November 11, 2016
History 101: The Founding Fathers Vs. Slavery
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.
Tags from the story
Alexander Hamilton
American Slavery
Benjamin Franklin
Founding Fathers
George Washington
John Jay
Thomas Jefferson
Recent Comments
Victoria Sanchez
Robert, this is an excellent video! It was entertaining but also very informative! I never knew that Washington owned so many slaves, and I also didn’t know about which of the founding fathers did what in regards to abolishing slavery. I find it very interesting that these men were hypocritical in the sense that they advocated to abolish slavery, but did nothing to free their own slaves. I also found it interesting that the presidents would become hushed about their abolitionist views once they were in office for fear of angering those in the South. Overall, I learned a lot of new information about this topic from your video and also had several good laughs! Hope to see another one of these soon!
13/11/2016
11:58 am
Andres Palacios
Excellent video, definitely a fun way to learn about slavery and also learned a lot from it. I did know that Washington was a slave owner but I didn’t know he had that many slaves also that the founding fathers most of them did not talk against slavery. Also really ironic how Thomas Jefferson owned almost 200 slaves when he wrote the constitution and was supposedly against slavery.
14/11/2016
11:58 am
Mehmet Samuk
I really liked this video, I felt like I was watching a famous YouTuber. It was very energetic and engaging and also informative. I have never thought founding fathers of America had that much slaves. If the founding fathers of the country had hundreds of slaves it shows how the nation looked at the slavery issue. Unfortunately, slavery was just a fabric of the American society.
14/11/2016
11:58 am
Oscar Sepulveda
I liked the video a lot bud. Watching it in class was really helpful. You looked enthusiastic about it and I did like the way you went about it being a classroom setting. Learning about this topic gave me a different view about history. I loved this video though good work.
14/11/2016
11:58 am
Soki Salazar
I really enjoy how you created this video. It was informative along with funny, which makes it an appealing video. It is styled like Crash Course by John Green, which I love! I knew that Washington, Adams, and Hamilton all had slaves, but I do not think a lot of people know that considering the role they played in history. Even though they all had slaves, they all wanted to abolish it. Ironic, huh? Even though Washington owned so many due to the fact that he bought the whole family, it was still a hypocritical of him to buy slaves. Once again, great video!
16/11/2016
11:58 am
Angelica Espinoza
I really enjoyed this video. I knew about the fact that Washington, Adams and Hamilton had slaves and even spent a lot of time learning about them in school, that makes you wonder why schools don’t teach us these kinds of things. The irony in the fact that they advocated for abolition of slavery, yet none made any effort to free their slaves until after they were gone. Washington may have done something good after he passed for those slaves, but I don’t think it made up in any way for having owned them in the first place. Great video and awesome topic, also good job with the humor!
12/11/2016
11:58 am