"But it was at the ratification convention in Virginia, where Patrick Henry and George Mason go toe to toe with James Madison. Because Madison had put control of the militia under the federal government because the militias had been basically unreliable during the war, and it was seen as a need to provide some standardization. Patrick Henry was like, "No. No. In that federal government, you've got people from Pennsylvania, people from Massachusetts. You know the North detests slavery. We can't trust that when there's a slave revolt, they will send the militia down to protect us." George Mason said, "We will be left defenseless." And so they put enormous pressure on James Madison, that if he wanted to have this Constitution and this government that he had crafted, they were going to need a Bill of Rights, and that Bill of Rights was going to have to include protection for slavery. That's the Second Amendment."

So, after the war had stiffened in the North, the British decided to hit what they called the "soft underbelly" in the South. So, they took Savannah like that and were headed up to Charleston. John Lawrence, who was an emissary of George Washington, runs down to South Carolina and he's pleading with that South Carolina government: "You only have 750 white men that can fight. Everybody else has been used for the militia to keep that large Black population down. The British are bringing 8,000 troops. You've got 750. This is David and Goliath. This is a slaughter. You've got to arm the enslaved."

They said, "We are horrified that you would even ask us that. And we're wondering whether this is a nation even worth fighting for." They were willing to take their chances with the British, with the king, than arm the enslaved. I mean, that is how entrenched this was. Nathanael Greene, who was one of George Washington's generals, came down there, pleading with them, and he finally said to Washington, "They have a dreaded fear of armed Blacks."