first place, and if they did share news, 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:44.640 it was actually propaganda. 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:46.680 But the outcome of the Civil War would determine the 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.200 course of their lives, so slaves had to be eager 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:50.720 to get the real facts, and. 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:51.840 They were so. 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.360 Some of the people who were around for their enslavers' 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:59.480 private conversations kept their ears open when they were in 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:03.080 the Big House and on the plantation grounds. Here's what 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:07.080 a former slave named Elizabeth Russell said. I was very 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:09.800 small at the time of the Civil War, yet I 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.400 served my people as a secret service agent. I was 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:15.560 kept in the Big House during the day to rock 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.280 and attend the babies, and I would often pretend to 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:20.560 be asleep and hear the folk at the Big House 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.600 were saying about the battles and which side was winning 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.120 or losing. And when the word came that the North 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:28.640 had won and the slaves were free. It was I 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.480 who carried the word to the hundreds of slaves in 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:35.240 our section, having crawled to my mother's cabin to give 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:39.280 the news. And though only a little child, God used 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:41.760 me as a bearer of good news to my people. 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.320 That's a word. She had a testimony. She did. 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:46.800 She had a testimony. 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.840 And it was often the case that it was women 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.440 who ended up in these roles of being the people 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.840 who were around for conversations because of the kinds of 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:57.320 jobs that they were doing that they were in these 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.000 more I guess, intimate roles where they're around for us. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.400 These conversations that were supposed to just be between two 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.240 people are supposed to be smaller conversations, and they were 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:08.240 able to listen. They were in these servant roles where 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:11.160 they could linger a little longer and it wouldn't look 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:16.720 suspicious or even pretend to be sleep exactly. You know, 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:18.280 they love to use that as a plot point in 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.520 a movie or a TV show. Have one eye open. 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:27.800 Also, I feel like Elizabeth quote really kind of dispelled 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.640 the notion that there was like beef between the house 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:32.760 slaves and the field slaves, and house slaves thought they 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:35.360 were so much better and were really in allegiance with 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.160 white people because maybe they was half white or whatever, 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:42.280 like they were getting the intel and tipping back out 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:43.800 and telling everybody what was going on. 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:44.560 Yeah. 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.520 She also talks about how young she was and how 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.000 she was already thinking about the ways that she could 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.000 offer resistance in the ways that was available to her. 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.160 And I think that is one of the things about eavesdropping, 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:58.640 is how democratized it could be. You know, no matter 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.440 how young you are. Yeah, everybody knows. 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:03.840 Probably the younger you are, the more things people say 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:05.199 around you, because I think you don't understand. 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.920 Probably so, And I do wonder how you know, somebody 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.119 might be more want to trust a woman in terms of, 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:16.120 like today committing a crime, like you wouldn't necessarily suspect 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.879 somebody of some sort of a woman of a violent crime, 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:21.199 so it's easier for them to get away with it 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.040 if it was like that in a gendered way when 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.000 it came to eavesdropping as well, I don't know. And 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.280 so there was also the fact that a lot of 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:34.720 enslaved people couldn't read and they couldn't write, but there 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:38.879 was information that was being passed along through written notes. 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.639 A lot of the time so sometimes what would happen 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.600 is they would gather info. Even though they couldn't read 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.400 the info that was written, they would still, like when 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.359 somebody was writing, when they were talking about it, they 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:53.959 could pick up on info about that note in that 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.720 moment or when it was being read to the person 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.160 who picked up that note. So they found ways around 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.879 their inability to read and are write. And because the 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:07.280 enslavers knew that enslaved people couldn't read or write, they 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.960 would try to find their own ways around that through 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:14.280 covert messaging, so that when the enslavers were mindful, like hey, 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.119 I don't want the slaves to hear this, they would 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:19.920 sometimes try to do things like spell out the messages 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:22.520 that they were giving people, like physically spell letter by 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.520 letter what they were saying, and they'll be like, oh, 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:27.879 you know, the slave isn't going to understand that they 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:29.919 can't write, they don't understand how to spell. But then 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.760 they would remember what they spelled and take it to 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.520 somebody else who could translate that for them, right, so 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.040 they could still understand the message and pass it along 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:39.800 if they wanted to. 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:42.200 Yeah, that's what you doing a little kids. 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:47.040 Yeah, And they probably be looking at you like, I 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:49.639 know what you're doing. I'd also think that makes it 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:51.720 more clear that whatever you're saying is something that I 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:52.120 need to. 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:53.919 Know, right, Because if you would have just said it 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:55.680 and kind of like it wasn't a big deal, maybe 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:57.520 I wouldn't have picked up on it. But now you 0:18:57.600 --> 0:18:59.840 spell and stuff, right, I'm a peep. 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:01.640 Right now, I know something's going on. 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:14.760 More on eavesdropping after the break the Civil War was 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.679 a critical point for black people. Their futures in the 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.680 United States hung in the balance, so it makes sense 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:24.359 that black folks employed eavesdropping as a strategy for survival. 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:28.680 But in general, these oral and oral networks that enslaved 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:33.159 people relied on were crucial communication lines. The intelligence that 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:37.160 people gathered through evesdropping was funneled right into these networks, 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:41.240 and this made important information accessible to a population of 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.640 people who could not read but were orally literate. 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:48.119 In a way, it seems like slaves weaponized a simple 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:49.040 act of flicity. 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.160 I think that's a good way to put it, because 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:56.040 they turned an unassuming act into a tool of resistance 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:57.480 and up from slavery. 0:19:57.680 --> 0:19:58.119 Booker T. 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.280 Washington refers to the network that black folks used to 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:05.760 stay informed as the grapevine telegraph, and he talks about 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.600 how powerful it was and how it could work so 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.680 fast that slaves knew the results of battles before white 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.080 people did. In a story he tells, Washington talks about 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:17.399 how a black man was sent to the post office 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:20.200 a few miles away from the plantation once or twice 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:20.639 a week. 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:22.400 The man who was sent to the. 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.040 Office would linger about the place long enough to get 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:27.880 the drift of the conversation from the group of white 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:32.119 people who naturally congregated there after receiving their mail to 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.720 discuss the latest news. The mail carrier, on his way 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:39.159 back to our master's house would as naturally retail the 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:42.000 news that he had secured among the slaves, and in 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.159 this way they often heard of important events before the 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:48.320 white people at the Big House, as the master's house 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:48.840 was called. 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:51.960 It seems like a fool proof method of knowledge sharing. 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:54.720 I know there was some risk involved, but I'd acted eavesdrop. 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:57.640 It was a part of daily life. Yeah, black folks 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.560 had to find ways to educate them. White folks were 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:06.159 constantly trying to find ways to restrict and falsify information 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:09.840 to keep black people ignorant. But like if you can't 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:13.160 read or write and your enslavers aren't telling you anything, 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:14.600 what are your options? 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:18.959 Okay, yes, let me tell you about John Quincy Adams. 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:21.720 And no, I'm not talking about the president. I'm talking 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:24.879