July 31, 2018 • 41 mins
Today Portland, Oregon is often portrayed as a left-leaning haven for hipsters across the country, but the original Oregon was a vastly different place. Listen in to learn more about the ridiculous aims of the white supremacists who sought to found Oregon as a whites-only state. Spoiler alert -- there's a fantastic extra segment at the end of today's episode, wherein the guys join special guest Robert Evans, the creator of the new HowStuffWorks podcast Behind The Bastards.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Yeah, welcome to the show, ladies and gentlemen. I'm ben No. Wow,
this is like a very standard intro we're trying today. Yeah,
we're going We're going straight for it. But we were
(00:32):
only able to make this show, of course, with the
assistance of our esteemed third member friends and neighbors, super
producer Casey Pegrham. Sort of a vanilla opening, would you
white bread a little homogeneous? Yes? Yes, uh, today we are. Well,
let's let's start in the modern dayn For a long time,
(00:54):
neither of us had ever been to Portland's until pretty recently.
It's true, I only spent a little bit of time there.
I think you had a little bit more of a
fully fleshed out Portland experience. But will you tell me then,
is the dream of the nineties in fact still alive
in Portland? Yes? Uh, I I thoroughly enjoyed the town.
(01:14):
I thought it was surprising. I was diplomatic enough not
to directly mentioned the comedy show Portlandia to anybody that
gets really old. I am sure it does. It's like
when people visit our city and call it Hotlanta. Yeah, well,
I would say this is even more egregious. Probably people
running around, so they put a bird on it. Yes,
(01:35):
and Portland has this national reputation at least for being
a very progressive city. Right, face tattoos are cool. Uh,
marijuana is decriminalized, the streets are paved in marijuana. In fact,
it does have a particular smell, and in general people
(01:56):
would see it as sort of a bastion of left
leaning culture. Yeah, super chill. You know you can you
can buy a sandwich for a song in Portland. Literally,
it doesn't have to be a good song. It's just
a song. A song um or you know, a little
soft shoe or maybe you've got a one man band
(02:17):
kind of Dick van Dyke situation going on that I
did see one man band when I was there. Did
you see that guy? No, I just pulled that out
of my of my ear. Well, you are correct, and
there there are one man band's in Portland. There are
also numerous amazing things, amazing bits of history. One of
our coworkers, a guy named Nathan, is actually from Oregon,
(02:39):
and he assured us that Portland is more of a
cultural exception to the rule nowadays. Yeah, I can see that.
I'm actually wearing my timberline lodge hat right now. But
I bought at the Portland Airport, and as you might imagine,
at the Portland Airport, not a chain restaurant in site,
my friend, all of the shops sell handmade artisanal goods.
(03:00):
I bought some really cute little pieces of pottery there
for me Mom. That's sweet of you, man, and that's
really dope hat. It is a great hat. So it's
safe to say that you and I are are fans
of Portland's and would travel there again in the future,
at least modern Portland's, right right. I don't think I
would want to travel there in a time machine to past. Yes. Yes,
(03:23):
today's episode is about the origins of Oregon Portland in particular,
Wow One Take, or as it's called here. I'm in
some of these articles that we're looking at the Oregon country. Yeah,
Oregon country. That might sound weird to some people. What
is Oregon Country? I kept seeing it and it was
a little weird sounding. It was confusive, but I figured
(03:44):
it out with my internet sleuth skills. Um, what would
now be modern day Oregon, Washington State, and Idaho was
all kind of clustered together in this one big old
chunk of land. Collectively referred to as the Oregon Country. Yeah,
and this was, Um, let's see, way back in eighteen eighteen, right,
the US and Britain agreed to jointly occupy this. Yeah.
(04:08):
That seems like a like an odd couple in a situation. Um.
And then I think the US started getting a little
greedy and being like, you know what, we kind of
want this for our for our own, we turn this
into some states. Yeah, because the British wanted to be
in the area in Oregon Country, mainly to engage in
(04:30):
the fur trade. That's right. And James K. Polk U,
who was an expansionist president, right, Um, really wanted to
make this our own. And and you know, not not share,
not go has these with the Brits anymore. So that
ultimately happened. They negotiated. Uh, they decided it wasn't worth
(04:50):
going to war over the Brits in anyway. And Um,
there was some back and forth. And there's a really
great slogan that the Northerners used. Um. It was fifty
four forty or fight um. And fifty four forty was
talking about the coordinates the latitude that marked the northernmost
(05:12):
part of this territory and During these negotiations, the us
is first proposal was that the territory be cut in half,
right with that, with that border at the forty ninth parallel,
and the British rejected it. And so the expansionists, many
of whom were anti slavery Northerners, which is super important
for this part of the story. Uh, they are the
(05:34):
ones who called for more American aggression. Get out there
be a big dog. Fifty four forty or fight. It's
hard to say you did really well with that bad
fifty forty or fight. It's tough. It's fun when you
really get it right though. It gives you a sense
of accomplishment, as I'm sure they felt when they finally
arrived at a pretty decent deal with the Brits where
(05:54):
they divided the territory along the forty nine parallel. That's
that's pretty close to fifty four. I guess what's the
forty thought forty like minutes? Uh, divisions of degrees. It's
like a decimal kind of yeah, kind of interesting. Interesting.
So this is where we end up with oregon Um needing,
(06:16):
you know, to become a state. And when you become
a state, what do you do? You have to have
a state constitution. And as we know, constitutions are not
generally made overnight. They often reflect common practices, goals, or
even existing laws that are a community has practiced or
written down beforehand. And Oregon had its own pre existing laws.
(06:41):
In eighteen forty four, they passed something called the Exclusion
Law and this was this was enacted by the provisional
government of the region at the time. What what did
the Exclusion Law do? Yeah, it was this guy named
Peter Burnett who was like kind of an Oregon Trail
(07:02):
kind of blazer. I guess Peter Hardeman Burnett. And actually,
spoiler alert, we're gonna dig into him in a little
more detail later in the show for big time foreshadowing.
But here's what this dude did, just just to give
you a taste of what his medicine was like. He
was a former slave owner UM and has has a
really crazy resume, did all kinds of interesting things in
(07:25):
his life. But by all accounts, uh a a alarming,
dastardly racist, virulate racist big time. So this Exclusion law
UM that was enacted sort of pre proper government and
constitution UM basically allowed slaveholders to hold on for dear
(07:46):
life to those slaves for a maximum of up to
three years. And at first I was like, wait, is
this is this because of emancipation? But then no, no,
that that was decades later. This is eighteen forty four.
That wasn't until like the eighteen six and I realized, oh, no,
Oregon outlawed slavery in the territory. Right, But here's the key, UK,
(08:07):
And if your thing is gonna be like, Oh, that's
that's nice, what a great bunch of people. Yeah, okay,
but but there's more. Um So, yeah, this grace period
of three years, but then all of those freed black
people work required to leave. Yeah, that's the thing. The
government of Oregon past this exclusion Law of eighteen forty four,
(08:28):
and in it they did place a ban on slavery
with a requirement that slave owners eventually free their slaves.
But they did this with the understanding that any African
American who remained in Oregon after they were freed would
be flogged, whiplash and forcibly expelled from the country. If
they were caught in the Oregon country again within six months,
(08:53):
then the punishment would be repeated. And then eventually the
law was amended in another version to substitute forced labor,
so essentially slavery instead of flogging, and then it was
repealed in eighteen So this community was so racist that
(09:16):
the they didn't even condone slavery. They were so such
white supremacists they just didn't want them around like at all.
And there's there's some language we'll get into and in
a second, but I do just want to point this out.
The that law you mentioned about about flogging or that
the penalty was called the Burnett lash Law because our
buddy Burnett was so into this that he he wanted
(09:39):
to brand it with his own his name. I was
like his signature thing. And it required that um or
declared rather that offenders who refused to leave would be
punished with quote not less than twenty or more than
thirty nine stripes, and that would that would be a
cycle that would recur every six months until they left. Unfortunately,
(10:03):
this lash law did get amended and repealed, so as
far as we know today, uh no people were ever
lashed as a result of that law. But this was
just the first of three different laws like this that
all were meant to ban people of color from Oregon Country,
(10:24):
which again at that point is like Washington, Oregon and
part of Idaho. It's a huge swath of lands, that's right, um,
And we're getting some of this information from a fe
different places. One of my favorites was a Washington Post
article by Danne L. Brown called when Portland band Black's
Oregon's shameful history as an all white state, whereas I've
seen it referred to as an all white utopia. Kind
(10:48):
of right, they were after at least there's this weird
history of intentional communities and utopian thinking in Oregon. So
it's not not all examples of racist but this definitely
was the idea for the people who were supporting this
concept was that somehow society would be better if they
(11:08):
all felt like if they all somehow identified with the
same ethnicity. Now, did they have the same sort of
racism that would be common in the Northeast at the time,
wherein for instance, Italian or Irish immigrants or children of
those immigrants are still considered not wide enough. I don't know,
(11:29):
but what was on the books was a specifically targeting
people of color. In eighteen, this provisional or territorial government
passed the law making it illegal for any quote negro
or mulatto to live in Oregon Country. But they did
(11:50):
have a provision for people who had Native American blood,
which they weirdly referred to as half breeds. Um, because
they're despicable people. They are to big old people. But
it's interesting that only all it takes is just just
get a little white in you. They really didn't like
black people. Yeah, that's what it boils down to. All
right then, Yeah, so it's state time, baby, here we go.
(12:11):
What do you need to make a state? As we
established earlier, Yeah, you need um, you gotta have some dirt. Um,
you gotta have a delineation between your dirt and the
other people's dirt. You have to have some people in
both sides so that you can differentiate a constitution. There
we go. Yes, in eighteen fifty seven, the government of
what would become Oregon was working on its constitution. They
(12:33):
did a couple of things. Uh, they grossly plagiarized constitutions
from other states at the time. That's you know, you're
just gonna be some of that, right. Constitution is not
exactly a great work of poetry that you you know,
pilfering from is is look down upon it. So that's
almost sort of like stealing a boilerplate release form or
(12:54):
you know. Yeah, I think that's a very good point,
being that Oregon was going to be a state in
the US and have voters and such. They asked about
ten thousand residents to vote on the new state constitution,
(13:16):
and they had three questions, burning questions, turning questions. One,
do you vote for the constitution? Overwhelmingly voters supported it.
Two do you vote for slavery in Oregon? And the
voters of Oregon rejected the institution of slavery by a
pretty wide margin, also pretty overwhelmingly. Uh. And then three,
(13:38):
and this is a quote again, this is problematic language.
They say, do you vote for free negroes in Oregon?
And the answer was, oh, yeah, it was. It was
a now. Yeah, it was a big now. And they
explicitly baked in this racist language into their constitution. In fact,
we have a quote from the state constitution. Yes, it
(14:01):
goes as such, again quoting some offensive language here. Quote,
no free negro or mulatto not residing in this state
at the time of the adoption of this constitution shall
ever come reside or be within this state or hold
any real estate, or make any contract, or maintain any
(14:23):
suit therein, and the Legislative Assembly shall provide by penal
laws for the removal by public officers of all such
free negroes and mulatto's, and for their effectual exclusion from
the state, and for the punishment of persons who shall
bring them into the state or employ or harbor them.
They're in right, that is bonkers. It is categorical as well,
(14:47):
So pay attention for to that very last lying where
it says that anyone who helps a person of color
is also guilty in the eyes of Oregon law. And
that's that's a terrifying thing. But it passed. People were supportive.
Oregon became a state in eighteen fifty nine, and it
was the only state in history, only state, only state
(15:11):
in history so far that entered as a whites only state,
so anti slavery, but only because they were such white supremacists.
And that's mind boggling. People in Portland are so nice. Yeah,
it really does blow my mind, and it makes me
wonder like why, like Mississippi didn't try to do anything
like this, Probably because they were just too many black
(15:32):
people already living there. It was just it would have
been like a massive round up kind of like deportation
kind of situation, and they were economically dependent that controlling
powers of the state were economically dependent on this, because
it feels like Oregon was probably pretty largely white already,
and then the slaves that were there were kind of
(15:53):
like imported kind of for that purpose. And then then
they free them and they give them the boot, and
and this largely worked. There were a couple of examples though,
of folks trying to get around it, not very many, though,
and one in particular of somebody being kicked out pretty hanously.
(16:14):
Yeah Vanderpool, right, that's right. Yeah, in eighteen fifty one,
before the Constitution was written and before Oregon became a
US state, but after these exclusion laws were in full swing,
the owner of a saloon, restaurant and boarding home, a
fellow named Jacob Vanderpool, was forcibly expelled from the territory,
(16:36):
not because he did anything wrong, just because he was
not white. Yeah. That's pretty oh boy, Okay, he was
literally according to Salem Public Library records, it was literally
quote reported for the crime of being black in Oregon,
and Judge Thomas Nelson gave him thirty days to leave
the territory. Yeah, I'm sorry, I keep pausing because this
(16:59):
is just like hurting my my brain, UM and my heart.
In an article from How Stuff Works, we spoke to
Walita in Marisha, who is a professor in Black Studies
at Portland State University UM, and she actually travels around
Oregon kind of working on nurturing some positive connections with
the African American community and in Oregon, because it's still
(17:22):
spoiler alert to this day, pretty largely white. But here's
how she sums up the whole thing. Quote, Oregon was
birthed at this intersection of being anti slavery and anti black.
But in no way was Oregon anti slavery because they
believed in racial justice. They were anti slavery because they
considered this to be white man's land, and they came
to build a racist white utopia. Their goal was to
(17:44):
keep out or push out all people of color. Right,
and you will see multiple academics who explain that Portland's
reputation as a progressive city is, in their opinion, largely
a myth. Winston Grady Willis, who's director of Portland State
University's School of Gender, Race, and Nations points out that
(18:09):
as of July, the city had six hundred and twelve thousand,
two hundred and six people, seventy seven point six percent white,
five eight percent black, and Grady Willis went on further
to call it a key site for clan activity. We
know the clan was very active there in the early
nineteen hundreds as well. Yeah, I mean apparently members of
(18:29):
the clan were actually cops. Yeah, they were deputized. Yeah,
like like like as though they were sort of a
para military organization, given the same powers as like law enforcement. Right.
So not not a pretty scene, but there is good
news here. This is a story of oppression, but it
(18:52):
is also a story of inspiration and righteous struggle for
justice and equality. There there was this great documentary called
Local Color, which traces the history of racism in Oregon
and the actions of people who are working for civil
rights in the area. And of course this you know,
(19:14):
this center is often on Portland itself, as it is
the capital city of the state UM And to be honest, folks,
there are some pretty disturbing stories in that documentary, but
if you would like to learn more, we highly recommend
you check it out. It is available for free online,
So thanks again public television. And so the Fourteenth Amendment happened, um,
(19:39):
and surprise, surprise, Oregon was one of I think only
six states in the Union that voted against it. And
I had forgotten what the fourteenth Amendment is, but it
is really hella important is what it says, All persons
born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to
the jurisdiction thereof our citizen ends of the United States,
(20:01):
and of the state wherein they reside. Um, no State
shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. Nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law, nor denied to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of law. So
this completely neutered these exclusion rules, right, So this was
(20:25):
passed by Congress in eighteen sixty six, and the explicit
intention there is to safeguard the rights of recently manumitted
or freed people in the South, where a lot of
the white population is working hard to still subjugate them
still somehow practice chattel slavery enforced labor. So Oregon actually
(20:49):
because it was a divisive issue. Oregon ratified the fourteenth
Amendment by a very narrow margin in eighteen sixty six,
with two legislators prote testing that the amendment would quote change,
if not entirely destroy, the Republican form of government under
which we live and crush American liberty. They also around
(21:11):
the same time past law of banning misagenation or interracial marriages. Surelely, Ben,
there's some sort of fun food fact we can pull
out now to lighten the mood a little bit. Wait,
where do we go from here? Well, we have We've
got one more thing I have to had. There's a
great paper by Cheryl A. Brooks called Race Politics and Denial.
(21:32):
Why Oregon forgot to ratify the fourteenth Amendment Because you see,
although they ratified it in eighteen sixty six, in eighteen
sixty eight, the legislature rescinded that ratification, and they did
so on a technicality, so they were still in an
(21:53):
uncertain situation. In fact, these laws, or some version of
these exclusions laws stayed on the books until what nineteen twenties, Yeah, exactly,
I think it was like twenty four or something like that.
It's insane but we do have luckily a happy ending
progress grinds on. Yeah, except sorry, a guy named Walter Pierce,
(22:17):
who was a clan member, was elected governor of Oregon.
And there's this great quote in this article from the
Washington Post as well that just kind of goes back
into the history of this talking about how many of
the Jim Crow laws um that you see in the
South were kind of encouraged there and like legal Yeah,
(22:39):
they still try to do de facto acts of oppression
and segregation. And again, I can't recommend that documentary enough
because it contains interview It's only about an hour long.
You can find it through op b dot org. It
contains interviews with people who survived these circumstances. I feel
(23:01):
like we're almost wrapping up on this, but there are
a couple more things that we need to mention. Yeah, well,
just the fact that you know, it's come a long way, obviously,
and Portland's still does have that reputation as being a
pretty culturally interesting UM dream of the nineties kind of plays.
But and even like in the eighties and nineties, especially
(23:23):
in Portland, it was very dangerous to be UM a
person of color. This Washington post article mentions the fact
that it was just a hotbed of skinhead movement and
white supremacy. And I'm not sure if you've seen the
movie Green Room that would come. Patrick Stewart plays the
(23:44):
head of this neo Nazi group that has like a
punk rock house out in the woods, and it's pretty
intense and awful and and really really cool, little slice
of life kind of I don't know, it's a horror
in that there's a lot of crazy stuff that happens,
but it's really just more like a very contained, claustrophobic
movie where it all kind of takes place in this
one on space Phil Like it's a more almost more
(24:06):
of a thriller. Yeah, yeah, it's it's so weird seeing
Patrick Stewart play a psychotic neo not a very restrained,
subtle performance from Patrick as well, I just call him Patrick,
but uh yeah, but it's true. It's so Oregon in
the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties became a destination for
the largest skinhead movement in the country, according to several scholars,
(24:31):
and you can see, unfortunately no shortage of stories of
racially motivated hate crimes. Yeah, there was that guy recently
who was arrested for I believe, stabbing some people to
death on a light rail train. Um, when he, uh,
some folks came to the aid of a African American
woman and a Muslim woman who he was shouting racial
(24:51):
epithets at and then he like stabbed several people. And
this happened like last year. Um. And his name is
Jeremy Joseph Christian and yeah, when he goes to this hearing, Um,
he walks into the courtroom and immediately starts rambling and
saying free speech or die Portland's you call it terrorism,
I call it patriotism. Right, So the circumstances of this
(25:12):
event where the following he was shouting religious slurs at
several people, he fatally stabbed two people and wounded one other.
This is indefensible. This is very much not what free speeches.
It isn't strange how some of the most ardent supporters
(25:33):
of so called free speech completely don't understand what it is. Yeah, no,
it really is. And and admittedly this guy does seem
like he's got some um mental illness going on. I'm
sure that's just me speculating, but um, it's sad, sad case.
And a sad example of how these kind of attitudes
are around and possibly uh given a little more fuel
(25:56):
on the fire considering some of the you know, nazi
neo Nazi marches we're seeing in Charlottesville, and some of
these attitudes that have may become a little more into
the forefront of not acceptability, but at least just kind
of are being a little more mainstream these days. So um,
it's interesting to see where it came from in a
place like the Pacific Northwest, which might surprise a lot
(26:18):
of people. The long story short, too late. The exclusion
clause that we examined today was ultimately removed from Oregon's
constitution in nineteen seven. However, as we I think I
pretty clearly established that did not remove the actual practices
(26:41):
of racial segregation and discrimination. But there's one thing, one
more thing I think we should add. Because we we've
been talking about the states, right, we've been talking about
the territory, we've been talking about the people, but we
have yet to talk in detail about the I who
was at the forefront of it all. We've yet to
(27:04):
talk in detail about Peter Hardeman Burnett, who some would
call a real bastard. Yeah, and he also managed to
make it all the way down the Oregon Trail and
not even get right or die of exposure. Yeah, he
was just a dick. Well how about this, This is
a surprise that we Nolan Casey I worked on for
(27:27):
you all off air. What if we have a little
extra credit? That's right, folks, extra credit the segment where
and we um get you know, some human person that's
tangentially familiar with the topic by varying degrees. My favorite
(27:48):
of late has been the Colonel Gladwin Bowling. Oh boy, man,
he really he really set the Internet on fire with
that segment. I love Gladwin. I led him into the
Facebook group votes. So I hope we're all still cool.
Did you create a monster? I don't know. I don't know. Well,
today we have another quite informed gentleman joining us, the
(28:10):
host of the new house Stuff Work show Behind the Bastards,
which does deep dives into horrible people throughout history, from
Saddam Hussein's um hobby writing erotic fiction to Hitler's spanking fetish.
I Believe Friends and Neighbors, ben If I May, Robert Evans,
Hey'll Haw's it cracking, man, It's It's it's weird. It's
(28:33):
just weird. There's been a lot of like silent headshaking
on this episode, which doesn't really translate super well on
the podcast, but yeah, who knew. Yeah, I mean we're
talking about Oregon, which is if you like, yeah, if
you go to like Portland or whatever it seems on
the up and up. I've spent a lot of the
last three years in like rural southern Oregon, and it's
(28:54):
it's a pretty racist place. Like Josephine County where I was,
is chock full in the Fazis. There are quite a
lot of them out there, so it's it's it's a
fascinating place even in the modern day. Oh yeah, yeah,
tons of them. It's one of the most racist counties
and one of the highest densities of hate groups anywhere
in the United States. Chock full of Nazis. As it
(29:14):
turns out, not a good coffee, no terrible coffee, and
terrible craft beer that the Nazis make. Yeah. So when
we when we originally talked off air, Robert, one of
the things that we were very interested in, both as
colleagues but also as fans of your show was seeing
(29:35):
whether there was a specific person associated with the supremacist
origins of Oregon, kind of setting the tone that we
could we could learn a little bit more about with you.
And you found the guy right, Oh my god, I
sure did I think Peter Burnett? I think Peter was
(29:55):
his first name. Uh yeah, just a tremendous piece of crap.
Uh And maybe, like you know, there's a long list
of of super racist politicians in American history, but he's
in the running for most racist. Uh he's he's he's
definitely like in that conversation for sure. Yeah, we set
him up briefly as just having been the one that
(30:16):
kind of came up with the idea of these exclusionary
laws early on before Oregon became a state. And he
loved this idea so much that he named it after himself,
the Burnett Lash Law, which um permitted black people who
refused to leave the state to be given lashes like
every every six months, six months or something like that.
(30:36):
And he loved it so much, thought was such a
genius idea, the Burnett Lash Law. Yeah, he was so
proud of his his whipping people rule that he stuck
his name on it, which is a special kind of
of terrible um, But he was actually like a violent
jerk way before he went to Oregon. When he was
still living in Clear Creek, Tennessee, he was a shop owner,
like a general store owner. He suspected this enslaved black
(30:59):
man was very now and then breaking into his store
at night to drink from his whiskey barrel because they
stored whiskey and barrels back then. It was a it
was a different time. So he, rather than like taking
any of the other actions you might take in this situation,
he sets a trap using a rifle with like a
string tied to the trigger, tied to the window shutter,
so that when the guy crawled in in the middle
(31:20):
of the night, this rifle shot him dead. And he
wasn't charged with the crime because it was an enslaved man,
and he said he was sorry. But that's like Peter
Burnett before he gets into politics. They must have had
like a stand your ground law back in those days too.
I guess I just don't think they had laws, you know,
you're talking about the eighteen twenties or whatever, like there
was no rules. And that's such a cartoonish, uh sort
(31:43):
of rupe goldberg S kind of contraps. Yeah, he probably
got the kit from ACME. That's insane. Okay, go on
give us some more. So one of his early jobs
before he gets off to Oregon, I think, after he
murders this guy with a Looney Tunes trap is he's
a lawyer. And some of his probably the most prominent clients,
were Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon religion, and all
(32:05):
of Joseph Smith's you know, apostles or whatever, all of
his friends because they were on trial for kind of
sort of fomenting a frontier war that had had broken
out in and around Mazra. And so he he is
these guys lawyer, and his main achievement as a lawyer
seems to be getting the venue changed that the court
case was being held in. And this venue change allowed
(32:25):
Joseph Smith and all of his guys to escape and
run away. Uh and and yeah, so that that's his
career as a lawyer before he gets on that first
big wagon train to Oregon for the Great Migration and whatnot. Yeah,
so y'all already covered. Yeah, he made the last law.
He made the exclusion law, um, which he was he
was an abolitionist. But he's like an interesting like we
(32:47):
we think when we when you hear about abolitionists in
the pre Civil War area, you usually think about just
the few people who would have been like on the
right side of history. But some of them were just
abolitionists because they were that racist. They were so racist.
And that was Peter Burnett. He was abolitionist that because
he didn't like the idea of their being black people
anywhere in his state. Uh. And he thought that slave
(33:09):
labor was bad for white people. So he was like,
he wound up the right conclusion, which is that slavery
was a bad thing, but he wound up there through
like the most racist chain of logic that he could
have possibly gotten to, which is always interesting to me.
That was a sentiment that was big time shared by
the majority of people in Oregon because they did incorporate
and become a state. Um, the majority of people voted
(33:31):
against slavery, but also for ousting all the freed black people. Yeah.
And I did find when I was doing my research
that in eighteen forty at least Burnett had two of
the slaves of his own. And this is back when
he was living in Missouri, UM. And there's some evidence
that when he immigrated to Oregon. He tried to bring
one slave with him, a young girl who drowned in
(33:53):
the Columbia River during the voyage. So not a lot
of It's kind of an enticing piece of like what
was went on there, but that that's all the infro
I found so far on that, right, because she was
projected to be somewhere between ten to twenty four or something. Yeah,
it seems like it might be kind of a creepy
Thomas Jefferson sort of situation there. Yeah, I suspected that
(34:15):
as well. Yeah, So this guy we've talked about, like
or y'all talked about what he did in Oregon. But
after he got done in Oregon, this dude moved to
California and he became in eighteen forty nine the first
governor of California, of the state of California. So California's
very first leader as a state in the Union was
(34:35):
this guy, Peter Burnett, who get a lot of terrible things.
Maybe my favorite thing he did that isn't terrible was
in eighteen fifty he changed Thanksgiving that year from a
Thursday to a Saturday, just because it was better for
him personally. That year a different day. I mean, I can,
I can get behind that. It's always weird to me,
(34:55):
the thanksgivings on a Thursday. Yeah, that that's whimsical. And
but he also tried to bring racial exclusion to California
with the Chinese right well, first with black people. Uh,
he first tried to in his first message to the
California legislature. He called exclusion um like the first important,
like an issue of the first importance, the most important
(35:16):
thing that California could do um because he thought black
people are going to take jobs from white people and
that they would be unhappy in California and cause disruption
because they would be second class citizens. Because he wasn't
gonna let him be anything but second class citizens. So yeah,
he tried to. There were like a thousand black people
already in California, many of them free, and he tried
(35:36):
to have them all kicked out um and to stop
anymore from settling. And that was too racist for eighteen
fifties California. So he lost on that, and he wound
up actually like in eighteen fifty one, quitting being the
governor over this. Because he tried a couple of times
to get California to ban black people and they just
wouldn't do it. And yeah, I mean there's some pretty
(35:58):
pretty racist quotes from him I could read, but that's
probably not necessary. Um, but it is fun to note
that after he was no longer governor and after his
political career was over. Um, as you know, the world
continued to advance and modernize in his old age. Yeah,
his crusade, as you mentioned, was trying to stop the
Chinese from coming to California. So he was just just
(36:21):
comprehensively racist across the board every chance he got, which
is impressive in a terrible way. Yeah, at least you
can say he was consistent. But honestly, good on you, California.
For anyone listening who is in the state right now,
I think that speaks very highly to the character of
(36:41):
the state, even as far back as the eighteen fifties. Uh.
He he also published an autobiography right at some point. Yeah,
that that's where he started ranting about Chinese immigration. Yeah,
but Robert surely he got some sort of amazing come uppense,
right like burned death and a fire, you know, drowned
(37:02):
under a suspicious circumstances. Give me something, A fight with
a locomotive. No, I mean I think he died rich
and old. He was in his eighties or something. Man,
that's a bummer right now. It's just way that's what
always happens with these bastards, right I mean, I bet
you're seeing that a lot, except you did the Cosby episode.
He kind of got has come up us. But even
that's sort of like a pyric victory where it's like
too little, too late for a guy that's been screwing
(37:24):
people over for years, you know, unchecked. Yeah, every now
and then you get a Mussolini or a Kaddafi where
they get dragged down into the street and punished by
the people that they spend decades screwing with. But that's
almost that almost never happens. Usually they die rich in
a villa somewhere. I'm really glad that you said this, Robert,
(37:45):
because I was listening to the Gaddafi episode, which I
thought was fantastic. Uh, And I'm still preparing myself to
check out the Weinstein episode, which is a two parter. Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that one's a big one. What we'd like to do
is again, thank you for giving us more insight on
(38:07):
the life of Peter Hardeman. Burnett screw that guy. Yeah,
I know, right to them that. But we were wondering
if you could tell our if you could tell our
fellow listeners here a little bit more about behind the
Bastards and what they can expect when they tune into
your show. Well, I mean, our goal is to tell
you everything you don't know about the very worst people
(38:29):
in all of history. So you know, you've probably sat
you know, stoned or whatever in your underpants and watched
a lot of documentaries about Hitler on the History Channel
over the years, but you probably don't know that he
based a lot of his military strategies and his like
attitudes on existence in life on a series of young
adult novels that were basically like the German equivalent of
Harry Potter back in the eighteen hundreds. Um, you know.
(38:52):
And and for that matter, while we're on the Savage
of Novelists, You've probably haven't read Saddam Hussein's romance novels,
but I have. And that's one of the things we
get into in this podcast. I referred to it as
erotic fiction. Was that crows that a bridge too far? No, No,
it is very erotic. In fact, there's a long passage
where an elderly woman yells at children about how sexy
mouths are. So that's it's fun. Yeah, aren't those novels
(39:14):
in particular, Uh largely considered these meglomaniacal analogies about his
relationship with the country. Yes, Um, and they're there. It's
one of those weird things. There's a lot of cases,
like with the Kims in North Korea, of art being
credited to dictators who didn't actually make it. Um. Saddam
definitely wrote these books, and we get into that to
(39:36):
an extent, but they're like they're a mix of rants
about modern politics and like utopian fiction. Um. And so
it's like a mix of Saddam screaming at the people
he hates and trying to set up the ideal government
that he never quite got to make an Iraq. It's
it's a really strange insight into what was going on
in the man's head. That's fascinating. I wanna I want
(39:57):
to tune in and no spoilers, but could you tell
us a little bit about some episodes that are coming
up soon? Yeah, today, right now, there is a new
episode on Paul Manafort, part one of which just dropped
in part two of which will be up Thursday. So
that's that's a big one. I check that out. And um,
we've we've been doing an ongoing series about King Leopold
(40:18):
of Belgium and the Congo and we're recording an episode
today about what happened after Leopold, who is one of
the worst people in all the history and doesn't get
you know, enough acknowledgment for just how terrible he was.
And we're also recording an episode about the serial killer
Albert Fish with his one of his descendants. UM, who
is all comedian in l A today, So that's gonna
(40:40):
be fun. Oh man, that's fascinating. Yeah, we've got a good,
good slate. Well, we are going to wrap it up today.
We want to thank you so much for coming on
the show. Robert Evans Friends and Neighbors, the mastermind behind
one of How Stuff Works newest podcasts, Behind the Bastards.
If you like our show, you will of this one.
(41:01):
In the meantime. You can find Noel Casey and I
Robert as well on social media in right, it's everywhere
all over the place with the Facebook and the Instagram. Uh,
still working on the Pinterest page. We haven't fun, we
haven't committed yet, but we'll we'll get their creative differences.
That's true. And you can join our Facebook community at
Ridiculous Historians, where there's all kinds of memory and fun
(41:22):
chats going on all the time. Or if you don't
want to do any of that, you write it's an
email at ridiculous at how stuff works dot com and
we'll see you soon.
Yeah, welcome to the show, ladies and gentlemen. I'm ben No. Wow,
this is like a very standard intro we're trying today. Yeah,
we're going We're going straight for it. But we were
(00:32):
only able to make this show, of course, with the
assistance of our esteemed third member friends and neighbors, super
producer Casey Pegrham. Sort of a vanilla opening, would you
white bread a little homogeneous? Yes? Yes, uh, today we are. Well,
let's let's start in the modern dayn For a long time,
(00:54):
neither of us had ever been to Portland's until pretty recently.
It's true, I only spent a little bit of time there.
I think you had a little bit more of a
fully fleshed out Portland experience. But will you tell me then,
is the dream of the nineties in fact still alive
in Portland? Yes? Uh, I I thoroughly enjoyed the town.
(01:14):
I thought it was surprising. I was diplomatic enough not
to directly mentioned the comedy show Portlandia to anybody that
gets really old. I am sure it does. It's like
when people visit our city and call it Hotlanta. Yeah, well,
I would say this is even more egregious. Probably people
running around, so they put a bird on it. Yes,
(01:35):
and Portland has this national reputation at least for being
a very progressive city. Right, face tattoos are cool. Uh,
marijuana is decriminalized, the streets are paved in marijuana. In fact,
it does have a particular smell, and in general people
(01:56):
would see it as sort of a bastion of left
leaning culture. Yeah, super chill. You know you can you
can buy a sandwich for a song in Portland. Literally,
it doesn't have to be a good song. It's just
a song. A song um or you know, a little
soft shoe or maybe you've got a one man band
(02:17):
kind of Dick van Dyke situation going on that I
did see one man band when I was there. Did
you see that guy? No, I just pulled that out
of my of my ear. Well, you are correct, and
there there are one man band's in Portland. There are
also numerous amazing things, amazing bits of history. One of
our coworkers, a guy named Nathan, is actually from Oregon,
(02:39):
and he assured us that Portland is more of a
cultural exception to the rule nowadays. Yeah, I can see that.
I'm actually wearing my timberline lodge hat right now. But
I bought at the Portland Airport, and as you might imagine,
at the Portland Airport, not a chain restaurant in site,
my friend, all of the shops sell handmade artisanal goods.
(03:00):
I bought some really cute little pieces of pottery there
for me Mom. That's sweet of you, man, and that's
really dope hat. It is a great hat. So it's
safe to say that you and I are are fans
of Portland's and would travel there again in the future,
at least modern Portland's, right right. I don't think I
would want to travel there in a time machine to past. Yes. Yes,
(03:23):
today's episode is about the origins of Oregon Portland in particular,
Wow One Take, or as it's called here. I'm in
some of these articles that we're looking at the Oregon country. Yeah,
Oregon country. That might sound weird to some people. What
is Oregon Country? I kept seeing it and it was
a little weird sounding. It was confusive, but I figured
(03:44):
it out with my internet sleuth skills. Um, what would
now be modern day Oregon, Washington State, and Idaho was
all kind of clustered together in this one big old
chunk of land. Collectively referred to as the Oregon Country. Yeah,
and this was, Um, let's see, way back in eighteen eighteen, right,
the US and Britain agreed to jointly occupy this. Yeah.
(04:08):
That seems like a like an odd couple in a situation. Um.
And then I think the US started getting a little
greedy and being like, you know what, we kind of
want this for our for our own, we turn this
into some states. Yeah, because the British wanted to be
in the area in Oregon Country, mainly to engage in
(04:30):
the fur trade. That's right. And James K. Polk U,
who was an expansionist president, right, Um, really wanted to
make this our own. And and you know, not not share,
not go has these with the Brits anymore. So that
ultimately happened. They negotiated. Uh, they decided it wasn't worth
(04:50):
going to war over the Brits in anyway. And Um,
there was some back and forth. And there's a really
great slogan that the Northerners used. Um. It was fifty
four forty or fight um. And fifty four forty was
talking about the coordinates the latitude that marked the northernmost
(05:12):
part of this territory and During these negotiations, the us
is first proposal was that the territory be cut in half,
right with that, with that border at the forty ninth parallel,
and the British rejected it. And so the expansionists, many
of whom were anti slavery Northerners, which is super important
for this part of the story. Uh, they are the
(05:34):
ones who called for more American aggression. Get out there
be a big dog. Fifty four forty or fight. It's
hard to say you did really well with that bad
fifty forty or fight. It's tough. It's fun when you
really get it right though. It gives you a sense
of accomplishment, as I'm sure they felt when they finally
arrived at a pretty decent deal with the Brits where
(05:54):
they divided the territory along the forty nine parallel. That's
that's pretty close to fifty four. I guess what's the
forty thought forty like minutes? Uh, divisions of degrees. It's
like a decimal kind of yeah, kind of interesting. Interesting.
So this is where we end up with oregon Um needing,
(06:16):
you know, to become a state. And when you become
a state, what do you do? You have to have
a state constitution. And as we know, constitutions are not
generally made overnight. They often reflect common practices, goals, or
even existing laws that are a community has practiced or
written down beforehand. And Oregon had its own pre existing laws.
(06:41):
In eighteen forty four, they passed something called the Exclusion
Law and this was this was enacted by the provisional
government of the region at the time. What what did
the Exclusion Law do? Yeah, it was this guy named
Peter Burnett who was like kind of an Oregon Trail
(07:02):
kind of blazer. I guess Peter Hardeman Burnett. And actually,
spoiler alert, we're gonna dig into him in a little
more detail later in the show for big time foreshadowing.
But here's what this dude did, just just to give
you a taste of what his medicine was like. He
was a former slave owner UM and has has a
really crazy resume, did all kinds of interesting things in
(07:25):
his life. But by all accounts, uh a a alarming,
dastardly racist, virulate racist big time. So this Exclusion law
UM that was enacted sort of pre proper government and
constitution UM basically allowed slaveholders to hold on for dear
(07:46):
life to those slaves for a maximum of up to
three years. And at first I was like, wait, is
this is this because of emancipation? But then no, no,
that that was decades later. This is eighteen forty four.
That wasn't until like the eighteen six and I realized, oh, no,
Oregon outlawed slavery in the territory. Right, But here's the key, UK,
(08:07):
And if your thing is gonna be like, Oh, that's
that's nice, what a great bunch of people. Yeah, okay,
but but there's more. Um So, yeah, this grace period
of three years, but then all of those freed black
people work required to leave. Yeah, that's the thing. The
government of Oregon past this exclusion Law of eighteen forty four,
(08:28):
and in it they did place a ban on slavery
with a requirement that slave owners eventually free their slaves.
But they did this with the understanding that any African
American who remained in Oregon after they were freed would
be flogged, whiplash and forcibly expelled from the country. If
they were caught in the Oregon country again within six months,
(08:53):
then the punishment would be repeated. And then eventually the
law was amended in another version to substitute forced labor,
so essentially slavery instead of flogging, and then it was
repealed in eighteen So this community was so racist that
(09:16):
the they didn't even condone slavery. They were so such
white supremacists they just didn't want them around like at all.
And there's there's some language we'll get into and in
a second, but I do just want to point this out.
The that law you mentioned about about flogging or that
the penalty was called the Burnett lash Law because our
buddy Burnett was so into this that he he wanted
(09:39):
to brand it with his own his name. I was
like his signature thing. And it required that um or
declared rather that offenders who refused to leave would be
punished with quote not less than twenty or more than
thirty nine stripes, and that would that would be a
cycle that would recur every six months until they left. Unfortunately,
(10:03):
this lash law did get amended and repealed, so as
far as we know today, uh no people were ever
lashed as a result of that law. But this was
just the first of three different laws like this that
all were meant to ban people of color from Oregon Country,
(10:24):
which again at that point is like Washington, Oregon and
part of Idaho. It's a huge swath of lands, that's right, um,
And we're getting some of this information from a fe
different places. One of my favorites was a Washington Post
article by Danne L. Brown called when Portland band Black's
Oregon's shameful history as an all white state, whereas I've
seen it referred to as an all white utopia. Kind
(10:48):
of right, they were after at least there's this weird
history of intentional communities and utopian thinking in Oregon. So
it's not not all examples of racist but this definitely
was the idea for the people who were supporting this
concept was that somehow society would be better if they
(11:08):
all felt like if they all somehow identified with the
same ethnicity. Now, did they have the same sort of
racism that would be common in the Northeast at the time,
wherein for instance, Italian or Irish immigrants or children of
those immigrants are still considered not wide enough. I don't know,
(11:29):
but what was on the books was a specifically targeting
people of color. In eighteen, this provisional or territorial government
passed the law making it illegal for any quote negro
or mulatto to live in Oregon Country. But they did
(11:50):
have a provision for people who had Native American blood,
which they weirdly referred to as half breeds. Um, because
they're despicable people. They are to big old people. But
it's interesting that only all it takes is just just
get a little white in you. They really didn't like
black people. Yeah, that's what it boils down to. All
right then, Yeah, so it's state time, baby, here we go.
(12:11):
What do you need to make a state? As we
established earlier, Yeah, you need um, you gotta have some dirt. Um,
you gotta have a delineation between your dirt and the
other people's dirt. You have to have some people in
both sides so that you can differentiate a constitution. There
we go. Yes, in eighteen fifty seven, the government of
what would become Oregon was working on its constitution. They
(12:33):
did a couple of things. Uh, they grossly plagiarized constitutions
from other states at the time. That's you know, you're
just gonna be some of that, right. Constitution is not
exactly a great work of poetry that you you know,
pilfering from is is look down upon it. So that's
almost sort of like stealing a boilerplate release form or
(12:54):
you know. Yeah, I think that's a very good point,
being that Oregon was going to be a state in
the US and have voters and such. They asked about
ten thousand residents to vote on the new state constitution,
(13:16):
and they had three questions, burning questions, turning questions. One,
do you vote for the constitution? Overwhelmingly voters supported it.
Two do you vote for slavery in Oregon? And the
voters of Oregon rejected the institution of slavery by a
pretty wide margin, also pretty overwhelmingly. Uh. And then three,
(13:38):
and this is a quote again, this is problematic language.
They say, do you vote for free negroes in Oregon?
And the answer was, oh, yeah, it was. It was
a now. Yeah, it was a big now. And they
explicitly baked in this racist language into their constitution. In fact,
we have a quote from the state constitution. Yes, it
(14:01):
goes as such, again quoting some offensive language here. Quote,
no free negro or mulatto not residing in this state
at the time of the adoption of this constitution shall
ever come reside or be within this state or hold
any real estate, or make any contract, or maintain any
(14:23):
suit therein, and the Legislative Assembly shall provide by penal
laws for the removal by public officers of all such
free negroes and mulatto's, and for their effectual exclusion from
the state, and for the punishment of persons who shall
bring them into the state or employ or harbor them.
They're in right, that is bonkers. It is categorical as well,
(14:47):
So pay attention for to that very last lying where
it says that anyone who helps a person of color
is also guilty in the eyes of Oregon law. And
that's that's a terrifying thing. But it passed. People were supportive.
Oregon became a state in eighteen fifty nine, and it
was the only state in history, only state, only state
(15:11):
in history so far that entered as a whites only state,
so anti slavery, but only because they were such white supremacists.
And that's mind boggling. People in Portland are so nice. Yeah,
it really does blow my mind, and it makes me
wonder like why, like Mississippi didn't try to do anything
like this, Probably because they were just too many black
(15:32):
people already living there. It was just it would have
been like a massive round up kind of like deportation
kind of situation, and they were economically dependent that controlling
powers of the state were economically dependent on this, because
it feels like Oregon was probably pretty largely white already,
and then the slaves that were there were kind of
(15:53):
like imported kind of for that purpose. And then then
they free them and they give them the boot, and
and this largely worked. There were a couple of examples though,
of folks trying to get around it, not very many, though,
and one in particular of somebody being kicked out pretty hanously.
(16:14):
Yeah Vanderpool, right, that's right. Yeah, in eighteen fifty one,
before the Constitution was written and before Oregon became a
US state, but after these exclusion laws were in full swing,
the owner of a saloon, restaurant and boarding home, a
fellow named Jacob Vanderpool, was forcibly expelled from the territory,
(16:36):
not because he did anything wrong, just because he was
not white. Yeah. That's pretty oh boy, Okay, he was
literally according to Salem Public Library records, it was literally
quote reported for the crime of being black in Oregon,
and Judge Thomas Nelson gave him thirty days to leave
the territory. Yeah, I'm sorry, I keep pausing because this
(16:59):
is just like hurting my my brain, UM and my heart.
In an article from How Stuff Works, we spoke to
Walita in Marisha, who is a professor in Black Studies
at Portland State University UM, and she actually travels around
Oregon kind of working on nurturing some positive connections with
the African American community and in Oregon, because it's still
(17:22):
spoiler alert to this day, pretty largely white. But here's
how she sums up the whole thing. Quote, Oregon was
birthed at this intersection of being anti slavery and anti black.
But in no way was Oregon anti slavery because they
believed in racial justice. They were anti slavery because they
considered this to be white man's land, and they came
to build a racist white utopia. Their goal was to
(17:44):
keep out or push out all people of color. Right,
and you will see multiple academics who explain that Portland's
reputation as a progressive city is, in their opinion, largely
a myth. Winston Grady Willis, who's director of Portland State
University's School of Gender, Race, and Nations points out that
(18:09):
as of July, the city had six hundred and twelve thousand,
two hundred and six people, seventy seven point six percent white,
five eight percent black, and Grady Willis went on further
to call it a key site for clan activity. We
know the clan was very active there in the early
nineteen hundreds as well. Yeah, I mean apparently members of
(18:29):
the clan were actually cops. Yeah, they were deputized. Yeah,
like like like as though they were sort of a
para military organization, given the same powers as like law enforcement. Right.
So not not a pretty scene, but there is good
news here. This is a story of oppression, but it
(18:52):
is also a story of inspiration and righteous struggle for
justice and equality. There there was this great documentary called
Local Color, which traces the history of racism in Oregon
and the actions of people who are working for civil
rights in the area. And of course this you know,
(19:14):
this center is often on Portland itself, as it is
the capital city of the state UM And to be honest, folks,
there are some pretty disturbing stories in that documentary, but
if you would like to learn more, we highly recommend
you check it out. It is available for free online,
So thanks again public television. And so the Fourteenth Amendment happened, um,
(19:39):
and surprise, surprise, Oregon was one of I think only
six states in the Union that voted against it. And
I had forgotten what the fourteenth Amendment is, but it
is really hella important is what it says, All persons
born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to
the jurisdiction thereof our citizen ends of the United States,
(20:01):
and of the state wherein they reside. Um, no State
shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. Nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law, nor denied to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of law. So
this completely neutered these exclusion rules, right, So this was
(20:25):
passed by Congress in eighteen sixty six, and the explicit
intention there is to safeguard the rights of recently manumitted
or freed people in the South, where a lot of
the white population is working hard to still subjugate them
still somehow practice chattel slavery enforced labor. So Oregon actually
(20:49):
because it was a divisive issue. Oregon ratified the fourteenth
Amendment by a very narrow margin in eighteen sixty six,
with two legislators prote testing that the amendment would quote change,
if not entirely destroy, the Republican form of government under
which we live and crush American liberty. They also around
(21:11):
the same time past law of banning misagenation or interracial marriages. Surelely, Ben,
there's some sort of fun food fact we can pull
out now to lighten the mood a little bit. Wait,
where do we go from here? Well, we have We've
got one more thing I have to had. There's a
great paper by Cheryl A. Brooks called Race Politics and Denial.
(21:32):
Why Oregon forgot to ratify the fourteenth Amendment Because you see,
although they ratified it in eighteen sixty six, in eighteen
sixty eight, the legislature rescinded that ratification, and they did
so on a technicality, so they were still in an
(21:53):
uncertain situation. In fact, these laws, or some version of
these exclusions laws stayed on the books until what nineteen twenties, Yeah, exactly,
I think it was like twenty four or something like that.
It's insane but we do have luckily a happy ending
progress grinds on. Yeah, except sorry, a guy named Walter Pierce,
(22:17):
who was a clan member, was elected governor of Oregon.
And there's this great quote in this article from the
Washington Post as well that just kind of goes back
into the history of this talking about how many of
the Jim Crow laws um that you see in the
South were kind of encouraged there and like legal Yeah,
(22:39):
they still try to do de facto acts of oppression
and segregation. And again, I can't recommend that documentary enough
because it contains interview It's only about an hour long.
You can find it through op b dot org. It
contains interviews with people who survived these circumstances. I feel
(23:01):
like we're almost wrapping up on this, but there are
a couple more things that we need to mention. Yeah, well,
just the fact that you know, it's come a long way, obviously,
and Portland's still does have that reputation as being a
pretty culturally interesting UM dream of the nineties kind of plays.
But and even like in the eighties and nineties, especially
(23:23):
in Portland, it was very dangerous to be UM a
person of color. This Washington post article mentions the fact
that it was just a hotbed of skinhead movement and
white supremacy. And I'm not sure if you've seen the
movie Green Room that would come. Patrick Stewart plays the
(23:44):
head of this neo Nazi group that has like a
punk rock house out in the woods, and it's pretty
intense and awful and and really really cool, little slice
of life kind of I don't know, it's a horror
in that there's a lot of crazy stuff that happens,
but it's really just more like a very contained, claustrophobic
movie where it all kind of takes place in this
one on space Phil Like it's a more almost more
(24:06):
of a thriller. Yeah, yeah, it's it's so weird seeing
Patrick Stewart play a psychotic neo not a very restrained,
subtle performance from Patrick as well, I just call him Patrick,
but uh yeah, but it's true. It's so Oregon in
the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties became a destination for
the largest skinhead movement in the country, according to several scholars,
(24:31):
and you can see, unfortunately no shortage of stories of
racially motivated hate crimes. Yeah, there was that guy recently
who was arrested for I believe, stabbing some people to
death on a light rail train. Um, when he, uh,
some folks came to the aid of a African American
woman and a Muslim woman who he was shouting racial
(24:51):
epithets at and then he like stabbed several people. And
this happened like last year. Um. And his name is
Jeremy Joseph Christian and yeah, when he goes to this hearing, Um,
he walks into the courtroom and immediately starts rambling and
saying free speech or die Portland's you call it terrorism,
I call it patriotism. Right, So the circumstances of this
(25:12):
event where the following he was shouting religious slurs at
several people, he fatally stabbed two people and wounded one other.
This is indefensible. This is very much not what free speeches.
It isn't strange how some of the most ardent supporters
(25:33):
of so called free speech completely don't understand what it is. Yeah, no,
it really is. And and admittedly this guy does seem
like he's got some um mental illness going on. I'm
sure that's just me speculating, but um, it's sad, sad case.
And a sad example of how these kind of attitudes
are around and possibly uh given a little more fuel
(25:56):
on the fire considering some of the you know, nazi
neo Nazi marches we're seeing in Charlottesville, and some of
these attitudes that have may become a little more into
the forefront of not acceptability, but at least just kind
of are being a little more mainstream these days. So um,
it's interesting to see where it came from in a
place like the Pacific Northwest, which might surprise a lot
(26:18):
of people. The long story short, too late. The exclusion
clause that we examined today was ultimately removed from Oregon's
constitution in nineteen seven. However, as we I think I
pretty clearly established that did not remove the actual practices
(26:41):
of racial segregation and discrimination. But there's one thing, one
more thing I think we should add. Because we we've
been talking about the states, right, we've been talking about
the territory, we've been talking about the people, but we
have yet to talk in detail about the I who
was at the forefront of it all. We've yet to
(27:04):
talk in detail about Peter Hardeman Burnett, who some would
call a real bastard. Yeah, and he also managed to
make it all the way down the Oregon Trail and
not even get right or die of exposure. Yeah, he
was just a dick. Well how about this, This is
a surprise that we Nolan Casey I worked on for
(27:27):
you all off air. What if we have a little
extra credit? That's right, folks, extra credit the segment where
and we um get you know, some human person that's
tangentially familiar with the topic by varying degrees. My favorite
(27:48):
of late has been the Colonel Gladwin Bowling. Oh boy, man,
he really he really set the Internet on fire with
that segment. I love Gladwin. I led him into the
Facebook group votes. So I hope we're all still cool.
Did you create a monster? I don't know. I don't know. Well,
today we have another quite informed gentleman joining us, the
(28:10):
host of the new house Stuff Work show Behind the Bastards,
which does deep dives into horrible people throughout history, from
Saddam Hussein's um hobby writing erotic fiction to Hitler's spanking fetish.
I Believe Friends and Neighbors, ben If I May, Robert Evans,
Hey'll Haw's it cracking, man, It's It's it's weird. It's
(28:33):
just weird. There's been a lot of like silent headshaking
on this episode, which doesn't really translate super well on
the podcast, but yeah, who knew. Yeah, I mean we're
talking about Oregon, which is if you like, yeah, if
you go to like Portland or whatever it seems on
the up and up. I've spent a lot of the
last three years in like rural southern Oregon, and it's
(28:54):
it's a pretty racist place. Like Josephine County where I was,
is chock full in the Fazis. There are quite a
lot of them out there, so it's it's it's a
fascinating place even in the modern day. Oh yeah, yeah,
tons of them. It's one of the most racist counties
and one of the highest densities of hate groups anywhere
in the United States. Chock full of Nazis. As it
(29:14):
turns out, not a good coffee, no terrible coffee, and
terrible craft beer that the Nazis make. Yeah. So when
we when we originally talked off air, Robert, one of
the things that we were very interested in, both as
colleagues but also as fans of your show was seeing
(29:35):
whether there was a specific person associated with the supremacist
origins of Oregon, kind of setting the tone that we
could we could learn a little bit more about with you.
And you found the guy right, Oh my god, I
sure did I think Peter Burnett? I think Peter was
(29:55):
his first name. Uh yeah, just a tremendous piece of crap.
Uh And maybe, like you know, there's a long list
of of super racist politicians in American history, but he's
in the running for most racist. Uh he's he's he's
definitely like in that conversation for sure. Yeah, we set
him up briefly as just having been the one that
(30:16):
kind of came up with the idea of these exclusionary
laws early on before Oregon became a state. And he
loved this idea so much that he named it after himself,
the Burnett Lash Law, which um permitted black people who
refused to leave the state to be given lashes like
every every six months, six months or something like that.
(30:36):
And he loved it so much, thought was such a
genius idea, the Burnett Lash Law. Yeah, he was so
proud of his his whipping people rule that he stuck
his name on it, which is a special kind of
of terrible um, But he was actually like a violent
jerk way before he went to Oregon. When he was
still living in Clear Creek, Tennessee, he was a shop owner,
like a general store owner. He suspected this enslaved black
(30:59):
man was very now and then breaking into his store
at night to drink from his whiskey barrel because they
stored whiskey and barrels back then. It was a it
was a different time. So he, rather than like taking
any of the other actions you might take in this situation,
he sets a trap using a rifle with like a
string tied to the trigger, tied to the window shutter,
so that when the guy crawled in in the middle
(31:20):
of the night, this rifle shot him dead. And he
wasn't charged with the crime because it was an enslaved man,
and he said he was sorry. But that's like Peter
Burnett before he gets into politics. They must have had
like a stand your ground law back in those days too.
I guess I just don't think they had laws, you know,
you're talking about the eighteen twenties or whatever, like there
was no rules. And that's such a cartoonish, uh sort
(31:43):
of rupe goldberg S kind of contraps. Yeah, he probably
got the kit from ACME. That's insane. Okay, go on
give us some more. So one of his early jobs
before he gets off to Oregon, I think, after he
murders this guy with a Looney Tunes trap is he's
a lawyer. And some of his probably the most prominent clients,
were Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon religion, and all
(32:05):
of Joseph Smith's you know, apostles or whatever, all of
his friends because they were on trial for kind of
sort of fomenting a frontier war that had had broken
out in and around Mazra. And so he he is
these guys lawyer, and his main achievement as a lawyer
seems to be getting the venue changed that the court
case was being held in. And this venue change allowed
(32:25):
Joseph Smith and all of his guys to escape and
run away. Uh and and yeah, so that that's his
career as a lawyer before he gets on that first
big wagon train to Oregon for the Great Migration and whatnot. Yeah,
so y'all already covered. Yeah, he made the last law.
He made the exclusion law, um, which he was he
was an abolitionist. But he's like an interesting like we
(32:47):
we think when we when you hear about abolitionists in
the pre Civil War area, you usually think about just
the few people who would have been like on the
right side of history. But some of them were just
abolitionists because they were that racist. They were so racist.
And that was Peter Burnett. He was abolitionist that because
he didn't like the idea of their being black people
anywhere in his state. Uh. And he thought that slave
(33:09):
labor was bad for white people. So he was like,
he wound up the right conclusion, which is that slavery
was a bad thing, but he wound up there through
like the most racist chain of logic that he could
have possibly gotten to, which is always interesting to me.
That was a sentiment that was big time shared by
the majority of people in Oregon because they did incorporate
and become a state. Um, the majority of people voted
(33:31):
against slavery, but also for ousting all the freed black people. Yeah.
And I did find when I was doing my research
that in eighteen forty at least Burnett had two of
the slaves of his own. And this is back when
he was living in Missouri, UM. And there's some evidence
that when he immigrated to Oregon. He tried to bring
one slave with him, a young girl who drowned in
(33:53):
the Columbia River during the voyage. So not a lot
of It's kind of an enticing piece of like what
was went on there, but that that's all the infro
I found so far on that, right, because she was
projected to be somewhere between ten to twenty four or something. Yeah,
it seems like it might be kind of a creepy
Thomas Jefferson sort of situation there. Yeah, I suspected that
(34:15):
as well. Yeah, So this guy we've talked about, like
or y'all talked about what he did in Oregon. But
after he got done in Oregon, this dude moved to
California and he became in eighteen forty nine the first
governor of California, of the state of California. So California's
very first leader as a state in the Union was
(34:35):
this guy, Peter Burnett, who get a lot of terrible things.
Maybe my favorite thing he did that isn't terrible was
in eighteen fifty he changed Thanksgiving that year from a
Thursday to a Saturday, just because it was better for
him personally. That year a different day. I mean, I can,
I can get behind that. It's always weird to me,
(34:55):
the thanksgivings on a Thursday. Yeah, that that's whimsical. And
but he also tried to bring racial exclusion to California
with the Chinese right well, first with black people. Uh,
he first tried to in his first message to the
California legislature. He called exclusion um like the first important,
like an issue of the first importance, the most important
(35:16):
thing that California could do um because he thought black
people are going to take jobs from white people and
that they would be unhappy in California and cause disruption
because they would be second class citizens. Because he wasn't
gonna let him be anything but second class citizens. So yeah,
he tried to. There were like a thousand black people
already in California, many of them free, and he tried
(35:36):
to have them all kicked out um and to stop
anymore from settling. And that was too racist for eighteen
fifties California. So he lost on that, and he wound
up actually like in eighteen fifty one, quitting being the
governor over this. Because he tried a couple of times
to get California to ban black people and they just
wouldn't do it. And yeah, I mean there's some pretty
(35:58):
pretty racist quotes from him I could read, but that's
probably not necessary. Um, but it is fun to note
that after he was no longer governor and after his
political career was over. Um, as you know, the world
continued to advance and modernize in his old age. Yeah,
his crusade, as you mentioned, was trying to stop the
Chinese from coming to California. So he was just just
(36:21):
comprehensively racist across the board every chance he got, which
is impressive in a terrible way. Yeah, at least you
can say he was consistent. But honestly, good on you, California.
For anyone listening who is in the state right now,
I think that speaks very highly to the character of
(36:41):
the state, even as far back as the eighteen fifties. Uh.
He he also published an autobiography right at some point. Yeah,
that that's where he started ranting about Chinese immigration. Yeah,
but Robert surely he got some sort of amazing come uppense,
right like burned death and a fire, you know, drowned
(37:02):
under a suspicious circumstances. Give me something, A fight with
a locomotive. No, I mean I think he died rich
and old. He was in his eighties or something. Man,
that's a bummer right now. It's just way that's what
always happens with these bastards, right I mean, I bet
you're seeing that a lot, except you did the Cosby episode.
He kind of got has come up us. But even
that's sort of like a pyric victory where it's like
too little, too late for a guy that's been screwing
(37:24):
people over for years, you know, unchecked. Yeah, every now
and then you get a Mussolini or a Kaddafi where
they get dragged down into the street and punished by
the people that they spend decades screwing with. But that's
almost that almost never happens. Usually they die rich in
a villa somewhere. I'm really glad that you said this, Robert,
(37:45):
because I was listening to the Gaddafi episode, which I
thought was fantastic. Uh, And I'm still preparing myself to
check out the Weinstein episode, which is a two parter. Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that one's a big one. What we'd like to do
is again, thank you for giving us more insight on
(38:07):
the life of Peter Hardeman. Burnett screw that guy. Yeah,
I know, right to them that. But we were wondering
if you could tell our if you could tell our
fellow listeners here a little bit more about behind the
Bastards and what they can expect when they tune into
your show. Well, I mean, our goal is to tell
you everything you don't know about the very worst people
(38:29):
in all of history. So you know, you've probably sat
you know, stoned or whatever in your underpants and watched
a lot of documentaries about Hitler on the History Channel
over the years, but you probably don't know that he
based a lot of his military strategies and his like
attitudes on existence in life on a series of young
adult novels that were basically like the German equivalent of
Harry Potter back in the eighteen hundreds. Um, you know.
(38:52):
And and for that matter, while we're on the Savage
of Novelists, You've probably haven't read Saddam Hussein's romance novels,
but I have. And that's one of the things we
get into in this podcast. I referred to it as
erotic fiction. Was that crows that a bridge too far? No, No,
it is very erotic. In fact, there's a long passage
where an elderly woman yells at children about how sexy
mouths are. So that's it's fun. Yeah, aren't those novels
(39:14):
in particular, Uh largely considered these meglomaniacal analogies about his
relationship with the country. Yes, Um, and they're there. It's
one of those weird things. There's a lot of cases,
like with the Kims in North Korea, of art being
credited to dictators who didn't actually make it. Um. Saddam
definitely wrote these books, and we get into that to
(39:36):
an extent, but they're like they're a mix of rants
about modern politics and like utopian fiction. Um. And so
it's like a mix of Saddam screaming at the people
he hates and trying to set up the ideal government
that he never quite got to make an Iraq. It's
it's a really strange insight into what was going on
in the man's head. That's fascinating. I wanna I want
(39:57):
to tune in and no spoilers, but could you tell
us a little bit about some episodes that are coming
up soon? Yeah, today, right now, there is a new
episode on Paul Manafort, part one of which just dropped
in part two of which will be up Thursday. So
that's that's a big one. I check that out. And um,
we've we've been doing an ongoing series about King Leopold
(40:18):
of Belgium and the Congo and we're recording an episode
today about what happened after Leopold, who is one of
the worst people in all the history and doesn't get
you know, enough acknowledgment for just how terrible he was.
And we're also recording an episode about the serial killer
Albert Fish with his one of his descendants. UM, who
is all comedian in l A today, So that's gonna
(40:40):
be fun. Oh man, that's fascinating. Yeah, we've got a good,
good slate. Well, we are going to wrap it up today.
We want to thank you so much for coming on
the show. Robert Evans Friends and Neighbors, the mastermind behind
one of How Stuff Works newest podcasts, Behind the Bastards.
If you like our show, you will of this one.
(41:01):
In the meantime. You can find Noel Casey and I
Robert as well on social media in right, it's everywhere
all over the place with the Facebook and the Instagram. Uh,
still working on the Pinterest page. We haven't fun, we
haven't committed yet, but we'll we'll get their creative differences.
That's true. And you can join our Facebook community at
Ridiculous Historians, where there's all kinds of memory and fun
(41:22):
chats going on all the time. Or if you don't
want to do any of that, you write it's an
email at ridiculous at how stuff works dot com and
we'll see you soon.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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