In this episode, John focuses on slavery in the United States in the years after the American Revolution. John investigates why it is that slavery did not die out, as most of the Founding Fathers expected it would in the 1780s and 1790s. John talks about the reasons why so many Americans believed that slavery was on its way out in America, not the least of which was the fact that slavery absolutely did not comport with the ideals on which the United States was founded as an independent country.

John explores the social, economic and political factors that led, not only to the continued existence of slavery in the U.S., but to the rapid and widespread expansion of slavery, despite many states having explicitly abolished the institution within their borders. The growth of the so-called “Cotton Kingdom”, the market revolution within the U.S. and the continuing evolution and development of industrialization both in America and in Europe were factors in slavery’s expansion. Finally, John discusses the immense power and wealth of the “Planter Aristocracy” of the Deep South and the ways in which the Haitian Revolution and Gabriel’s Rebellion led to a backlash against freeing slaves, which had picked up steam after the success of the American Revolution.