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(BIRDS CHIRPING)

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♪ (QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

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(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

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♪ ("HAITIAN FIGHT SONG"
BY CHARLES MINGUS PLAYING) ♪

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(SWORD CLATTERS)

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(GRUNTS)

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(GROANS)

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(CHANTS)

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(SWORDS CLANKING)

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♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

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♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

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(CAR HORN HONKS)

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♪ ("HAITIAN FIGHT SONG"
PLAYING) ♪

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RAOUL PECK:
In kindergarten, in Haiti,

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there was this allegorical image
of Saint Francis of Assisi

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on the last page
of our reading book.

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It didn't matter that
St. Francis was obviously white.

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At the time, I was still unaware
of any civilizational

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or racial differences.

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I didn't even know

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that such differences
were possible.

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Besides the fact that
he was a saint, and I was not.

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I knew as much about saints

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as I knew about copulation
and bees.

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My ideas of religion,
priests, or God

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was at best naive,
if not reckless.

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I truly believed that all human
beings were basically,

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in some sort of natural way,
brothers and sisters.

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♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

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It was in this euphoric state

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that I was sent
to primary school,

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a Jesuit institution.

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On the very first day,

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I got into a fight
with another boy.

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We were both sent
to the head priest

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to be disciplined.

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While waiting for what I thought
would be an appeasing pep talk

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and reconciliatory handshake,

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I had no doubt that the outcome
would be peaceful.

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I loved my world of serenity
and understanding.

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To my surprise,
the head priest came in,

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took a dry ox muscle
hanging from the wall,

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and, without a word,
whipped us raw

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with three lashes each.

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I was so stunned
that I didn't cry.

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Minutes later,
alone in the schoolyard,

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I realized that the world was
not what I was told it would be.

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The rituals, the dogma,
the theatrics,

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were now transparent.

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I decided that I was not going
to be an imbecile in that show.

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Especially if it involved
saint, priest, and whip,

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in that order.

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Then, I stopped believing
in God altogether.

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♪ ("THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND"
BY SHARON JONES
and THE DAP-KINGS PLAYING) ♪

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♪ This land is my land ♪

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♪ From California ♪

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♪ Well to the New York island ♪

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♪ From the redwood forest ♪

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♪ To the Gulf Stream waters ♪

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♪ I tell ya, this land ♪

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♪ Was made for you and me ♪

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♪ As I went walking ♪

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♪ Down that ribbon
Of a highway... ♪

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♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

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RAOUL: I knew a man.

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I knew him well enough
to be able to call him a friend.

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He was a scholar.
One of the brightest.

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One day, I learned of his death

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after ten years
of daily struggle.

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A cardiologist inserted
a malfunctioning pacemaker

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in his heart

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that would destroy
its functions.

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By the time they realized
the mistake, it was too late.

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Michel-Rolph wrote
an extraordinary book,

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Silencing the Past.
A masterpiece.

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The work of a lifetime.

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By deconstructing
the dominant narrative,

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he changed everything.

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Knowledge is power.

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But "history is the fruit
of power," says Trouillot.

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Whoever wins in the end
gets to frame the story.

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On July 4th, 2012,

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Trouillot passed away
in his sleep

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at his home in Chicago.

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This is his story as well.

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♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

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RAOUL:
"Remember the Alamo," they say.

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"But remembering can be quite
selective," writes Trouillot.

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Human beings participate
in history

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both as actors and as narrators.

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Among the actors,

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we find General
Antonio López de Santa Anna,

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a Mexican national hero,
who, in his lifetime,

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is said to have participated
in more battles

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than Napoleon
and George Washington combined.

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In his eventful career,

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the Alamo was just
a brief interlude

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in a long streak of defeats
and victories.

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By the middle of February 1836,

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his army had reached
the crumbling walls

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of the old mission
of San Antonio de Valero

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in the Mexican province
of Tejas.

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♪ ("YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS"
BY MITCH MILLER PLAYING) ♪

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Some 200 American slave owners
and militiamen

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now occupied
the Spanish mission,

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nicknamed "the Alamo."

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They refused to surrender
to Santa Anna's superior force.

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-(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
-RAOUL: On March 6th,

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General Santa Anna
blew the horns

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that Mexicans traditionally used

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to announce an attack
to the death.

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According to
the celebrated story,

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when it became clear
that the choice

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for the 189 Alamo occupants

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was between escape
and certain death

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at the hands of the Mexicans,

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Commander William Barret Travis
drew a line on the ground.

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Those men who wish to stay...

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will cross the line
and stand with me.

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The others may go...

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with my blessing.

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RAOUL: Supposedly,
everyone crossed.

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Except, of course,
the man who conveniently escaped

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to tell the story.

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I didn't survive Russia
and Waterloo

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to die in this desert.

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RAOUL: Obviously, a Frenchman.

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-♪ (FANFARE PLAYING) ♪
-(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)

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RAOUL: Santa Anna's troops
broke through the fort,

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killing most of the defenders.

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A clear victory.

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-(GUNS FIRING)
-(BOMBS EXPLODING)

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RAOUL: But a few weeks later,
on April 21st at San Jacinto,

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Santa Anna fell prisoner
to Sam Houston,

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the freshly certified leader

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of the secessionist
Republic of Texas.

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Houston's men had punctuated
their victorious attack

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on the Mexican army
with repeated shouts

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of "Remember the Alamo!
Remember the Alamo!"

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With that reference
to the old mission,

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they doubly made history.

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As actors,
the Texans captured Santa Anna

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and neutralized his forces.

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As narrators, they give
the Alamo story a new meaning.

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What they didn't say
is that General Santa Anna

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quickly recovered
from the upset

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and went on to be the leader
of Mexico four more times.

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But this is not what history
will remember.

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General Santa Anna indeed
lost the battle of the day,

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but he also lost the battle
he had won at the Alamo.

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♪ ("RING MY BELL"
BY ANITA WARD PLAYING) ♪

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♪ You can ring my bell
Ding, dong, ding, dong ♪

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♪ Ring it ♪

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♪ You can ring my bell
Anytime, anywhere ♪

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♪ Ring it, ring it
Ring it, ring it, ow ♪

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♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

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RAOUL: How much can we reduce
what happened

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to what is said
to have happened?

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Does it matter whether events
are fact or fiction?

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Most Europeans
and North Americans learned more

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about the history
of Colonial America

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and the American West
from movies and television

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than from books.

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The Alamo?
That was a history lesson

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delivered by John Wayne
on the screen.

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♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

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RAOUL: What does it mean
for our collective experiences?

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Do we even wish
for a common history?

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Does it really not matter

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whether or not the Holocaust
is true or false?

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00:11:01,050 --> 00:11:03,021
Does it really not make
a difference

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00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:05,180
whether or not the leaders
of Nazi Germany

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planned and supervised
the killing of six million Jews?

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00:11:13,241 --> 00:11:17,241
♪ (SOFT PIANO PLAYING) ♪

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RAOUL: If six million
do not really matter,

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would two million be enough?

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Or would some of us settle
for 300,000?

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If there is nothing
to be proved, or disproved,

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what then is the point
of the story?

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♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

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RAOUL: The history of America
is being written in a world

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where few little boys
want to be Indians.

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In 1492,
neither Europe as we know it

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nor whiteness
as we now experience it

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existed as such.

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♪ ("ANYONE WHO KNOWS
WHAT LOVE IS"
BY IRMA THOMAS PLAYING) ♪

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RAOUL: Here is the story
we have been told.

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SINGER: ♪ Anyone... ♪

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RAOUL:
Christopher Columbus was born
to a Genoese merchant family,

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and as a trader at sea,
joined other European navigators

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competing for gold
and other lucrative commodities,

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a market long dominated
by Muslim traders.

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SINGER: ♪ Try to shame me ♪

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♪ And still
I'll care for you... ♪

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RAOUL: It was no secret
that the Earth was spherical,

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and Columbus believed
a shorter, more direct route

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could be used to reach
valuable exotic spice islands.

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SINGER:
♪ Still I'll be there... ♪

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RAOUL: Columbus sold the idea
to the Spanish monarchy,

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and off he sailed
with three ships

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headed directly west
across the Atlantic.

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SINGER:
♪ May think I'm foolish ♪

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♪ They can't see you ♪

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♪ Like I can ♪

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00:14:00,150 --> 00:14:03,241
♪ Oh, but anyone... ♪

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00:14:04,021 --> 00:14:07,101
RAOUL: Instead of the bustling
ports of the East Indies,

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00:14:07,121 --> 00:14:10,040
Columbus came upon
a tropical paradise

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00:14:10,060 --> 00:14:12,190
populated by the Taíno people,

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00:14:12,211 --> 00:14:14,200
what is now Haiti.

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00:14:14,221 --> 00:14:17,221
-(CANNON BOOMS)
-RAOUL: Then,
from the Iberian Peninsula,

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00:14:17,241 --> 00:14:22,170
came merchants, mercenaries,
criminals, and peasants.

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00:14:22,190 --> 00:14:24,190
They seized the land
and property

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00:14:24,211 --> 00:14:26,101
of Indigenous peoples

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00:14:26,121 --> 00:14:29,070
and declared the territories
to be extensions

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00:14:29,091 --> 00:14:31,200
of the Spanish
and Portuguese states.

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00:14:34,241 --> 00:14:38,021
These acts were confirmed
by the monarchies

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00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:40,131
and endorsed
by the papal authority

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00:14:40,150 --> 00:14:42,091
of the Roman Catholic Church.

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00:14:43,060 --> 00:14:45,111
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

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00:14:45,131 --> 00:14:48,091
RAOUL: That's more or less
the official story.

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00:14:48,111 --> 00:14:50,091
And through that official story,

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00:14:50,111 --> 00:14:52,241
a new vision of the world
was created...

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00:14:53,190 --> 00:14:55,200
The Doctrine of Discovery.

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00:15:05,050 --> 00:15:08,190
The extent of the demographic
catastrophe that followed

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00:15:08,211 --> 00:15:11,091
is without equivalent
in world history.

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00:15:12,211 --> 00:15:15,160
Within 100 years,
over 90 percent

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00:15:15,180 --> 00:15:18,200
of the original population
of this continent

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00:15:18,221 --> 00:15:20,111
would be wiped out.

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00:15:23,070 --> 00:15:26,060
-(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
-(SCREAMING)

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00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:29,141
RAOUL: Despite large-scale
massacres, torture,

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00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:32,080
and other
inconceivable atrocities,

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00:15:32,101 --> 00:15:34,091
the great majority
of these people

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00:15:34,111 --> 00:15:36,060
did not die in battle.

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00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:41,131
Most died of disease, hunger,
and inhuman labor conditions

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because
their social organization

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00:15:43,141 --> 00:15:46,060
had been wrecked
by the white conquerors.

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00:15:48,021 --> 00:15:49,131
Bartolomé de las Casas,

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00:15:49,150 --> 00:15:53,091
the first ordained priest
to officiate in the New Indies,

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00:15:53,111 --> 00:15:55,200
was one of the witnesses
and a chronicler

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of this catastrophe.

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00:15:57,180 --> 00:16:00,060
Killing and enslaving
other beings,

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00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:04,091
thought to be equally human,
created a dilemma for him.

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00:16:04,111 --> 00:16:05,241
(DISTANT SCREAMING)

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00:16:06,021 --> 00:16:10,180
(IN FRENCH)

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00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:55,170
♪ (HYMNAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

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00:16:55,190 --> 00:16:57,190
RAOUL: (IN ENGLISH)
Bartolomé de las Casas

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00:16:57,211 --> 00:16:59,231
believed both in colonization

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00:16:59,251 --> 00:17:02,121
and in the humanity
of the Indians.

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00:17:02,141 --> 00:17:05,251
He was torn between the symbolic
and the practical,

250
00:17:06,030 --> 00:17:08,251
incapable of reconciling
the two.

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00:17:09,030 --> 00:17:13,050
Instead, he offered a poor
and ambiguous compromise

252
00:17:13,070 --> 00:17:15,021
that he would later regret,

253
00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:18,021
freedom for the savages,
the Indians,

254
00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:21,080
slavery for the barbarians,
the Africans.

255
00:17:22,181 --> 00:17:25,241
(IN FRENCH)

256
00:17:40,110 --> 00:17:42,251
RAOUL: (IN ENGLISH)
Colonization won the day.

257
00:17:43,030 --> 00:17:46,181
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

258
00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:16,100
RAOUL: The 17th century
saw the increased involvement

259
00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:19,021
of England, France,
and the Netherlands

260
00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:22,021
in the Americas
and in the slave trade.

261
00:18:23,151 --> 00:18:26,151
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

262
00:18:33,231 --> 00:18:37,030
RAOUL: The 18th century
followed the same path

263
00:18:37,050 --> 00:18:40,040
with an added touch
of perversity.

264
00:18:40,060 --> 00:18:43,070
The more European merchants
and mercenaries

265
00:18:43,090 --> 00:18:46,021
bought and conquered
other men and women

266
00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:47,100
in the Americas,

267
00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:51,251
the more European philosophers
wrote and talked about Man.

268
00:19:08,241 --> 00:19:12,060
Meanwhile, there was
no single view of Blacks

269
00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:15,070
or of any non-white group,
for that matter.

270
00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:18,080
All assumed that, ultimately,

271
00:19:18,100 --> 00:19:21,090
some humans
were more so than others.

272
00:19:22,181 --> 00:19:25,021
Viewed from outside the West,

273
00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:29,161
the Age of Enlightenment
was a century of obscurity.

274
00:19:31,030 --> 00:19:32,191
In the Western conception,

275
00:19:32,211 --> 00:19:35,241
Man was primarily
European and male.

276
00:19:36,021 --> 00:19:38,161
Everyone else was at
the lowest level

277
00:19:38,181 --> 00:19:40,090
of this hierarchy.

278
00:19:43,060 --> 00:19:47,181
-(WOOD CREAKING)
-(CHAINS JINGLING)

279
00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:59,241
(HEAVY BREATHING)

280
00:20:04,171 --> 00:20:06,221
(COUGHING)

281
00:20:12,030 --> 00:20:15,030
(WIND WHISTLING)

282
00:20:21,191 --> 00:20:24,080
(WAVES CRASHING)

283
00:20:31,171 --> 00:20:32,221
(MATCH STRIKES)

284
00:20:38,100 --> 00:20:40,231
(ROPE CREAKING)

285
00:20:43,060 --> 00:20:45,181
(THUNDER RUMBLING)

286
00:21:24,070 --> 00:21:26,181
(CRASH ECHOES)

287
00:21:30,151 --> 00:21:33,110
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

288
00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:14,181
RAOUL: I have no complaints.

289
00:22:16,050 --> 00:22:17,241
I just want to understand.

290
00:22:19,140 --> 00:22:21,080
Trading human beings,

291
00:22:21,100 --> 00:22:23,221
what sick mind
thought of this first?

292
00:22:25,221 --> 00:22:29,040
Brought by force
and pushed to death.

293
00:22:30,050 --> 00:22:31,080
Slavery.

294
00:22:31,100 --> 00:22:35,050
Or "the trade," as they refer
to it euphemistically.

295
00:22:36,251 --> 00:22:39,100
A state-sponsored genocide.

296
00:22:41,021 --> 00:22:43,191
What does this say
about a civilized world?

297
00:22:46,231 --> 00:22:49,221
(BIRD CALLING)

298
00:22:56,191 --> 00:23:01,181
RAOUL: No. I have no complaints.
I just want to understand.

299
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:08,070
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

300
00:23:09,151 --> 00:23:11,130
RAOUL: What if,
from the beginning,

301
00:23:11,151 --> 00:23:13,191
the story was inaccurate?

302
00:23:15,070 --> 00:23:17,130
What if it was not
just a question

303
00:23:17,151 --> 00:23:20,140
of vocabulary or interpretation?

304
00:23:21,211 --> 00:23:26,201
Perhaps a case of collective
borderline personality disorder?

305
00:23:26,221 --> 00:23:30,021
(MUTTERING)

306
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:32,171
(BIRDS CALLING)

307
00:23:35,161 --> 00:23:36,251
(COUGHS)

308
00:23:38,211 --> 00:23:41,140
(PASTOR CONTINUES MUTTERING)

309
00:23:44,181 --> 00:23:45,181
Okay.

310
00:23:46,161 --> 00:23:49,050
Let's go. (SIGHS)

311
00:23:50,100 --> 00:23:52,050
-What?
-(JESUP EXHALES)

312
00:23:54,060 --> 00:23:56,021
What about the boat?

313
00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:58,171
Boat's probably stuck in Matadi
up the river.

314
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,171
I need to join my parish.

315
00:24:03,211 --> 00:24:05,191
I'm already two months late.

316
00:24:08,161 --> 00:24:09,161
So?

317
00:24:16,151 --> 00:24:17,151
PASTOR: Wait!

318
00:24:20,181 --> 00:24:21,191
Wait!

319
00:24:22,191 --> 00:24:26,140
(BIRDS TWITTERING)

320
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:43,090
(JESUP GRUNTING)

321
00:25:05,221 --> 00:25:10,241
(DOGS BARKING)

322
00:25:11,221 --> 00:25:17,140
♪ (HYMNAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

323
00:25:19,050 --> 00:25:21,140
Come on! Let's go, let's go!

324
00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:24,191
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)

325
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:28,070
Faster!

326
00:25:28,090 --> 00:25:30,171
CAPTAIN: Keep them tight!
Keep them tight!

327
00:25:32,050 --> 00:25:34,090
-Go, go! Go!
-(WHIP SLASHES)

328
00:25:35,060 --> 00:25:36,110
Faster!

329
00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:46,120
-(GRUNTS)
-(DOG BARKING)

330
00:25:53,110 --> 00:25:56,201
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)

331
00:25:58,241 --> 00:26:00,231
What is this?

332
00:26:02,191 --> 00:26:04,050
Dammit, faster!

333
00:26:04,070 --> 00:26:05,241
(SHOUTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

334
00:26:06,021 --> 00:26:07,100
(IN ENGLISH) Go! Go! Faster!

335
00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:08,251
-You there!
-CAPTAIN: Faster!

336
00:26:09,030 --> 00:26:10,090
PASTOR: You!

337
00:26:11,021 --> 00:26:13,120
Stop that at once!

338
00:26:13,140 --> 00:26:16,171
What do you think you are doing
with those children?

339
00:26:17,241 --> 00:26:19,030
What children?

340
00:26:20,030 --> 00:26:21,140
These are shipments.

341
00:26:23,201 --> 00:26:24,201
Shipments?

342
00:26:26,050 --> 00:26:29,211
CAPTAIN: They are to be trained
as soldiers by the state.

343
00:26:29,231 --> 00:26:32,221
Or sold as slaves.

344
00:26:44,201 --> 00:26:48,161
-Hey!
-(PASTOR GASPING, GRUNTING)

345
00:26:49,201 --> 00:26:51,251
(GRUNTS, BREATHES HEAVILY)

346
00:26:57,110 --> 00:26:58,090
Faster!

347
00:26:58,110 --> 00:27:00,231
-(DOGS BARKING)
-(WHIPS SLASHING)

348
00:27:00,251 --> 00:27:02,120
CAPTAIN: Keep them tight!

349
00:27:06,231 --> 00:27:09,040
RAOUL:
In Columbus's travel journal,

350
00:27:09,060 --> 00:27:12,030
there is a description
of the first sighting of land

351
00:27:12,050 --> 00:27:15,161
on Thursday,
October 11th, 1492.

352
00:27:16,251 --> 00:27:20,151
"At two hours after midnight,
land appeared,

353
00:27:20,171 --> 00:27:23,171
from which they were about
two leagues distant.

354
00:27:24,191 --> 00:27:26,140
They hauled down the sails,

355
00:27:26,161 --> 00:27:28,251
passing time
until daylight Friday,

356
00:27:29,030 --> 00:27:32,140
when they reached
an islet and descended."

357
00:27:32,161 --> 00:27:34,060
A normal day, after all.

358
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:38,080
♪ ("ANYONE WHO KNOWS
WHAT LOVE IS" PLAYING) ♪

359
00:27:40,211 --> 00:27:42,130
♪ Anyone ♪

360
00:27:42,151 --> 00:27:45,221
RAOUL: The isolation
of a single fetishized moment

361
00:27:45,241 --> 00:27:48,100
creates a historical fact.

362
00:27:48,120 --> 00:27:50,161
SINGER: ♪ Anyone ♪

363
00:27:50,181 --> 00:27:53,201
RAOUL: Once discovered,
the Other is allowed

364
00:27:53,221 --> 00:27:56,120
to finally enter
the human world.

365
00:27:56,140 --> 00:27:58,130
SINGER: ♪ You can blame me... ♪

366
00:27:58,151 --> 00:28:00,191
RAOUL:
Whatever else may have happened

367
00:28:00,211 --> 00:28:04,021
to other peoples
in that process is reduced,

368
00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:07,060
as if by magic,
to a natural fact...

369
00:28:07,221 --> 00:28:09,221
they were discovered.

370
00:28:09,241 --> 00:28:12,100
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

371
00:28:13,171 --> 00:28:15,191
PASTOR:
Show me the way, my Lord.

372
00:28:15,211 --> 00:28:17,251
Let me walk along your path.

373
00:28:18,030 --> 00:28:21,221
Touch my heart to fear
your name, my Lord,

374
00:28:21,241 --> 00:28:25,130
as to surrender myself
to your glory.

375
00:28:25,151 --> 00:28:29,221
Show me the way, my Lord.
Let me walk along your path.

376
00:28:29,241 --> 00:28:31,181
-Touch my heart--
-(WHIP SLASHING)

377
00:28:31,201 --> 00:28:34,161
(SLAVE GRUNTING)

378
00:28:35,181 --> 00:28:37,021
(SLASHING AND GRUNTING CONTINUE)

379
00:28:37,151 --> 00:28:40,070
(SLAVE GRUNTS)

380
00:28:40,090 --> 00:28:41,221
(CAPTAIN PANTING)

381
00:28:44,231 --> 00:28:49,090
(GRUNTING CONTINUES)

382
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:55,021
What's the problem now?
What did he do?

383
00:28:56,181 --> 00:28:58,120
(LASHING AND GRUNTING CONTINUE)

384
00:28:58,140 --> 00:29:01,021
Nothing. Why?

385
00:29:02,161 --> 00:29:04,040
(WHIP LASHING CONTINUES)

386
00:29:05,100 --> 00:29:08,191
-(SLAVE GRUNTING)
-(PANTING)

387
00:29:11,151 --> 00:29:14,120
(SLAVE GRUNTING)

388
00:29:14,140 --> 00:29:17,201
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

389
00:29:17,221 --> 00:29:20,181
(SLAVERS SPEAKING
FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

390
00:29:20,201 --> 00:29:23,021
(ALL LAUGH)

391
00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:28,161
(BIRDS CALLING)

392
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:34,161
(CHAIN JINGLING)

393
00:30:13,171 --> 00:30:14,221
(GRUNTS)

394
00:30:19,191 --> 00:30:23,100
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

395
00:30:27,241 --> 00:30:30,151
PASTOR: My dear Rose...

396
00:30:30,171 --> 00:30:34,251
may these words convey to you
the fullness of my sentiments.

397
00:30:35,030 --> 00:30:37,100
I hope
they will find you well.

398
00:30:40,151 --> 00:30:44,090
It seems so strange to walk
under this unbearable heat,

399
00:30:44,110 --> 00:30:46,151
when only four months ago,

400
00:30:46,171 --> 00:30:49,140
I could still comfort myself
in your arms.

401
00:30:50,151 --> 00:30:54,070
The madness
in these distant lands

402
00:30:54,090 --> 00:30:56,021
is hard to describe.

403
00:30:58,251 --> 00:31:01,171
I am making new experiences.

404
00:31:03,021 --> 00:31:04,120
Two days ago,

405
00:31:04,140 --> 00:31:09,120
I saw my first corpses.
A good dozen of them,

406
00:31:09,140 --> 00:31:14,191
white little bodies,
floating into the darkness.

407
00:31:14,211 --> 00:31:19,251
Floating as if they were
just resting for a long journey.

408
00:31:22,070 --> 00:31:23,151
These...

409
00:31:24,140 --> 00:31:27,251
are not our choices to make.

410
00:31:31,130 --> 00:31:36,130
The ways of the Lord
are infinite.

411
00:31:46,100 --> 00:31:49,120
I miss so much

412
00:31:49,140 --> 00:31:52,161
this delicate temple

413
00:31:52,181 --> 00:31:56,130
hidden in the depth
of your thighs.

414
00:32:18,191 --> 00:32:19,221
(EXHALES)

415
00:32:21,140 --> 00:32:23,110
RAOUL: Any historical narrative

416
00:32:23,130 --> 00:32:25,241
is a particular bundle
of silences.

417
00:32:28,070 --> 00:32:32,221
It is an exercise of power that
makes some narratives possible

418
00:32:32,241 --> 00:32:35,030
and silences others.

419
00:32:36,140 --> 00:32:42,021
In this fabricated narrative,
not all silences are equal.

420
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:47,201
Our job as filmmakers, writers,
historians, image-makers

421
00:32:47,221 --> 00:32:50,191
is to deconstruct
these silences.

422
00:32:53,171 --> 00:32:54,201
(CREAKING)

423
00:32:55,171 --> 00:32:57,151
From its first appearances,

424
00:32:57,171 --> 00:32:59,221
the word nègre, "negro,"

425
00:32:59,241 --> 00:33:01,151
entered French dictionaries

426
00:33:01,171 --> 00:33:04,251
with increasingly precise
negative undertones.

427
00:33:06,151 --> 00:33:08,241
By the middle
of the 18th century,

428
00:33:09,021 --> 00:33:12,100
"black" was almost
universally bad.

429
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:14,110
What had happened
in the meantime,

430
00:33:14,130 --> 00:33:18,130
was the expansion
of African American slavery.

431
00:33:18,151 --> 00:33:21,021
That was the most potent impetus

432
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,060
for the transformation
of European ethnocentrism

433
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:25,211
into scientific racism.

434
00:33:27,100 --> 00:33:30,211
Blacks were inferior
and therefore enslaved.

435
00:33:30,231 --> 00:33:35,151
Black slaves behaved badly
and were therefore inferior.

436
00:33:35,171 --> 00:33:38,181
The practice of slavery
in the Americas

437
00:33:38,201 --> 00:33:40,161
secured the Blacks' position

438
00:33:40,181 --> 00:33:42,221
at the bottom
of the human world.

439
00:33:44,110 --> 00:33:46,191
By the time
of the American Revolution,

440
00:33:46,211 --> 00:33:51,080
European ethnocentrism had
merged into scientific racism

441
00:33:51,100 --> 00:33:53,251
and framed
the ideological landscape

442
00:33:54,030 --> 00:33:56,090
on both sides of the Atlantic.

443
00:34:00,070 --> 00:34:03,030
The final years
of the 18th century

444
00:34:03,050 --> 00:34:06,060
were called
the Age of Revolutions.

445
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:09,151
But one usually thinks
of the American Revolution

446
00:34:09,171 --> 00:34:11,160
starting in 1763,

447
00:34:11,180 --> 00:34:15,040
and the French Revolution
of 1789.

448
00:34:15,060 --> 00:34:18,251
Not the Haitian Revolution
of 1790.

449
00:34:19,031 --> 00:34:21,100
Indeed, in those changing years,

450
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:23,180
a particular group
of Black slaves,

451
00:34:23,200 --> 00:34:27,021
men, women, and children,
would rise.

452
00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:29,231
In just ten short years,
they would fight

453
00:34:29,251 --> 00:34:31,220
and create the nation of Haiti,

454
00:34:31,240 --> 00:34:35,100
the truly first free republic
in America.

455
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:38,060
The only revolution
that materialized

456
00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:40,080
the ideal of enlightenment,

457
00:34:40,100 --> 00:34:43,220
freedom, fraternity,
and equality for all.

458
00:34:45,140 --> 00:34:48,220
In 1790,
French colonist La Barre

459
00:34:48,240 --> 00:34:51,220
wrote to his wife in France
to reassure her

460
00:34:51,240 --> 00:34:55,060
of the peaceful state of life
in the tropics.

461
00:34:56,140 --> 00:34:59,021
"There is no movement
among our Negroes.

462
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:01,021
They don't even think of it.

463
00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:03,151
A revolt among them
is impossible.

464
00:35:03,171 --> 00:35:06,151
Freedom for Negroes
is a chimera."

465
00:35:07,251 --> 00:35:09,131
Just a few months later,

466
00:35:09,151 --> 00:35:13,111
the events would ridicule
these racist assumptions.

467
00:35:14,231 --> 00:35:20,100
A nation is not an act
of creation...

468
00:35:22,071 --> 00:35:25,171
but a process of growth.

469
00:35:25,191 --> 00:35:30,071
You will take the city
of Cap Haitien...

470
00:35:31,231 --> 00:35:36,191
but only when it is reduced
to ashes.

471
00:35:36,211 --> 00:35:42,060
And even on those ashes,
I will fight you.

472
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:44,231
♪ ("MWEN PARE"
BY EMELINE MICHEL PLAYING) ♪

473
00:35:44,251 --> 00:35:46,091
RAOUL: What happened in Haiti

474
00:35:46,111 --> 00:35:48,100
contradicts most
of what the West

475
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:50,240
has claimed about itself.

476
00:35:51,021 --> 00:35:53,131
The silencing
of the Haitian Revolution

477
00:35:53,151 --> 00:35:57,100
is part of a narrative
of global domination.

478
00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,231
Nevertheless, the revolution
played a central role

479
00:36:00,251 --> 00:36:03,220
in the collapse
of the entire system of slavery

480
00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:06,140
and in the liberation
of Latin America.

481
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:10,060
Haiti created the possible.

482
00:36:14,051 --> 00:36:16,220
♪ (SINGING IN HAITIAN CREOLE) ♪

483
00:36:25,100 --> 00:36:28,021
RAOUL: The Haitian Revolution
was unthinkable

484
00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:29,160
even as it happened,

485
00:36:29,180 --> 00:36:31,220
but unthinkable
only in the framework

486
00:36:31,240 --> 00:36:34,231
of a self-centered
Western thought.

487
00:36:34,251 --> 00:36:36,151
Unthinkable in the West,

488
00:36:36,171 --> 00:36:40,071
not only because it challenged
slavery and racism,

489
00:36:40,091 --> 00:36:42,131
but because of the way
it did so.

490
00:36:42,151 --> 00:36:46,071
It was the ultimate test
of the universalist pretensions

491
00:36:46,091 --> 00:36:49,111
of both the French
and the American Revolutions.

492
00:36:49,131 --> 00:36:50,111
(ROPE CREAKING)

493
00:36:50,131 --> 00:36:52,191
And they both failed that test.

494
00:36:52,211 --> 00:36:54,021
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)

495
00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:56,091
RAOUL: Confronted
with this unthinkable,

496
00:36:56,111 --> 00:37:01,171
Napoleon sent 65,000 troops
to reestablish slavery in Haiti.

497
00:37:01,191 --> 00:37:05,060
His whole army was defeated
within two years,

498
00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:08,021
forcing him to renounce
his American dreams

499
00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:10,251
and sell all
his American properties.

500
00:37:11,031 --> 00:37:13,200
The so-called Louisiana Purchase

501
00:37:13,220 --> 00:37:16,071
doubled the size
of the United States

502
00:37:16,091 --> 00:37:20,071
and, through this added power,
would accelerate the conquest

503
00:37:20,091 --> 00:37:22,240
of the rest
of Indian territories.

504
00:37:23,021 --> 00:37:27,051
The debt owed to Haiti
still remains to be paid.

505
00:37:27,071 --> 00:37:30,131
♪ ("DE CUBA TRAIGO UN CANTAR"
BY CARLOS PUEBLA PLAYING) ♪

506
00:37:30,151 --> 00:37:33,171
♪ (SINGING IN SPANISH) ♪

507
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:41,021
RAOUL: I fell in love in Rome.

508
00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:43,131
I made my first film in Berlin.

509
00:37:43,151 --> 00:37:46,180
My parents spent 25 years
in Africa.

510
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:48,211
My daughter was born in Uganda

511
00:37:48,231 --> 00:37:50,240
and went to school
in New Jersey.

512
00:37:51,021 --> 00:37:53,231
One brother works
for the Seminoles,

513
00:37:53,251 --> 00:37:56,100
the other won an Emmy.

514
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:58,231
My older brother spent two years
in Vietnam

515
00:37:58,251 --> 00:38:01,040
and even more with PTSD.

516
00:38:01,211 --> 00:38:03,151
Who are we?

517
00:38:03,171 --> 00:38:06,120
I have taught filmmaking
from Norway to Lebanon,

518
00:38:06,140 --> 00:38:08,111
and from New York to Lomé.

519
00:38:09,031 --> 00:38:10,200
Who am I?

520
00:38:10,220 --> 00:38:13,160
Who am I in this official,
pre-approved,

521
00:38:13,180 --> 00:38:15,160
Eurocentric classification?

522
00:38:15,180 --> 00:38:17,171
-(SPEAKING HAITIAN CREOLE)
-CROWD: Non!

523
00:38:18,091 --> 00:38:19,100
CROWD: Oui!

524
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:21,080
CROWD: Oui!

525
00:38:22,051 --> 00:38:23,051
CROWD: Oui!

526
00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:24,171
CROWD: Oui!

527
00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:26,040
CROWD: Oui!

528
00:38:28,071 --> 00:38:30,220
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

529
00:38:30,240 --> 00:38:33,131
RAOUL: (IN ENGLISH) I once
followed a charismatic man

530
00:38:33,151 --> 00:38:37,080
whom I revered, and who
one day betrayed his people.

531
00:38:38,111 --> 00:38:40,080
I made a film about him, too.

532
00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:42,080
Who am I?

533
00:38:42,100 --> 00:38:45,060
♪ (SINGING "HASTA SIEMPRE,
COMANDANTE" IN SPANISH) ♪

534
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:47,151
RAOUL: (IN ENGLISH)
I have traveled to many places,

535
00:38:47,171 --> 00:38:50,031
and have never called them
my own.

536
00:38:50,051 --> 00:38:53,080
And no violence
was ever involved.

537
00:38:53,100 --> 00:38:56,120
Places where I lived.
Places where I worked.

538
00:38:56,140 --> 00:39:00,240
Places where I loved
and sometimes was loved.

539
00:39:01,021 --> 00:39:04,120
I played war in the streets
of Léopoldville.

540
00:39:04,140 --> 00:39:06,151
I rode a bicycle in Katanga.

541
00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:09,120
I built houses in Cuba.

542
00:39:11,060 --> 00:39:12,080
Who am I?

543
00:39:12,100 --> 00:39:14,211
♪ ("I DON'T NEED NO DOCTOR"
BY JOHN MAYER PLAYING) ♪

544
00:39:16,220 --> 00:39:18,211
RAOUL: During the 16th century,

545
00:39:18,231 --> 00:39:21,191
England began
its brutal conquest of Ireland

546
00:39:21,211 --> 00:39:25,080
and declared half a million
acres of land in the north

547
00:39:25,100 --> 00:39:26,220
open to settlement.

548
00:39:28,140 --> 00:39:32,071
Under British colonial rule,
the Irish were regarded

549
00:39:32,091 --> 00:39:36,120
as a lower species
and naturally inferior.

550
00:39:36,140 --> 00:39:39,151
They were descendants of apes,
while, of course,

551
00:39:39,171 --> 00:39:41,251
the English
were descendants of Man,

552
00:39:42,031 --> 00:39:45,140
who had been created by God
in His own image.

553
00:39:46,091 --> 00:39:47,211
The English were angels.

554
00:39:48,251 --> 00:39:52,111
But Britain's Irish policies
brought economic ruin

555
00:39:52,131 --> 00:39:55,131
to Ireland's wool
and linen industries.

556
00:39:55,151 --> 00:39:57,251
The invaders became losers.

557
00:39:58,031 --> 00:40:00,200
This pushed
nearly a quarter of a million

558
00:40:00,220 --> 00:40:03,111
Calvinist Scots-Irish colonizers

559
00:40:03,131 --> 00:40:06,171
to leave Ireland
for British North America.

560
00:40:06,191 --> 00:40:09,120
One of history's
greatest migrations.

561
00:40:09,140 --> 00:40:10,160
(ROPE CREAKS)

562
00:40:10,180 --> 00:40:13,211
But as foot soldiers
of British empire-building,

563
00:40:13,231 --> 00:40:15,231
and even before
ever encountering

564
00:40:15,251 --> 00:40:17,080
Indigenous Americans,

565
00:40:17,100 --> 00:40:21,140
the Scots-Irish had already
practiced scalping for bounty,

566
00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:22,200
on the Irish.

567
00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:26,120
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

568
00:40:33,240 --> 00:40:36,021
♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

569
00:40:37,191 --> 00:40:39,100
♪ ("SCOTLAND THE BRAVE"
PLAYING ON BAGPIPES) ♪

570
00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:43,160
RAOUL: Theodore Roosevelt said
of his Scots-Irish ancestors,

571
00:40:43,180 --> 00:40:45,171
"They were a grim, stern people,

572
00:40:45,191 --> 00:40:49,021
strong and simple,
powerful in good and evil,

573
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:52,051
relentless, revengeful,
suspicious,

574
00:40:52,071 --> 00:40:54,191
knowing neither ruth nor pity.

575
00:40:54,211 --> 00:40:57,100
They were of all men
the best fitted

576
00:40:57,120 --> 00:40:58,171
to conquer the wilderness

577
00:40:58,191 --> 00:41:01,040
and to hold it
against all comers."

578
00:41:01,231 --> 00:41:03,220
They made up the officer corps

579
00:41:03,240 --> 00:41:06,071
and were soldiers
of the regular army

580
00:41:06,091 --> 00:41:08,191
as well as
the frontier ranging militias

581
00:41:08,211 --> 00:41:11,040
that cleared areas
for settlement

582
00:41:11,060 --> 00:41:13,131
by exterminating
Indigenous farmers

583
00:41:13,151 --> 00:41:15,080
and destroying their towns.

584
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:18,140
They served in slave patrols

585
00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:21,040
as well as
in the Confederate Army.

586
00:41:21,060 --> 00:41:22,091
They regarded themselves

587
00:41:22,111 --> 00:41:24,160
as chosen people
of the covenant,

588
00:41:24,180 --> 00:41:27,211
commanded by God
to go into the wilderness

589
00:41:27,231 --> 00:41:29,220
to build the new Israel.

590
00:41:29,240 --> 00:41:33,211
I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
do solemnly swear

591
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:37,031
that I will faithfully execute

592
00:41:37,051 --> 00:41:40,140
the office of president
of the United States...

593
00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:42,140
RAOUL: All modern nation states

594
00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,220
claim a kind of
rationalized origin story

595
00:41:45,240 --> 00:41:48,120
upon which they fashion
patriotism

596
00:41:48,140 --> 00:41:50,040
or loyalty to the state.

597
00:41:50,060 --> 00:41:52,160
-So help me God.
-So help me God.

598
00:41:52,180 --> 00:41:54,251
-So help me God.
-So help me God.

599
00:41:55,031 --> 00:41:57,051
-So help me God.
-So help me God.

600
00:41:57,071 --> 00:41:58,080
So help me God.

601
00:41:58,100 --> 00:42:01,060
RAOUL: According to
God's unfathomable will,

602
00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:04,031
one is born as part
of the elect or not.

603
00:42:04,051 --> 00:42:06,071
And being elected
gives you the right

604
00:42:06,091 --> 00:42:09,111
to implement God's will
and eliminate the native people.

605
00:42:09,131 --> 00:42:11,031
♪ (HYMNAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

606
00:42:11,051 --> 00:42:13,211
Because individuals
could not know for certain

607
00:42:13,231 --> 00:42:16,040
if they were among
the elected or not,

608
00:42:16,060 --> 00:42:20,131
material wealth became
the manifestation of election.

609
00:42:20,151 --> 00:42:22,251
Conversely,
bad fortune and poverty,

610
00:42:23,031 --> 00:42:27,051
not to speak of dark skin,
became evidence of damnation.

611
00:42:28,140 --> 00:42:32,040
"The attractiveness of such
a doctrine is quite obvious,"

612
00:42:32,060 --> 00:42:35,091
commented historian
Donald Akenson.

613
00:42:35,111 --> 00:42:39,100
"The Natives are immutably
profane and damned,

614
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:43,160
while oneself is predestined
to virtue."

615
00:42:43,180 --> 00:42:46,240
The Puritans who founded
the Massachusetts Colony

616
00:42:47,021 --> 00:42:48,191
endorsed this virtue.

617
00:42:50,091 --> 00:42:53,040
Forty-one of the Pilgrims,
all men,

618
00:42:53,060 --> 00:42:55,040
wrote and signed the compact,

619
00:42:55,060 --> 00:42:57,211
invoking God's name while
planting "the First Colony."

620
00:42:57,231 --> 00:43:00,040
♪ ("AMERICAN PHARAOH"
BY JASE HARLEY PLAYING) ♪

621
00:43:00,060 --> 00:43:02,220
♪ Money's my language
But I'm nobody's slave... ♪

622
00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:05,040
RAOUL:
The United States is supposedly

623
00:43:05,060 --> 00:43:07,021
a nation of immigrants.

624
00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:09,151
But this assumption
masks a reality

625
00:43:09,171 --> 00:43:11,160
of over three centuries
of violence.

626
00:43:11,180 --> 00:43:14,251
SINGER: ♪ Woke up in the morning
Broke all my chains... ♪

627
00:43:15,031 --> 00:43:18,060
RAOUL: According to the myth,
the faithful citizens

628
00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:20,160
come together
of their own free will

629
00:43:20,180 --> 00:43:23,180
and pledge to each other
and to their God

630
00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:26,211
to form and support
a godly society,

631
00:43:26,231 --> 00:43:28,091
and their God in turn

632
00:43:28,111 --> 00:43:32,051
vouchsafes them prosperity
in a promised land.

633
00:43:32,071 --> 00:43:34,091
SINGER: ♪ I don't understand
What they jealous of... ♪

634
00:43:34,111 --> 00:43:36,111
RAOUL:
But for non-European immigrants,

635
00:43:36,131 --> 00:43:39,140
no matter how much might
they strive to prove themselves

636
00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:42,051
to be as hardworking
and patriotic

637
00:43:42,071 --> 00:43:45,051
as descendants
of the original settlers,

638
00:43:45,071 --> 00:43:46,211
they are suspect.

639
00:43:46,231 --> 00:43:51,031
To be accepted, they must prove
their fidelity to the covenant

640
00:43:51,051 --> 00:43:53,231
-and what it stands for.
-(GUNSHOTS)

641
00:43:54,240 --> 00:43:56,120
(GUNFIRE CONTINUES)

642
00:43:56,140 --> 00:43:58,231
RAOUL: They must endeavor
to embrace whiteness

643
00:43:58,251 --> 00:44:02,151
and look down on descendants
of enslaved Africans,

644
00:44:02,171 --> 00:44:04,251
the Indigenous, and Mexicans,

645
00:44:05,031 --> 00:44:07,251
none of whom, of course,
are immigrants.

646
00:44:14,191 --> 00:44:16,100
It was a messy night,

647
00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:20,060
not Thursday anymore,
but not yet Friday.

648
00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:23,200
♪ (QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

649
00:44:28,240 --> 00:44:30,191
RAOUL: This is Howard Zinn,

650
00:44:30,211 --> 00:44:35,180
probably the most decisive
historian of this country.

651
00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:40,240
This is Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz,
a respected historian as well.

652
00:44:41,021 --> 00:44:42,240
Her father was Scots-Irish,

653
00:44:43,021 --> 00:44:45,191
and she once married
a famous poet.

654
00:44:47,131 --> 00:44:50,200
Howard and Roxanne are friends.

655
00:44:50,220 --> 00:44:55,060
When Howard published
A People's History
of the United States,

656
00:44:55,080 --> 00:44:57,131
it immediately
became a milestone

657
00:44:57,151 --> 00:44:58,231
in the deconstruction

658
00:44:58,251 --> 00:45:01,060
of the official
American narrative.

659
00:45:02,091 --> 00:45:04,120
A distinguished white scholar

660
00:45:04,140 --> 00:45:06,231
was for once
questioning the dream

661
00:45:06,251 --> 00:45:09,021
and telling
the story differently.

662
00:45:09,040 --> 00:45:12,211
(INDISTINCT CLAMORING)

663
00:45:12,231 --> 00:45:15,060
RAOUL:
One day, Roxanne asked Howard

664
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:18,180
why he left out parts
of the Native peoples' story.

665
00:45:19,231 --> 00:45:23,171
Howard listened quietly,
then confessed,

666
00:45:23,191 --> 00:45:27,131
"I don't know how to write it.
Why don't you write it?"

667
00:45:29,051 --> 00:45:30,200
So Roxanne did,

668
00:45:30,220 --> 00:45:33,080
putting Native Americans
at the center

669
00:45:33,100 --> 00:45:35,211
and knowing that
it was going to be painful.

670
00:45:35,231 --> 00:45:38,040
♪ ("NEW WOMEN'S SHUFFLE DANCE"
BY YOUNG NATION SINGERS
PLAYING) ♪

671
00:45:38,060 --> 00:45:41,051
RAOUL: I met Howard
long before I met Roxanne.

672
00:45:41,071 --> 00:45:42,160
And when I met Roxanne,

673
00:45:42,180 --> 00:45:45,080
Howard had died
a few years earlier.

674
00:45:45,100 --> 00:45:49,160
And Howard never read
Roxanne's finished book.

675
00:45:49,180 --> 00:45:53,131
I learned from Howard,
Roxanne, and Michel-Rolph

676
00:45:53,151 --> 00:45:56,160
as we learn from our elders.

677
00:45:56,180 --> 00:45:59,220
From them, I learned to favor
the collective

678
00:45:59,240 --> 00:46:01,200
over the individual.

679
00:46:01,220 --> 00:46:05,140
To look for the "we"
before indulging in the "I."

680
00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:10,151
And to always place oneself
within the world, not above.

681
00:46:12,071 --> 00:46:13,211
Learning years.

682
00:46:13,231 --> 00:46:17,100
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

683
00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:24,100
RAOUL: Contrary to
what has been asserted

684
00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:26,160
about the birth
of the United States

685
00:46:26,180 --> 00:46:29,051
and its domination
of the continent,

686
00:46:29,071 --> 00:46:32,091
it was neither superior weapons,
nor technology,

687
00:46:32,111 --> 00:46:35,220
nor a superior number
of settlers, nor disease,

688
00:46:35,240 --> 00:46:39,191
that is to say,
not "guns, steel, and germs,"

689
00:46:39,211 --> 00:46:42,071
that can account for it.

690
00:46:42,091 --> 00:46:44,220
The determining factor
of this domination

691
00:46:44,240 --> 00:46:48,231
was the willingness to eliminate
whole civilizations of people

692
00:46:48,251 --> 00:46:51,040
in order to possess their land.

693
00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:54,031
The case of Andrew Jackson,

694
00:46:54,051 --> 00:46:56,220
the seventh president
of the United States,

695
00:46:56,240 --> 00:46:58,060
is a telling story.

696
00:46:58,080 --> 00:46:59,240
♪ ("TANGLE EYE BLUES"
BY TANGLE EYE PLAYING) ♪

697
00:47:00,021 --> 00:47:03,240
Andrew Jackson is enshrined
in most U.S. history texts

698
00:47:04,021 --> 00:47:06,251
in a chapter titled
"The Age of Jackson,"

699
00:47:07,031 --> 00:47:10,100
"The Age of Democracy,"
"The Birth of Democracy,"

700
00:47:11,031 --> 00:47:12,231
or some variation thereon.

701
00:47:13,220 --> 00:47:16,040
Jackson's family personified

702
00:47:16,060 --> 00:47:20,040
the Protestant
Scots-Irish migration.

703
00:47:20,060 --> 00:47:23,160
He was an influential
Tennessee land speculator,

704
00:47:23,180 --> 00:47:25,180
politician, and wealthy owner

705
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:28,060
of a slave plantation
near Nashville,

706
00:47:28,080 --> 00:47:32,080
worked by 150 slaves,
the Hermitage.

707
00:47:33,151 --> 00:47:38,180
Jackson bought his first slave,
a young woman, in 1788.

708
00:47:38,200 --> 00:47:40,160
He was 21 years old.

709
00:47:42,091 --> 00:47:44,131
When Tennessee became a state,

710
00:47:44,151 --> 00:47:49,111
he was elected at the age of 29
as its first US senator,

711
00:47:49,131 --> 00:47:51,120
an office he quit after a year

712
00:47:51,140 --> 00:47:54,151
to become a judge
in the Tennessee Supreme Court.

713
00:47:56,071 --> 00:47:58,140
As a judge,
he was in a better position

714
00:47:58,160 --> 00:48:00,131
to seize Native lands.

715
00:48:02,091 --> 00:48:05,220
It was in 1801
that Jackson first took command

716
00:48:05,240 --> 00:48:08,171
of the Tennessee militia
as a colonel

717
00:48:08,191 --> 00:48:12,211
and began his Indian-killing
military career.

718
00:48:12,231 --> 00:48:16,111
In 1821,
by then a national hero,

719
00:48:16,131 --> 00:48:20,140
Jackson became military governor
of the Florida territory.

720
00:48:21,140 --> 00:48:25,171
In 1829,
Jackson became president.

721
00:48:25,191 --> 00:48:28,140
By that time,
it was already clear

722
00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:32,171
that this new nation called
the United States of America

723
00:48:32,191 --> 00:48:35,120
needed a clear
and decisive policy

724
00:48:35,140 --> 00:48:37,131
toward the first Americans.

725
00:48:39,021 --> 00:48:41,091
It was their land, after all.

726
00:48:42,111 --> 00:48:43,111
(GUNSHOT)

727
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:50,140
1830, Congress passed
the Indian Removal Act.

728
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:53,021
Andrew Jackson immediately
pushed through

729
00:48:53,040 --> 00:48:55,220
to forcibly deport
all Indigenous peoples

730
00:48:55,240 --> 00:48:57,151
from east of the Mississippi

731
00:48:57,171 --> 00:49:00,191
to what they would then call
"Indian Territory."

732
00:49:02,151 --> 00:49:05,131
The Seminoles in Florida
were one of the nations

733
00:49:05,151 --> 00:49:07,120
which firmly resisted.

734
00:49:08,071 --> 00:49:09,231
Jackson sent in the army.

735
00:49:13,071 --> 00:49:14,111
And as usual,

736
00:49:14,131 --> 00:49:17,200
when a power decides
to "solve" a problem,

737
00:49:17,220 --> 00:49:21,220
especially if it includes
the removal of whole peoples,

738
00:49:22,100 --> 00:49:24,051
it turns ugly.

739
00:49:25,091 --> 00:49:29,021
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

740
00:49:34,091 --> 00:49:36,120
(FIRE CRACKLING)

741
00:49:52,240 --> 00:49:56,060
RAOUL: Quartermaster General
Thomas Sidney Jesup

742
00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:58,140
was made commander
of that force.

743
00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:00,111
He would become the embodiment

744
00:50:00,131 --> 00:50:03,140
of every other henchman
in history.

745
00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:05,200
(FLY BUZZING)

746
00:50:05,220 --> 00:50:07,071
(HORSE SNORTS)

747
00:50:33,031 --> 00:50:34,031
(GRUNTS)

748
00:50:47,171 --> 00:50:48,220
(JESUP GRUNTS)

749
00:50:51,240 --> 00:50:53,031
(GROANS)

750
00:50:55,180 --> 00:50:56,200
(GRUNTS)

751
00:51:15,100 --> 00:51:17,220
(BIRDS CALLING)

752
00:51:26,231 --> 00:51:29,211
♪ (UPBEAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC
PLAYING IN DISTANCE) ♪

753
00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:34,211
DEMONSTRATORS:
You will not replace us!

754
00:51:34,231 --> 00:51:36,180
You will not replace us!

755
00:51:36,200 --> 00:51:38,231
You will not replace us!

756
00:51:40,251 --> 00:51:42,140
You will not replace us!

757
00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:44,151
♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

758
00:51:57,180 --> 00:52:01,031
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

759
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:17,231
RAOUL: A treaty is an agreement
signed by two nations

760
00:52:17,251 --> 00:52:19,191
in order to establish borders

761
00:52:19,211 --> 00:52:22,131
and conditions
for their mutual survival.

762
00:52:24,220 --> 00:52:29,021
But nevertheless,
from 1832 to 1871,

763
00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:32,060
American Indians
were arbitrarily considered

764
00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:34,200
to be
"domestic dependent tribes,"

765
00:52:34,220 --> 00:52:36,021
and as such,

766
00:52:36,040 --> 00:52:39,080
any treaty had to be approved
by the U.S. Congress.

767
00:52:41,240 --> 00:52:46,231
Andrew Jackson said
to Secretary of War
John Caldwell Calhoun,

768
00:52:46,251 --> 00:52:48,180
of Scots-Irish descent,

769
00:52:48,200 --> 00:52:52,120
who considered slavery
as a necessary evil,

770
00:52:52,140 --> 00:52:55,080
"I think making treaties
with Indians

771
00:52:55,100 --> 00:52:57,211
is not only useless but absurd."

772
00:52:59,040 --> 00:53:01,211
Indeed,
to accept the term "treaty"

773
00:53:01,231 --> 00:53:05,091
was to tacitly accept
the notion of "nation."

774
00:53:07,100 --> 00:53:09,080
During the Jacksonian period,

775
00:53:09,100 --> 00:53:12,091
also called "the birth
of the white republic,"

776
00:53:12,111 --> 00:53:15,071
the United States made
86 treaties

777
00:53:15,091 --> 00:53:17,131
with 26 Indigenous nations

778
00:53:17,151 --> 00:53:19,240
between New York
and the Mississippi,

779
00:53:20,021 --> 00:53:22,131
all of them
forcing land handovers

780
00:53:22,151 --> 00:53:24,071
and including removals.

781
00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:29,111
And then,
they signed treaty after treaty

782
00:53:29,131 --> 00:53:32,120
which were violated
one after the other.

783
00:53:32,140 --> 00:53:35,111
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

784
00:54:26,191 --> 00:54:29,021
RAOUL: Famous
French aristocrat and writer

785
00:54:29,040 --> 00:54:30,171
Alexis de Tocqueville

786
00:54:30,191 --> 00:54:33,031
witnessed part of
what would become known

787
00:54:33,051 --> 00:54:35,151
as the Trail of Tears.

788
00:54:35,171 --> 00:54:37,171
He was present
at the deportation

789
00:54:37,191 --> 00:54:39,071
of the Choctaw people.

790
00:54:40,131 --> 00:54:44,171
"I saw with my own eyes
several of the cases of misery

791
00:54:44,191 --> 00:54:46,220
which I have been describing.

792
00:54:48,031 --> 00:54:50,100
I was the witness of sufferings

793
00:54:50,120 --> 00:54:52,151
which I have not the power
to portray."

794
00:54:52,171 --> 00:54:54,031
(DOG BARKING IN DISTANCE)

795
00:54:54,051 --> 00:54:56,231
"No cry, no sob.

796
00:54:56,251 --> 00:54:58,180
All were silent."

797
00:54:58,200 --> 00:55:00,160
(FOOTSTEPS)

798
00:55:00,180 --> 00:55:03,200
(DOG PANTING, WHINING)

799
00:55:03,220 --> 00:55:07,021
♪ ("WARRIOR'S MOURNING SONG"
BY WAR RAVEN PLAYING) ♪

800
00:55:30,060 --> 00:55:32,111
(BIRDS CALLING)

801
00:55:38,021 --> 00:55:39,151
(PANTING)

802
00:55:42,180 --> 00:55:44,191
(DOG WHINING)

803
00:55:51,071 --> 00:55:52,251
(WOOD SLIDES, THUDS)

804
00:55:54,180 --> 00:55:56,080
(WHINING)

805
00:55:57,240 --> 00:55:59,211
(HOWLING)

806
00:56:00,171 --> 00:56:03,021
(DOGS HOWLING)

807
00:56:05,071 --> 00:56:08,211
-(DOGS RUNNING)
-(HOWLING CONTINUES)

808
00:56:11,211 --> 00:56:15,191
(SPLASHING)

809
00:56:20,131 --> 00:56:24,031
(HOWLING CONTINUES)

810
00:56:33,111 --> 00:56:36,171
♪ ("ABOVE THE TREETOPS"
BY PAT METHENY PLAYING) ♪

811
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:12,040
RAOUL: Life, race, patriotism.

812
00:57:12,060 --> 00:57:14,051
-(JESUP COUGHS)
-RAOUL: What is a flag?

813
00:57:14,071 --> 00:57:16,231
A piece of cloth to die for?

814
00:57:17,191 --> 00:57:19,071
Or to kill for?

815
00:57:20,160 --> 00:57:22,151
Explained in two words.

816
00:57:33,111 --> 00:57:34,220
(HORSE SNORTS)

817
00:57:51,180 --> 00:57:55,080
♪ (SONG CONTINUES) ♪

818
00:58:10,211 --> 00:58:13,200
♪ (SONG CONCLUDES) ♪

819
00:58:16,100 --> 00:58:20,031
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

820
00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:27,140
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪