1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:10,640 Speaker 1: Also media, what enslaving my like ten million people over 2 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: the course of three hundred or so years, Welcome to 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:16,360 Speaker 1: behind the Beast is then, Sophie, people have missed the 4 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:19,480 Speaker 1: old kind of introduction where I'd like, what's xing my wis? 5 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:22,560 Speaker 2: There's something inappropriate about how I did this intro. 6 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 3: It was very inappropriate. Also, I liked my intro where 7 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 3: I said, welcome to behind the Bostards. I'm not Robert Evans. 8 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 2: Yeah you didn't do a British accent last time, Sophie. 9 00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:33,479 Speaker 4: Yeah, you joy for a second, but. 10 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:36,239 Speaker 3: I was doing I was doing that not because of 11 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:37,880 Speaker 3: our guests, but because of our topic. 12 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 2: Oh I thought you were doing that because of our guest. No, 13 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:45,120 Speaker 2: I would sat stout, Sir James stout. 14 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:48,479 Speaker 4: Sir James stout. There it is, Yeah, absolutely not. I 15 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:51,159 Speaker 4: don't think that's happening anytime in the near future. And 16 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:53,920 Speaker 4: anyone touched me with a sword period, I'd have back 17 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 4: at them if they tried. 18 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:57,720 Speaker 3: H Well, Margaret told me the other day that I 19 00:00:57,720 --> 00:00:58,920 Speaker 3: would make a great queen. 20 00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 4: When we find we did. 21 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:04,800 Speaker 2: I was pretty drunk, I think, yeah. 22 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:06,920 Speaker 4: I was drunk too, and we were using those crucifixes. 23 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:11,440 Speaker 2: We were using crucifixes to face and island before this 24 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:13,640 Speaker 2: is a podcast about the worst people in all of 25 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:14,119 Speaker 2: his story. 26 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:17,440 Speaker 3: Before we get to that, Robert, I want to take 27 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 3: a moment for our dear friend James Stout to plug 28 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:22,600 Speaker 3: his new book that's available. 29 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 4: For pre order. 30 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 5: Yeah. 31 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:26,440 Speaker 2: Well he had to introduce him before we did that, Sophie. 32 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:27,880 Speaker 3: We said his name, What else do you want? 33 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:30,200 Speaker 2: I was going to put a little bit more like, 34 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:32,880 Speaker 2: you know, the spin on it, some oil you know, 35 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:37,440 Speaker 2: on the vinegar by by all means, go ahead, James Stout, 36 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 2: podcaster and. 37 00:01:39,240 --> 00:01:42,160 Speaker 6: Author and our friend. 38 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:45,480 Speaker 2: And our buddy. Yeah, you want to tell people about. 39 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:48,640 Speaker 4: Your book, I do. I would like that, And then 40 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:51,040 Speaker 4: I'm excited to hear about Pedophile whatever we're going to do. 41 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 4: This is my book. It's called Against the State, a 42 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 4: story of anarchists and comrades at war in Spainjava. Includes 43 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:02,680 Speaker 4: some I've been with Robert and places I've been on 44 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 4: my own. It's a beautiful cover. It's a really Yeah. 45 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:11,640 Speaker 4: So a friend of Robert's and mine took this photograph 46 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 4: and I was really happy to be able to like 47 00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 4: share it with people, and I really like having it 48 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,920 Speaker 4: in This is Burmese Kurdish. This is English and Spanish 49 00:02:19,919 --> 00:02:23,120 Speaker 4: for those who aren't familiar with those languages. Yeah, it 50 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:26,120 Speaker 4: comes out in the twenty sixth of January with ak Press. 51 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:28,280 Speaker 4: We'll give you a pre order link if you'd like 52 00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:29,919 Speaker 4: to buy it, I hope in. 53 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:31,639 Speaker 3: The episode description friends. 54 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:34,560 Speaker 4: Yep, you can also just search my name and the 55 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:37,480 Speaker 4: words against the State and you'll find it almost everywhere 56 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:39,960 Speaker 4: good books are sold. You can buy it from Jeff Bezos 57 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:43,280 Speaker 4: if you want, but I'd rather that you didn't. And yeah, 58 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 4: I hope I've captured some of the beautiful elements of 59 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:47,960 Speaker 4: these revolutions that I've been lucky enough to spend some 60 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:51,600 Speaker 4: time with, and obviously the Spanish revolutions. I think I 61 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:54,240 Speaker 4: studied for my PhD. That didn't spend time in that one. 62 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:55,760 Speaker 4: I'm not that old. 63 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:59,000 Speaker 2: Buy the book, read the book, Overthrow the Government. 64 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:02,160 Speaker 3: You know, nothing would make me happier than you pre 65 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:03,880 Speaker 3: ordering James Stout's book. 66 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:08,360 Speaker 2: One thing would make me happier, and it's the government. 67 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:10,240 Speaker 2: The thing I said a little bit ago that I 68 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 2: probably should only say once. 69 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:14,640 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah to me, clam my book is not a 70 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:15,760 Speaker 4: guide to how to do that. 71 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 2: No, these are jokes, comedy bits, you know what's not funny, James. 72 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:27,280 Speaker 4: I'm trying to think what you're about saying, La, it's not. 73 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:30,959 Speaker 2: But today this is our This is our Christmas episode. 74 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,680 Speaker 2: Every year around Christmas we do a reverse Bastards episode 75 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 2: right where I mean we've used that term also to 76 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 2: mean when someone else reads an episode to me, but 77 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 2: in this context it means we're talking about a hero, right, 78 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 2: We're or a group of heroes. Right. This is an 79 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:47,560 Speaker 2: episode about a good thing that happened. Now, because it's 80 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:49,960 Speaker 2: still behind the Bastards, we will largely be talking about 81 00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 2: terrible things. But I did bring you an episode for 82 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 2: the end of the year because we both needed a 83 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:58,360 Speaker 2: little bit of a break. James that this is going 84 00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 2: to be a little bit of a play against type 85 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 2: because generally when we talk about the British Empire in 86 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:09,160 Speaker 2: this series, we're not talking about good people doing good things. 87 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:11,200 Speaker 4: But it didn't do much of that. 88 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:14,880 Speaker 2: This isn't that this is not the British Empire doing 89 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:16,680 Speaker 2: good things, but it's people who are citizens of the 90 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:19,680 Speaker 2: British Empire who did something really, really good. We are 91 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:22,320 Speaker 2: talking about some of the greatest heroes in English history 92 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:26,279 Speaker 2: and world history. The heroes who ended the Atlantic slave trade. 93 00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:29,600 Speaker 2: That's that's our subject for this episode. Nice and we're 94 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:33,120 Speaker 2: critically we're not quite getting into how slavery was ended 95 00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:36,039 Speaker 2: in the British Empire. Because the slave trade, the Atlantic 96 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:39,640 Speaker 2: trade right where slave enslaved Africans were taken from Africa 97 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:42,919 Speaker 2: over the West Indies the New World, and you know, 98 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,000 Speaker 2: goods and stuff were taken to Africa to trade for 99 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:47,200 Speaker 2: the slaves. Like that is the end of that is 100 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:49,479 Speaker 2: what we're talking about, because the end of that is 101 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 2: what started and made inevitable the end of slavery in 102 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 2: the British Empire, and has also made the end of 103 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 2: slavery in the United States inevitable. The US abolitionist cause 104 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:01,920 Speaker 2: is directly tied to the the quest first to end 105 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:04,359 Speaker 2: the slave trade and then to end slavery in the 106 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:07,880 Speaker 2: British Empire. And so the people we're talking about in 107 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:12,120 Speaker 2: these episodes are I mean, some of the most impressive 108 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:15,640 Speaker 2: human beings who ever lived, and they accomplished a really 109 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:18,680 Speaker 2: incredible goal. And I think it's particularly important to talk 110 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:22,039 Speaker 2: about now because this is a story of hope. It's 111 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:25,000 Speaker 2: the story of how a ragtag group of intellectuals, lawyers 112 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 2: freed slaves, former slavers and other do gooders went up 113 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,560 Speaker 2: against the most evil and powerful industry in the world 114 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,119 Speaker 2: at the time and eventually brought it to its knees. 115 00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:39,440 Speaker 2: And it's a story of how real change actually happens, 116 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 2: which is unfortunately slower than we'd like it to be 117 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:45,280 Speaker 2: and messier than we'd like it to be. But at 118 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:49,919 Speaker 2: the same time, the stamina that was required to bring 119 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:54,240 Speaker 2: this industry down right, the amount of time, the amount 120 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:57,400 Speaker 2: of effort people had to put in consistently for decades 121 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:01,320 Speaker 2: the same people in order to kill this industry is 122 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:03,520 Speaker 2: really like worth celebrating. 123 00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:06,480 Speaker 4: It's a beautiful thing. I'm excited to learn more about it. 124 00:06:06,839 --> 00:06:09,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and it's you get a lot of this 125 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:11,040 Speaker 2: is like a Battle of Britain kind of thing, where 126 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:15,680 Speaker 2: it's a lot of like just English society at its 127 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:18,720 Speaker 2: very best. Like you have a lot of these people 128 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:23,440 Speaker 2: who kind of like come up in like London or 129 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:27,960 Speaker 2: come up in Liverpool and have these like personal awakenings 130 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:30,640 Speaker 2: that lead them to embrace this as like a crusade 131 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:33,359 Speaker 2: for decades. Like there's guys who devote like forty or 132 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:36,480 Speaker 2: fifty years of their lives like incessantly to trying to 133 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:40,280 Speaker 2: kill slavery, which I think is pretty cool. So yeah, 134 00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:43,560 Speaker 2: that's what we're talking about. Although episode one we're gonna 135 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:45,320 Speaker 2: be laying a lot of groundwork, so it's still mostly 136 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:46,160 Speaker 2: about bastards. 137 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 4: Yeah. I always have to like go for a nice 138 00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:51,839 Speaker 4: walk before before I do bastards, you know, like I 139 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:54,520 Speaker 4: can't be reading the news and the mainlining this stuff. 140 00:06:54,960 --> 00:07:05,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, well this is going to be largely upbeat, largely inspiring, 141 00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:08,039 Speaker 2: although again a lot of bleak stuff to get through first. 142 00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:11,600 Speaker 2: So I think everybody's aware that slavery is an institution 143 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:14,480 Speaker 2: and an industry has existed on every continent, well I 144 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:18,480 Speaker 2: probably except Antarctica, and in most societies across the vast 145 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:22,240 Speaker 2: band of human's history history. Not every society had slavery, 146 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:26,280 Speaker 2: but like it's the norm for societies in human history 147 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:29,760 Speaker 2: to have some form of slavery, But all slavery is 148 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 2: not considered equal. Every kind of slavery and every way 149 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:37,000 Speaker 2: slavery has been practiced is not an equivalent level of 150 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:39,640 Speaker 2: horrifying and is not an equivalent level of abusive. 151 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 4: Right. 152 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:43,280 Speaker 2: Ancient Rome, for example, was a slave society and in 153 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:45,520 Speaker 2: a lot of ways a nightmarish one, and some of 154 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 2: those methods of slavery practiced in Rome, like the vast 155 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:51,760 Speaker 2: slave funded plantations called Latafundia or the slave driven Minds, 156 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:56,440 Speaker 2: were as cruel as any slave plantations in the Caribbean. However, 157 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:00,200 Speaker 2: Roman slavery was a legal condition, and no one believe 158 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:04,280 Speaker 2: that slaves were like inherently racially inferior to other people. 159 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:08,520 Speaker 2: They were inferior because their legal condition was inferior, right, 160 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:12,240 Speaker 2: But if that changed when people were freed, there was 161 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 2: not really any stigma against a freed person in normal society, right, 162 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:19,760 Speaker 2: And in fact, a lot of the wealthiest Romans during 163 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:22,960 Speaker 2: the height of the Republic were freedmen, because freed people 164 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:26,400 Speaker 2: like if you were lucky enough to be enslaved in 165 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:27,880 Speaker 2: such a way that you were like living in a 166 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:31,600 Speaker 2: city and being taught a trade, then you were effectively 167 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:34,040 Speaker 2: like having a free apprenticeship. And if you could get 168 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:35,760 Speaker 2: free fairly early in life, a lot of those guys 169 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:38,800 Speaker 2: started businesses and became very wealthy. Some of the wealthiest 170 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:42,280 Speaker 2: families in Roman society were descended from freed people, and 171 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:45,560 Speaker 2: there was no ongoing legal stigma, right. There was no 172 00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:48,560 Speaker 2: attitude that, like, because you were enslaved, you can't breed 173 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:51,120 Speaker 2: with other people or whatever. Right, that would have been 174 00:08:51,160 --> 00:08:55,760 Speaker 2: crazy to the Romans, you know. And likewise, and I'm 175 00:08:55,800 --> 00:08:58,360 Speaker 2: really not trying to minimize the horrors of slavery in 176 00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:01,319 Speaker 2: Rome because it was a slave empire. They did genocides 177 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:03,800 Speaker 2: that evolved slavery, right, the Roman Empire a lot of 178 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:07,080 Speaker 2: bad stuff, But for all of its horrors, nothing the 179 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:09,960 Speaker 2: Romans did came close to the level of sadistic cruelty 180 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:12,560 Speaker 2: that we saw in the slave ships of the Atlantic trade. 181 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:16,640 Speaker 2: Like that is probably slavery at pretty much its worst 182 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:19,640 Speaker 2: in anywhere in history. Like that, there's just nothing that 183 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:20,360 Speaker 2: compared to that. 184 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:22,200 Speaker 4: Right, It's kind of hard to think of what you 185 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:24,000 Speaker 4: could do that's much was to a human being. 186 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:26,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like, I mean, it's like an Auschwitz level 187 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:29,720 Speaker 2: kind of torture right yere. People are being like starved 188 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:32,360 Speaker 2: and murdered with their families and just the worst and 189 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:37,000 Speaker 2: most sadistic conditions imaginable. Now, what became the Atlantic slave 190 00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:40,160 Speaker 2: trade was initially a product of the Spanish and Portuguese 191 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:43,040 Speaker 2: colonial empires, right, Like, they were the first people who 192 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:46,680 Speaker 2: really got this going. They got their shit together before 193 00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:49,160 Speaker 2: anyone else in Europe did. And then they lost having 194 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:52,000 Speaker 2: their shit together before anyone else in Europe did. That's 195 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:56,320 Speaker 2: the story of Portugal in Spaine. Europeans did not have 196 00:09:56,400 --> 00:09:58,520 Speaker 2: much in the way of meaningful contact with Sub Saharan 197 00:09:58,559 --> 00:10:01,520 Speaker 2: Africa until Portuguese tr trading vessels made their way down 198 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:04,520 Speaker 2: the continent's west coast to Ghana in fourteen seventy one, 199 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:07,400 Speaker 2: and keeping with their well worn traditions, Portugal was at 200 00:10:07,400 --> 00:10:10,640 Speaker 2: first just interested in getting access to gold. Right, there's 201 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:13,480 Speaker 2: the gold coast, there's gold here, That's why we're in 202 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:16,320 Speaker 2: the area. And so they started building forts on like 203 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:20,920 Speaker 2: the coast of Ghana mainly, and other facilities like you know, 204 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:24,200 Speaker 2: to facilitate the mining and the transfer of gold, right, 205 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:27,079 Speaker 2: and the loading it onto ships and the restocking those ships. 206 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:29,640 Speaker 2: This was part of like these are basically these forts 207 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:31,920 Speaker 2: or castles were kind of like gas stations for the 208 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:34,360 Speaker 2: gold trade, right, and they're going to turn into like 209 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:37,560 Speaker 2: gas stations for the slave trade per the terms of 210 00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:38,599 Speaker 2: the Treaty of Tortosilla. 211 00:10:39,559 --> 00:10:43,840 Speaker 4: That's right, right, James told the Sis I think to Tordesius. 212 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:47,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, signed in fourteen ninety four, Africa wound up in 213 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:50,360 Speaker 2: Portugal's sphere of influence that was the Vatican being like, 214 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:53,000 Speaker 2: all right, Spain and Portugal, you're clearly going to run 215 00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:56,960 Speaker 2: things forever. Let's split the world between you. Never will 216 00:10:57,000 --> 00:10:59,480 Speaker 2: both of your empires collapse really fast. 217 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:04,960 Speaker 4: Actually, CNNY, Iberia will be the center of the world forever, right, Yeah, yeah, 218 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 4: obviously their destined to get to rule the world for 219 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:09,000 Speaker 4: a thousand years. 220 00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:11,600 Speaker 2: They got boats slightly faster than anyone else. 221 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:12,719 Speaker 4: What else could they need? 222 00:11:13,880 --> 00:11:18,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, so Tomaso's earliest Yeah, that would have been handy. 223 00:11:18,800 --> 00:11:22,240 Speaker 2: Their earliest explorations in the region were again focused on gold, 224 00:11:22,280 --> 00:11:25,280 Speaker 2: and Africa's first major slave trading facility, which was a 225 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:28,920 Speaker 2: fort or castle called Elmina, started as a place to 226 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:31,320 Speaker 2: gather and store gold before it could be offloaded into 227 00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:35,160 Speaker 2: merchant vessels. It was built in fourteen eighty two. But 228 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:37,400 Speaker 2: right around this time, not long after they build this 229 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:41,200 Speaker 2: fort for gold, Portugal starts to realize gold's not the 230 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,680 Speaker 2: only treasure in the tropics, and it's actually maybe not 231 00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:49,760 Speaker 2: even the most valuable treasure in the tropics, because sugar exists. 232 00:11:50,040 --> 00:11:53,560 Speaker 2: And it turns out once you start making actual straight 233 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:57,240 Speaker 2: up like granulated sugar, and people can just buy a 234 00:11:57,280 --> 00:12:01,679 Speaker 2: bag of sugar, they don't want to, like, they never 235 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:04,480 Speaker 2: want to have to not have sugar, Like they're addicted. 236 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:09,360 Speaker 2: It's a drug. It's an incredibly addictive drug. They called 237 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:12,640 Speaker 2: it sweet salt initially, and once they realize like, oh shit, 238 00:12:12,679 --> 00:12:14,880 Speaker 2: this stuff grows really well here and you can grow 239 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 2: as much of it as you want that really like, 240 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:21,640 Speaker 2: it becomes very like that's worth more than gold potentially, 241 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:25,040 Speaker 2: you know, there's only so much gold. Inflation is a thing, 242 00:12:25,080 --> 00:12:29,240 Speaker 2: but you can selve sugar forever. People never don't want sugar. 243 00:12:29,720 --> 00:12:32,960 Speaker 2: The only problem with sugar as a money making enterprise 244 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:36,120 Speaker 2: is that it sucks ass to farm, right, It is 245 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:38,520 Speaker 2: absolute hell to grow the nightmare. 246 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:41,000 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where you don't see many people 247 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:43,080 Speaker 4: growing backyard sugar exactly. 248 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:46,040 Speaker 2: Nobody. None of the people with like homesteading dreams are like, yeah, 249 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:47,760 Speaker 2: I just want a couple of acres that I can 250 00:12:47,840 --> 00:12:50,319 Speaker 2: just grow nothing but sugar cane on, you know, really 251 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:52,960 Speaker 2: work myself to death probably in five or ten years. 252 00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:53,320 Speaker 3: You know. 253 00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:57,959 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a shame or whatever. Some of the homesteading 254 00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:00,960 Speaker 4: YouTubers I would like to see. I would like, stop, 255 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 4: I just got to farm sugar. Yeah yeah, yeah, getting 256 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:06,560 Speaker 4: the sugar trade. That's what I will say. 257 00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:09,240 Speaker 2: I mean, there's got to be one of those, one 258 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:11,520 Speaker 2: of those like evil foster parents who adopts a bunch 259 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:13,520 Speaker 2: of kids to make them work their farm. Like there's 260 00:13:13,559 --> 00:13:14,920 Speaker 2: there's got to be someone who's tried it with a 261 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:18,960 Speaker 2: sugar plantation. Sure, but yeah, so there's a problem with 262 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:21,120 Speaker 2: the sugar trade, which is they can tell all this 263 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:23,559 Speaker 2: money is just lying around waiting for them to grab 264 00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:26,080 Speaker 2: the sugar trade. They know we'll be worth a shitload 265 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:29,199 Speaker 2: of money. Everyone wants this stuff, but it only grows 266 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:32,559 Speaker 2: in the tropics, right, it does not. You can't transplant 267 00:13:32,559 --> 00:13:35,200 Speaker 2: it back to Europe or wherever where you have established 268 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:36,520 Speaker 2: agricultural infrastructure. 269 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:37,520 Speaker 4: It's not going to do well. 270 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:43,000 Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, you get beat route, you make shitty beat 271 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:46,960 Speaker 2: sugar if you want, but you can't, and you can't. 272 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:50,800 Speaker 2: You can't take European farmers in moss and transport them 273 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:55,200 Speaker 2: to the Caribbean or to like the African coast, because 274 00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:58,439 Speaker 2: they die. They die really quickly. It's it's very there. 275 00:13:58,600 --> 00:13:59,000 Speaker 4: They don't. 276 00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:01,640 Speaker 2: They don't do well in the climate, with the bugs, 277 00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:04,400 Speaker 2: with the diseases. It's just not a good bet. And 278 00:14:04,440 --> 00:14:07,480 Speaker 2: so the only way that you can farm a lot 279 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:11,400 Speaker 2: of sugar is slaves, right. I mean, theoretically they could 280 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:13,240 Speaker 2: have just paid locals to make it. Yeah, but part 281 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:15,240 Speaker 2: of the problem is that, especially in the Caribbean, they 282 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:18,040 Speaker 2: do initially start and they're not paying them. They're enslaving 283 00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:20,760 Speaker 2: local labors, but they kill those a lot of those 284 00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:24,440 Speaker 2: local indigenous people quickly. Right, So you need one way 285 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:26,320 Speaker 2: or the other. You need a shitload of slaves if 286 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:29,720 Speaker 2: you're going to keep this sugar thing going and really 287 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:33,440 Speaker 2: spin it up to the kind of industry Portugal knows 288 00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:36,760 Speaker 2: it can be. Now, the Portuguese had explored the Guinea 289 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:40,360 Speaker 2: coast of Africa, and they had found tribes who wanted 290 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:43,160 Speaker 2: the goods they had to trade, largely guns and gunpowder. 291 00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:45,800 Speaker 2: That was a big thing for the tribes that they meet, 292 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:48,720 Speaker 2: and they were willing to exchange enslaved human beings. And 293 00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:52,000 Speaker 2: these were generally captured members of enemy tribes, right, that 294 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:54,880 Speaker 2: was the primary way. We'll talk about this a bit more. 295 00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:58,280 Speaker 2: But like these are, these tribes are fighting their own wars, right, 296 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:03,200 Speaker 2: And like most cultures, including European cultures, a very common 297 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:05,120 Speaker 2: thing to do when you beat an enemy in war 298 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:09,040 Speaker 2: is take a bunch of them into slavery. Right, And 299 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:12,280 Speaker 2: so they've got these slaves lying around, so to speak, 300 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:15,120 Speaker 2: and the Portuguese are like, we need people. Do you 301 00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:18,600 Speaker 2: like guns, And a lot of these stripes are like, yeah, actually, 302 00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:23,480 Speaker 2: guns sound great. So this trade kind of starts up, 303 00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:26,480 Speaker 2: and the Portuguese begin taking captured African slaves and moving 304 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:29,480 Speaker 2: them to island plantations near the Guinea coast. Right. They're not, 305 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:32,000 Speaker 2: you know, taking them to the West Indies at first, right, 306 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,160 Speaker 2: because that's not part of portugal sphere of influence at 307 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:38,400 Speaker 2: the time. So around the same time, though, their Spanish 308 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:41,440 Speaker 2: rivals had started building sugar plantations in the Caribbean, and 309 00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:44,359 Speaker 2: these were at first, as I said, manned by indigenous islanders, 310 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:46,400 Speaker 2: but the brutality of the work and the disease brought 311 00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:49,400 Speaker 2: by Europeans quickly wiped a lot of these people out. 312 00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:53,640 Speaker 2: Somebody that there weren't enough to continue laboring. In fifteen eighteen, 313 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:57,400 Speaker 2: the Spanish king ordered four thousand African slaves imported to 314 00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:00,920 Speaker 2: the Caribbean, paying Portugal for the human labor needed to 315 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:04,800 Speaker 2: fuel their sugar plantations and launching the Atlantic slave trade. 316 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:07,680 Speaker 2: So that's that's kind of this is sort of this 317 00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:10,520 Speaker 2: the generally agreed like start to the slave trade. A 318 00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:12,880 Speaker 2: little bit of a soft start because like when you 319 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:16,760 Speaker 2: count that, but like probably when Portugal starts sending slaves 320 00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:20,680 Speaker 2: to Spanish colonies in the Caribbean is a good start. 321 00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:23,960 Speaker 2: El Mina, that fort, first established as a hub for 322 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:27,200 Speaker 2: gold trading, was converted into a prison for enslaved Africans. 323 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:29,920 Speaker 2: The upper levels of the fort contained luxury housing for 324 00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:33,120 Speaker 2: traveling Europeans, and the bottom levels consisted of a sprawling 325 00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:36,840 Speaker 2: series of slave dungeons. Wow, this was the first big Yeah, 326 00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:39,560 Speaker 2: it's an ugly place still around, you can see it. 327 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:40,600 Speaker 2: It's a historical site. 328 00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:40,960 Speaker 6: Yeah. 329 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:44,200 Speaker 4: I love to see a literally stratified society where you've 330 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:48,000 Speaker 4: just really really made it pretty fucking obvious what you're 331 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:49,400 Speaker 4: going for. Yeah. 332 00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:51,360 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of those sometimes you watch like snow 333 00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:53,520 Speaker 2: Piercer and you're like, well, that's not very subtle, but 334 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:54,400 Speaker 2: neither of his history. 335 00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:56,680 Speaker 4: Yeah, sometimes history can be that way. 336 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:00,960 Speaker 2: So this is the first like big slave trading post 337 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:03,920 Speaker 2: in Africa, and the many that followed would be built 338 00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:07,000 Speaker 2: in its image. Right, So Elmina is kind of the 339 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:11,280 Speaker 2: proof of concept and the model off of which, like 340 00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:14,200 Speaker 2: these future slave trading posts will be built. Every cell 341 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:16,160 Speaker 2: in the dungeon was meant to hold up to two 342 00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:19,080 Speaker 2: hundred people crammed together so tight that they didn't even 343 00:17:19,119 --> 00:17:21,800 Speaker 2: have room to lie down. One write up I found 344 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:25,159 Speaker 2: on pbs dot org's Slave Kingdom series notes quote the 345 00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:27,280 Speaker 2: floor of the dungeon, as a result of centuries of 346 00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:30,440 Speaker 2: impacted filth and human excrement, is now several inches higher 347 00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:33,080 Speaker 2: than it was when it was built Outbreaks of malaria 348 00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:36,399 Speaker 2: and yellow fever were common. Staircases led directly from the 349 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:39,520 Speaker 2: governor's chambers to the women's dungeons below, making it easy 350 00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:42,280 Speaker 2: for him to select personal concubines from amongst the women. 351 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:47,160 Speaker 2: And you know, I get why they used the term. 352 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:50,479 Speaker 2: That's how they would have framed it. Then these aren't concubines, Yes, 353 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:51,440 Speaker 2: these are? 354 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:56,440 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, like this is raping people, It's what this is. 355 00:17:56,520 --> 00:18:00,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, there's obviously like a lot of concubines would have 356 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:04,080 Speaker 2: been technically weren't free people. But there's also many stories 357 00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:07,760 Speaker 2: of like different concubines accumulating political power and influence, and 358 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:10,119 Speaker 2: that is just not the kind of situation we're talking 359 00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:15,159 Speaker 2: about here, Yeah, historians saidharth Kara goes into more detail 360 00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:18,000 Speaker 2: about this particular aspect of the system. Quote, women were 361 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:20,320 Speaker 2: displayed for the governor in a courtyard. After he made 362 00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:22,600 Speaker 2: a selection, the woman or girl was washed with well 363 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:24,800 Speaker 2: water and brought up a staircase through a trapdoor and 364 00:18:24,840 --> 00:18:27,600 Speaker 2: into his quarters. If she resisted, she was shackled to 365 00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:30,320 Speaker 2: cannonballs in the courtyard without food or water until she 366 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:34,200 Speaker 2: relinted or died. Most Europeans also took winches from local villages, 367 00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:35,840 Speaker 2: with whom they fathered countless children. 368 00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:43,280 Speaker 5: Yeah that's not very nice, no, And this is like, 369 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:47,720 Speaker 5: this is the norm anytime you're talking about the slave trade. 370 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:49,760 Speaker 2: This is happening not just in these castles as we'll 371 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:51,920 Speaker 2: talk about. It's happening on the slave ships. It's obviously 372 00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:55,720 Speaker 2: happening in the plantations. Rape is not talked enough as 373 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:59,000 Speaker 2: like a major This is like essentially how especially a 374 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,800 Speaker 2: lot of like the low level people facilitating the slave trade. 375 00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:04,080 Speaker 2: This is like their Christmas bonus in a way, Like 376 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:05,959 Speaker 2: this is how they like, this is one of the 377 00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:08,720 Speaker 2: perks of the job, is right, Yeah, well, you're not 378 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:10,639 Speaker 2: paid well and it's dangerous, but you get to do 379 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:11,480 Speaker 2: all the rape you want. 380 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:16,800 Speaker 4: Fantastic. Again, this is like no wage benefit, no taxis. 381 00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:22,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right, exactly, speaking of non taxable things. 382 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:28,399 Speaker 4: Yeah, as rough Pavot. 383 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:42,119 Speaker 2: Yeah, that one wasn't easy, and we're back, so uh. 384 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:45,720 Speaker 2: Any slaves, male or female, who fought back or attempted 385 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:48,800 Speaker 2: to lead insurrections were locked in a condemned cell, which 386 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:51,400 Speaker 2: Kura describes as a small room on the ground level 387 00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:54,600 Speaker 2: without ventilation or light. The slaves were not given food 388 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,840 Speaker 2: or water, and eventually died. The British displayed the corpses 389 00:19:57,840 --> 00:19:59,959 Speaker 2: to the other slaves as an example of the concept 390 00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:02,359 Speaker 2: of resistance, after which the bodies were thrown into the 391 00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:04,640 Speaker 2: ocean for the sharks. Car is talking about a little 392 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:07,280 Speaker 2: bit later period of this is happening under the Portuguese too. 393 00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:09,520 Speaker 2: He's talking about the British period. But they're both doing 394 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:12,919 Speaker 2: this right, because slave uprisings start happening as soon as 395 00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:15,200 Speaker 2: slavery does, and it scares the shit out of slavers. 396 00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:18,880 Speaker 2: They're constantly terrified of this, right, one of the justifications 397 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:22,119 Speaker 2: of the brutality as well. Otherwise they'll do an uprising 398 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:24,480 Speaker 2: and it's like, have you tried just not enslaving. 399 00:20:24,080 --> 00:20:27,879 Speaker 4: Them, I don't know, yeah, probably wouldn't be killing you 400 00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:32,560 Speaker 4: then get to leave them alone, could just leave them alone. 401 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:36,240 Speaker 2: So on the seaboard side of Elmina was the chillingly 402 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:40,240 Speaker 2: named Door of No Return. This is where enslaved people 403 00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:43,920 Speaker 2: were offloaded into slave ships right which would take them 404 00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:47,240 Speaker 2: to their final destinations. While the Portuguese and the Spaniards 405 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:51,040 Speaker 2: wetted Europe's appetite for African slaves, other European powers were 406 00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:53,720 Speaker 2: quick to involve themselves in the exploding industry, and as 407 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:57,840 Speaker 2: things kind of soured for the Portuguese and Spanish empires, 408 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:00,560 Speaker 2: other players are going to take over the slave trade. 409 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:01,440 Speaker 4: Now. 410 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:04,280 Speaker 2: As I noted, the money that fueled the slave trade 411 00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:09,320 Speaker 2: is European. Right, Slavery became central to the economy of 412 00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:11,800 Speaker 2: New World possessions in places like the Caribbean, but it's 413 00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:15,560 Speaker 2: not a purely European business. It is a partnership and 414 00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:18,320 Speaker 2: the people a crucial part of the slave trade because 415 00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:21,240 Speaker 2: it's not Europeans wandering into the center of the country 416 00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:24,040 Speaker 2: generally to grab people, right Like, that's not how this 417 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:27,080 Speaker 2: is happening. These slaves are being taken and are being 418 00:21:27,119 --> 00:21:31,040 Speaker 2: transported by kaufel, which is like a chain of basically 419 00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:34,359 Speaker 2: handcuffs and chains that keeps the line of people together. Right, Like, 420 00:21:34,359 --> 00:21:36,320 Speaker 2: it's how you chain a bunch of slaves together and 421 00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:39,360 Speaker 2: walk them from wherever in the country, you're taking them 422 00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:40,760 Speaker 2: to the coast where they're going to get on into 423 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:41,320 Speaker 2: a slave shape. 424 00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:41,560 Speaker 6: Right. 425 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:44,480 Speaker 2: They used coffles as well in the Americas and what 426 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:47,320 Speaker 2: like Once it's not just but like, yeah, that's how 427 00:21:47,320 --> 00:21:50,960 Speaker 2: they're being transported. And the slaves are being gathered and 428 00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:54,720 Speaker 2: taken generally by a mix of African and Arab slave traders. 429 00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:55,000 Speaker 4: Right. 430 00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:58,320 Speaker 2: These people are doing the dirty work of actually capturing 431 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:00,080 Speaker 2: the human beings who are then loaded on the ships 432 00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:03,359 Speaker 2: and sold. And for these traders, their participation in what 433 00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:06,640 Speaker 2: we know was the Atlantic slave trade wouldn't have seemed 434 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,360 Speaker 2: to them a huge departure from the kinds of slavery 435 00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:11,879 Speaker 2: that had existed since antiquity. In a two thousand and 436 00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:15,440 Speaker 2: five study for Anti Slavery International, Mike Kay Wrights quote, 437 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:19,600 Speaker 2: slavery existed in Africa and elsewhere before the intervention of Europeans, 438 00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:22,719 Speaker 2: albeit in a very different context. People were enslaved as 439 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:25,200 Speaker 2: a consequence of being captured in war, as a punishment 440 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:28,000 Speaker 2: for committing a crime, or as a means of escaping famine. 441 00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:31,320 Speaker 2: While enslavement in Africa could be extremely brutal. African slaves 442 00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:33,520 Speaker 2: had a social as well as an economic value, and 443 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 2: they brought prestige and status to their owner. Slaves held 444 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:40,000 Speaker 2: in Africa were still generally considered people and part of society. 445 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:43,560 Speaker 2: By contrast, those sold into the Transatlantic slave trade were 446 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:46,320 Speaker 2: seen as chattel to be bought and sold. Their only 447 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:50,000 Speaker 2: worth was considered in monetary terms. As a consequence, enslaved 448 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:54,840 Speaker 2: Africans were routinely tortured, whipped, branded, beaten, chained, etc. Separated 449 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:57,399 Speaker 2: from other family members, even deprived of their own names. 450 00:22:57,520 --> 00:22:59,639 Speaker 2: Hardly any of the millions who were transported across the 451 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 2: Atlanta to ever return to Africa. And that's important, which 452 00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:05,480 Speaker 2: is that like, yeah, it's a bad thing to be 453 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:09,800 Speaker 2: a slaver, but these slavers are not thinking of slavery 454 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:12,000 Speaker 2: in the same way as the Europeans who are taking 455 00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:15,240 Speaker 2: the enslaved people from them, right that it's just a 456 00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:17,560 Speaker 2: very different thing. And you know, you could say they 457 00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:19,560 Speaker 2: don't care because they're getting guns and stuff, and that's 458 00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:23,400 Speaker 2: a very these are bad people, yeah, but the slavery 459 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:27,360 Speaker 2: that existed and that they that exist existed in their 460 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,480 Speaker 2: heads was very different from like the slavery that Europeans 461 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:34,080 Speaker 2: were increasingly executing. It is a mark of how different 462 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:36,679 Speaker 2: different African slavery was in Africa that it was not 463 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,800 Speaker 2: uncommon for enslaved people to marry into the family that 464 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:42,119 Speaker 2: owned them. They would keep their given names and their 465 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:45,200 Speaker 2: family identity, and if freedware again unlikely to face lingering 466 00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:48,720 Speaker 2: stigma over their former status. So again you're just talking 467 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,240 Speaker 2: about kind of a fundamentally different work of what slavery is. 468 00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:53,760 Speaker 2: We'll talk later in these episodes. We'll have an account 469 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:57,680 Speaker 2: of an African man who as a boy was captured 470 00:23:57,720 --> 00:23:59,560 Speaker 2: by some of these slave traders, and we'll get some 471 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:03,240 Speaker 2: more detail to what that process looked like. John Newton, 472 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:06,200 Speaker 2: who's a former slave captain who became an abolitionist, we'll 473 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:09,399 Speaker 2: talk about him later, suggested that the principal source of 474 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:11,760 Speaker 2: the slave trade at this time was quote the wars 475 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,840 Speaker 2: that prevail among the natives, and scholarship seems to back 476 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,280 Speaker 2: a good deal of this up. However, as Newton noted, 477 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:20,560 Speaker 2: the English and other Europeans have been charged with fomenting 478 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,640 Speaker 2: these wars. I verily believe that the far greater part 479 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:25,760 Speaker 2: of the wars in Africa would cease if the Europeans 480 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:28,040 Speaker 2: would cease to tempt them by offering goods for slaves, 481 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:30,760 Speaker 2: and you do have undeniably. It's amo just like a 482 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:32,640 Speaker 2: little bit of a World War One situation where you've 483 00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:34,679 Speaker 2: got all of these different tribes and kingdoms that are 484 00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:38,000 Speaker 2: enemies that have been fighting for in some cases for centuries, 485 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:41,160 Speaker 2: and Europeans come in and start offering guns and cannons 486 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:43,359 Speaker 2: in exchange for slaves. So now it becomes not only 487 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:45,639 Speaker 2: do you want them if you're fighting a war, but 488 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:48,919 Speaker 2: if your neighbor is trading slaves to the Europeans for 489 00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:51,720 Speaker 2: guns and cannons and you don't get guns and cannons, 490 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:54,280 Speaker 2: what's gonna happen to you the next time you have 491 00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:57,080 Speaker 2: a war? R Like inciting is as simple as that. 492 00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:00,320 Speaker 2: It's not necessarily some CIA skullduggery. It's just you start 493 00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:02,560 Speaker 2: selling guns to one kingdom and they're all going to 494 00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:04,960 Speaker 2: want guns, and the only thing you want in exchange. 495 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:05,719 Speaker 4: For guns is safe. 496 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:06,200 Speaker 3: Right. 497 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:09,440 Speaker 4: Yeah, It's just like a classic like vicious cycle thing, right, 498 00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:11,560 Speaker 4: I won bills on the other Yeah. 499 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:14,080 Speaker 2: And when we talk about like the great British fortunes, 500 00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:16,359 Speaker 2: for example, that were built on slavery. People tend to 501 00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:19,080 Speaker 2: focus on the people who were part of slave syndicates. 502 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:22,000 Speaker 2: But a huge number of the guns that are produced 503 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:25,320 Speaker 2: in Great Britain during the period like this three hundred 504 00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:28,480 Speaker 2: year period are sent immediately to Africa. Those are also 505 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:31,760 Speaker 2: slave fortunes, you know, and gunpowder too, those are slave fortunes. 506 00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:34,720 Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, totally makes sense. You're country reaching to that 507 00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:38,920 Speaker 4: same cycle of death right slaveman exactly exactly. 508 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:42,240 Speaker 2: The first English slave ship left Africa somewhere around fifteen 509 00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:45,600 Speaker 2: fifty five. In sixteen twenty one, the Dutch West India 510 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,040 Speaker 2: Company was formed, and it proved so efficient that it 511 00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:51,200 Speaker 2: drank Portugal's milkshake. In about twenty years time, the Dutch 512 00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:54,439 Speaker 2: West India the Dutch become the major slavers in the 513 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:57,080 Speaker 2: Guinea coast instead like and they take over from Portugal. 514 00:25:57,080 --> 00:25:59,840 Speaker 2: They capture a lot of their coastal forts and start 515 00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:03,080 Speaker 2: to dominating the Atlantic slave trade for themselves. Now they're 516 00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:06,240 Speaker 2: not top shit of the slave trade for very long. 517 00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:08,919 Speaker 2: Within the space of about a century, the majority of 518 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,040 Speaker 2: slave ships taking Africans to the New World are going 519 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:14,520 Speaker 2: to be British, right. It takes about one hundred years, 520 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:19,040 Speaker 2: but England becomes the primary like movers and shakers of 521 00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:21,040 Speaker 2: the Atlantic slave trade, and they will stay that way 522 00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:25,120 Speaker 2: until it ends. England begins colonizing the Caribbean right around 523 00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:27,479 Speaker 2: the same time the Dutch start pushing the Portuguese out 524 00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:31,000 Speaker 2: of West Africa. In sixteen fifty five, a century after 525 00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:34,280 Speaker 2: their first slave ship departed the Guinea Coast, England captures 526 00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:37,560 Speaker 2: Jamaica from Spain. In short order. It becomes the most 527 00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:41,280 Speaker 2: profitable piece of their overseas empire. By the late seventeen hundreds, 528 00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:44,280 Speaker 2: British imports of sugar from Jamaica are worth five times 529 00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:46,800 Speaker 2: as much as the combined value of all of the 530 00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:49,360 Speaker 2: imports from the thirteen colonies in North America. 531 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:49,880 Speaker 6: Geese. 532 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:54,359 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess that's what it is. You 533 00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:56,560 Speaker 4: enslave human beings. 534 00:26:56,920 --> 00:26:59,400 Speaker 2: Right, It's a really efficient thing from a business point 535 00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:01,760 Speaker 2: of view, when you enslave human beings to produce the 536 00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:05,040 Speaker 2: most addictive drug yet known to well, I guess tobacco's. 537 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:08,679 Speaker 4: Up there some other stuff going on, but yeah, I 538 00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:13,120 Speaker 4: know people can consume sugar like for more often than tobacco. 539 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:17,959 Speaker 4: Is probably falonga and I think probably more people like 540 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:22,439 Speaker 4: sugar than Yeah, it isn't a quiet taste. It's just 541 00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:24,920 Speaker 4: I mean, it's just impossible to look at how profitable 542 00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:26,760 Speaker 4: this is not be like well, yeah, because it's fucking 543 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:30,960 Speaker 4: addictive as hell, you know, and it's also kind of 544 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,600 Speaker 4: worth Americans keeping in mind when we get up our 545 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:36,480 Speaker 4: own asses about like the American revolutions, Like, well, the 546 00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:38,720 Speaker 4: British could kind of afford to cut bait because the 547 00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:42,120 Speaker 4: Thirteen Colonies, they were not that big a part of. 548 00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:47,280 Speaker 2: The empire, right, Okay, I had a lot of irons 549 00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:52,200 Speaker 2: in the fire. Okay, they had some other options tobacco, good, 550 00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:57,080 Speaker 2: lack everyone. Now, these vast profits could only be sustained 551 00:27:57,080 --> 00:27:59,720 Speaker 2: by the constant import of new slaves to Jamaica, because 552 00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:03,640 Speaker 2: it's a very deadly business actually farming this stuff, historian said. 553 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:06,280 Speaker 2: Hearth Kara writes that quote. By the late eighteenth century, 554 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:08,879 Speaker 2: the slave trade had permitted almost every aspect of British 555 00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:12,280 Speaker 2: society and helped transform the nation into an economic superpower. 556 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,679 Speaker 2: The importance of this trade to Great Britain almost exceeds calculation, 557 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:19,439 Speaker 2: stated one Liverpool ship captain. A Royal African Company official 558 00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:21,840 Speaker 2: noted the Negro trade on the coast of Africa is 559 00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:24,560 Speaker 2: the chief and fundamental support of the British colonies and 560 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:30,879 Speaker 2: plantations in America. This is funding British colonialism elsewhere, right, Like, 561 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:32,720 Speaker 2: this is in a lot of ways what made it 562 00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:36,200 Speaker 2: possible for them to colonize the start colonizing the Americas 563 00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:39,280 Speaker 2: is the money that came from you know, the slave 564 00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:43,760 Speaker 2: trade in slav Yeah, enslaving people and working them to death. 565 00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:46,000 Speaker 4: Yeah, and I guess stealing the land too, right, like 566 00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:49,440 Speaker 4: it's a great land because all your impt philly like 567 00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:52,640 Speaker 4: stealing shit. Yeah, who'd have thought? 568 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's a great movie point break about that, 569 00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:58,800 Speaker 2: which I've been meaning to talk to you about. James, 570 00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:00,479 Speaker 2: Do you have a Matt Do you want any asks? 571 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:04,200 Speaker 2: I have a couple, got a good, good couple. Okay, yeah, 572 00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:05,240 Speaker 2: I got a Reagan mask. 573 00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:07,120 Speaker 4: I don't know. We'll talk about this, okay, yeah, probably 574 00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:07,720 Speaker 4: you can probably. 575 00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:09,840 Speaker 3: Get a swe off, like we are we doing this again? 576 00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:15,280 Speaker 4: Yeah again, Sophie, we never did. What are you talking about? Sophie? 577 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:16,920 Speaker 2: The listeners can't see me winking. 578 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,000 Speaker 4: Better say it out loud so everyone knows. Ro But 579 00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:24,080 Speaker 4: that's my wink in voice. 580 00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:26,840 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my wink and voice. So we're never gonna 581 00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:29,840 Speaker 2: know precisely how many enslaved Africans were killed just as 582 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:33,600 Speaker 2: a byproduct of the slave trade. Most estimates are between 583 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:36,680 Speaker 2: ten and twenty percent of people enslaved people who were 584 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,280 Speaker 2: like brought over the Middle Passage died during the journey. 585 00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:43,680 Speaker 2: But I mean that's ten and twenty percent is itself 586 00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:46,480 Speaker 2: a pretty wide margin. We simply don't know. In some 587 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,880 Speaker 2: voy I mean some ships, everyone died, But in some 588 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:51,120 Speaker 2: voyages it was like thirty or forty percent, you know, 589 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:55,840 Speaker 2: sometimes it's less. Uh, it really just depended on the captain. 590 00:29:55,960 --> 00:30:00,880 Speaker 2: So these are rough averages, right. The knowledge that this 591 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:03,480 Speaker 2: sort of human shrinkets was inevitable that a lot of 592 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:05,240 Speaker 2: the people that you bring over are going to die 593 00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:09,000 Speaker 2: led slavers to cram ever more people into the boats, right, So, like, well, 594 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:10,480 Speaker 2: if ten or twenty percent are going to die, then 595 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:13,160 Speaker 2: we've got to bring even more people, which means that 596 00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:14,720 Speaker 2: the boats are even more deadly. 597 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,160 Speaker 4: You know, yeah, these holes are. Yeah, it only works 598 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:19,920 Speaker 4: if you see it there being an infinite supply of 599 00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:22,200 Speaker 4: people who have almost no value, right like. 600 00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:25,959 Speaker 2: Right exactly, Jesus, And if you don't know about how 601 00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:28,400 Speaker 2: germs work, right right back, Like, well, we just jamm 602 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:30,920 Speaker 2: more people in the hold where like everyone is going 603 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,600 Speaker 2: to the bathroom all over, like it's everywhere, like you're 604 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,160 Speaker 2: in a hold, you're chained together, you have and you're sick. 605 00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:39,840 Speaker 2: A lot of people are too ill to have any 606 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,520 Speaker 2: control over when they go or not because they're dying 607 00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:44,880 Speaker 2: right Like you're jamming them. 608 00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:47,120 Speaker 4: Into these dizy, nasty, disease. 609 00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:51,240 Speaker 2: Riddled tiny hell rooms. It's just it's a nightmare everyone's in. 610 00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,800 Speaker 2: It's a boo box from the hook, but like everyone's 611 00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:58,840 Speaker 2: in it right for months. It's just incomprehensible suffering. Yeah, 612 00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:03,200 Speaker 2: around ten million enslaved people survived the crossing to the 613 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:05,720 Speaker 2: New World during the course of the Atlantic slave trade, 614 00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:09,360 Speaker 2: which suggests about one to two million people died over 615 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,560 Speaker 2: the same period of time, right kind of. I think 616 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:16,840 Speaker 2: roughly that's the estimate, And that's not the end of 617 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:19,520 Speaker 2: how many people that's fucking killed. Because about two thirds 618 00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:22,080 Speaker 2: of the slaves who survived transit were immediately put to 619 00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:24,360 Speaker 2: the task of cutting sugarcane in the America as the 620 00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:27,800 Speaker 2: Caribbean or doing other crops, but sugar plantations were the 621 00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:30,360 Speaker 2: big one and they are hell on earth. Laborers worked 622 00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:33,880 Speaker 2: fourteen hours a day. The heat was intense. They're in 623 00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:37,520 Speaker 2: an unfamiliar climate with unfamiliar diseases, and about a third 624 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:43,080 Speaker 2: of enslaved Africans died within three years of reaching the Caribbean. Yeah, 625 00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:46,080 Speaker 2: like you're just feeding people into the maw of this 626 00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:50,320 Speaker 2: this system of death. It could, it could. It's it's 627 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:53,160 Speaker 2: barely less lethal than a concentration camp. 628 00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:54,520 Speaker 4: Right, yeah, homogly. 629 00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:59,240 Speaker 2: Yeah, And the only reason is that they wanted these 630 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:01,800 Speaker 2: people to live for some period of time to extract 631 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:06,120 Speaker 2: value from Yeah, exactly. In his article for Anti Slavery International, 632 00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:08,920 Speaker 2: k ADS plantation owners in the British West Indies were 633 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:11,560 Speaker 2: initially unconcerned about this, as they could simply buy more 634 00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:14,440 Speaker 2: slaves and calculated that it was cheaper to buy than breed. 635 00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:17,040 Speaker 2: It is no exaggeration to say that slaves were treated 636 00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:23,040 Speaker 2: worse than animals in the Caribbean. Yeah, Jesus Christ, Yeah, yeah, Yeah, 637 00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:26,240 Speaker 2: that's pretty rough, right the whole Like why breed them? 638 00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:28,000 Speaker 2: That's too much trouble, Yeah, right. 639 00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:30,280 Speaker 4: Like a thing that we do routine for like cows, 640 00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 4: and they were doing right then for of cows and 641 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:33,880 Speaker 4: sheep and shit that they wanted to eat. 642 00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:38,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think some of it may just have been that, like, well, 643 00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,280 Speaker 2: when women are giving birth, they need like some degree 644 00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:43,800 Speaker 2: of care, and even that is more effort than I 645 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:45,880 Speaker 2: want to put into thinking about these people. I just 646 00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:49,000 Speaker 2: want them to work until they drop. Right. This attitude 647 00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:51,720 Speaker 2: is going to change over time, but you know, that's 648 00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:53,960 Speaker 2: how a lot of people think. For a significant chunk 649 00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:56,320 Speaker 2: of it, for more than three hundred years, the slave 650 00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:59,440 Speaker 2: trade continued unobated. There is very little evidence that it 651 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:02,600 Speaker 2: was considered controversial at all by most people who lived 652 00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:05,120 Speaker 2: back in the Imperial Core for a large chunk of 653 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,360 Speaker 2: this period of time. Adam Smith, the famous economist, gave 654 00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,680 Speaker 2: a lecture at the University of Glasgow in seventeen sixty 655 00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:14,760 Speaker 2: three in which he argued that slavery was foundational to 656 00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:18,240 Speaker 2: human civilization, It existed in every culture throughout history, and 657 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,800 Speaker 2: it had very little chance of ever being abolished. Historian 658 00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:24,600 Speaker 2: Adam Hoschild makes the claim that the basic morality of 659 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:27,560 Speaker 2: slavery as a system was so unquestioned in the late 660 00:33:27,640 --> 00:33:30,120 Speaker 2: seventeen hundreds in England that if you were to go 661 00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:32,400 Speaker 2: back with a time machine and pick random people on 662 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:35,240 Speaker 2: the street and tell them slavery should be abolished, nine 663 00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:37,120 Speaker 2: out of ten listeners would reject you out of hand 664 00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:40,280 Speaker 2: as a maniac. It was just not at all controversial 665 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:43,719 Speaker 2: up until the very end, pretty much of the seventeen hundreds, 666 00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:46,959 Speaker 2: pretty late in the seventeen hundreds, Almost every great fortune 667 00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:49,520 Speaker 2: in England during this time was dependent on the slave trade. 668 00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:52,560 Speaker 2: Between seventeen eighty seven and eighteen oh seven, every mayor 669 00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:55,400 Speaker 2: of Liverpool, which at its peak was the major hub 670 00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:57,640 Speaker 2: of the slave trade. About forty percent of the entire 671 00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:02,800 Speaker 2: European slave trade passes through Liverpool. Every Mayor of Liverpool 672 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:06,480 Speaker 2: as a financial interest in human trafficking. The website Recovered 673 00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:09,279 Speaker 2: Histories notes that by the late eighteenth century, fifty to 674 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:13,359 Speaker 2: sixty members of Parliament represented slave plantations. William Beckford, two 675 00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:15,920 Speaker 2: time mayor of London, owned a twenty two thousand acre 676 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:21,000 Speaker 2: plantation in Jamaica. Great, yeah cool, so yeah, Like the 677 00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:24,840 Speaker 2: ruling class is all very much embedded with this stuff, right, 678 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:27,399 Speaker 2: It's the entire economy, right, And even the people who 679 00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,880 Speaker 2: aren't directly owning slaves are making money from the people 680 00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:33,960 Speaker 2: who owned slaves, right right, It's just like a foundational 681 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:37,600 Speaker 2: underpinning of how everything works now, even outside of direct 682 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:40,759 Speaker 2: involvement in the plantation system, it's impossible to avoid. Like 683 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:43,200 Speaker 2: I said earlier, Brittan exported about one hundred and fifty 684 00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:46,279 Speaker 2: thousand firearms per year to Africa during this period of time, 685 00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:48,759 Speaker 2: and like the seventeen hundreds, and these guns are being 686 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:51,960 Speaker 2: traded to locals in exchange for people. The city of 687 00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:55,400 Speaker 2: Birmingham was a major copper powerhouse and much of that 688 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,279 Speaker 2: copper was also sent overseas to Africa where it was 689 00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:00,520 Speaker 2: traded for people. Because it's not just guns, their training. 690 00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:03,400 Speaker 2: So again, it's really hard just not to be involved 691 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:05,719 Speaker 2: in to some extent and profiting from the slave ye, 692 00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:06,919 Speaker 2: even if you don't want to. 693 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:09,160 Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, And it seems like there's no one who 694 00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:11,040 Speaker 4: didn't want to, Like everyone was just fine with this. 695 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:15,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, very it's it's it's pretty much just the uh 696 00:35:15,200 --> 00:35:18,080 Speaker 2: oh shit, it's pretty much just the uh not Mennonites, 697 00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:21,720 Speaker 2: but the Quakers. Yes, it's pretty much just the Quakers 698 00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:24,360 Speaker 2: who don't want to be financially like, not all of 699 00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:26,319 Speaker 2: the Quakers in this period of time, let's be clear, 700 00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,600 Speaker 2: but like the Quakers are fairly consistently a lot of 701 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:32,280 Speaker 2: Quakers from a fairly early point in the slave trader 702 00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:35,000 Speaker 2: saying this is bad and we shouldn't do it. But 703 00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:37,560 Speaker 2: they're also seen as kind of kooks to most people 704 00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:40,600 Speaker 2: because they're saying crazy shit like I should it's bad 705 00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:42,920 Speaker 2: to be in the military and fight and die for 706 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:43,239 Speaker 2: a king. 707 00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:44,920 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and maybe you shouldn't be. 708 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:50,120 Speaker 2: Ging saying crazy shit. I think these wacky Quakers. 709 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,200 Speaker 4: The term Quaker is one that like they didn't prefer 710 00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:58,200 Speaker 4: to use for themselves, right, It's like a derogatory term 711 00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:01,600 Speaker 4: that was put upon them that I guess I think so. Yeah, 712 00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,400 Speaker 4: they called themselves flat. I know, they called themselves friends. 713 00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:09,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, the friends, And it's one of those like hard 714 00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:13,160 Speaker 2: to pick a group of people in like Western society 715 00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:16,000 Speaker 2: in early modernity who were more consistently right. 716 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:21,080 Speaker 4: Than the they're really cold quite a few times. Yeah, 717 00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:23,080 Speaker 4: you can go back and be like yep, yep, I 718 00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:23,840 Speaker 4: mean still. 719 00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:25,600 Speaker 2: To bad on everything, but a lot. 720 00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:26,279 Speaker 1: Yeah. 721 00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:29,480 Speaker 4: This very morning, I was out with a Quaker friend 722 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:33,040 Speaker 4: and we were helping some migrants get groceries because they 723 00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:35,080 Speaker 4: can't get them otherwise and they need to feed the 724 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:38,399 Speaker 4: kids of the holidays. Like they're they're still still doing 725 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:39,200 Speaker 4: a pretty good job. 726 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:42,839 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, we could talk about religion and all 727 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:45,000 Speaker 2: of the things I don't agree with. But if you're 728 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,440 Speaker 2: if you're pretty if you're hewing pretty close to the 729 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:50,640 Speaker 2: idea that like it's bad to kill people and it's 730 00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:53,760 Speaker 2: bad to own people and it's good to feed people. 731 00:36:54,200 --> 00:36:57,200 Speaker 4: Yeah, you've got to be right more than you're wrong. Yeah. Yeah, 732 00:36:57,239 --> 00:36:59,680 Speaker 4: you're beaten the average, especially back then. 733 00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:04,600 Speaker 2: Yeah, you're gonna be the average in your society. 734 00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:04,879 Speaker 4: Now. 735 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:07,400 Speaker 2: You know what church didn't have a problem with slavery, James, 736 00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:08,960 Speaker 2: any of them really. 737 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:09,080 Speaker 1: But. 738 00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:11,399 Speaker 4: Most of them. 739 00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:14,920 Speaker 2: Yeah, but the anglic the Church of England right to 740 00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:18,920 Speaker 2: the Church of England, big fans of slavery. Yeah, you're 741 00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:22,680 Speaker 2: deeply financially involved. Now there is there is a sect, 742 00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:26,239 Speaker 2: like a radical Anglican sect that are anti slavery from 743 00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:28,399 Speaker 2: like a I think fairly early in the seventeen hundred. 744 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:31,440 Speaker 2: But like the mainstream of the Church of England is 745 00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:33,800 Speaker 2: fine with this stuff. And in fact, the English Anglican 746 00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:37,840 Speaker 2: Church owns vast plantations in Barbados and other Caribbean islands. 747 00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:41,320 Speaker 2: When anyone bothered to discuss the morality of the slave trade, 748 00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:45,400 Speaker 2: the default assumption was that it represented a kindness to Africans. 749 00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:49,160 Speaker 2: Liverpool merchant Michael Sargent gave a representative version of this argument. 750 00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:51,759 Speaker 2: We ought to consider whether the negroes in a well 751 00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:54,600 Speaker 2: regulated plantation under the protection of a kind master do 752 00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:57,560 Speaker 2: not enjoys great, nay even greater advantages than when they 753 00:37:57,600 --> 00:37:59,280 Speaker 2: are under their own despotic government. 754 00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:05,160 Speaker 4: Fuck fuck's sake. Yeah, just what pulled that directly out 755 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,160 Speaker 4: of his ass? Like what knowledge does he have of 756 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,040 Speaker 4: governance in the interior of Africa? 757 00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:12,960 Speaker 2: Well, and like, yeah, they live under a despot as 758 00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:15,160 Speaker 2: opposed to you who lives under a king in a 759 00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:17,680 Speaker 2: state that makes all of its money from slavery. 760 00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:21,759 Speaker 4: Yeah, and they're dying after three years. Like how how 761 00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:24,719 Speaker 4: could it be better than whatever the situation was back home? 762 00:38:26,239 --> 00:38:30,719 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's people will just make shit up. Yeah, it's 763 00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:32,799 Speaker 2: just to make themselves feel better. Who knows how much 764 00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:34,560 Speaker 2: he even cared, Like this is just a p This 765 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:36,719 Speaker 2: is like, well, you know, we just don't know if 766 00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:40,160 Speaker 2: cigarettes are bad for people. There's conflicting evidence, or you know, 767 00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:43,120 Speaker 2: we can't really predict the climate, so who's to say 768 00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:45,000 Speaker 2: if all these gasoline emissions are bad? 769 00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:46,879 Speaker 4: You know, Like it's that kind of. 770 00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:50,879 Speaker 2: Argument, right, like maybe they're better off you know things 771 00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:51,560 Speaker 2: are in Africa. 772 00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:54,760 Speaker 4: Yeah, that's just let's just hope it's that way. Otherwise 773 00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:56,680 Speaker 4: to face the guilt of what they're doing. 774 00:38:56,800 --> 00:39:00,719 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, otherwise I'm a worldless directs. 775 00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:03,719 Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm a piece of shit on like a Centuri's 776 00:39:03,719 --> 00:39:04,560 Speaker 4: wide style. 777 00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:08,360 Speaker 2: Speaking of world historic monsters. 778 00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:12,000 Speaker 3: I was hoping you would do this as an ad transition. 779 00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:16,880 Speaker 4: Yeah, but some of them, right, maybe we don't know. Yeah, 780 00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:21,120 Speaker 4: we never know. I don't be sure to DM Sophie 781 00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:23,719 Speaker 4: and let them know. If you don't have the advertisers, 782 00:39:23,719 --> 00:39:25,239 Speaker 4: it's I write, okay. 783 00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:30,919 Speaker 2: Hmm, Yeah, anyway, here's ads. This podcast is sponsored by Liverpool. 784 00:39:31,200 --> 00:39:33,960 Speaker 2: Liverpool who were the slave trading hub of the world 785 00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:36,080 Speaker 2: for a period of time. Maybe we could do it again. 786 00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:37,759 Speaker 2: Visit Liverpool. 787 00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:44,319 Speaker 4: My mom's from Liverpool. What did Liverpool do to your mother? 788 00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:46,440 Speaker 4: I mean they did a lot to some. 789 00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:53,279 Speaker 2: They've done to you, These liver Puddians. I'm offended on 790 00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:56,200 Speaker 2: their behalf, on behalf of the you know, the world. 791 00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:58,960 Speaker 4: About ten million people who were enslave. 792 00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:04,680 Speaker 3: Yeah, I was offended by when Robert said, I'm winking 793 00:40:05,239 --> 00:40:07,160 Speaker 3: that's for the people that can't see me. 794 00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:10,600 Speaker 2: All I'm going to say is, if you know anyone 795 00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:12,520 Speaker 2: from Liverpool, hit them again. 796 00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:16,920 Speaker 3: From you know, if you know anyone from Liverpool, we 797 00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:17,640 Speaker 3: get them. 798 00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:21,040 Speaker 4: My entire on the side of the family is from Liverpool. 799 00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:23,120 Speaker 6: This is behind the bastards, James. 800 00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:25,640 Speaker 4: It's not a good time. No, it's not. No, no, no, 801 00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:27,759 Speaker 4: that's why it's when we let we left Liverpool in 802 00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:31,680 Speaker 4: opposition around the nineteenth. 803 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:33,680 Speaker 2: If you know anybody from Richmond, hit them too, you know, 804 00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:37,880 Speaker 2: and maybe wink hit people if they come, Yeah, while 805 00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:39,280 Speaker 2: you hit them. 806 00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:40,719 Speaker 3: Wink while you're hitting them exactly. 807 00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:44,239 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just a joke. 808 00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:44,719 Speaker 2: It's a bit. 809 00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:54,480 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's a bit. Don't hit people and we're back. 810 00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:58,440 Speaker 2: Given how central slavery was to the British economy and 811 00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:01,320 Speaker 2: how one questioned the morality the institution was to most 812 00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:04,319 Speaker 2: Britains in this period, it is remarkable that only a 813 00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:07,919 Speaker 2: few decades into the nineteenth century, Great Britain would put 814 00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:10,560 Speaker 2: an end to this. It's part in the slave trade, right, 815 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:12,560 Speaker 2: I mean, it's less than that to the slave trade. Sorry, 816 00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:14,560 Speaker 2: it's like eighteen oh seven that the slave trade ends 817 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,200 Speaker 2: in like eighteen thirty something, we'll talk about that later, 818 00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:19,640 Speaker 2: where slavery is made illegal in the British Empire. And 819 00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:22,200 Speaker 2: given the fact that like in the seventeen sixties, even 820 00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:24,279 Speaker 2: up to the seventeen seventies, you'd have been a hard 821 00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:26,359 Speaker 2: press to find a person on the street who would 822 00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:28,799 Speaker 2: be like, yeah, slavery's bad, Like that would have been 823 00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:31,879 Speaker 2: a weird take not long before this. So it's kind 824 00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:35,040 Speaker 2: of remarkable how quickly things turn around. And that's why 825 00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:37,400 Speaker 2: I want to tell this story is that one of 826 00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:40,600 Speaker 2: the things that's so impressive is how much like this 827 00:41:40,680 --> 00:41:43,640 Speaker 2: seems like a hopeless cause. If you're an abolitionist in 828 00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:47,160 Speaker 2: like seventeen sixties, seventeen seventy, the idea that you might 829 00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:50,840 Speaker 2: get the entire country on board ending slavery in the 830 00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:56,760 Speaker 2: slave trade alone is wild, right, Like, and they did. So, Yeah, 831 00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:00,719 Speaker 2: that's pretty important for us here staring at an insurmountable 832 00:42:00,719 --> 00:42:05,760 Speaker 2: mountain of problems, to pay attention to how this happened. Yeah, 833 00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:09,600 Speaker 2: And it's worth noting. The abolitionist movement is often described 834 00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:14,120 Speaker 2: by historians specifically, the abolitionist movement that starts in England 835 00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:16,680 Speaker 2: and first ends the slave trade and then slavery in 836 00:42:16,719 --> 00:42:20,600 Speaker 2: the British Empire is the first social movement dedicated entirely 837 00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:24,279 Speaker 2: to the recognition and protection of other people's rights right 838 00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:27,880 Speaker 2: you are the movie is not fighting for their own rights. 839 00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:30,120 Speaker 2: They are fighting for the rights of a separate group 840 00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:32,760 Speaker 2: of people with outside of people aren't even their countrymen generally. 841 00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:36,560 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a really interesting way to 842 00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:37,600 Speaker 4: frame it. 843 00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:42,799 Speaker 2: It's significant, right, and that deserves to be celebrated. There's 844 00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,279 Speaker 2: also this kind of annoying thing today, and I'd be 845 00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:47,719 Speaker 2: remiss if I didn't point out that a loud minority 846 00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:51,319 Speaker 2: of racists today will argue that the Atlantic slave trade 847 00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:54,400 Speaker 2: isn't something Westerners should be ashamed of. It's something that 848 00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:56,640 Speaker 2: we should be proud of because we ended slavery and 849 00:42:56,680 --> 00:42:59,239 Speaker 2: nobody else ever tried to do that. Right, It's an 850 00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:01,880 Speaker 2: example of how our culture is that we're the only 851 00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:04,600 Speaker 2: ones who tried to end slavery. Is the first fans 852 00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:06,680 Speaker 2: are the first people to decide slavery should be banned, 853 00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:06,920 Speaker 2: you know. 854 00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:11,680 Speaker 4: Yeah, fucking nonsense, Like it's. 855 00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:16,759 Speaker 2: It's not true for one thing, but there were societies 856 00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:19,359 Speaker 2: that banned kinds of slavery at least, you know, they 857 00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:21,960 Speaker 2: still had things that we might say is problematic. But 858 00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:27,399 Speaker 2: like anyway, whatever any acknowledgment of how remarkable the pan 859 00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:30,320 Speaker 2: abolitionist cause was, and it was has to be tempered 860 00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:33,360 Speaker 2: by the acknowledgment that it came into being, not to 861 00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:37,879 Speaker 2: be Not like the abolitionists that we're talking about. We're 862 00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:41,200 Speaker 2: not fighting against slavery as the general concept that had 863 00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:44,960 Speaker 2: existed since time immemorial. They were fighting specifically against the 864 00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:49,520 Speaker 2: uniquely terrible and uniquely Western shadow slave trade that existed 865 00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:53,280 Speaker 2: from the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries. The nightmarish hors 866 00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:55,840 Speaker 2: of that system, which was so much worse than the 867 00:43:55,840 --> 00:44:00,000 Speaker 2: the very bad slavery that existed forever, is what inspired 868 00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:00,800 Speaker 2: this movement. 869 00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:07,799 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's unfortunately. I'm a personal who teaches at a 870 00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:11,160 Speaker 4: college right now, and we are we're living in the 871 00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:15,800 Speaker 4: era of chatbots, right and I have noticed a certain 872 00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:20,080 Speaker 4: number of chatbot generated essays arguing this point that you 873 00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:23,520 Speaker 4: are making, and it doesn't get any less upsetting even 874 00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:26,399 Speaker 4: after reading it hundreds of times that or like, yeah, 875 00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:28,239 Speaker 4: there was slavery elsewhere. 876 00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:31,040 Speaker 2: And it's like if at some point in the future 877 00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:33,799 Speaker 2: America got a complete handle on the whole gun thing 878 00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:36,160 Speaker 2: and whatever we did, whatever we had to do to 879 00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:38,400 Speaker 2: make sure that nobody dies from guns in the United 880 00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:42,000 Speaker 2: States again, and then people like one hundred years after 881 00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:45,160 Speaker 2: that were like Yeah, America's America is the greatest culture 882 00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:47,399 Speaker 2: ever because we were the only ones who realized guns 883 00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:47,759 Speaker 2: were bad. 884 00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:48,800 Speaker 4: It's like you're leaving. 885 00:44:48,600 --> 00:44:52,400 Speaker 2: Out a really big part of the story. 886 00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:54,480 Speaker 4: You're really cutting out. 887 00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:58,359 Speaker 7: Some important facts bit there that you probably probably don't 888 00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:02,320 Speaker 7: want to gloss over. We solved an American in that society, 889 00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:05,480 Speaker 7: like shit talking a country that allows hunting rifles and 890 00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:06,400 Speaker 7: it's like, wait. 891 00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:13,640 Speaker 4: A second, Yeah, you're forgetting some stuff. It's pretty bad. Shit. Yeah, 892 00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:16,280 Speaker 4: there's a lot of history. 893 00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:21,640 Speaker 2: You're ignoring here. The intellectual underpinnings of the abolitionist movement 894 00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:24,040 Speaker 2: have a history that itself goes back centuries, and we'd 895 00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:26,040 Speaker 2: have to discuss everything from the Quakers to the French 896 00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:29,440 Speaker 2: Revolution and the Scottish Enlightenment to addically address all of that. 897 00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:33,120 Speaker 2: But what we're talking about specifically is not kind of 898 00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:36,200 Speaker 2: the ideologies that led people, small groups and individuals to 899 00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:39,560 Speaker 2: believe slavery was wrong, as much as how a small 900 00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:42,280 Speaker 2: number of those people came together to create a massive 901 00:45:42,320 --> 00:45:47,200 Speaker 2: movement that actually ended this horrible, horrible institution. Right, and 902 00:45:47,520 --> 00:45:50,560 Speaker 2: that story starts. If you're looking for what the best 903 00:45:50,640 --> 00:45:54,920 Speaker 2: origin point for how that movement came together, it starts 904 00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:58,240 Speaker 2: due to events that transpired on a specific slave ship 905 00:45:58,360 --> 00:45:59,960 Speaker 2: near the end of seventeen eighty one. 906 00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:00,279 Speaker 1: One. 907 00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:02,839 Speaker 2: Right, we're going to tell the story of a ship 908 00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:07,320 Speaker 2: called the Song or the Zork. There's both names are fine. Actually, technically, 909 00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:08,680 Speaker 2: have you ever heard of this boat? 910 00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:09,480 Speaker 4: No? 911 00:46:09,560 --> 00:46:09,799 Speaker 5: Haven't. 912 00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:12,160 Speaker 4: Actually I'm excited to learn more about his boat. Love 913 00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:12,880 Speaker 4: a boat story. 914 00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:15,480 Speaker 2: It is a good boat story. It's a there's a 915 00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:16,200 Speaker 2: very good book. 916 00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:23,360 Speaker 4: I love a good boat. 917 00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:25,919 Speaker 2: You're not beating the British allegations. 918 00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:32,279 Speaker 4: So that's my epigenetic expression of loving boats. Yeah, it's 919 00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:37,400 Speaker 4: it's t love a boat story, boats, cricket about cricket. 920 00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:39,840 Speaker 2: I've got a friend who comes from like the Martha's 921 00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:41,920 Speaker 2: Vineyard area, and I was like, so you're you're in 922 00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:45,520 Speaker 2: the boats, right, And she was like, first off, that's 923 00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:48,600 Speaker 2: really like you can't just assume everyone from Martha's Vineyard 924 00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:50,759 Speaker 2: has a boat. But yeah, my dad is building me 925 00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:51,160 Speaker 2: a boat. 926 00:46:51,640 --> 00:46:58,960 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, as it has. Yeah, boats, kinds of good 927 00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:04,239 Speaker 4: stories about boats. Pirates, people's boats. 928 00:47:04,760 --> 00:47:09,239 Speaker 2: Mmm, that pirate radio station and the movie Pirate Radio. Yeah, 929 00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:12,319 Speaker 2: it's not based on those were British oil rig. 930 00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:14,200 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it oil. 931 00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:15,120 Speaker 2: Rig at some point I forget. 932 00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:18,520 Speaker 4: Yeah, Pirate Radio gave us like punk music and sca music, right, 933 00:47:18,719 --> 00:47:19,759 Speaker 4: which is you. 934 00:47:19,719 --> 00:47:20,840 Speaker 2: Know, exactly exactly. 935 00:47:20,880 --> 00:47:23,640 Speaker 4: It's why I am the way I am. 936 00:47:23,719 --> 00:47:27,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's why I try to take might take my 937 00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:31,239 Speaker 2: savings and invest in a scar boat cruise, you know, 938 00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:34,120 Speaker 2: scars and sailing together again. 939 00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:37,239 Speaker 4: At last, I've just thought about the Little Domino meme. 940 00:47:37,320 --> 00:47:39,480 Speaker 4: And at the bottom end, it's like, you know, somebody 941 00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:41,840 Speaker 4: starts broadcasting from an oil rig in the Atlantic, and 942 00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:44,680 Speaker 4: the top it's the Mighty Bostones release a memorial song 943 00:47:44,719 --> 00:47:49,239 Speaker 4: for George Floyd. Okay, now I'm now you're thinking it's 944 00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:51,520 Speaker 4: like a bad idea. Now I'm no longer. Now I'm 945 00:47:51,560 --> 00:47:55,560 Speaker 4: no longer so into boats. Yeah, not quite at pete 946 00:47:55,600 --> 00:47:56,359 Speaker 4: hexth level. 947 00:47:56,400 --> 00:47:58,880 Speaker 2: But no, no, no, not yet. And there's there's a 948 00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:01,000 Speaker 2: couple of good books. There's this book called The Song 949 00:48:01,040 --> 00:48:02,960 Speaker 2: and there's another book that came up more recently called 950 00:48:02,960 --> 00:48:05,440 Speaker 2: The Zorg. I haven't read the first one. I read 951 00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:09,080 Speaker 2: The Zorg. It's a very good book that's by Sidharth Karra, 952 00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:12,320 Speaker 2: and I do recommend it. That'll be a big source 953 00:48:12,360 --> 00:48:15,960 Speaker 2: for this episode, in particular, we'll have some quotes from it. Elsewhere. 954 00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:18,440 Speaker 2: But the story of this boat begins with the story 955 00:48:18,520 --> 00:48:22,560 Speaker 2: of a slaver, a guy named Robert Stubbs. By seventeen 956 00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:26,239 Speaker 2: eighty one. Stubbs was an experienced slave trader, albeit an 957 00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:29,399 Speaker 2: unlucky one. His first recorded journey was his first mate 958 00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:32,320 Speaker 2: on a ship called the Black Joke, which he abandoned 959 00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:34,520 Speaker 2: within months of taking the job due to having. 960 00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:39,319 Speaker 4: When I found the fucking name out, like, yeah, yeah, 961 00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:43,960 Speaker 4: that a great name. Yeah, he can come up with 962 00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:46,319 Speaker 4: a one of all the other words been taken. 963 00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:51,680 Speaker 2: Nope, nope, nope, just just the Black Joke. Yeah. He 964 00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:55,400 Speaker 2: testified in defense of the vessel's owner against the captain 965 00:48:55,480 --> 00:48:58,520 Speaker 2: during a subsequent lawsuit because the voyage does not go well. 966 00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:01,040 Speaker 2: And this is what starts as career, because even though 967 00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:04,080 Speaker 2: he had abandoned the ship, because he helps the vessel's 968 00:49:04,080 --> 00:49:06,640 Speaker 2: owner out by testifying, he gets made captain of the 969 00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:09,879 Speaker 2: Black Joke the next year. Right, so a year later 970 00:49:09,920 --> 00:49:11,719 Speaker 2: he's a captain of the boat that he had abandoned, 971 00:49:11,719 --> 00:49:13,920 Speaker 2: and under his command, the ship takes on two hundred 972 00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:17,920 Speaker 2: and thirty enslaved people in Barbados. But or sorry, it 973 00:49:17,960 --> 00:49:20,560 Speaker 2: takes on two hundred thirty slaves and tries to take 974 00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:23,040 Speaker 2: them to Barbados, but it was captured by the French 975 00:49:23,160 --> 00:49:25,560 Speaker 2: before it could, like you know, it could make any 976 00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:27,719 Speaker 2: money off of that, right, So he's become slaves the 977 00:49:27,760 --> 00:49:31,000 Speaker 2: French get to profit off of. Two years later, stubbs 978 00:49:31,040 --> 00:49:33,520 Speaker 2: captain's a slaver that makes it to Virginia, so he 979 00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:37,120 Speaker 2: has a successful voyage. Finally, his third voyage in seventeen 980 00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:40,400 Speaker 2: sixty sees him captured yet again by a French privateer, 981 00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:43,040 Speaker 2: and then he's captured a third time the next year. 982 00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:48,719 Speaker 2: So Jesus five voyages. He's abandoned ship once, been captured 983 00:49:48,760 --> 00:49:51,400 Speaker 2: three times and had one successful trade. 984 00:49:51,520 --> 00:49:51,680 Speaker 1: Yeah. 985 00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:56,319 Speaker 4: Yeah, Stubbsy isn't really delivering on the investment the best. 986 00:49:56,560 --> 00:49:58,600 Speaker 2: Yeah all, Stubsy's not the best. 987 00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:03,360 Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, just thinking like you know, you're you're a younger, 988 00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:05,319 Speaker 4: want to be boat person, and then you find out 989 00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:06,600 Speaker 4: you're going to be on the stubs voat. 990 00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:08,319 Speaker 2: It's going to be got to be a rough yeah. 991 00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:11,319 Speaker 2: Ah fuck, he guess a bit of brush up on 992 00:50:11,320 --> 00:50:11,880 Speaker 2: my French. 993 00:50:12,239 --> 00:50:16,560 Speaker 4: I'm sure everyone's got like one of those blue and 994 00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:19,560 Speaker 4: white striped shirts underneath their like English red jacket, you know, 995 00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:22,800 Speaker 4: just for when the moment rises, just gotta get ready 996 00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:23,880 Speaker 4: to change ownership. 997 00:50:25,280 --> 00:50:27,720 Speaker 2: So given his history, it's not surprising that by seventeen 998 00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:30,040 Speaker 2: sixty five, old Stubbs he could not get hired to 999 00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:33,000 Speaker 2: clean the privies on a sailing vessel, so he takes 1000 00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:35,319 Speaker 2: the money he has had. He does have two successful 1001 00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:39,200 Speaker 2: trips after this, but his failure to success rate is 1002 00:50:39,280 --> 00:50:42,080 Speaker 2: high enough that he has trouble getting anyone to take 1003 00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:44,239 Speaker 2: a bet on him. So he takes the money that 1004 00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:46,800 Speaker 2: he's made and he starts working as a ship's broker 1005 00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:49,400 Speaker 2: in London, and that basically he is buying goods to 1006 00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:52,239 Speaker 2: sell on merchant vessels and then taking his profits and 1007 00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:54,680 Speaker 2: investing in slave ships so that he gets a profit 1008 00:50:54,800 --> 00:50:57,000 Speaker 2: off of like whatever they make when they sell the 1009 00:50:57,040 --> 00:50:58,359 Speaker 2: people that they're going to take. 1010 00:50:58,520 --> 00:50:58,719 Speaker 4: Right. 1011 00:50:59,239 --> 00:51:01,719 Speaker 2: He's not good at this, and he declares bankruptcy in 1012 00:51:01,800 --> 00:51:05,160 Speaker 2: seventeen seventy one. Now, somewhere in between, during this whole 1013 00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:07,440 Speaker 2: period where he's failing at being a captain and then 1014 00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:11,280 Speaker 2: failing it being an investor in slave ships, he starts 1015 00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:13,680 Speaker 2: a family and has six children who he is not 1016 00:51:13,840 --> 00:51:16,759 Speaker 2: in the least but interested in raising or caring for. 1017 00:51:17,120 --> 00:51:19,160 Speaker 4: It's a bit of a bit of a bad dude. 1018 00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:23,480 Speaker 4: He's not a good man. He's a slave captain thing. 1019 00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:26,440 Speaker 4: That's yeah. 1020 00:51:27,080 --> 00:51:30,240 Speaker 3: Stubbsy said fuck them kids, yeah, fuck. 1021 00:51:30,040 --> 00:51:33,440 Speaker 2: Them kids now, in order to provide for his family 1022 00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:35,719 Speaker 2: while being as far away from them as possible. At 1023 00:51:35,719 --> 00:51:37,880 Speaker 2: the end of seventeen seventy nine, he applies for a 1024 00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:41,400 Speaker 2: job as a governor with the CMTA, or the Company 1025 00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:45,160 Speaker 2: of Merchants Trading to Africa. This is the corporation because 1026 00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:49,120 Speaker 2: slavery is a capitalist enterprise, right in the very literal 1027 00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:52,320 Speaker 2: sense of the word. It is a corporation, a chartered 1028 00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:55,439 Speaker 2: corporation that is managing the logistics of the Atlantic slave 1029 00:51:55,480 --> 00:51:58,319 Speaker 2: trade for the British Empire, right because corporations are just 1030 00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:04,080 Speaker 2: more efficient than governments. Now, we don't know why. As 1031 00:52:04,120 --> 00:52:08,440 Speaker 2: evidence that they're more efficient, they made Stubs a governor. Great, 1032 00:52:09,160 --> 00:52:10,239 Speaker 2: it didn't have background checks. 1033 00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:11,560 Speaker 4: I don't know why. 1034 00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:14,879 Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like I think it's that he had 1035 00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:16,839 Speaker 2: friends in the company and he was a really good 1036 00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:18,719 Speaker 2: ass kisser. One of the things you see from it 1037 00:52:18,760 --> 00:52:22,040 Speaker 2: is that he is very charming to certain kinds of idiot, 1038 00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:24,480 Speaker 2: and I think he just talks his way into the 1039 00:52:24,680 --> 00:52:25,799 Speaker 2: shop by licking. 1040 00:52:25,520 --> 00:52:29,200 Speaker 3: Boots I want to go And are we sure he 1041 00:52:29,239 --> 00:52:32,120 Speaker 3: didn't want to go into government politics. 1042 00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:35,040 Speaker 2: Uh no, no, not at all. He wants to be 1043 00:52:35,239 --> 00:52:37,880 Speaker 2: a slave governor. He wants to be the governor of 1044 00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:39,520 Speaker 2: one of these slave forts. You know, we talked about 1045 00:52:39,520 --> 00:52:42,279 Speaker 2: Elmina at the start of the episode. There's more by you, 1046 00:52:42,480 --> 00:52:45,560 Speaker 2: and one of them that the British is operating is 1047 00:52:45,800 --> 00:52:49,200 Speaker 2: a fort called Animebu on the Gold coast, right, and 1048 00:52:49,239 --> 00:52:51,759 Speaker 2: that's what he's governing. He's not governing like a colony. 1049 00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:53,920 Speaker 2: He's governing a slave castle. 1050 00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:57,280 Speaker 3: They were like, well, you're really great at abandoning the ship, 1051 00:52:58,200 --> 00:53:01,440 Speaker 3: and he's like yeah, He's like you said, I was 1052 00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:03,880 Speaker 3: abandoning the ship, but I was going down with it. 1053 00:53:03,920 --> 00:53:06,040 Speaker 4: What do you mean? Yeah, that was a joke. 1054 00:53:06,239 --> 00:53:07,560 Speaker 3: That was a joke for the girlies. 1055 00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:08,200 Speaker 6: You're welcome. 1056 00:53:08,520 --> 00:53:11,000 Speaker 3: Oh okay, that one over both of your head. 1057 00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:15,440 Speaker 2: It sure did, Sophie, Yeah, no, beautiful. The bit I 1058 00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:17,960 Speaker 2: would make is that they looked at how he's raising 1059 00:53:17,960 --> 00:53:20,200 Speaker 2: his family and they're like, look, Stubs, you're graded at 1060 00:53:20,239 --> 00:53:23,880 Speaker 2: abandoning your kids. Can you abandon a bunch of enslaved 1061 00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:25,799 Speaker 2: African people to a fate worse than death? 1062 00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:26,040 Speaker 4: Too? 1063 00:53:26,239 --> 00:53:29,400 Speaker 2: Is that something you'd be good at, and Stubbs said absolutely. 1064 00:53:30,480 --> 00:53:32,560 Speaker 3: He's like, honey, where do I sign? 1065 00:53:33,280 --> 00:53:37,799 Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is a perfect job for him. Yeah, 1066 00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:39,759 Speaker 2: he can profit from the slave trade and he has 1067 00:53:39,920 --> 00:53:43,520 Speaker 2: very little personal risk. Right theoretically, if he wasn't a 1068 00:53:43,600 --> 00:53:47,719 Speaker 2: giant asshole, he'd have very little personal risk. But as 1069 00:53:47,719 --> 00:53:50,080 Speaker 2: said Hearth Kara writes in the Zorg, things started to 1070 00:53:50,120 --> 00:53:53,359 Speaker 2: go wrong as soon as Stubs departed England. Quote from 1071 00:53:53,400 --> 00:53:56,840 Speaker 2: the moment the ship departed England, Captain Lewin reported vexation 1072 00:53:56,960 --> 00:53:59,880 Speaker 2: often arising between me and my passengers, occasioned by malicious 1073 00:53:59,880 --> 00:54:03,040 Speaker 2: and information and other base insinuations, all of which were 1074 00:54:03,160 --> 00:54:06,160 Speaker 2: spread by Robert Stubbs. Stubbs directed much of his ire 1075 00:54:06,160 --> 00:54:09,160 Speaker 2: towards one of his fellows CMTA officials, Stuart Beard. He 1076 00:54:09,200 --> 00:54:11,720 Speaker 2: accused Beard of destroying the ship's stores and of hurting 1077 00:54:11,719 --> 00:54:15,239 Speaker 2: his son by tying his legs together. Lewin investigated the 1078 00:54:15,280 --> 00:54:18,600 Speaker 2: accusations and concluded them to be false and ill grounded. 1079 00:54:19,080 --> 00:54:21,239 Speaker 2: And by the way, he's brought his twelve year old 1080 00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:26,680 Speaker 2: boy with him, that's the sun he's accusing this guy. 1081 00:54:28,239 --> 00:54:30,239 Speaker 2: Stubbs then accused Beard of being a pimp and a 1082 00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:33,080 Speaker 2: body house and that he and John Roberts were highway robbers. 1083 00:54:33,080 --> 00:54:35,120 Speaker 2: To top it off, Stubbs accused Roberts of trying to 1084 00:54:35,160 --> 00:54:37,560 Speaker 2: breed a mutiny, which Lewin also found to be an 1085 00:54:37,600 --> 00:54:41,399 Speaker 2: ill designed falsehood. The bickering, discord and wild accusations led 1086 00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:44,600 Speaker 2: Captain Lewin to describe Stubbs as a wicked and treacherous character. 1087 00:54:44,920 --> 00:54:47,920 Speaker 2: Another official on the ship was said Stubbs was inclined 1088 00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:51,280 Speaker 2: towards malice and wicked enough to say what he cannot justify. 1089 00:54:51,920 --> 00:54:55,040 Speaker 2: So again, these guys are all slave traders, and they're like, 1090 00:54:55,160 --> 00:55:01,520 Speaker 2: this dude's a fucking dick, an asshole, among the worst 1091 00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:04,239 Speaker 2: people in history. It's like when other billionaires are like 1092 00:55:04,239 --> 00:55:06,040 Speaker 2: Elon Musk, what a fucking. 1093 00:55:05,719 --> 00:55:08,640 Speaker 4: Prap, what's wrong with that? Dude? Yeah? 1094 00:55:08,719 --> 00:55:11,240 Speaker 2: You really have to be on another level of asshole. 1095 00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:11,719 Speaker 4: Yeah. 1096 00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:13,799 Speaker 2: Now is noted in that above passage. They said he 1097 00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:16,480 Speaker 2: brought his son, his twelve year old boy, George, on 1098 00:55:16,520 --> 00:55:19,720 Speaker 2: the trip with him, and this was not normal. Kara 1099 00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:23,040 Speaker 2: notes that there are no records of any other governor 1100 00:55:23,080 --> 00:55:25,960 Speaker 2: bringing a child that young to Africa with him. In fact, 1101 00:55:26,040 --> 00:55:28,840 Speaker 2: what Stubbs did was so weird that the company puts 1102 00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:31,760 Speaker 2: rules in place to ban any other officials from bringing 1103 00:55:31,840 --> 00:55:33,560 Speaker 2: kids under fifteen with them in the future. 1104 00:55:33,560 --> 00:55:36,160 Speaker 4: They're what is he doing a twelve year old? 1105 00:55:36,400 --> 00:55:39,560 Speaker 3: Do we know why? 1106 00:55:40,080 --> 00:55:45,719 Speaker 4: Yes, yes we do, Sophie say. As soon as they reach. 1107 00:55:45,640 --> 00:55:48,960 Speaker 2: The fort, he gives his son, George, a job working 1108 00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:51,600 Speaker 2: for the fort as like a copywriter, I think. But 1109 00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:54,640 Speaker 2: he's like keeping a track of accounts or something, and 1110 00:55:54,680 --> 00:55:58,279 Speaker 2: he pockets his son's salary. That's why he brought his kid, 1111 00:55:58,760 --> 00:56:04,320 Speaker 2: so that could make him he's kind of year old child. 1112 00:56:06,239 --> 00:56:08,600 Speaker 4: He's got one move and it's yeah. 1113 00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:12,160 Speaker 3: Right, yeah, that takes fuck them kids to another level. 1114 00:56:12,239 --> 00:56:13,720 Speaker 4: Oh, it's so funny. 1115 00:56:14,120 --> 00:56:16,800 Speaker 2: And the thing is, George is not even making much money. 1116 00:56:16,800 --> 00:56:19,080 Speaker 2: He's getting about eighty pounds a year equivalent to less 1117 00:56:19,080 --> 00:56:22,680 Speaker 2: than twenty five thousand dollars a year, and his fucking 1118 00:56:23,080 --> 00:56:25,520 Speaker 2: Stubbs is a governor. He's making better money than that. 1119 00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:26,719 Speaker 2: Like he's just like. 1120 00:56:27,080 --> 00:56:28,719 Speaker 4: He just likes to do it. He just loves to 1121 00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:29,879 Speaker 4: abuse a child. 1122 00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:36,000 Speaker 2: The love of the game. Yeah wow, Yeah, So it 1123 00:56:36,080 --> 00:56:39,440 Speaker 2: becomes increasingly clear that all this guy cares about is money. 1124 00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:41,680 Speaker 2: He's not interested in his kid, and he's not interested 1125 00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:43,480 Speaker 2: in the other human beings around him, and he's going 1126 00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:46,640 Speaker 2: to treat them like shit. As soon as he arrives, 1127 00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:49,319 Speaker 2: Stubbs accuses his second in command at the Fort of 1128 00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:52,200 Speaker 2: theft and fires him, and then promotes his son to 1129 00:56:52,239 --> 00:56:54,680 Speaker 2: the job, which raises his son sound. He writes about 1130 00:56:54,680 --> 00:56:57,560 Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty pounds a year, which Stubs pockets. 1131 00:56:57,840 --> 00:57:01,279 Speaker 4: Jesus Christ brought the other five kids. 1132 00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:02,439 Speaker 2: You'd really be making bank. 1133 00:57:02,719 --> 00:57:05,320 Speaker 4: I can have the mold out that bombing. Yeah. 1134 00:57:05,880 --> 00:57:09,200 Speaker 2: Now, outside of this, he refuses to do the actual job. 1135 00:57:09,280 --> 00:57:12,000 Speaker 2: He calls in sick whenever he has meetings to attend, 1136 00:57:12,200 --> 00:57:14,719 Speaker 2: and he uses public supplies meant to provide for the 1137 00:57:14,760 --> 00:57:17,240 Speaker 2: fort to trade for slaves that he then sells for 1138 00:57:17,280 --> 00:57:19,960 Speaker 2: his personal profits. Try to do. 1139 00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:26,320 Speaker 4: He sucks so fat sucks. He's one of the shittiest 1140 00:57:26,360 --> 00:57:27,720 Speaker 4: people we've ever I know. 1141 00:57:27,840 --> 00:57:30,520 Speaker 2: This is like our reverse episodes about this guy was 1142 00:57:30,560 --> 00:57:35,800 Speaker 2: getting the heroes. But this guy sucks so hard. He 1143 00:57:35,880 --> 00:57:39,160 Speaker 2: may be the shittiest slave captain of all of the 1144 00:57:39,200 --> 00:57:42,680 Speaker 2: slave captains, which is a high ball. It's a high 1145 00:57:42,720 --> 00:57:45,000 Speaker 2: They're all shitty. But I think it's the mix of 1146 00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:47,760 Speaker 2: being actually bad at the job and also being willing 1147 00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:50,880 Speaker 2: to casually kind of enslave his own twelve year old son. 1148 00:57:51,400 --> 00:57:54,080 Speaker 4: Yeah, for a mild profit. 1149 00:57:54,240 --> 00:57:55,160 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll do it. 1150 00:57:57,720 --> 00:58:01,120 Speaker 2: So when he does, and he does not like actually work, 1151 00:58:01,200 --> 00:58:03,200 Speaker 2: he kind of refuses to do his job. He calls 1152 00:58:03,240 --> 00:58:05,919 Speaker 2: in sick whenever he has meetings to attend. So when 1153 00:58:05,920 --> 00:58:08,080 Speaker 2: he does try to do his job, it becomes clear 1154 00:58:08,160 --> 00:58:11,440 Speaker 2: to his subordinates that he can't read or write. In fact, 1155 00:58:11,480 --> 00:58:15,080 Speaker 2: his letters that he sends subordinates are so badly written 1156 00:58:15,240 --> 00:58:17,760 Speaker 2: that they become like a currency. People are trading them 1157 00:58:17,800 --> 00:58:19,680 Speaker 2: in the fort because they're funny. 1158 00:58:19,600 --> 00:58:23,520 Speaker 4: They're such a scats. Can't even read. 1159 00:58:24,040 --> 00:58:31,560 Speaker 2: Jesus, Wow, it's from a tribe that Rantaine written down otherwise, Yeah, 1160 00:58:31,640 --> 00:58:34,160 Speaker 2: if he could, if if he could actually write the 1161 00:58:34,200 --> 00:58:36,360 Speaker 2: local tribe that ran things in it. Because the British 1162 00:58:36,440 --> 00:58:39,000 Speaker 2: have a small presence here, they are mostly reliant upon 1163 00:58:39,120 --> 00:58:41,600 Speaker 2: local allies, as is generally the case with the British 1164 00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:43,880 Speaker 2: Empire to do things, and the local tribe that is 1165 00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:47,560 Speaker 2: largely running things around the fort are the fonte Right 1166 00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:50,800 Speaker 2: and the British slavers are dependent on these people, both 1167 00:58:50,840 --> 00:58:53,440 Speaker 2: for the regular supply of slaves and for the raw materials, 1168 00:58:53,480 --> 00:58:55,160 Speaker 2: the food and whatnot that they need. To keep the 1169 00:58:55,160 --> 00:58:58,200 Speaker 2: fort operational and to stalk the ships. Ships come into 1170 00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:00,800 Speaker 2: port to offload goods that are going to be traded 1171 00:59:00,840 --> 00:59:03,760 Speaker 2: to Africans and to take and slaved Africans. But they 1172 00:59:03,800 --> 00:59:05,720 Speaker 2: need like food and water and stuff, right, and the 1173 00:59:05,720 --> 00:59:08,800 Speaker 2: fonte are a crucial part of that too. And so 1174 00:59:09,000 --> 00:59:11,680 Speaker 2: everyone else who has this job is very nice to 1175 00:59:11,720 --> 00:59:15,680 Speaker 2: these people because they outnumber you, and you've given them guns, 1176 00:59:16,240 --> 00:59:18,400 Speaker 2: and you reliant on them for food. 1177 00:59:18,600 --> 00:59:21,400 Speaker 4: You can see why this is going reven It's just 1178 00:59:21,400 --> 00:59:23,040 Speaker 4: a bad idea to piss them off. 1179 00:59:23,400 --> 00:59:27,160 Speaker 2: Stubbs refuses to treat them with respect, and for no reason, 1180 00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:29,200 Speaker 2: like they had. One of the things the fort would 1181 00:59:29,200 --> 00:59:31,480 Speaker 2: do is they would regularly, like once a week, I think, 1182 00:59:31,520 --> 00:59:34,400 Speaker 2: give out alcohol to these people. It's like a it's 1183 00:59:34,440 --> 00:59:37,120 Speaker 2: like a good will thing, right, here's some liquor. Keep 1184 00:59:37,160 --> 00:59:39,960 Speaker 2: being our friends, you know. Stubbs just stops this, I 1185 00:59:40,040 --> 00:59:43,240 Speaker 2: think because he wants to sell the alcohol for himself, 1186 00:59:43,680 --> 00:59:46,800 Speaker 2: and when they complain he threatens them with armed men. 1187 00:59:47,840 --> 00:59:53,760 Speaker 4: Wow stuff. Yeah, at least he's very bad at being evil. 1188 00:59:54,600 --> 00:59:58,360 Speaker 2: He sucks so bad at this now. I think part 1189 00:59:58,360 --> 01:00:00,360 Speaker 2: of what's happening here is that he's so raised. He 1190 01:00:00,360 --> 01:00:03,360 Speaker 2: can't even deal respectfully with the Africans that his entire 1191 01:00:03,440 --> 01:00:06,560 Speaker 2: life in business depends on. Right, which most of these 1192 01:00:06,760 --> 01:00:09,440 Speaker 2: other slavers are. They're perfectly willing to be nice to 1193 01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:13,520 Speaker 2: these guys because they need them. Yeah right, we've sold 1194 01:00:13,520 --> 01:00:19,920 Speaker 2: them guns. I can't emphasise enough. We've sold them guns. 1195 01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:22,760 Speaker 2: In October of seventeen eighty, Stubbs has a meeting with 1196 01:00:22,800 --> 01:00:26,120 Speaker 2: an emissary of the King of the Ashanti Empire and 1197 01:00:26,160 --> 01:00:29,240 Speaker 2: that this empire is the greatest power in the region 1198 01:00:29,360 --> 01:00:31,440 Speaker 2: and they are the people upon whom British trade in 1199 01:00:31,440 --> 01:00:34,880 Speaker 2: West Africa is most dependent. Right, you really need these 1200 01:00:34,920 --> 01:00:37,120 Speaker 2: folks in your corner if you're not going to deal 1201 01:00:37,160 --> 01:00:40,280 Speaker 2: with some serious problems. And Stubbs is supposed to preside 1202 01:00:40,320 --> 01:00:43,600 Speaker 2: over the signing of a treaty with the Ashanti. After 1203 01:00:43,680 --> 01:00:46,000 Speaker 2: signing the treaty, it was his job to give gifts 1204 01:00:46,040 --> 01:00:48,520 Speaker 2: that King George the Third had sent over for the 1205 01:00:48,640 --> 01:00:49,600 Speaker 2: King of the Empire. 1206 01:00:49,720 --> 01:00:51,240 Speaker 4: Right, Can I guess what happened? 1207 01:00:51,760 --> 01:00:56,160 Speaker 2: He keeps the gifts. 1208 01:00:54,360 --> 01:00:56,160 Speaker 4: That's exactly. It was like. 1209 01:00:56,200 --> 01:01:02,960 Speaker 3: I was like, nobody has one somebody, Yeah, he his 1210 01:01:03,000 --> 01:01:06,000 Speaker 3: one move steal things and less slaves. 1211 01:01:06,120 --> 01:01:08,479 Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, get captured by the friend. 1212 01:01:08,640 --> 01:01:11,240 Speaker 2: I guess this is yeah, I guess he has another move. 1213 01:01:11,520 --> 01:01:14,080 Speaker 2: This spells the end of his career as governor. He 1214 01:01:14,240 --> 01:01:17,200 Speaker 2: was deposed violently and robbed of most of his ill 1215 01:01:17,240 --> 01:01:20,400 Speaker 2: gotten possessions, like the other white people don't even wait 1216 01:01:20,480 --> 01:01:22,400 Speaker 2: to get the order to depose him, like we got 1217 01:01:22,440 --> 01:01:25,680 Speaker 2: to get this guy out him immediately, like we're in danger. 1218 01:01:25,800 --> 01:01:28,840 Speaker 2: Now he's kissing off like there's so many more of 1219 01:01:28,880 --> 01:01:33,680 Speaker 2: them than us. And again they have guns, you know. Yeah, 1220 01:01:33,720 --> 01:01:35,880 Speaker 2: So they they depose him, They lock him in a cell. 1221 01:01:35,960 --> 01:01:38,280 Speaker 2: They take all of his ill gotten gains, which includes 1222 01:01:38,320 --> 01:01:40,960 Speaker 2: a bunch of gold that he'd put together based on 1223 01:01:41,160 --> 01:01:44,680 Speaker 2: his fraudulent transactions, about one hundred and five thousand dollars 1224 01:01:44,680 --> 01:01:47,760 Speaker 2: in modern money worth of gold. And Stubbs is furious 1225 01:01:48,040 --> 01:01:50,400 Speaker 2: both that he has been deposed as governor and that 1226 01:01:50,440 --> 01:01:52,160 Speaker 2: they took his money. And he keeps being like, at 1227 01:01:52,240 --> 01:01:53,720 Speaker 2: least give me my money back, and they're like. 1228 01:01:53,720 --> 01:01:57,520 Speaker 4: No, he stole that shit. Yeah, he stole out of it. 1229 01:01:58,720 --> 01:02:02,600 Speaker 2: Luckily for Stubs, a slaving vessel named the William arrives 1230 01:02:02,640 --> 01:02:05,720 Speaker 2: at the fort not long after he gets taken into custody, 1231 01:02:06,080 --> 01:02:08,960 Speaker 2: and you know, they the crew of the boat goes 1232 01:02:09,240 --> 01:02:11,960 Speaker 2: into the fort and one of the members of the 1233 01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:14,320 Speaker 2: crew was a high ranking crew member, the ship's surgeon, 1234 01:02:14,320 --> 01:02:18,520 Speaker 2: a guy named Luke Collings would meet Stubbs, and again 1235 01:02:18,640 --> 01:02:21,600 Speaker 2: Stubbs just has some sort of charm for a certain 1236 01:02:21,720 --> 01:02:25,960 Speaker 2: kind of person, because within it sounds like hours, maybe 1237 01:02:26,040 --> 01:02:30,000 Speaker 2: days of meeting Stubbs, Collingswood is so charmed that he 1238 01:02:30,040 --> 01:02:32,040 Speaker 2: convinces the captain, we got to take this guy back 1239 01:02:32,080 --> 01:02:35,600 Speaker 2: with us as a passenger to England, right like, we 1240 01:02:35,680 --> 01:02:37,280 Speaker 2: got to put him on the boat with us, you know, 1241 01:02:37,440 --> 01:02:39,840 Speaker 2: get him out of here. He's being unfairly treated. It's 1242 01:02:39,840 --> 01:02:42,200 Speaker 2: a bad situation for him. 1243 01:02:42,560 --> 01:02:44,360 Speaker 4: If there's one human being at that time you don't 1244 01:02:44,400 --> 01:02:47,640 Speaker 4: want on your slave vessel, surely it's Stubbs. Absolutely not 1245 01:02:47,920 --> 01:02:52,760 Speaker 4: the last man. Very poor. Yeah. 1246 01:02:53,040 --> 01:02:55,200 Speaker 2: So and again he's just gotta this is gonna be 1247 01:02:55,240 --> 01:02:58,000 Speaker 2: the He's got to continue having like the worst record 1248 01:02:58,040 --> 01:03:01,880 Speaker 2: on a boat. Now. I think he probably Stubbs probably 1249 01:03:01,920 --> 01:03:04,240 Speaker 2: promises Collings with some of his money that he's totally 1250 01:03:04,280 --> 01:03:06,200 Speaker 2: going to get back. I don't know what they say, 1251 01:03:06,200 --> 01:03:08,200 Speaker 2: but Stubbs' his plan seems to have been get on 1252 01:03:08,280 --> 01:03:11,640 Speaker 2: this boat, get back to London, and then fight in 1253 01:03:11,760 --> 01:03:14,600 Speaker 2: court to have his gold returned and ideally have himself 1254 01:03:14,640 --> 01:03:17,720 Speaker 2: reappointed as governor of the fort, which is totally. 1255 01:03:17,320 --> 01:03:20,480 Speaker 4: Going to happen. You know. Yeah, we's George. 1256 01:03:20,680 --> 01:03:23,920 Speaker 2: He stole from two Kings. 1257 01:03:23,960 --> 01:03:28,880 Speaker 4: Describe what's happened to George is little George on the 1258 01:03:28,880 --> 01:03:31,040 Speaker 4: boat like great, great, great great guard. 1259 01:03:31,600 --> 01:03:35,520 Speaker 2: You would think, you would think hell Stubbsy departing the 1260 01:03:35,520 --> 01:03:38,360 Speaker 2: fort where he had been imprisoned, would take his twelve 1261 01:03:38,440 --> 01:03:42,800 Speaker 2: year old with him. He does not, and we don't 1262 01:03:42,880 --> 01:03:44,760 Speaker 2: know what then the twelve year old. 1263 01:03:45,080 --> 01:03:47,280 Speaker 4: Yeah, he abandons his twelve year old. 1264 01:03:47,360 --> 01:03:52,680 Speaker 2: That's the fort, never sees him again, never writes about it, 1265 01:03:53,280 --> 01:03:56,840 Speaker 2: says nothing to anyone about why he's left this kid behind, 1266 01:03:56,920 --> 01:03:58,560 Speaker 2: as far as we know, doesn't even explain it to 1267 01:03:58,600 --> 01:04:03,280 Speaker 2: his wife, just just forgets he has a son. God, 1268 01:04:04,160 --> 01:04:07,880 Speaker 2: cool guy, I guess optimistic. Maybe George is like, fuck, no, 1269 01:04:07,920 --> 01:04:09,120 Speaker 2: I'm not getting on a boat with you. 1270 01:04:09,360 --> 01:04:13,040 Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, hopefully George, I would love to be 1271 01:04:13,040 --> 01:04:16,120 Speaker 4: on enough continent from my father. Yes, I'm hoping. 1272 01:04:18,040 --> 01:04:20,080 Speaker 2: Maybe the guys who overthrew his dad were like, hey, George, 1273 01:04:20,080 --> 01:04:21,440 Speaker 2: we've got no issue with you. Do you want to 1274 01:04:21,440 --> 01:04:24,440 Speaker 2: actually get paid for working? Because we can do that. 1275 01:04:24,600 --> 01:04:27,000 Speaker 2: You can just make money to have a job. And 1276 01:04:27,040 --> 01:04:31,320 Speaker 2: he's like, what really, really, that's an option that was 1277 01:04:31,760 --> 01:04:34,600 Speaker 2: my dad told me was illegal for kids to make money, 1278 01:04:35,520 --> 01:04:39,320 Speaker 2: goes on an apology tour and recovers the stubs name 1279 01:04:39,360 --> 01:04:42,240 Speaker 2: maybe so elsewhere kind of at the same period of time, 1280 01:04:42,320 --> 01:04:46,360 Speaker 2: Stubbsy's being deposed as governor a British privateer, right, because 1281 01:04:46,360 --> 01:04:48,520 Speaker 2: the British are fighting the Dutch. They've got a war 1282 01:04:48,880 --> 01:04:51,320 Speaker 2: going on of some sort, and you know, one of 1283 01:04:51,320 --> 01:04:55,960 Speaker 2: the things that happens is they start the government starts 1284 01:04:56,040 --> 01:04:59,440 Speaker 2: giving you know, licenses to privateers, which are private boats 1285 01:04:59,480 --> 01:05:02,240 Speaker 2: that are bas pirates that are endorsed by the government. Right, 1286 01:05:02,440 --> 01:05:05,040 Speaker 2: And one of these privateers in the area succeeds in 1287 01:05:05,120 --> 01:05:08,200 Speaker 2: capturing a couple of different Dutch vessels around the same time. 1288 01:05:08,240 --> 01:05:11,000 Speaker 2: These are Dutch like slaving ships mostly, and one of 1289 01:05:11,000 --> 01:05:14,520 Speaker 2: them is a slave ship called the Zong or the Zorg, 1290 01:05:15,120 --> 01:05:17,200 Speaker 2: depending on the source. You'll see a bunch of different 1291 01:05:17,240 --> 01:05:19,720 Speaker 2: names attributed to this boat. I think the Zong is 1292 01:05:19,720 --> 01:05:21,360 Speaker 2: the one you generally see, and I think that's what 1293 01:05:21,400 --> 01:05:24,160 Speaker 2: the British called it once they took it over. The Zork, 1294 01:05:24,320 --> 01:05:29,560 Speaker 2: z O r Que is also common, but Sidhartha uses 1295 01:05:29,560 --> 01:05:33,080 Speaker 2: the Zorg, which I think is its original name, So 1296 01:05:33,120 --> 01:05:35,560 Speaker 2: that's what I'll generally be calling it throughout these episodes, 1297 01:05:35,560 --> 01:05:38,280 Speaker 2: even though again you're not wrong calling it the Zong, 1298 01:05:38,840 --> 01:05:42,400 Speaker 2: and the name Zorg itself is Dutch. It means care. 1299 01:05:42,760 --> 01:05:44,520 Speaker 2: I don't know why that name was picked for a 1300 01:05:44,560 --> 01:05:49,800 Speaker 2: slave lationship. Seems like not a well fitting name, but okay, Uh. 1301 01:05:50,480 --> 01:05:53,960 Speaker 2: The owner of the Williams so this gets taken by privateers, 1302 01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:56,800 Speaker 2: and this, you know, this privateer with all these Dutch 1303 01:05:56,800 --> 01:05:59,080 Speaker 2: ship ships he's captured in tow kind of shows up 1304 01:05:59,120 --> 01:06:01,880 Speaker 2: at the port when the william is at port taking 1305 01:06:01,920 --> 01:06:04,680 Speaker 2: on slaves. And the owner of the William who's a 1306 01:06:04,720 --> 01:06:08,000 Speaker 2: representative of this syndicate, the Gregson Syndicate. So the Gregson 1307 01:06:08,040 --> 01:06:12,040 Speaker 2: Syndicate is basically a major slave owning a trading company, right, 1308 01:06:12,640 --> 01:06:16,760 Speaker 2: And the captain of the boat is like, well, I've 1309 01:06:16,800 --> 01:06:20,120 Speaker 2: got some petty cash here. If I buy the Zorg 1310 01:06:20,160 --> 01:06:23,880 Speaker 2: at auction, I can take even more slaves back and 1311 01:06:23,920 --> 01:06:26,440 Speaker 2: basically double the profitability of this voyage. And I'll just 1312 01:06:26,480 --> 01:06:28,640 Speaker 2: throw some of my crew. I'll put a skeleton crew 1313 01:06:28,680 --> 01:06:31,960 Speaker 2: on the Zorg from the William, and we can take 1314 01:06:32,000 --> 01:06:34,400 Speaker 2: even more enslaved people back, right, So that's what happens. 1315 01:06:34,400 --> 01:06:38,000 Speaker 2: He buys the Zorg auction. It was loaded with two 1316 01:06:38,080 --> 01:06:41,480 Speaker 2: hundred and forty four people like enslaved people in the 1317 01:06:41,520 --> 01:06:43,640 Speaker 2: hole in the hold at the time that they buy it, 1318 01:06:45,120 --> 01:06:48,440 Speaker 2: and because they don't have that many sailors, they're kind 1319 01:06:48,480 --> 01:06:50,600 Speaker 2: of just sticking a minimal crew on it, so that 1320 01:06:50,640 --> 01:06:55,320 Speaker 2: the Zorg is not going to be crewed by enough people, right, Like, 1321 01:06:55,440 --> 01:06:58,800 Speaker 2: it's not an ideal load and they don't have like 1322 01:06:59,320 --> 01:07:02,120 Speaker 2: for whatever reas, there is a really the guy who 1323 01:07:02,120 --> 01:07:04,280 Speaker 2: becomes the first mate on the Zorg is a really 1324 01:07:04,320 --> 01:07:07,440 Speaker 2: experienced sailor who's like an excellent navigator and knows how 1325 01:07:07,440 --> 01:07:10,560 Speaker 2: to do everything you'd want into captain. But the captain 1326 01:07:10,600 --> 01:07:15,440 Speaker 2: of the William makes Luke Collingswood, the ship's surgeon, the 1327 01:07:15,480 --> 01:07:19,800 Speaker 2: captain of the Zorg. Right, we don't know why Collingswood 1328 01:07:20,040 --> 01:07:23,120 Speaker 2: is not. He's not good at this. He's actually going 1329 01:07:23,160 --> 01:07:24,920 Speaker 2: to be terrible at this, and there's no reason to 1330 01:07:25,000 --> 01:07:27,760 Speaker 2: think he would have been good at it. He's a doctor. 1331 01:07:28,080 --> 01:07:32,000 Speaker 4: Yeah, he doesn't know rogate for shit, Like, yeah, he's 1332 01:07:32,040 --> 01:07:34,000 Speaker 4: not a particularly good at leadership. 1333 01:07:34,080 --> 01:07:37,080 Speaker 2: You know he's good at cutting into people. You know, 1334 01:07:38,880 --> 01:07:40,920 Speaker 2: I don't even think he's a very good doctor. Right, 1335 01:07:42,000 --> 01:07:45,760 Speaker 2: and he's never captain a vessel before. And again, the 1336 01:07:46,320 --> 01:07:48,959 Speaker 2: first mate that he's put with on this skeleton crew 1337 01:07:49,120 --> 01:07:51,920 Speaker 2: is an experienced seaman and navigator. But the two of 1338 01:07:51,960 --> 01:07:54,479 Speaker 2: a falling out Collingswood does not get along with this guy, 1339 01:07:54,560 --> 01:07:57,080 Speaker 2: and he's confined to quarters for a sizeable chunk of 1340 01:07:57,080 --> 01:08:00,720 Speaker 2: the journey to make Yeah, yeah, yeah, put the guy 1341 01:08:00,720 --> 01:08:03,480 Speaker 2: who knows that to fine stuff in the hole. Yeah, 1342 01:08:03,520 --> 01:08:06,920 Speaker 2: I will work it out to make matters worse. Before 1343 01:08:07,000 --> 01:08:09,280 Speaker 2: leaving the coast of Africa to sale for Jamaica, the 1344 01:08:09,360 --> 01:08:12,760 Speaker 2: Zorg takes on even more enslaved people. The boat was 1345 01:08:12,760 --> 01:08:14,960 Speaker 2: meant to hold a maximum of two hundred and forty 1346 01:08:15,080 --> 01:08:17,960 Speaker 2: slaves in the hold, four hundred and forty two are 1347 01:08:18,040 --> 01:08:21,599 Speaker 2: crammed into the lightless reeking hold as they begin their journey. Right, 1348 01:08:21,680 --> 01:08:25,559 Speaker 2: So this is just everything done to create a worst 1349 01:08:25,560 --> 01:08:28,920 Speaker 2: case scenario. Skeleton crew up top, captain doesn't know what 1350 01:08:28,960 --> 01:08:32,559 Speaker 2: he's doing, only skilled navigators locked in his room. Twice 1351 01:08:32,560 --> 01:08:34,960 Speaker 2: as many people in the hold as you're supposed to have, 1352 01:08:35,120 --> 01:08:37,680 Speaker 2: so everyone's going to be getting sick. There's not going 1353 01:08:37,720 --> 01:08:41,600 Speaker 2: to be enough food and water, right, yeah, great decisions. 1354 01:08:42,040 --> 01:08:45,320 Speaker 4: Illness is going to be everywhere yeaheah yeah. Maybe too 1355 01:08:45,360 --> 01:08:48,120 Speaker 4: heavy also, like it's sitting turn in the water or whatever. 1356 01:08:48,720 --> 01:08:49,559 Speaker 4: Maybe too heavy. 1357 01:08:49,600 --> 01:08:53,440 Speaker 2: It's got to be slower. The ship encounters bad weather immediately, 1358 01:08:53,640 --> 01:08:57,200 Speaker 2: illness spreads rampantly throughout the crew, and the enslaved people 1359 01:08:57,240 --> 01:09:00,519 Speaker 2: in the hold Callings would very quickly get sick. He's 1360 01:09:00,560 --> 01:09:03,560 Speaker 2: going to die ultimately of this. And he is deliriously 1361 01:09:03,680 --> 01:09:06,840 Speaker 2: ill most of the journey, and he's still captain, so 1362 01:09:06,920 --> 01:09:10,000 Speaker 2: he's just fucking up navigating because he's like hallucinating and 1363 01:09:10,040 --> 01:09:12,760 Speaker 2: puking and shitting himself to death while he's trying to 1364 01:09:12,800 --> 01:09:16,440 Speaker 2: like work a sextant and figure out longitude or whatever. 1365 01:09:16,560 --> 01:09:19,080 Speaker 4: Right now. 1366 01:09:19,400 --> 01:09:22,760 Speaker 2: Because he's fucking up, the ship keeps getting lost, and 1367 01:09:22,920 --> 01:09:24,720 Speaker 2: you know, the weather being bad hurts with that, so 1368 01:09:24,760 --> 01:09:28,920 Speaker 2: they're not getting into Jamaican like, it takes months longer 1369 01:09:28,960 --> 01:09:31,400 Speaker 2: than it should have taken. And because there's twice as 1370 01:09:31,439 --> 01:09:34,000 Speaker 2: many people on board as there should, the ship runs 1371 01:09:34,000 --> 01:09:37,040 Speaker 2: out of its stock of dried citrus. Right, it's just 1372 01:09:37,080 --> 01:09:41,680 Speaker 2: what stops you from getting scurvy, So everyone starts getting scurvy, 1373 01:09:41,720 --> 01:09:44,800 Speaker 2: concluding the sailors who are supposed to be manning the. 1374 01:09:44,800 --> 01:09:48,280 Speaker 4: Ship right perfect. Yeah. 1375 01:09:48,680 --> 01:09:51,400 Speaker 2: By November, Collinswood is so ill that he has to 1376 01:09:51,439 --> 01:09:54,160 Speaker 2: step down from command of the vessel, and instead of 1377 01:09:54,280 --> 01:09:56,760 Speaker 2: again appointing the guy who knows how to sail to 1378 01:09:56,880 --> 01:10:01,200 Speaker 2: run a boat, he makes Robert Stubbs the cap hubs 1379 01:10:01,240 --> 01:10:11,519 Speaker 2: his back. He's so the first mate. Kelsol protests, and 1380 01:10:11,560 --> 01:10:14,040 Speaker 2: again one of the last command decisions collins would make 1381 01:10:14,160 --> 01:10:17,040 Speaker 2: is he forces Kelsal to be confined confined to quarters 1382 01:10:17,280 --> 01:10:20,639 Speaker 2: and also orders him to stop updating his log book, 1383 01:10:21,120 --> 01:10:23,439 Speaker 2: which suggests that he and he and like Stubs and 1384 01:10:23,439 --> 01:10:25,360 Speaker 2: colleagues woo don't want a record of what's going to 1385 01:10:25,400 --> 01:10:28,160 Speaker 2: happen next, which suggests that they're kind of pre planning 1386 01:10:28,240 --> 01:10:30,320 Speaker 2: what's going to happen. Actually, we don't really know if 1387 01:10:30,360 --> 01:10:33,120 Speaker 2: that's the case, but it's a weird order to give 1388 01:10:33,200 --> 01:10:37,720 Speaker 2: Kelsol right now. For weeks, the Zorg sails without a 1389 01:10:37,760 --> 01:10:42,080 Speaker 2: real captain, going increasingly off course as the water supplies dwindle. 1390 01:10:42,479 --> 01:10:44,759 Speaker 2: Things get so bad that they have to free Kelsol 1391 01:10:44,800 --> 01:10:47,360 Speaker 2: from confinement because they're like someone who knows what they're 1392 01:10:47,400 --> 01:10:50,680 Speaker 2: doing is we're gonna die. We're literally gonna die. And 1393 01:10:50,720 --> 01:10:52,720 Speaker 2: the crew starts to panic that they're going to run 1394 01:10:52,760 --> 01:10:55,559 Speaker 2: out of water. Right now, they're not actually out of water, 1395 01:10:55,600 --> 01:10:57,479 Speaker 2: they're not even really that on the verge of being 1396 01:10:57,479 --> 01:10:59,840 Speaker 2: out of water, but they have no idea where they are, 1397 01:11:00,040 --> 01:11:02,559 Speaker 2: and water supplies are low, right, and they kind of 1398 01:11:02,560 --> 01:11:04,840 Speaker 2: realize they've got a little less than they thought they had, 1399 01:11:05,160 --> 01:11:08,160 Speaker 2: and so they start panicking and a decision is made 1400 01:11:08,600 --> 01:11:12,599 Speaker 2: to stretch their supplies by throwing dozens of enslaved passengers 1401 01:11:12,640 --> 01:11:13,360 Speaker 2: into the ocean. 1402 01:11:13,720 --> 01:11:14,160 Speaker 4: Geez. 1403 01:11:14,160 --> 01:11:17,479 Speaker 2: So, if you were thinking about this the way they're 1404 01:11:17,479 --> 01:11:21,759 Speaker 2: thinking about this, these people are money, and the women 1405 01:11:21,800 --> 01:11:25,000 Speaker 2: and children are worth less at market than the men, 1406 01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:28,000 Speaker 2: so they're less likely to survive the journey anyway. 1407 01:11:28,360 --> 01:11:33,200 Speaker 3: Yeah, they're throwing enslaved women and children into the ocean 1408 01:11:33,280 --> 01:11:35,280 Speaker 3: to die horrific drowning death. 1409 01:11:35,760 --> 01:11:38,960 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the that's their first plan is to break 1410 01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:40,519 Speaker 2: into the chunk of the hold where they keep the 1411 01:11:40,520 --> 01:11:42,519 Speaker 2: women and children and grab a bunch of them and 1412 01:11:42,560 --> 01:11:46,960 Speaker 2: throw them into the sea. Perkara's book The Zorg quote, 1413 01:11:47,360 --> 01:11:49,720 Speaker 2: the cabin windows on a typical frigate like the Zorg 1414 01:11:49,800 --> 01:11:52,240 Speaker 2: were no larger than five to six square feet. Once 1415 01:11:52,240 --> 01:11:54,559 Speaker 2: the woman slave realized she was being thrown out, she 1416 01:11:54,600 --> 01:11:57,120 Speaker 2: would have resisted. She could pull her body weight down, 1417 01:11:57,200 --> 01:11:59,639 Speaker 2: plant her feet and hands against the window frame, bite 1418 01:11:59,680 --> 01:12:02,960 Speaker 2: her cap or scream. To force a resistant adult female 1419 01:12:02,960 --> 01:12:05,080 Speaker 2: through a small cabin window would have required a great 1420 01:12:05,120 --> 01:12:09,080 Speaker 2: deal of violence. It is possible that Stubbs, Collingswood, Kelsall 1421 01:12:09,160 --> 01:12:10,960 Speaker 2: and the crew of the Zorg first stabbed her with 1422 01:12:10,960 --> 01:12:13,519 Speaker 2: a cutlass, or punched and kicked her, cracked her bones, 1423 01:12:13,600 --> 01:12:16,400 Speaker 2: or otherwise beat her into submission before forcing her through 1424 01:12:16,400 --> 01:12:19,559 Speaker 2: the window. The crew members returned to the slavehold, selected 1425 01:12:19,560 --> 01:12:22,080 Speaker 2: another woman and threw her from the same cabin window. 1426 01:12:22,360 --> 01:12:26,000 Speaker 2: Next was a child, another woman, another child, another woman. 1427 01:12:26,240 --> 01:12:28,640 Speaker 2: One by one, the crew picked fifty five women and 1428 01:12:28,720 --> 01:12:31,920 Speaker 2: children and threw them quote alive, singly through the cabin 1429 01:12:32,000 --> 01:12:34,160 Speaker 2: windows into the sea and drowned. 1430 01:12:35,280 --> 01:12:36,920 Speaker 4: That's r effect. Yeah. 1431 01:12:37,200 --> 01:12:40,600 Speaker 2: One of the I mean, one of the women and 1432 01:12:40,600 --> 01:12:42,360 Speaker 2: one of the children they throw it is a newborn 1433 01:12:42,400 --> 01:12:46,080 Speaker 2: baby who was born on the vessel. They throw her 1434 01:12:46,120 --> 01:12:50,559 Speaker 2: and her mom into the sea, and yeah, I mean, 1435 01:12:50,600 --> 01:12:54,240 Speaker 2: it's just a nightmare. The Zorg ultimately docks in Jamaica 1436 01:12:54,280 --> 01:12:57,920 Speaker 2: on December twenty second, seventeen eighty one, between two hundred 1437 01:12:57,960 --> 01:12:59,720 Speaker 2: and twenty four and two hundred and forty of the 1438 01:12:59,760 --> 01:13:03,040 Speaker 2: more four hundred slaved Africans aboard had died sixty two 1439 01:13:03,040 --> 01:13:05,560 Speaker 2: from sickness during the journey, and between one hundred and 1440 01:13:05,600 --> 01:13:08,560 Speaker 2: twenty three under one hundred and thirty three thrown overboard. 1441 01:13:09,160 --> 01:13:13,520 Speaker 2: Ten more and these were men threw themselves overboard committing suicide. 1442 01:13:14,040 --> 01:13:16,120 Speaker 2: Maybe it was just in solidarity with the people who 1443 01:13:16,160 --> 01:13:18,320 Speaker 2: were being murdered. Maybe it was to spare themselves more agony. 1444 01:13:18,400 --> 01:13:20,920 Speaker 2: We don't know, but they like ten people actually just 1445 01:13:21,040 --> 01:13:29,960 Speaker 2: kill themselves, right, which hard to like, yeah, nice mare, Like, yeah, 1446 01:13:29,960 --> 01:13:32,519 Speaker 2: there's no good option for you here, right, Like, and 1447 01:13:32,600 --> 01:13:34,840 Speaker 2: these you it's become clear to you when you see 1448 01:13:34,840 --> 01:13:38,840 Speaker 2: them throwing babies into the water. Whoever these people are, 1449 01:13:38,880 --> 01:13:42,599 Speaker 2: they're monsters. Like maybe any death is better than spending 1450 01:13:42,640 --> 01:13:45,880 Speaker 2: any amount of time with demons like this, right yeah, 1451 01:13:45,920 --> 01:13:48,840 Speaker 2: Like yeah, with the knowledge that's just going to keep 1452 01:13:48,920 --> 01:13:52,640 Speaker 2: doing it, yeah yeah, and that you have to that 1453 01:13:52,760 --> 01:13:56,000 Speaker 2: whatever you're doing is benefiting these fucking monsters, right yeah. 1454 01:13:56,080 --> 01:13:57,600 Speaker 4: Yeah. 1455 01:13:57,840 --> 01:14:00,960 Speaker 2: After they within like a daze of land and Jamaica, 1456 01:14:01,040 --> 01:14:04,920 Speaker 2: Luke Collingwood dies, but Robert Stubbs survives and he makes 1457 01:14:04,920 --> 01:14:07,160 Speaker 2: his way back to London for he brings the tail 1458 01:14:07,240 --> 01:14:13,080 Speaker 2: of what had happened Stubbsy, He's like a kill it, yeah, 1459 01:14:13,080 --> 01:14:15,080 Speaker 2: And he takes the tail of what had happened to 1460 01:14:15,160 --> 01:14:17,479 Speaker 2: the boat to the owner of the syndicate that had 1461 01:14:17,479 --> 01:14:21,720 Speaker 2: employed them, William Gregson. And basically Stubbs doesn't get you know, 1462 01:14:22,080 --> 01:14:25,720 Speaker 2: rich off this journey because he's not part of the crew, right, 1463 01:14:27,360 --> 01:14:30,080 Speaker 2: But he sees as like, okay, and this has kind 1464 01:14:30,080 --> 01:14:32,000 Speaker 2: of happened to him before, right, He testified on behalf 1465 01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:33,759 Speaker 2: of the owner that slave should be got made captain. 1466 01:14:33,840 --> 01:14:35,880 Speaker 2: So he goes to the owner of the syndicate that 1467 01:14:35,920 --> 01:14:38,280 Speaker 2: owns the boat and he's like, hey, I have an idea, 1468 01:14:39,080 --> 01:14:41,040 Speaker 2: and I think the idea is if this works out, 1469 01:14:41,120 --> 01:14:43,320 Speaker 2: I get a cut of it and a job, right, 1470 01:14:43,520 --> 01:14:45,840 Speaker 2: Like you're going to help me, you know, get back 1471 01:14:45,840 --> 01:14:48,120 Speaker 2: and good and start making money off the slave trade again. 1472 01:14:48,240 --> 01:14:48,439 Speaker 4: Right. 1473 01:14:48,800 --> 01:14:51,519 Speaker 2: And the deal that he talks at is, so I 1474 01:14:51,560 --> 01:14:53,320 Speaker 2: need to set something up. Do you know where insurance 1475 01:14:53,360 --> 01:14:55,599 Speaker 2: comes from? James as an industry? 1476 01:14:56,080 --> 01:15:01,000 Speaker 4: Hey, boats, slavery, okay, specifically slavery cool. Yeah. 1477 01:15:01,040 --> 01:15:01,200 Speaker 6: Look. 1478 01:15:01,320 --> 01:15:04,639 Speaker 2: Voids of London, which started as a coffeehouse really gets 1479 01:15:04,680 --> 01:15:06,840 Speaker 2: going as a business insuring slave ships. 1480 01:15:06,920 --> 01:15:07,080 Speaker 5: Right. 1481 01:15:07,120 --> 01:15:10,000 Speaker 2: Now, boats in general, that is a big part of insurance, 1482 01:15:10,040 --> 01:15:13,280 Speaker 2: but ensuring the ensuring the slave trade is a huge 1483 01:15:13,360 --> 01:15:16,280 Speaker 2: part of the birth of insurance as an industry, right, 1484 01:15:17,280 --> 01:15:20,680 Speaker 2: because it's an expensive proposition. Right, you're filling this boat up, 1485 01:15:20,720 --> 01:15:22,800 Speaker 2: you're buying all of the you're buying all of the 1486 01:15:22,800 --> 01:15:25,519 Speaker 2: goods to trade for these people, and if they all 1487 01:15:25,560 --> 01:15:28,719 Speaker 2: get captured the boats saying, you're out a shitload of money. Right, 1488 01:15:29,840 --> 01:15:32,840 Speaker 2: So the insurance industry provides a degree of security to 1489 01:15:32,880 --> 01:15:36,320 Speaker 2: the owners of slave syndicates like Gregson. Now, some deaths 1490 01:15:36,360 --> 01:15:38,720 Speaker 2: are expected as a result of the brutality of the 1491 01:15:38,720 --> 01:15:40,920 Speaker 2: middle passage. Right, You're not going to get money just 1492 01:15:40,920 --> 01:15:44,040 Speaker 2: because some slaves die on the boat, because it's assumed 1493 01:15:44,040 --> 01:15:46,400 Speaker 2: that they will, right, you're jamming them in. Their illness 1494 01:15:46,439 --> 01:15:48,720 Speaker 2: is gonna some crew, We're going to die, right, But 1495 01:15:49,160 --> 01:15:52,200 Speaker 2: catastrophes like a boat sinking in a storm or a 1496 01:15:52,240 --> 01:15:57,600 Speaker 2: slave uprising are insured, and so stuff comes back and 1497 01:15:57,640 --> 01:16:01,240 Speaker 2: it's like, hey, we had to kill about one hundred 1498 01:16:01,280 --> 01:16:03,920 Speaker 2: and thirty of these people, but we had to kill 1499 01:16:03,960 --> 01:16:05,760 Speaker 2: them because of an act of the sea, an act 1500 01:16:05,800 --> 01:16:08,840 Speaker 2: of God basically because like whoa, this disaster hit us 1501 01:16:08,880 --> 01:16:10,080 Speaker 2: and we were going to run out of water. We 1502 01:16:10,120 --> 01:16:12,880 Speaker 2: had no option but to throw them overboard. That means 1503 01:16:13,360 --> 01:16:18,280 Speaker 2: their deaths are payable, like your insurance company owes you 1504 01:16:18,360 --> 01:16:25,000 Speaker 2: for them, right, because it was an unavoidable necessity. So yeah, yeah, 1505 01:16:25,080 --> 01:16:27,720 Speaker 2: that's that stubs this move. And Gregson's like, all right, yeah, 1506 01:16:27,720 --> 01:16:29,639 Speaker 2: I'll try to make more money, and so he puts 1507 01:16:29,640 --> 01:16:31,519 Speaker 2: in a claim for the value of these people. I 1508 01:16:31,520 --> 01:16:34,040 Speaker 2: think he values them at about thirty pounds each these 1509 01:16:34,080 --> 01:16:37,599 Speaker 2: people who were murdered. The insurers fight back, not because 1510 01:16:37,720 --> 01:16:39,559 Speaker 2: they're good people, because they don't want to pay out 1511 01:16:39,640 --> 01:16:43,439 Speaker 2: any money. And there's a court case over this Gregson v. Gilbert, 1512 01:16:43,600 --> 01:16:46,640 Speaker 2: right over whether or not this really was basically an 1513 01:16:46,680 --> 01:16:49,200 Speaker 2: act of God that is covered by insurance or if 1514 01:16:49,240 --> 01:16:52,080 Speaker 2: they didn't need to kill these people and thus this 1515 01:16:52,120 --> 01:16:54,920 Speaker 2: shit it shouldn't be covered. And the court in this 1516 01:16:55,080 --> 01:16:58,200 Speaker 2: case finds for the Gregson syndicate. It rules that enslaved 1517 01:16:58,200 --> 01:17:01,240 Speaker 2: people are property, that this was an act of God effectively, 1518 01:17:01,280 --> 01:17:03,679 Speaker 2: and that the insurance company has to compensate the syndicate 1519 01:17:03,720 --> 01:17:07,760 Speaker 2: for their loss. And that's the first court case. It 1520 01:17:07,880 --> 01:17:10,599 Speaker 2: is the fallout from this court case that is going 1521 01:17:10,640 --> 01:17:14,599 Speaker 2: to inspire the birth of the organized abolitionist movement in England. Right, 1522 01:17:15,040 --> 01:17:18,160 Speaker 2: this is I mean, really, I mean, the abolitionist movement 1523 01:17:18,200 --> 01:17:20,680 Speaker 2: in the US owes a lot to what happens in 1524 01:17:20,720 --> 01:17:22,240 Speaker 2: the wake of this horrifying case. 1525 01:17:22,320 --> 01:17:23,519 Speaker 4: Right, So we're going to talk. 1526 01:17:23,360 --> 01:17:25,559 Speaker 2: About all that and more in parts two and three. 1527 01:17:26,040 --> 01:17:29,960 Speaker 4: James, how are you feeling? Well? Not, it's Christmas, as 1528 01:17:29,960 --> 01:17:34,040 Speaker 4: I expected, coming coming on the happy nice guy Christmas episode. 1529 01:17:34,360 --> 01:17:37,280 Speaker 4: There's good guys in the other parts. Okay, Yeah, I'm 1530 01:17:37,280 --> 01:17:40,760 Speaker 4: glad to hear that. Yeah, yeah, I know. Good to 1531 01:17:41,479 --> 01:17:44,160 Speaker 4: talk about the way that British people have come themselves 1532 01:17:44,160 --> 01:17:45,360 Speaker 4: in glory throughout history. 1533 01:17:46,080 --> 01:17:50,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we'll get some better British representation in the Arctic. 1534 01:17:51,800 --> 01:17:57,120 Speaker 2: You got a book, though, James, speaking of representation, Yeah, it's. 1535 01:17:57,000 --> 01:18:00,519 Speaker 4: Not a book about British people, particularly. I am in it, 1536 01:18:00,600 --> 01:18:03,880 Speaker 4: so is Robert. But yeah, I've written a book about 1537 01:18:03,960 --> 01:18:08,559 Speaker 4: anarchists at war from me and mar Rejava and the 1538 01:18:08,560 --> 01:18:11,960 Speaker 4: Spanish Civil War. A bit less depressing than this episode 1539 01:18:12,000 --> 01:18:14,800 Speaker 4: was that you're going to find some really inspiring people 1540 01:18:14,800 --> 01:18:17,120 Speaker 4: who I think have done really beautiful things. What's it 1541 01:18:17,200 --> 01:18:19,400 Speaker 4: called it? Is a good call, Sophie. I'm not very 1542 01:18:19,400 --> 01:18:22,880 Speaker 4: good at this. It's called against the State. You can 1543 01:18:22,920 --> 01:18:25,719 Speaker 4: see it there kind of doesn't do well. It doesn't 1544 01:18:25,760 --> 01:18:26,920 Speaker 4: do well on the camera, does it. 1545 01:18:27,720 --> 01:18:30,360 Speaker 3: The pre order link will be in our episode Depe. 1546 01:18:30,920 --> 01:18:33,360 Speaker 4: Just go and click that. It's quite reasonable. It's quite 1547 01:18:33,360 --> 01:18:36,839 Speaker 4: affordable right now. I think it's eighteen dollars, so if 1548 01:18:36,880 --> 01:18:39,320 Speaker 4: you buy it now, it would arrive in late January. 1549 01:18:39,320 --> 01:18:42,360 Speaker 4: It's released on the twenty sixth of January, so maybe 1550 01:18:42,400 --> 01:18:44,240 Speaker 4: you'll forget and it will be a nice little surprise 1551 01:18:44,320 --> 01:18:46,960 Speaker 4: for you at a time when otherwise, you know, the 1552 01:18:47,040 --> 01:18:49,080 Speaker 4: nights are long and it's cold and raining all the time. 1553 01:18:50,120 --> 01:18:53,280 Speaker 2: Excellent, Well, everybody will see you for part two. 1554 01:18:54,200 --> 01:18:54,880 Speaker 4: Goodbye. 1555 01:18:58,280 --> 01:19:01,000 Speaker 6: Behind the Bastards is a production of cool Zone Media. 1556 01:19:01,360 --> 01:19:04,640 Speaker 6: For more from cool Zone Media, visit our website Coolzonemedia 1557 01:19:04,800 --> 01:19:08,000 Speaker 6: dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 1558 01:19:08,080 --> 01:19:10,560 Speaker 6: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1559 01:19:10,840 --> 01:19:14,240 Speaker 3: Behind the Bastards is now available on YouTube, new episodes 1560 01:19:14,520 --> 01:19:16,000 Speaker 3: every Wednesday and Friday. 1561 01:19:16,320 --> 01:19:17,040 Speaker 4: Subscribe to our 1562 01:19:17,120 --> 01:19:20,760 Speaker 3: Channel YouTube dot com slash at Behind the Bastards