Don Wildman

It's just such an interesting irony, I guess.

How did the explosion of the cotton economy impact slavery?

Many people do not recognize what a juiced up situation happened because of cotton as we come into the 19th century.

One of the most fascinating things I've learned about on this doing this podcast series is about how it becomes its own financial tool.

Enslavement is so important to people's wealth in the South.

Inheritance wise and even women, you know, who are able to white women who, you know, this is their one form of of inherent wealth that they can trade and and build on.

It's an incredibly weird part of this that that nobody ever thinks about it because it's all about, you know, working in the fields.

That is the popular notion of this.

But there's a very deep.

financially systemic factor here.

And you do see then this now we're hundreds of years down the road here.

And so there's a whole society and sociological aspect of this kind of paternalistic thing is a theme to this that we are, you know, not only are they are, you know, enslaved people, but they

We are taking care of that, you know, as it becomes a family oriented thing.

You see that in Gone with the Wind.

And that's, you know, fueled by the lost cause aspect of this later on.

It's an amazing story.

You could spend your life doing this kind of thing.

My goodness.

Yeah.

You know, I want to ask you, Justine, we just had the sad passing of Jesse Jackson, a man who was by Dr. King's side to the end, who did so much to keep hope alive through the years when the civil rights story was really sidelined in the 70s and 80s.