In the 1800s Detroit was labeled the most beautiful city in America. I used to have a 1st hand edition of the book made back then by Silas Farmer, the cities Historiographer and published in 1884. It had the history of Wayne County and Detroit and illustrations of every house on Woodward, Jefferson Ave and so many other streets including their addresses, who lived there at the time the book was made and year the house was made. It also had businesses and illustrations of them and their addresses and even more like wars, battles, manners, customs and marriage laws. It had over a thousand illustrations and over 1400 pages. The book was completely mind blowing. Especially the illustrations of the houses. There's perhaps 4 or 5 of the houses still in existence from back then.
I grew up in Detroit in the 70s and 80s. My grandparents immigrated from Italy there in the 30s and what a huge difference there was from when they owned their first home in 1945 vs. me having to enter high school as one of THREE WHITE kids in 1988! Good times...good times for some...not especially great for me till I got out of there in my twenties
@@Mw-tr2oz it was Democrats in unions that Destroyed Detroit our greedy unions demands drove businesses elsewhere but Detroit don't blame the auto industry in don't blame the black people
Detroit is perhaps the coolest American City. It has a well laid out downtown with iconic Woodward enveloping Campus Martius Park with music in the air, right downtown, surrounded by a free monorail, very green too. Bundle this in with Strait and the boats and the ever present sound of Motown in the back ground there is nothing else like it. Perhaps most of all Dtwah has captured the imagination, why we still talk about it so much.
Really well done. Strong example of a narrative lens along a timeline. It's not history though, because history doesn't strap you into an amusement park pod riding along a rail. This is more like The History Experience, The Story of History.
I think you summarized things well. There are SO MANY HEAVY HITTER THOUGH that I wish you could include soo much more. 1943 riots were a big one too. I really loved when the music intensified with Henry Ford's quadricycle. That was a nice touch. Also, wish you had a map that showed the location of Fort Shelby over the wagon spoke map. It's pretty cool to see where it once was.
Starting in 1915 the demeanor and tensions of the South started coming north. In 1900 Detroit was a peaceful and prosperous place. Cultures weren't fighting with each other. Read the last chapter of "The Morans 150 years in Detroit" by John Bell Moran.
Outstanding job on this video. Keep it up. Shame it only garnered 15k views in a year but good quality work will eventually find an audience (unless youtube shadow-bans your content).
Read, "Slaughter of Cities," by E Michael Jones to understand how a city like Detroit was brought down. It wasn't merely race, white flight, and loss of the automotive industry but deeper policies that ruined this city. Read the book to see what federal policies undermined American middle class traditional families An american industry. The American Dream WAS real and lived my millions of Detroiters. At 1 time, Detroit was the wealthiest city in America. Detroit had the most privately owned homes. The most corporate headquarters.
It's interesting that the song is called "Pruitt Igoe" which was an urban housing project in St. Louis (where I live). I noticed a lot of similarities between Detroit and St. Louis in this video, and the Pruitt Igoe building and its destruction exemplify that similar history.
Being a Michigan native descendant, it needs to be made clearer that the majority of the White Pine was located in Central Michigan. Detroit was not, and is NOT the entire state. When Michigan became a state, it sold off the pine forests for much needed revenue for operations. The White Pine and well as Oak was sent down to Grand Rapids for processing into lumber that was sent out for construction during the western expansion. The rest was used in the manufacturing of furniture. After the land was scalped of the trees, it was transformed into agricultural use by settlers from Ohio and parts of Europe. Many of these Setters were Free Blacks and mixed race people. You may be interested in further details of this story that can be found in THE MECOSTA-MORTON VIDEO TOUR and A NATION WITHIN ITSELF, which is also on UA-cam.
"Two societies, one black, one white-separate and unequal." It was true in 1968. It's still true in 2024. I wish we didn't have to repeat the mistakes of history.
In 1950 not adjusted for inflation Detroit industry brought in 10 billion dollars, 10 billion within the city limits. It's all fact and was in the January 1st edition of the Detroit Free Press.
They weren't allowed to be educated and were kept in their lower class sectors early on and when they finally fought back, it was too late. There were enough of them to pose a threat, so the whites moved away, and with them, a lot of organizations that made the city stay in tact. Blacks were forced into lower class work and had to learn everything once the whites ditched them. The city self imploded once it was deep into its black majority. Eventually, they started moving out to the suburbs to once again enter an orderly realm.
Because all of the policies changed blacks didn't get the same opportunities when arriving in Detroit. They were met with racial tension and widespread police brutality. There was discrimination in jobs, housing and education. Many of the white working class were not highly educated but they still got the best opportunities. Then with the Nixon and Reagan administrative policies, they were he'll on urban America. I think you need to read some books that tell the truth about urban decline in America. You can't blame a group of people that had no money and no power.
This experience is not unique to Detroit. Any place where large scale manufacturing has left leaves behind masses ill equipped to reinvent themselves and or relocate to places where their labor aligns with demand. We make it worse by offering benefits without requirements for movement towards individual self sustainment.
A lot of people making amateur video have no realization of the use of music. As a result there can be music that is distracting or works against the tone of the video and creates a negative impression.
I suspect that there's a intersectional woke subtext buried deep inside this, heheh but the fact is that deindustrialization emptied out Detroit of those people who could afford to leave and relocate. Those people have no regrets AND should have no burden placed on their conscience for doing so.
@@rickybell2149 Why would anyone meaning even blacks want to buy into a city that was emptying its industry? Your point makes no sense ... but you needed to use a new word you think you learned - 'redlining'.
@@tobygoodguy4032 when industry fails or leaves new industry or business should pop up in its place if you have a truly free market but Detroit is plagued with crony capitalism and horrible policy makers.
@@rickybell2149 You must be a newly-minted high school grad dropping the phrase of the daze: crony capitalism. Moral of story: Friends help other friends get and stay rich. (Getting tired of pulling that espresso lever, as of yet?)
@@tobygoodguy4032 bro what is wrong with you lmao I’m all for free markets and getting rich and keeping as much of your hard earned labor and income as possible totally against big government and handouts but I’m also against shady politics and coporate america using government and our tax dollars to stay rich and in power…if you agree with lobbyists and all the shady people running our government on both sides then that’s you eventually the bs expires and ima leave it at that.
As I explained to some well-meaning youngsters in Royal Oak who were publishing the DETROITER magazine in the 1980s. Articles about where to go downtown and spend money was not the solution to Detroit's problem. It was the loss of its Tax Base. And when industry shuts down or leaves, and the workers leave--workers who pay city taxes, the city suffers. It doesn't take any Economy PhD person to figure that out. It's a reality based on common sense not economic 'theory."
In the 1800s Detroit was labeled the most beautiful city in America. I used to have a 1st hand edition of the book made back then by Silas Farmer, the cities Historiographer and published in 1884. It had the history of Wayne County and Detroit and illustrations of every house on Woodward, Jefferson Ave and so many other streets including their addresses, who lived there at the time the book was made and year the house was made. It also had businesses and illustrations of them and their addresses and even more like wars, battles, manners, customs and marriage laws. It had over a thousand illustrations and over 1400 pages. The book was completely mind blowing. Especially the illustrations of the houses. There's perhaps 4 or 5 of the houses still in existence from back then.
I grew up in Detroit in the 70s and 80s. My grandparents immigrated from Italy there in the 30s and what a huge difference there was from when they owned their first home in 1945 vs. me having to enter high school as one of THREE WHITE kids in 1988! Good times...good times for some...not especially great for me till I got out of there in my twenties
Yep, the blacks destroyed that city. Osborn class of 85.
@@Mw-tr2oz Finney High ‘92
@@Mw-tr2oz it was Democrats in unions that Destroyed Detroit our greedy unions demands drove businesses elsewhere but Detroit don't blame the auto industry in don't blame the black people
@@bobbeezel2593 did you know Noel Motley?
OMG that's horrifying!!!
Outstanding!
I'm a hobbyist Detroit historian.
Utterly love this clip.👍🏽
The voice at the end scared the hell out of me 😂
Detroit is perhaps the coolest American City. It has a well laid out downtown with iconic Woodward enveloping Campus Martius Park with music in the air, right downtown, surrounded by a free monorail, very green too. Bundle this in with Strait and the boats and the ever present sound of Motown in the back ground there is nothing else like it. Perhaps most of all Dtwah has captured the imagination, why we still talk about it so much.
What an immense work. Really terrific.
Really well done. Strong example of a narrative lens along a timeline. It's not history though, because history doesn't strap you into an amusement park pod riding along a rail. This is more like The History Experience, The Story of History.
I think you summarized things well. There are SO MANY HEAVY HITTER THOUGH that I wish you could include soo much more. 1943 riots were a big one too. I really loved when the music intensified with Henry Ford's quadricycle. That was a nice touch. Also, wish you had a map that showed the location of Fort Shelby over the wagon spoke map. It's pretty cool to see where it once was.
This is a thoughtful comment and observation. Thank you.
Starting in 1915 the demeanor and tensions of the South started coming north. In 1900 Detroit was a peaceful and prosperous place. Cultures weren't fighting with each other. Read the last chapter of "The Morans 150 years in Detroit" by John Bell Moran.
Outstanding job on this video. Keep it up.
Shame it only garnered 15k views in a year but good quality work will eventually find an audience (unless youtube shadow-bans your content).
Read,
"Slaughter of Cities," by E Michael Jones to understand how a city like Detroit was
brought down.
It wasn't merely race, white flight, and loss of the automotive industry but deeper policies that ruined this city.
Read the book to see what federal policies undermined American middle class traditional families An american industry.
The American Dream WAS real and lived my millions of Detroiters.
At 1 time, Detroit was the wealthiest city in America.
Detroit had the most privately owned homes.
The most corporate headquarters.
Thank you.
It's interesting that the song is called "Pruitt Igoe" which was an urban housing project in St. Louis (where I live). I noticed a lot of similarities between Detroit and St. Louis in this video, and the Pruitt Igoe building and its destruction exemplify that similar history.
st louis and Detroit both run by Democratic party, the party of KKK and segregation.
Being a Michigan native descendant, it needs to be made clearer that the majority of the White Pine was located in Central Michigan. Detroit was not, and is NOT the entire state. When Michigan became a state, it sold off the pine forests for much needed revenue for operations. The White Pine and well as Oak was sent down to Grand Rapids for processing into lumber that was sent out for construction during the western expansion. The rest was used in the manufacturing of furniture. After the land was scalped of the trees, it was transformed into agricultural use by settlers from Ohio and parts of Europe. Many of these Setters were Free Blacks and mixed race people. You may be interested in further details of this story that can be found in THE MECOSTA-MORTON VIDEO TOUR and A NATION WITHIN ITSELF, which is also on UA-cam.
I'm still spending the money my ancestors made in Michigan in the lumber and fur trade 👍
Amazing video! If you ever do one of Rio de Janeiro, i would be forever grateful.
Awesome video!
Cant believe you used this music 😃
Wow, very interesting (my family lives near Detroit but I never have)
I thought the time lapse maps were very well done 👍
Amazing!
Thank you, Richard!
Hahahha instantly recognized as the GTA 4 Theme Song
Koyaanisqatsi by Philip Glass. From the film of the same name. One of the best soundtracks ever.
Wonderful maps, great video!
Grandkids of those of us living there: “So that forest way outside of town used to be part of the city?”
“Yes”
This is pure perfection of history!
First, Great work!
Do more videos like this
Crazy how the city flipped from white, to black, to no one
excellent work, with a tinge of the ted kaczinski
"Two societies, one black, one white-separate and unequal."
It was true in 1968. It's still true in 2024. I wish we didn't have to repeat the mistakes of history.
Don't see why you made it all about race but you did prove Detroit was a much nicer, safer place in the 1900's up till about 1940 or so
In 1950 not adjusted for inflation Detroit industry brought in 10 billion dollars, 10 billion within the city limits. It's all fact and was in the January 1st edition of the Detroit Free Press.
How come there's a correlation between black population percentage and population and urban decay?
They weren't allowed to be educated and were kept in their lower class sectors early on and when they finally fought back, it was too late. There were enough of them to pose a threat, so the whites moved away, and with them, a lot of organizations that made the city stay in tact. Blacks were forced into lower class work and had to learn everything once the whites ditched them. The city self imploded once it was deep into its black majority. Eventually, they started moving out to the suburbs to once again enter an orderly realm.
That's a great question. The answer to that is not what you think.
@@antonioguglielmetti2661You're not even close to answering the question
Because all of the policies changed blacks didn't get the same opportunities when arriving in Detroit. They were met with racial tension and widespread police brutality. There was discrimination in jobs, housing and education. Many of the white working class were not highly educated but they still got the best opportunities. Then with the Nixon and Reagan administrative policies, they were he'll on urban America. I think you need to read some books that tell the truth about urban decline in America. You can't blame a group of people that had no money and no power.
@@lawrencedaniels555 Cuz of racism and police brutality?
This experience is not unique to Detroit. Any place where large scale manufacturing has left leaves behind masses ill equipped to reinvent themselves and or relocate to places where their labor aligns with demand. We make it worse by offering benefits without requirements for movement towards individual self sustainment.
So.......Thanks, we've milked all the money we can out of this area, good luck, don't come looking for a handout?
They use the music to inject drama - unnecessary
A lot of people making amateur video have no realization of the use of music. As a result there can be music that is distracting or works against the tone of the video and creates a negative impression.
I suspect that there's a intersectional woke subtext buried deep inside this, heheh but the fact is that deindustrialization emptied out Detroit of those people who could afford to leave and relocate.
Those people have no regrets AND should have no burden placed on their conscience for doing so.
Redlining blocked blacks from being able to acquire generational wealth to make the proper investments and moves as deindustrialization occurred.
@@rickybell2149 Why would anyone meaning even blacks want to buy into a city that was emptying its industry?
Your point makes no sense ... but you needed to use a new word you think you learned - 'redlining'.
@@tobygoodguy4032 when industry fails or leaves new industry or business should pop up in its place if you have a truly free market but Detroit is plagued with crony capitalism and horrible policy makers.
@@rickybell2149 You must be a newly-minted high school grad dropping the phrase of the daze: crony capitalism.
Moral of story: Friends help other friends get and stay rich.
(Getting tired of pulling that espresso lever, as of yet?)
@@tobygoodguy4032 bro what is wrong with you lmao I’m all for free markets and getting rich and keeping as much of your hard earned labor and income as possible totally against big government and handouts but I’m also against shady politics and coporate america using government and our tax dollars to stay rich and in power…if you agree with lobbyists and all the shady people running our government on both sides then that’s you eventually the bs expires and ima leave it at that.
Can’t even have a map in Ohio. Things have gone terribly rong…
Fucked up this city
Nice and completely FAKE history. A huuuuuuuge city build in such 80 years by a few poor polish and irish farmers, cowboys and scouts :-) Good joke.
Too many blue color high paying union jobs left the city! When the jobs relocate so do the people! Very sad!
As I explained to some well-meaning youngsters in Royal Oak who were publishing the DETROITER magazine in the 1980s. Articles about where to go downtown and spend money was not the solution to Detroit's problem. It was the loss of its Tax Base. And when industry shuts down or leaves, and the workers leave--workers who pay city taxes, the city suffers. It doesn't take any Economy PhD person to figure that out. It's a reality based on common sense not economic 'theory."
Yeah, capitaism ruined the city! LOL
Checked out after the 3rd leftist screed.
As per this video, as the population of white people decreased, prosperity and peace decreased.
Got an agenda much?
1900 1% Black lol
Southern migrants increased that.
322 years of Detroit, 121 years of Cadillac(General Motors)😥😥😥😥😰😰😰😥😓😓😓😢😢😢😢😢😢🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭😭😭😭🇫🇷🇺🇸🇪🇸