ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
African History Videos 63 videos
Home to the biggest river, the biggest desert, and some of the biggest land animals in the world, Africa is so much more than what most media would...
Stop everything and check this video out. This guy from Carthage named Hannibal used battle elephants. Battle. Elephants. Carthage has a pretty ric...
Today's lesson: Nubia. Remember not to call it Egypt Jr. to its face...it's kind of a sensitive issue.
African History 4: Abolition 21 Views
Share It!
Description:
Today we'll learn about how much better British folks were than Americans when it came to slavery. One day the British just up and banned it. Yep, it was that easy. Especially when you consider the U.S. had to literally fight a war over it.
Transcript
- 00:04
People in the past weren't, uh…all idiots.
- 00:07
Eventually, people started to come to the realization that owning other folks was a
- 00:10
teensy bit wrong. [Man with flashing bulb above head beside family]
- 00:13
Haters of slavery were a moral minority until about 1770.
- 00:17
It took a really long time for European and American societies to give up the power and
Full Transcript
- 00:21
profits of slavery.
- 00:22
It's hard to see human misery for what it is when your eyes glaze over at the sight [Coins falling]
- 00:26
of shiny coins.
- 00:27
It can also be hard to work in a laundromat for that same reason... [Woman using coin in a laundromat]
- 00:32
Anyway, there was a change a comin’.
- 00:34
The Industrial Revolution swept through Europe and the Americas from about 1770 to about
- 00:39
1850.
- 00:40
This Revolution was a huge shift from making slaves do the work to making machines do the [Man appears at a factory]
- 00:46
work.
- 00:47
When the machines finally rebel we’ll have another situation on our hands. [Transformer fires laser into city]
- 00:50
But that’s a problem for a later day...
- 00:53
During the Industrial Revolution, society was shifting socially, economically, and politically
- 00:57
away from slave-labor-supported aristocrats.
- 00:59
Instead, we were headed towards wage labor, mass consumption, industrial growth, and free
- 01:06
trade.
- 01:07
There’re a few problems with all that too, but…one thing at a time. [Ronald McDonald appears outside McDonalds store]
- 01:11
This sea change, combined with brand spankin' new ideas about human rights, caused some
- 01:16
serious growth spurts in the whole anti-slavery scene. [Boy grows and hits head on roof]
- 01:20
The abolitionist movement started gaining followers and spreading like the plague.
- 01:24
But not a bad plague.
- 01:26
Like… a happy freedom plague. [People join hands and rainbow forms]
- 01:30
Most abolitionist movements had support from many different types of people.
- 01:34
Some abolitionists were intellectuals of African descent.
- 01:37
Some were pro-free-trade reformers. [Abolitionist people stood together]
- 01:40
Some were religious people who decided that God wasn’t down with slavery.
- 01:44
Some were even racists who… just didn't want African people around.
- 01:47
Whatever their reasons, the abolitionists made a massive difference.
- 01:51
And there’s no doubt that abolitionism and industrialization went hand in hand. [Abolitionism man and industrialization man hold hands]
- 01:57
The most industrialized major power, Britain, was the first to totally abolish the slave
- 02:03
trade within their empire.
- 02:04
Due to iffy interpretations of what was and wasn't their empire… the British ended up [Military man stood outside building]
- 02:09
attacking slave traders and slave forts all across the coast of West Africa.
- 02:14
Maybe iffy imperial interpretations are okay if you’re taking down slavery…
- 02:18
The slave trade in most other areas kept right on chugging along for a few more years. [Train rides by]
- 02:24
The US did ban slave imports from Africa in 1806.
- 02:28
This was a pretty empty gesture, though, since the US still allowed slave imports from the [Slaves imported from caribbean to US]
- 02:33
Caribbean.
- 02:34
Many Caribbean countries either still allowed or did a sub-par job of restricting slave
- 02:39
imports from Africa.
- 02:40
So the US still had a pipeline for African slaves.
- 02:43
Banning African slave imports was like saying…
- 02:45
“I’m not going to steal your car.
- 02:48
I’m going to pay this other guy to steal it.” [Man hands over cash to guy]
- 02:52
Of course, slavery ended up causing the US a heap of trouble by helping to spark a Civil
- 02:55
War that killed more Americans than any other war in history.
- 02:59
After that big heap of awful was over, slavery was finally, officially made illegal in all [Soldier laid in the ground]
- 03:05
of the US in 1865.
- 03:07
Yep, that was pretty late.
- 03:10
But it’s better to show up to a party late than not at all.
- 03:15
Unless the party is lame. [Boy dancing at a party alone]
- 03:16
In that case you should say you’re sick and hope you don’t get outed on Facebook…
Related Videos
Home to the biggest river, the biggest desert, and some of the biggest land animals in the world, Africa is so much more than what most media would...
Didn't get enough of the French Revolution the first time around? We've gotcha covered. Check out our second French Revolution video, preferably wi...
Famine is one of the biggest problems in Africa. Find out why it's such a complex problem, and what's being done to combat it.