Rehm: Slave Ship "Antelope" And The Most Important Supreme Court Decision You Never Heard

Alan: The slave ship "Antelope" reveals a few of the reasons race in America is complicated.

Generally, humans tend to rise to high expectations.... and fall to low expectations.

Treat people as if they are "things" -- let it be known that their "thingness" is more important than their human dignity -- and many will identify themselves as less than complete people.

This has happened before and its effect lasted thousands of years. 

Put new norms in place and they tend to stay in place.

Oddly, people are prone to collaborate with their own oppression. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

It is enlightening to consider the concept of "reification" in Marxist thought: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reification_%28Marxism%29

Jonathan M. Bryant: “Dark Places Of The Earth: The Voyage Of The Slave Ship Antelope”

Audio File: http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2015-07-15/jonathan-m-bryant-dark-places-of-the-earth-the-voyage-of-the-slave-ship-antelope 

Before he became a household name for writing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Francis Scott Key was a respected lawyer. In 1825, he made an impassioned argument before the Supreme Court against the international slave trade. At stake were the lives of some 300 young African captives, caught on a Spanish ship off the coast of Florida and bound for sale. The case of the slave ship “Antelope” would ultimately establish precedents around slavery lasting decades, yet it remains largely overlooked. Now, one historian says it deepened the U.S. divide over slavery, and deserves a place in the story of one of America’s darkest chapters. We rediscover the forgotten case of the slave ship “Antelope.”

Guests

• Jonathan M. Bryant professor of history at Georgia Southern University; author of "Dark Places of the Earth: The Voyage of the Slave Ship Antelope"

Read A Featured Excerpt

Excerpted from Dark Places of the Earth: The Voyage of the Slave Ship Antelope by Jonathan M. Bryant. Copyright © 2015 by Jonathan M. Bryant. Reprinted with permission of the publisher Liveright Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

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