Africa & Iran Just Sent America a LEGO Message to Black Americans: The Ship That Stole Our Ancestors

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:03]Before there was a plantation, there was a ship.

[00:00:07]Before there was a chain on the ankle, >> [singing] >> there was a chain on the neck.

[00:00:13]Before America, >> [music and singing] >> there was the Jesus of Lubeck.

[00:00:20]>> [music] >> And they put God's name on the hull.

[00:00:26]They crossed the ocean in the belly of a ship named after [music] God.

[00:00:31]They arrived with nothing left but breath in a body full of scars. [music] Every ancestor who survived carried wounds that never closed.

[00:00:45]The Jesus slave ship crossed the water [music] in 1564. They stripped our people of their names before they reached the shore. [music] They sold a mother from a daughter for the price of a silver coin.

[00:01:00]They built an entire nation on the blood of Every soul that came aboard the Jesus slave ship >> [music] >> had God's name on a vessel half [music] with chains.

[00:01:13]The Jesus slave ship >> [music] >> had nothing holy ever crossed those waves.

[00:01:21]>> [music] >> Yo, huh.

[00:01:23]Henry the VIII commissioned the vessel around 1544.

[00:01:27]Queen Elizabeth the first saw the profit Hawkins brought in. She wanted [music] more. She personally invested in the voyage and never asked what the Africans died for. Hawkins sailed to [music] Sierra Leone in 1562 and he did not trade. He took 300 people by force [music] and packed them into the hull like cargo and grain. They could not stand. They could not [music] turn. They breathed the air of the dying for weeks.

[00:01:51]Mothers held their children in the dark not knowing what waited on the other side [music] of the sea. The ones who survived arrived in Hispaniola with no name and no language recognized. The buyers walked among them and inspected [music] them the way a farmer inspects livestock market. Hawkins returned to London with silver and the queen congratulated his profit. She [music] funded the second voyage with the Jesus of Lübeck as the flagship and they did it all again. 400 [music] more Africans chained below the waterline in the belly of a ship named after Christ. Fathers watched [music] their sons get separated at the point of in the record. Only loaded the price.

[00:02:28][music] >> They crossed the ocean in the belly of a ship named after God. They arrived with nothing left but breathe and a body [music] full of scars. Every ancestor who survived CARRIED WOUNDS THAT NEVER CLOSED.

[00:02:45]>> [screaming] >> THE Jesus slave ship crossed the water [music] in 1564. They stripped our people of their names. Before [music] they reached the shore, they sold a mother from a daughter for the price of a silver coin.

[00:03:01]>> They [music] built an entire nation on the blood of every soul that came aboard the Jesus slave [music] ship.

[00:03:09]Had God's name on a vessel had them >> [music] >> the Jesus slave ship in locked and holding ever.

[00:03:23]>> [music] >> Yes. Uh The third voyage launched in 1567 with the same ship [music] and the same mission. 500 more Africans seized from West Africa with documented military precision. The middle passage was 6 to 8 weeks of people chained [music] to the floor of a hold. The living lay beside the dead because there was no space to separate the dying from the full. Children who stopped [music] eating were force-fed so they would survive long enough to be sold. Some jumped into the Atlantic Ocean because [music] death was more dignified than what they were told in 1568. The Spanish attacked the San Juan de Ulúa and as she began to sink, Hawkins abandoned the vessel and the Africans [music] still locked below and left without a second think. He sailed back to England and Queen [music] Elizabeth the first knighted him for service to the crown.

[00:04:07]She gave him a coat of arms with a bound African figure on it and that image was never taken down and they wrote in the law that every person he sold [music] can never be taught to read a single word. 1740 in South Carolina made the education [music] of enslaved people a punishable criminal act. Virginia, North [music] Carolina followed and no one in power said there was anything wrong with that. [music] They legislated ignorance because knowledge produces resistance.

[00:04:36]And resistance >> [music] >> threatened the contract.

[00:04:40]They stole the continent [singing] of children and gave the ship the name of the Lord beyond the reach so the truth of what they did can never be restored. They knighted the man who carried [music] out the theft. And inscribed his crime on the royal crest.

[00:04:55]They buried the documented history under silence and called the burial progress.

[00:05:01]There were mothers on that ship [music] who never saw their children again.

[00:05:06]There were elders who died in the hold.

[00:05:09]>> The fortitude ship reached the chain.

[00:05:11][music] There were children who FORGOT THEIR MOTHER TONGUE. Because England erased it by design. There are descendants of [music] those people alive today.

[00:05:21]Still living inside >> [music] >> that same system's confines.

[00:05:26]Yeah. John Hawkins moved over 1200 [music] Africans in six years of royal sponsored trade. Queen Elizabeth the first collected a portion on every single soul that was weighed. England built this generational [music] wealth on a foundation of documented human theft. And the people's ancestors were on that ship still demanding [music] what is left.

[00:05:50]>> [music] >> The Jesus of Lübeck is a real ship, Henry.

[00:05:56]The VIII purchased it. Hmm.

[00:06:00]>> [singing and music] >> In 1544, King Henry the VIII purchased the large warship called the Jesus of Lübeck, Queen.

[00:06:21]>> [music] >> Elizabeth the first leased it to John Hawkins >> [singing] >> who used it to transport [music] stolen Africans >> [singing] >> across the Atlantic Ocean.

[00:06:36]Yeah.

[00:06:38]They named the ship Jesus.

[00:06:41]>> [music] >> But there was no salvation on board.

[00:06:47]They packed our ancestors in chains below the deck of the England set sail for profit and Africa >> [music] >> paid the full cost.

[00:07:07]>> [music] >> The Jesus slave ship sailed in 1564.

[00:07:12]>> They stole our people directly from the African [music] shore. John Hawkins took 400 and sold them all on arrival. Queen Elizabeth the first received her cut [music] and called the transaction survival. The Jesus slave ship was constructed on stolen black lives. [music] The Jesus slave ship was the exact place where [singing] humanity died. The Jesus of Lübeck was built [music] in Germany in the early 1500s. Henry the VIII purchased for the Royal Navy around 1544.

[00:07:46]It was a large warship [music] also used for merchant trade and commerce. Queen Elizabeth I leased it [music] directly to a merchant named John Hawkins.

[00:07:56]Hawkins launched his first voyage [music] in 1562 without the Jesus ship.

[00:08:00]He traveled to Sierra Leone and forcibly seized approximately [singing] 300 Africans. He transported them to [music] Hispaniola and sold them to Spanish colonists for profit. He returned to England with enormous financial [singing and music] gain and the Queen collected a portion. His second voyage launched in 1564 with the Jesus of Lubeck as the flagship. He returned [music] to the West African coast and seized over 400 more people. [music and singing] He held them below the deck in conditions specifically designed to break the human body. There was no room [music] to stand, no clean water, and disease spread rapidly through the hull. He sold them in [music] the Caribbean colonies in exchange for silver, gold, and goods.

[00:08:41]Queen Elizabeth I received a direct financial [music] portion of every enslaved person sold on that voyage. She was a documented investor in the organized buying and selling of African [music] human beings.

[00:08:54]England called this activity international trade.

[00:08:58]But it was the systematic theft of human lives. They named the ship Jesus.

[00:09:03][music] But there was no salvation ON BOARD.

[00:09:09]THEY PACKED OUR ANCESTORS IN CHAINS >> [singing] >> below the deck of the Lord.

[00:09:18]England set sail for profit.

[00:09:20]And Africa >> [music] >> paid the full cost.

[00:09:30]The Jesus slave [music] ship set sail in 1564.

[00:09:35]He stole our people directly [music] from African shore.

[00:09:42]And sold [music] them all on arrival.

[00:09:50]>> [music] >> Was constructed on stolen black lives.

[00:09:56]>> [music] >> Was the exact place where humanity died.

[00:10:00]The third voyage [music] launched in 1567 with the Jesus of Lubeck once again. Hawkins captured between 400 and 500 Africans on this particular trip.

[00:10:09]The middle passage [music] was the documented name given to the route crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

[00:10:14]Enslaved Africans were physically shackled together >> [music] >> at the bottom of the ship with no space.

[00:10:19]Many died from dysentery, smallpox, and severe dehydration during the weeks-long crossing. [music] In 1568, the Spanish fleet launched an attack at the port of San Juan de Ulúa. The Jesus of Lubeck sustained [music] critical damage and Hawkins abandoned the vessel to the Spanish. After returning to England, John Hawkins was [music] formally knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. His official royal coat of arms was specifically designed to include a bound African [music] figure.

[00:10:49]>> [music] >> The enslaved people Hawkins sold were later prohibited by law from learning to read or write. In 1740, [music] South Carolina >> [music] >> Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina passed >> [music] >> Reading was outlawed.

[00:11:19]>> [music] >> And then they came back and stole the mind.

[00:11:23]>> [music] >> And kept entire generations confined.

[00:11:29]>> [music] >> Of a system constructed entirely on lies.

[00:11:35]So, they placed the name of God [music and singing] on that vessel.

[00:11:39]But God was never on that ship.

[00:11:42]>> [music] >> John Hawkins completed three documented voyages between [music] 1562 and 1568.

[00:11:52]He forced to be transported over 1,200 Africans [singing] across the Atlantic [music] during those six years.

[00:11:58]England accumulated generational national wealth directly from the labor of [music] those stolen people. The royal family held financial investment [music] in every slave trading transaction >> [music] >> that was completed.

[00:12:15]That full documented history was never placed inside the standard educational curriculum. [music] It was deliberately removed from the record and replaced with institutional [music] silence.

[00:12:28]The Jesus There's never a slave ship.

[00:12:33]It's not a story. [music] A better wooden vessel.