Winner of the Fall 2016 StMU History Media Award for
Best Multimedia Presentation
This video with Robert Tijerina is the first in our series of videos on American History. In this first video, Robert explores the relationship between the Founding Fathers and their views on slavery.
47 comments
Jose Luis Gamez, III
Robert Tijerina was very informative and detailed on The Founding Fathers vs Slavery YouTube video. It was interesting to find out that three of our Founding Fathers were slave owners during these times. Their views were contradictory because they believed in basic human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness but excluded Black Americans. All people are created equal and deserve respect in all aspects. You lose some respect when you mistreat humans because they are considered property. At that time, America was mostly agrarian and plantation landowners used blacks as workers to upkeep their fields, farms, and homes.
Vianey Centeno
Your video was fantastic! I appreciated how you alternated between solid information and clever humor; it truly kept me interested. This really reminds me of John Green’s Crash Course, so I can only assume that you were inspired by it and performed a fantastic job. Congratulations for receiving such a meritorious honor. Most people overlook the fact that the constitution was only created for a particular segment of American society.
Franchesca Tinacba
First off, I absolutely loved this video because although it was very informative of the Founding Fathers and slavery, it had comedic relief throughout the video that made it interesting. I think throwing in those jokes around the video made it easy to connect to and understand. I wasn’t entirely shocked many of the Founding Father’s owned slaves, however, it shocks me how these important men in U.S. history were so against slavery yet said nothing. I also appreciated the mini background information about each of the Founding Fathers because it helps to know a little information about them before getting to know how important they were during the times of abolition. Awesome video!
Guadalupe Altamira
The video was very interesting to watch and informative! I enjoyed how he explained the different reasoning each founding father advocated for slavery or owning slaves with the reasoning behind that too. I did know most owned slaves and continued to think that all of them treated them terribly but some were better than actual slave owners. Loved the video and the amazing editing!
Idaly Oropeza
First congratulations on your award. It was definitely well deserved. I love how you made the video entertaining to watch . It was very informative and gave deep detail on each founding father and their impacts on the situations. I think it is crazy how this part of history is often not taught in school. It seems as if there is much more history to be taught but is being hidden in plain sight.
Erica Mata
The video was super entertaining as well as very informative. I liked the fact that he broke down things and it made it easier to be understood. I think it’s really amazing that he got an award! In addition, I was able to gain very much more information about the founding fathers. I as well like the fact that he took the time to explain each of them and give us information about them.
Rigel
Amazing video and congrats on the award! The video was very informative and funny, it was very enjoyable to watch, so it definitely deserved the award. I knew that some of the founding fathers were slave owners, but I wasn’t aware that those same ones were aboard abolishing slavery. Also, considering the views from before, whether they abolish slavery or not, it would have probably made the civil war be earlier.
Dejah Garcia
Awesome article ! I think its super crazy to read how many of the founding fathers were involved in being a slave owner. Im glad you were able to write and article about this! I literally had no idea that the founding fathers were involved with the concept and idea of slavery and called themselves Abolishers. Overall, i found this article very interesting.
Travis Green
I didn’t know you could post videos on this website but I’m glad you can because this video was great and very informative. I didn’t know that George Washington held abolitionist views while owning 200 hundred slaves himself. I also didn’t know about how many of them held a little abolitionist views and planned on later abolishing slavery although it didn’t really work out like that in the end.
Daniela Iniguez-Jaco
Woah phenomenal video! Congratulations on receiving the multimedia award as well! I enjoyed hearing about what each of the founder fathers thought about slavery, and how most of them owned slaves. I also found it ironic how most of them joined to abolish slavery but they owned slaves themselves. I knew George Washington owned slaves, but I did not realize how many he actually owned, I guess the nice thing was he kept their families together.