WARNING: This documentary is under an educational and historical context, We do NOT tolerate or promote hatred towards any group of people, we do NOT promote violence. We condemn these events so that they do not happen again. NEVER AGAIN. All photos have been censored according to YouTube's advertiser policies.
In the early 17th century, the first African slaves were brought to the shores of North America, marking the beginning of a dark chapter in the nation's history. The transatlantic slave trade, which had begun in the late 15th century, saw an estimated 12.5 million Africans forcibly transported across the Atlantic between 1525 and 1866, with around 10.7 million surviving the brutal journey. This human cargo, torn from their homes and families, would become the backbone of the American economy for generations. In 1619, the first recorded African slaves, numbering around 20, arrived in Point Comfort, Virginia, aboard a Dutch ship. This event, though small in scale, set the stage for the systematic enslavement of Africans in the American colonies. As the Ghanaian scholar and poet Abena Busia poignantly observed, "The story of the African in the Americas begins with a river of tears and a trail of blood."
The emergence of slave farms in America was driven primarily by economic motivations. As European colonists settled the New World, they quickly realized the immense potential for agricultural profit. However, the labor-intensive nature of crops like tobacco, cotton, and sugar required a significant workforce. Indentured servants, primarily from Europe, were initially used to meet this demand, but as the need for labor grew, plantation owners turned increasingly to African slaves. In 1705, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law stating that all slaves were to be held in "perpetual servitude," effectively codifying the practice of chattel slavery. This legislation was a response to the growing demand for cheap labor and the perceived need to maintain strict control over the African population. Benjamin Franklin, in a 1773 letter to Dean Woodward, lamented the hypocrisy of the slave trade, writing, "Pharisaical Britain! to pride thyself in setting free a single Slave that happens to land on thy coasts, while thy Merchants in all thy ports are encouraged by thy laws to continue a commerce whereby so many hundreds of thousands are dragged into a slavery that can scarce be said to end with their lives."
The first slave farm in North America was established in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia. By the late 17th century, slavery had become firmly entrenched in the American colonies, particularly in the South. The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 revolutionized the cotton industry, making it even more profitable and leading to a dramatic expansion of slave farms across the southern states. In South Carolina, for example, the slave population grew from around 7,000 in 1700 to over 100,000 by 1790. This rapid expansion was fueled by the insatiable demand for cotton from the textile mills of the North and Great Britain. As the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison observed in 1831, "We are going to decide the question whether the slaveholding, soul-driving system, shall be continued, - whether the bosoms of our Northern freemen shall be made the receptacles of its spoils, and their hearts the abettors of its abominations."
Slave farms quickly spread across the American South, concentrating in the coastal regions of South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia, as well as the fertile lands along the Mississippi River in Louisiana and Mississippi. The 1860 United States Census recorded a slave population of nearly 4 million, with the majority living and working on the estimated 46,200 plantations throughout the South. In Louisiana, the number of slaves grew from around 4,000 in 1720 to over 331,000 by 1860, with many working on the state's infamous sugarcane plantations. The Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana, which is now a museum dedicated to the history of slavery, serves as a stark reminder of the brutality and scale of the slave trade. As the former slave and abolitionist Henry Bibb wrote in his 1849 autobiography, "Slavery is a system of in humanity, that is founded in blood, cherished in blood, and can only be abolished in blood."
00:00 The Rise of Slave Farms in Early America
8:59 The Harrowing Reality of Enslaved Life in America
15:31 Resistance and Rebellion in the Face of Slavery
22:38 Slavery's Central Role in America's Rise
31:46 The Hidden World of Enslaved Culture and Community
40:05 America's Long March Toward Emancipation