Don Wildman

These landscapes generated immense wealth that flowed north into banks, insurance companies, factories, railroads, universities, institutions, and infrastructure that benefited from slavery even as many denied responsibility for it.

Slavery built one America while another claimed distance.

The nation divided not only by belief but by geography, between those who depended openly on enslavement and those who profited while looking away.

To understand the United States, we must read the land itself.

Because slavery was not a side story.

It was a national system, embedded in the ground beneath our feet.

It is American History Hit.

Welcome.

I'm Don Wildman.

One of the things we try to do on this series is find a clear path into history that can otherwise feel dense and overwhelming.

Not to simplify it, but open it up.

This episode is especially important in this regard because our story is so often relegated to the past when it has so much to do with our shared present.

We'll discuss today the earlier years of American slavery, where this system came from, how it took shape on this continent, and why decisions made at the beginning of this nation mattered so long afterwards.

For this, we're fortunate to have the guidance of historian Justine Hill Edwards, author of a number of award-winning books and publications, including Savings and Trust, The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedmen's Bank, which won the 2025 Frederick Douglass Book Prize.

as well as Unfree Markets, The Slave's Economy, and the Rise of Capitalism in South Carolina.

She is an associate professor at the great and good University of Virginia.

Professor Hill Edwards, Justine, welcome to the podcast.

Honored you could be here.

Thank you for inviting me and thank you for having me.

You teach what I understand is a very popular class covering the origins of American slavery and right there in Virginia.