Flocabulary History
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Ghosts of the Civil War Flocabulary’s Hip-Hop U.S. History LYRICS CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND CHAPTER 9: Nat Turner: They call me Mr. Nat Turner, I’m reppin’ They call me Mr. Nat Turner . In 1800 an African-born slave working in Virginia the South. gave birth to Nat Turner.Turner was both keenly Ghosts of the Civil War It’s nothing to set a four-alarm blaze to intelligent and deeply religious from a very your house. young age, often spending his time praying and I’m being honest, my owner,Travis, he fasting. treated us fair, INTRO My owner,Travis, he treated us fair, but I but I ain’t nobody’s slave. I’m getting out ain’t nobody’s slave . Slavery and the economic and political differences between the North and of this here. Turner was bought and sold twice. After his As God says, so soon the first should be capture, he said his third owner, Joseph Travis, the South were beginning to tear the country apart.The political “was to me a kind master, and placed the last, the last should be first. compromises for determining if new states greatest confidence in me; in fact, I had no cause Harriet Tubman would be slave states or free states (the I put my soul in the verse. to complain of his treatment to me.” Missouri Compromise, and the I saw blood upon cornstalks, the sun As God says . Compromise of 1850) were beginning to eclipsed, and it was time to get it cracking like a But by Turner’s own account, God had bigger fall apart as well.The South was thrown into things in store for him:“I heard a loud noise in fear and outrage after Nat Turner’s slave thousand whips. the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to uprising (1831) and John Brown’s raid All out terror! Forty slaves on horses, me and said . the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should on Harpers Ferry (1859). killing every pale face and carrying torches. be first . and I should arise and prepare myself In the North, meanwhile, abolitionists and slay my enemies with their own weapons.” kicked up their rhetoric. In 1851 Harriet My rebellion got squashed in a few Beecher Stowe wrote a novel called short days. I saw blood upon cornstalks, the sun Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was a long, They executed me easy, the South in a eclipsed . rage. Furthermore,Turner began seeing signs that he melodramatic story about a slave family— believed were from God:“While laboring in the Nat Turner’s gonna get you, so please basically a soap opera about escaping slaves. field, I discovered drops of blood on the corn, as The amazing power of the book, though, was behave, though it were dew from heaven.”The same that it personalized the issue of slavery.The I’m a whisper in the wind, I’m gonna year,Turner witnessed an eclipse of the sun. He then began planning his uprising. book was hugely popular, and it helped rise from the grave. In the South they went crazy by hundreds of thousands of Americans realize All out terror! Forty slaves on horses, (for the first time) that African slaves were lynching blacks. killing every pale face . people too I’m telling you the real,‘cause truth At 2:00 in the morning on August 21, 1831, should be a part of the facts. Turner led a small group of slaves into his 60 61 Ghosts of the Civil War Flocabulary’s Hip-Hop U.S. History LYRICS. continued master’s house and murdered the entire family They executed me easy . John C. Calhoun: States’ rights best thing since grits ‘n’ as they lay sleeping.Turner and his men then Nat Turner told his story to a local physician, I’m John C. Calhoun, and I love the gravy . began marching house to house, murdering the who wrote it all down.The quotes above come Calhoun was Andrew Jackson’s vice president, South, white families and recruiting slaves.Turner’s from this document, The Confessions of Nat but he resigned after one term. Calhoun (ever force eventually consisted of forty slaves, mostly Turner.Turner was tried, hanged, and then the Senator from South Cakalak, reppin’ the states’ rights advocate) and Jackson (who on horseback.The group killed every white skinned. the South. was so pro-federal government that they called person they came across, fifty-five people in all. They don’t know me in the North, but him “King Andrew”) clashed over the The South in a rage . they try to play me, Nullification Crisis. My rebellion got squashed in a few Nothing was scarier to white society in the In 1828 Congress had raised protective tariffs short days . South than a slave uprising.Turner’s rebellion states’ rights best thing since grits ‘n’ gravy. that helped the North but hurt farmers in the Southern whites reacted quickly to the news, was a nightmare that had come true.The fact I believe firmly in the goodness of South. Calling it the Tariff of Abominations, and local militias soon captured Turner and that Turner’s revolt had been so bloody, so slavery. Calhoun argued that his state, South Carolina, scattered his army. deadly (he had killed not only men, but Northerners who hate it, I think they could nullify the tariff. Like Jefferson, he believed women and children, too) seemed to justify that states were sovereign. In response, Jackson slavery for many whites. More than ever, they have rabies. got a less-strict tariff passed (the Compromise clung to the belief that “if we let them free, Never before have Africans been so of 1833) as well as a Force Bill that allowed they’ll kill us all.” civilized, the army to march into South Carolina to never before have they found the Lord, enforce collection of the tariff. South Carolina In the South they went crazy by backed down, but Calhoun’s argument continued Jesus Christ. lynching blacks . to inspire Southern thinkers. The State of Virginia itself executed as many as Northerners don’t pay workers enough fifty-five slaves suspected of being involved in to eat, I believe firmly in the goodness of the massacre, but the real violence took place we don’t pay slaves, at least they have a slavery . outside the courtrooms and prisons. Angry place to sleep. Calhoun was the leading proponent of slavery in lynch mobs became a regular sight in parts of the Senate. Previously, Southerners had argued the South.These mobs killed an estimated 200 We must maintain the status quo for that slavery was a “necessary evil.” In a famous African-American slaves. whites and blacks speech to the Senate, Calhoun took this much Strict new slaves’ laws passed in many ‘cause if we ever let them free, they’re further, arguing that slavery was a “positive states, including censorship of abolitionist going to attack! good.” materials, all with President Andrew Jackson’s blessing. Dred Scott decision was right, what Never before have Africans been so belongs to me, civilized . I’m John C. Calhoun, and I love the whether slave or mule, is my property. Every pro-slavery argument is based in South, the Senator from South We’re chivalrous but don’t mess with ignorance and racism, but none more than the Cakalak . argument that Africans were savages and that by us, abolitionists, Though he died before the Civil War even living in America they were at least living in a began, John C. Calhoun was partly responsible we’ll cane you on the Senate floor. civilized society. As Calhoun said,“Never before for it.The Senator from South Carolina was the has the black race of Central Africa, from the most powerful Southern voice in the We won’t take no or maybe, dawn of history to the present day, attained a government. We’re gonna end this slavery . condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually.” 62 63 Dred Scott Ghosts of the Civil War Flocabulary’s Hip-Hop U.S. History LYRICS. continued Northerners don’t pay workers enough Harriet Tubman: senator Charles Sumner delivered a raucous to eat . Children: I’m Harriet Tubman, born into antislavery speech in the Senate in which he Calhoun and others noted with anger that attacked South Carolina senator Andrew Butler. slavery. while Northerners were yelling about the He accused Butler of taking “a mistress . who, treatment of slaves, they were treating their In history I’m noted for my bravery. though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; workers worse than some slave owners I’m a runaway slave, followed the though polluted in the sight of the world, is treated their slaves. Indeed, young girls in textile North Star, chaste in his sight—I mean, the harlot, Slavery!” mills in New England, for example, worked to take me from the South parts, and I Representative Preston Brooks, also from twelve-hour days under terrible conditions. South Carolina, decided to defend Butler’s honor was never scared of the dark. and entered the Senate that evening. He found Dred Scott decision was right . Like Dead Prez, boy, I’m an African, Sumner doing some paperwork, snuck up With the tension over slavery rising in America, more slaves down south, boy, I’m going behind him, and cracked him over the top of the President James Buchanan tried to avoid the back for them.