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Social Studies 5: Freedom, but Not For All 29 Views
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Description:
You know how they say if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is? Well, that was the case with the Declaration of Independence. Our forefathers really shouldn't have promised everyone two scoops of ice cream every night before bedtime. Ah, well. Hindsight is 20/20.
Transcript
- 00:03
[Dino and Coop singing]
- 00:11
You know how they say if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is? [Family walk up to sign that says 'free cars with kittens']
- 00:17
Well, that was the case with the Declaration of Independence.
- 00:19
The Declaration's key, well…declarations – that all men had a right to life, liberty [Coop pointing at a blackboard]
- 00:24
and the pursuit of happiness – probably sounded pretty darn good to colonial slaves. [Slaves smiling]
Full Transcript
- 00:28
And they were, in fact, way too good to be true.
- 00:30
You see, in order to form a united front against Britain, the Continental Congress had decided
- 00:35
to punt on the issue of slavery. [A football is kicked]
- 00:37
Not surprisingly, that whole “deal-with-it-later” attitude didn’t inspire a lot of African
- 00:43
Americans to hop on the Revolutionary War bandwagon. [African Americans look unimpressed as 'Revolution Wagon' arrives]
- 00:46
Of course, that didn’t stop some plantation owners from sending their own slaves to fight
- 00:50
in their place.
- 00:51
Yup. [Slaves carrying guns]
- 00:52
Real stand-up guys, we know.
- 00:54
And by making that decision, it allowed many a white man the “liberty” to “pursue [Mans hat is shot off]
- 00:59
his happiness” without risking his “life.” [A black man then replaces him]
- 01:03
This all gave Lord Dunmore, the former British governor of Virginia, an idea.
- 01:06
You can tell he had it by that nifty little light bulb over his head. [Light bulb appears]
- 01:10
How handy.
- 01:11
His idea?
- 01:12
He wanted to deflate the Americans’ hope by offering to free any slaves that came and [A pin is put in a football]
- 01:16
fought for the British against the colonists.
- 01:19
As you can imagine, this also sounded pretty good to colonial slaves. [Slave puts on a British hat]
- 01:22
And nearly three times as many African-Americans fought for the British as for the Colonials. [Slave chasing away a colonial]
- 01:27
But, once again, things proved too good to be true.
- 01:30
You see, Dunmore’s deal only applied to slaves of rebels, not slaves of those still
- 01:35
loyal to Britain. [Small print on the sign]
- 01:37
And if the British army wasn’t happy with you, they could send you back to your slave
- 01:41
master.
- 01:42
Plus, there was the little fact that slavery was still legal in Great Britain and would [Dino pointing at a blackboard]
- 01:45
be for another fifty years.
- 01:46
After the war, slaves who fought for the British and managed to not end up back with their
- 01:51
colonial masters found themselves either re-enslaved elsewhere…
- 01:54
… or in prison… [Slaves on a map]
- 01:56
… or suffering segregation, poverty, and general mistreatment in harsh conditions.
- 02:00
Guess you could say when it came to the slaves who heeded his call, Lord Dunmore could have [Lord Dunmore pumping the football back up]
- 02:05
done more.
- 02:06
Heh.
- 02:07
But African-Americans – particularly free blacks in the north – did fight for the
- 02:11
colonists.
- 02:12
The First Rhode Island was a predominantly black unit, and they played a small but pivotal [Coop pointing at a blackboard]
- 02:16
role in the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778.
- 02:19
In fact, for the 18th Century, America’s fighting forces were surprisingly integrated. [Mixture of soldiers together]
- 02:23
Something that wouldn’t happen again until the Korean War… [Picture of the Korean War]
- 02:27
… just a few, short, ohhh…
- 02:30
170 years later. [Timeline showing huge gap]
- 02:32
So, yeah, progress was made pretty slowly.............
- 02:40
Despite their contributions to American independence, slaves in the former colonies [Slaves arriving back with guns]
- 02:44
fared little better after the Revolution than they had before.
- 02:48
And the Founding Fathers would once again punt on the issue of slavery when they drafted
- 02:52
the U.S. Constitution, leaving it for someone else to deal with. [A football is kicked]
- 02:55
That someone was Abraham Lincoln, whose Emancipation Proclamation would finally offer slaves a [Football hits Lincoln in the head and knocks him over]
- 03:00
deal that was actually as good as it was true.
- 03:03
We think that's worthy of a touch down celebration. [People dancing]
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