449 Stealing America: Indigenous Slavery and the American Revolution

More than half a million Indigenous people were enslaved within the present-day borders of the United States. Historian Linford Fisher spent fifteen years in archives across North America, the Caribbean, and Britain to investigate this forgotten history. What he found was not a second story running alongside African slavery. It was something different in kind. Europeans and early Americans enslaved people who lived on land they intended to possess. This practice made slavery a tool of dispossession.The American Revolution is where this process accelerated. Lin and Lorén Spears, a Narragansett tribal citizen and the executive director of the Tomaquag Museum, trace how the Revolution opened space for captive raiding on the western frontier, how Native nations weighed which side to take during the war, and how their Stolen Relations digital project is recovering the names of the Natives early Americans enslaved.Lin’s Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/449 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:01:23 The Declaration's Overlooked Grievance Against Indigenous People00:02:29 The Other Revolutionary War00:03:20 Investigating the Hidden History of Indigenous Enslavement00:07:07 Uncovering the Scale of Indigenous Enslavement00:13:43 Building Stolen Relations Through Archival and Tribal Collaboration00:20:51 Decolonizing Archival Records00:30:40 Connection Between Indigenous Enslavement & Land Dispossession00:33:53 How Native Nations Navigated the American Revolution00:37:16 From Colonial Experimentation to Revolutionary Expansion00:41:15 How the American Revolution Expanded Indigenous Slavery00:45:20 How Indigenous Nations Weighed Neutrality, Alliance, & Survival00:52:51 The Declaration of Independence's Impact on Indigenous Communities01:01:10 The Treaty of Paris, 1783 and the Continuation of Indigenous Dispossession01:03:51 The Uncertain End of Indigenous Enslavement01:11:59 Commemorating the American Revolution Through Indigenous History01:24:36 Revolution to Freedom Through Indigenous SovereigntyRECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America🎧 Episode 264: The Treaty of Canadaigua🎧 Episode 323: American Expansion & the Political Economy of Plunder🎧 Episode 367: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1🎧 Episode 368: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 2🎧 Episode 406: Threads of PowerSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 [email protected] YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.