The Rise of Cotton: Crash Course Black American History #13

Cotton is everywhere in our modern world, and it became a hugely important crop in the 19th century United States. Cotton was a huge economic boon to the US, and much of that wealth was built on the backs of enslaved laborers. And cotton didn’t only benefit the states where slavery was legal. While cotton

Mexico City to replace Columbus statue with one of indigenous woman

A prominent statue of explorer Christopher Columbus on one of Mexico City’s principal avenues is to be replaced with that of an indigenous Mexican woman, the capital’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Sunday. The 19th-century bronze statue was taken down from the Paseo de la Reforma boulevard last year for restoration work ahead of an annual

California recall candidate Larry Elder says it could be argued that slave owners were owed reparations after the Civil War

On a July episode of Prager University’s “The Candace Owens Show,” Owens said the US was one of the first countries to abolish the slave trade. Her guest, Larry Elder, said because slavery was legal and their “property” had been taken, slave owners could be owed reparations. Elder said the compensation UK slaveowners received for

The Civil War, Part I: Crash Course US History #20

In which John Green ACTUALLY teaches about the Civil War. In part one of our two part look at the US Civil War, John looks into the causes of the war, and the motivations of the individuals who went to war. The overarching causes and the individual motivations were not always the same, you see.

War & Expansion: Crash Course US History #17

In which John Green teaches you about the Mexican-American War in the late 1840s, and the expansion of the United States into the western end of North America. In this episode of Crash Course, US territory finally reaches from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Ocean. After Oregon was secured from the UK and the

19th Century Reforms: Crash Course US History #15

In which John Green teaches you about various reform movements in the 19th century United States. From Utopian societies to the Second Great Awakening to the Abolition movement, American society was undergoing great changes in the first half of the 19th century. Attempts at idealized societies popped up (and universally failed) at Utopia, OH, New

Age of Jackson: Crash Course US History #14

In which John Green teaches you about the presidency of Andrew Jackson. So how did a president with astoundingly bad fiscal policies end up on the $20 bill? That’s a question we can’t answer, but we can tell you how Jackson got to be president, and how he changed the country when he got the

Slavery – Crash Course US History #13

In which John Green teaches you about America’s “peculiar institution,” slavery. I wouldn’t really call it peculiar. I’d lean more toward horrifying and depressing institution, but nobody asked me. John will talk about what life was like for a slave in the 19th century United States, and how slaves resisted oppression, to the degree that

The Market Revolution: Crash Course US History #12

In which John Green teaches you about the Market Revolution. In the first half of the 19th century, the way people lived and worked in the United States changed drastically. At play was the classic (if anything in a 30 year old nation can be called classic) American struggle between the Jeffersonian ideal of individuals

Thomas Jefferson & His Democracy: Crash Course US History #10

In which John Green teaches you about founding father and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson is a somewhat controversial figure in American history, largely because he, like pretty much all humans, was a big bundle of contradictions. Jefferson was a slave-owner who couldn’t decide if he liked slavery. He advocated for