American History Hit Darkest Hours: Origins of Slavery
7 snips
Feb 23, 2026 Justene Hill Edwards, historian at the University of Virginia and author of Savings and Trust, explores the origins and expansion of Atlantic slavery. She traces early Portuguese contacts and the transatlantic trade. The conversation covers legal racialization, plantation systems, the Middle Passage, regional differences, resistance, and how slavery became embedded in finance and American institutions.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Teach By Linking Local Places To Slavery
- Connect local landscapes and institutions to the history of slavery when teaching or learning.
- Edwards uses UVA and Monticello examples to help students see slavery's imprint on campuses and cities.
Middle Passage Ships Were Built For Human Warehousing
- Ship design and 'efficiency' were deliberately adapted to carry and warehouse enslaved people on the Middle Passage.
- Edwards describes 'floating slave prisons' where traders maximized human cargo while trying to reduce deaths for profit.
1619 Is Pivotal But Not The Origin
- 1619 is a pivotal recorded moment for enslaved Africans in Virginia but not the start of the trade.
- Edwards emphasizes the event's significance despite the original record treating the arrival of '20 and odd' Africans as a brief note.
