"The teal eternity of the Atlantic Ocean had severed them so completely that it was as if nothing had ever existed before, that everything they ever knew had simply vanished from the earth. "

That is such a eloquent way to put it. Because your home feels so far away, it's less of a home but more of a distance memory.

"when they had not seen their land or any land for so many days that they lost count. It was after the fear had turned to despair and the despair to resignation and the resignation gave way, finally, to resolve."

I would feel like broken. I wouldn't get past that stage of despair.

"So we are raised to think about 1776 as the beginning of our democracy, but when that ship arrives on the horizon at Point Comfort in 1619, that decision made by the colonists to purchase that group of 20 to 30 human beings, that was a beginning too."

Main claim for 1619 series

"And so when you look at the laws born out of black resistance, these laws are guaranteeing rights for all Americans."

If I was alive during the 1900's or earlier, I'd have a smug smile on my face cause I knew something that most people didn't.

"World War II had done exactly what many white people had feared, that once black people were allowed to fight in the military, and when they traveled abroad and they experienced what it was like not to live under a system of racial apartheid, that it would be much harder to control them when they came back."

If they didn't spend so much time oppressing other people, maybe they'd have more time fixing other problems in the United States.

"But then, a few miles down the road, the bus stops, and the bus driver gets off the bus, and then calls and tells Woodard that he needs to get off the bus as well."

It's strange how I've never heard this story before.

"It’s February of 1946, and a young black man is sitting on a bus watching the Georgia pines fly past the windows."

Unlike other sections, I was really confused to see why this section was added at all because see where it was going.

"And, finally, they pass the 15th Amendment, which probably is the most important amendment when we’re considering what a democracy is supposed to be. The 15th Amendment guaranteed the right to vote no matter what your race is."

I feel like I could've used this in my main claim assignment because the 15th amendment wouldn't have been an amendment without black people.

"And what’s interesting about that is this is actually the first time that the word slavery is mentioned in the Constitution, is in the amendment that finally abolishes it."

You know there's a problem when the only time you're mentioning a mistake is when you're fixing your mistake.

"After everything that black Americans have been through in this country, that they didn’t immediately take up Lincoln’s offer and go somewhere else and start over is really an astounding testimony to their belief in the American ideals."

I feel like if they left, America and the rest of the would think less of them. Because they resigned and took up such a demeaning offer.

“This is our home, and this is our country. Beneath its side lie the bones of our fathers. Here we were born, and here we will die.”

When he says "the bones of our father" does he mean that his ancestors as far as he can remember died here or his fathers built the structure or "bones" of the country?

"These men had been fighting for the liberation of millions and had waited for this moment, only to be told that once they were granted their freedom, they were going to be asked to leave the country of their birth."

I'd be furious. I'd be even more mad because they'd think I'm suppose to see this as such a gracious offer.

"As he said in a speech that he gave in 1853, he considered black people a, quote, “troublesome presence,”

He's talking like we're some kind of evil spirit. He sounds very ignorant.

"Your race suffer very greatly, many of them, by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word,” he said, “we suffer on each side.”

That sounds so rude and toxic. First, by saying that you're suffering from someones presence. And secondly by comparing that to black oppression.

"And his job is a new job, and it’s called commissioner of emigration. Now that’s emigration with an “e,” meaning his job was not to help people to enter the country, but to help people to exit it."

I remember how menacing that sounded. You could already tell exactly what was about to go down from that one sentence alone.

"This was a country that was going to be based on individual rights, on a government of the people, for the people, and by the people, but this was also a place that, at this time, was still practicing the institution of slavery."

The duplicity in this sentence alone is immaculate.

" he actually blames the king of England for introducing slavery into the colonies."

I thought slavery began after Christopher Columbus needed money to bring back to Spain to show that it was such a place with bountiful riches like he said.

"And he starts to write these words that almost every American can recite by heart."

I don't know the declaration of independence. I asked some friends if they knew it off the top of their heads and they said no.

"Thomas Jefferson, at the very young age of 33 years old, has been tasked with drafting the document that is going to declare to the world why the British North American colonies, the 13 colonies, want to break off from the British Empire."

I still don't understand why the British colonies wanted to break off. All I know that they taxed their tea. Is that the main reason for the revolution? That sounds dumb.

"but I never felt like I could claim fully that I was an American."

This made me realize that back in the olden days, black people didn't have a country to claim. They didn't really feel like an American and they barely had any ties to Africa. And the phrase African American didn't really get traction until the late 1900's.

"And because of that, this big, pristine American flag flying in the front of our yard was deeply embarrassing to me. And I didn’t understand why he would feel that much love for a country that clearly did not love him."

It sounds cruel but because of the embarrassment I'd low-key despise my dad for being so prideful of a country that hated him. I can imagine that Id get mocked at school and hate it if anyone I knew saw me walking into my house because of that flag.

"And where they were headed, black equaled ‘slave.’ So these were their people now."

It weird to think that stigmas surrounding black people and black beauty would have never been a thing without slavery. Growing up, there was a lot of self hate in the black community but I never asked why. I just went with it.

"They knew then that they would not hug their grandmothers again, or share a laugh with a cousin during his nuptials, or sing their baby softly to sleep with the same lullabies that their mothers had once sung to them."

I love how in the beginning of this podcast, she makes them seem human and shows how life was before slavery because in a lot of school history books, they say "it all began during slavery." Or "they all started as slaves." instead of showing what their lives were before. They were architectures,doctors, mothers, sons, cousins. But not many school history books touch on that.

“And to make it even worse, Lincoln then tells them that it’s their fault that the country is fighting a civil war at all.”

“I’m genuinely astonished that people like this existed. And people like this continue to exist. I am waiting for the day where a black person can walk into a store with a hood on, leave without buying anything, and still be alive the next.

“From the beginning, they knew they were gonna violate its most essential principles.”

I would not able to settle with the fact that I was abducted. It's like I'm having a nice old day one day then the very next I'm wondering when I'll see the light of day again.

“From the beginning, they knew they were gonna violate its most essential principles.”

Is all this factual? Because how can something like this be proven correct but not be common knowledge? Stuff like this is so important to American history though many people don’t know it.

“And the declaration goes out into the world without mentioning slavery at all”

Imagine making a declaration that contradicts itself and doesn’t even mention a core principle of your country. Couldn't be me.

“And yet when Thomas Jefferson’s contemporaries talk in public about why the colonists need to be free from England, they refer to themselves as slaves. As slaves to the King of England."

That’s hypocritical. And he knew it. At first, I thought that, in slave times, people just weren’t educated enough to think that black people were animals and property. Maybe they didn’t know that all people are homosapiens and technically animals too. Because of technology, there are a lot of things we know that they didn’t. But the fact that they knew and blamed it on the king. It’s vile.

“It has grown from a conditional institution where some of those first twenty were able to become free after a term of time.”

I didn’t know it was conditional at first. Why only some of the first twenty? I heard that some tribes in Africa use to sell some of their people to whites in the slave trade. Did they only let them free to lead them to others?

The enslaved population has grown from 20 to now 500,000 people. Fully ⅕ of the population is now enslaved.”

I know about Haitian Independents and their revolutionary war. Did the thought of an insurrection not come to mind? Slaves were ⅕ of the population back then. Now, black people are 12%.

“As he’s writing these ideals he knows that they will not apply even to his own family members.”

That’s despicable. I can’t imagine having such a feeling of resignation. Like you’re not even considered human so why even try?

“But the flag was always pristine. As soon as it started to show even the slightest tatter, my dad would replace the flag."

I remember reading something like this in the eighth grade. It had that same quote. But it was very short compared to this podcast.

“They had been made black by those who perceived themselves to be white.”

I’ve never thought of it this way. If racism was never a thing, would we still be categorized by the color of our skin?

“Those who refused to die understood that the men and women chained next to them in the dark were no longer strangers.”

That has such an ominous feel to it. I feel like that’s why black people have such a strong sense of community. Because they were all they had.