Policing Slavery & Black Rebellion in the American South
Enslaved Africans were forcibly shipped to Virginia starting in 1619 in response to a severe labor shortage. From the beginning, enslaved laborers resisted by fleeing and through violence, and white enslavers reacted by creating a racialized system of brutal policing, granting themselves authority based on skin color and a sense of superiority. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Gautham Rao, Associate Professor of History at American University in Washington, D.C., and author of White Power: Policing American Slavery.
Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Good News,” performed by Tuskegee Institute Singers on August 31, 1914; the audio is in the public domain and is available through the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is “The Effects of the Proclamation,” Harper's Weekly. Vol. 7, no. 321. February 21, 1863. p. 116; the image is in the public domain and is available via Wikimedia Commons.
Additional Sources:
- Proceedings and Acts of the [Maryland] General Assembly January 1637/8-September 1664, Volume 1, Page 107.
- Proceedings and Acts of the [Maryland] General Assembly, April 1666-June 1676, Volume 2, Page 224.
- “An act for preventing Negroes Insurrections” (1680),” Virginia General Assembly, " Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, December 7, 2020.
- “The Stono Rebellion of 1739: Where Did It Begin?” by Nic Butler, Charleston County Public Library, September 9, 2022.
- “South Carolina Slave Code (1740),” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
- “The Emancipation Proclamation,” The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
- “Thirteenth Amendment,” Constitution of the United States, Constitution Annotated, United States Congress.
- “On this day - Feb 24, 1865: Kentucky Refuses to Ratify Abolition of Slavery,” A History of Racial Injustice, Equal Justice Initiative.
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