1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,599 Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, were we running two episodes today, which means 2 00:00:02,600 --> 00:00:05,560 Speaker 1: that you'll hear two hosts me and Tracy V. Wilson. 3 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:09,920 Speaker 1: Enjoy the show. Welcome to this Day in History Class 4 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:12,400 Speaker 1: from how Stuff Works dot com and from the desk 5 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:14,600 Speaker 1: of Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's the show 6 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:16,919 Speaker 1: where we explore the past, one day at a time 7 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:24,040 Speaker 1: with a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello, 8 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:27,120 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson. And 9 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:30,400 Speaker 1: in August on this day in sixteen nineteen, a ship 10 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:33,920 Speaker 1: called the White Lion arrived in Virginia. The crew of 11 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:37,800 Speaker 1: the ship came ashore with about twenty Africans. They traded 12 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,520 Speaker 1: these Africans for food and for sum repairs. The Africans 13 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:44,839 Speaker 1: were then taken to Jamestown and sold, and so this 14 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:48,720 Speaker 1: is commonly cited as the first appearance of enslaved Africans 15 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,600 Speaker 1: in what would become the United States, or the first 16 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 1: slave ship and what would become the United States. There's 17 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:58,520 Speaker 1: a little murky nous about this though Virginia didn't yet 18 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:03,120 Speaker 1: have any kind of laws condoning or governing slavery, so 19 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:06,280 Speaker 1: the legal status of these people is a little bit unclear, 20 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:09,400 Speaker 1: and we don't really know whether they were enslaved for 21 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 1: life or whether it was treated more like the indentured 22 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:16,319 Speaker 1: servitude that was more common at the time. Also, the 23 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,160 Speaker 1: Transatlantic slave trade had been established back in the late 24 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:24,080 Speaker 1: fourteen hundreds, and it initially ran alongside Spanish and Portuguese 25 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:28,319 Speaker 1: colonization of the Americas. Just as one example, a Spanish 26 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 1: expedition arrived in what's now South Carolina hoping to establish 27 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:34,920 Speaker 1: an outpost there in fifteen twenty six. They had enslaved 28 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:38,520 Speaker 1: Africans with them. In November of that year, those enslaved 29 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:41,959 Speaker 1: Africans launched an uprising that was so successful that Spain 30 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:46,760 Speaker 1: ultimately abandoned the entire attempt. At least half a million 31 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:50,040 Speaker 1: Africans had already been enslaved and brought to the America's 32 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:53,560 Speaker 1: by sixteen nineteen, not all of that in North America, 33 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:57,200 Speaker 1: but none of that was in an English colony. The 34 00:01:57,240 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 1: people who were aboard the White Lion had been part 35 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:02,800 Speaker 1: of these Portuguese efforts in the America's. They were probably 36 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:07,000 Speaker 1: captured by the Portuguese in the Portuguese colony of Angola 37 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,680 Speaker 1: in West Central Africa between sixteen eighteen and sixteen nineteen. 38 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:15,440 Speaker 1: Thousands of people were captured during this Portuguese campaign, enough 39 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:20,080 Speaker 1: to fill six slave ships. Unlike on most other slave 40 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:22,680 Speaker 1: ships that we talked about in the trans Atlantic slave trade, 41 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:25,440 Speaker 1: these people were probably all from about the same place. 42 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:28,600 Speaker 1: They probably all were from the same ethnic group, They 43 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:32,200 Speaker 1: probably all spoke the same language. One of these ships 44 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:34,840 Speaker 1: was bound for Mexico when it was rated by the 45 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: White Lion, and one other English ship that was called 46 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:40,720 Speaker 1: the Treasurer. The captain of the Portuguese ship wrote about 47 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: it having been robbed by English corsays the Treasurer also 48 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:49,120 Speaker 1: came away with enslaved Africans and arrived in Virginia with 49 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:51,560 Speaker 1: them and did much the same thing that the White 50 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:54,960 Speaker 1: Lion had done four days earlier. For a long time, 51 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:58,919 Speaker 1: these people were believed to have arrived in Virginia on 52 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:01,920 Speaker 1: a Dutch ship that had come from the Caribbean, and 53 00:03:01,919 --> 00:03:04,680 Speaker 1: that's because John Rolfe described it that way when he 54 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:07,240 Speaker 1: wrote up an account of what happened. The real story 55 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:10,880 Speaker 1: wasn't uncovered until two thousand and six. So using sixteen 56 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:13,800 Speaker 1: nineteen as a milestone in the history of slavery in 57 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:17,079 Speaker 1: the United States is a little deceptive. Yes, this may 58 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:20,200 Speaker 1: have been the first enslaved Africans and an English colony 59 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:22,160 Speaker 1: and what would become the United States, but there were 60 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:25,640 Speaker 1: already enslaved Africans in Spanish and Portuguese territory and what 61 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:29,480 Speaker 1: would become the United States long before that. It also 62 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:32,360 Speaker 1: shouldn't be taken as an overall example of what slavery 63 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:35,360 Speaker 1: was like and what would become the United States. Virginia, 64 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:39,200 Speaker 1: like I said, didn't have any laws governing the institution 65 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 1: of slavery, so it's not clear whether these Africans were 66 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:46,840 Speaker 1: treated as enslaved for life or whether it was more 67 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:51,280 Speaker 1: of a temporary indenture. The first person we knew who 68 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:54,800 Speaker 1: was documented to be enslaved for life was in sixteen forty, 69 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:57,320 Speaker 1: and the what would be the United States and the 70 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: colony of Virginia recognized slavery by law in sixteen sixty two, 71 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 1: so it was almost fifty years after the White Lion 72 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: by the time there was actually a law in Virginia 73 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:12,560 Speaker 1: detailing how slavery would work. Over time, the institution of 74 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:15,280 Speaker 1: slavery evolved so that not only was it life long, 75 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 1: it was also hereditary, and it was also tied to 76 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: a person's race. Thanks to Christopher Hasciotis for his research 77 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:25,240 Speaker 1: work on today's episode and Tatari Harrison for her audio 78 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 1: work on all of these episodes. You can subscribe to 79 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:31,440 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class on Apple podcasts, Google Podcasts, 80 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:33,560 Speaker 1: and wherever else you get your podcasts, and you can 81 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:36,839 Speaker 1: tune in tomorrow for a revolution that established a whole 82 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:40,440 Speaker 1: new nation which had its own ramifications and other parts 83 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:51,920 Speaker 1: of the world. Hey, I'm Eves and welcome to This 84 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,800 Speaker 1: Day in History Class, a show that uncovers history one 85 00:04:55,880 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: day at a time. The day was August eighteen fifty eight. 86 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:13,520 Speaker 1: British naturalist Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace published the 87 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:17,480 Speaker 1: first printed, formal exposition of the theory of evolution by 88 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:23,000 Speaker 1: natural selection. In the early eighteen hundreds, French naturalists John 89 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:28,000 Speaker 1: Baptiste Lamart developed a coherent theory of evolution. By then, 90 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:32,239 Speaker 1: ideas around the transmutation of species as evolution was called. 91 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:36,760 Speaker 1: We're already percolating, and during these years the principle of 92 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:41,479 Speaker 1: natural selection had already been recognized. Natural selection is the 93 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:45,840 Speaker 1: process that leads to the survival and reproductive success of 94 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 1: organisms best adapted to their environments, and that causes the 95 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:55,279 Speaker 1: selective reproduction of the best genetic qualities. But Darwin and 96 00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:59,919 Speaker 1: Wallace's work put a spotlight on natural selection. After reading 97 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:03,520 Speaker 1: Robert chambers book Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, 98 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:08,480 Speaker 1: Wallace became intensely interested in figuring out how evolution works. 99 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:13,159 Speaker 1: He traveled and collected and studied plants and animals. In 100 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:16,240 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty four he left for an expedition to the 101 00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:22,760 Speaker 1: Malay Archipelago and spent years studying specimens, writing and contemplating evolution. 102 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:26,480 Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty five, while he was in Stara Walk 103 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:29,920 Speaker 1: in Borneo, he wrote a paper titled on the Law 104 00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:34,680 Speaker 1: which has Regulated the Introduction of New Species, which demonstrated 105 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:40,200 Speaker 1: his understanding of the process of evolution. Scottish geologist Charles 106 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:45,080 Speaker 1: Lyle read Wallace's paper and began to consider theories of evolution. 107 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:49,800 Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty six, Darwin told Lyle that he had 108 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:53,240 Speaker 1: been working on a theory that explained how evolution worked 109 00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:58,039 Speaker 1: for twenty years. Lyle encouraged him to publish his ideas, 110 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:01,200 Speaker 1: but Darwin was set on writing an extensive book on 111 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:05,760 Speaker 1: natural selection. Around the same time Wallace would come up 112 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:09,080 Speaker 1: with the idea of natural selection. He wrote an essay 113 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:12,920 Speaker 1: on natural selection on an Indonesian island in February of 114 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:17,640 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty eight. He then sent the essay along with 115 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:21,360 Speaker 1: the letter to Darwin, whom he knew was interested in evolution. 116 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:25,560 Speaker 1: The letter arrived at Darwin's house in Kent in June 117 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:30,320 Speaker 1: of eighteen fifty eight. So British botanists and Darwin's friend 118 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:34,320 Speaker 1: Joseph Dalton Hooker linked up with Charles Lysle and they 119 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:38,560 Speaker 1: decided to present Wallace's essay along with excerpts from Darwin's 120 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:42,400 Speaker 1: writing on natural selection. They presented the paper at a 121 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:45,840 Speaker 1: meeting of the Linnaean Society of London on July one, 122 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:50,160 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty eight. Darwin and Wallace were not present at 123 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:54,200 Speaker 1: the meeting, which was attended by around thirty people. On 124 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:57,080 Speaker 1: August the paper was published in the Journal of the 125 00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:02,280 Speaker 1: Proceedings of the Lenaean Society Zoology. Its title was on 126 00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:06,240 Speaker 1: the Tendency of species to form varieties and on the 127 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:10,520 Speaker 1: perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection. 128 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:15,680 Speaker 1: In the publication, Darwin's writings were put before Wallace's essay, 129 00:08:15,880 --> 00:08:20,520 Speaker 1: making it seem like Darwin's contributions took priority. The paper 130 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: included extracts from Darwin's eighteen forty four manuscript of a 131 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:27,880 Speaker 1: work on species and an abstract of a private letter 132 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:31,840 Speaker 1: Darwin addressed to American botanists Asa Gray in eighteen fifty 133 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:35,600 Speaker 1: seven to show that Darwin's views had not changed between 134 00:08:35,679 --> 00:08:40,320 Speaker 1: eighteen forty four and eighteen fifty seven. The paper also 135 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:45,120 Speaker 1: included Wallace's essay titled on the Tendency of Varieties to 136 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:49,400 Speaker 1: depart Indefinitely from the original type. In the introduction to 137 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:53,160 Speaker 1: the paper, Lyle and Hooker say that both Darwin and 138 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:57,440 Speaker 1: Wallace conceived the same theory and can quote claim the 139 00:08:57,520 --> 00:09:01,440 Speaker 1: merit of being original thinkers on the topic, and that 140 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:05,440 Speaker 1: both of them unreservedly placed their papers in our hands. 141 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:10,080 Speaker 1: But that was not the case. Wallace later said that 142 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:13,600 Speaker 1: his essay was printed without his knowledge and without any 143 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 1: correction of proofs. The paper was reprinted in other magazines. 144 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:21,920 Speaker 1: Darwin decided to halt work on his extensive book on 145 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:25,600 Speaker 1: the subject and instead write an abstract of what he'd 146 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:30,840 Speaker 1: already written. That abstract became the foundational text on the 147 00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:35,160 Speaker 1: Origin of Species, published in November of eighteen fifty nine. 148 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:39,880 Speaker 1: Wallace continued to work on and write about natural selection. 149 00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:44,800 Speaker 1: Though Wallace has been overshadowed by Darwin in recent years 150 00:09:44,840 --> 00:09:47,480 Speaker 1: for his role in developing the theory of evolution by 151 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:52,320 Speaker 1: natural selection, Wallace acknowledged Darwin's pioneering work on the subject 152 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:56,360 Speaker 1: during his lifetime. I'm Eve jeffco and hopefully you know 153 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:59,559 Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 154 00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:03,280 Speaker 1: If you have any burning questions or comments to tell us, 155 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:07,640 Speaker 1: you can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at 156 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:12,680 Speaker 1: t D i h C podcast. Thanks again for listening, 157 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:16,160 Speaker 1: and I hope you come back tomorrow for more delicious 158 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:27,120 Speaker 1: morsels of history. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, 159 00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:29,880 Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 160 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:31,040 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.