It has taken me a little bit of time to gather my emotions and thoughts in this current climate of civil unrest. I was wondering what I could contribute to the movement. Truthfully, while I may have radical thoughts, I'm not physically active bout implementing them. But, what I am good at is educating. So, maybe this short essay will be helpful in understanding how we got to this point.
I talked about this some in a recent Instagram post. You know, when everyone was posting those black squares with #blackouttuesday? My parents had us educated in a predominately black preparatory school in Cincinnati during our formative years.While I definitely did NOT appreciate the summer homework packets they sent home, it was an invaluable experience because of the environment. It set a standard of excellence that I implement to this day. But, most of all, they taught us the history of our people in a supportive community. I do not profess to be an authority, but that's what I want to talk to you about today, the history you probably didn't hear about in your classes.
If you are black and consider yourself woke, you can probably skip a lot of this. But if you're not, strap in and do the work.
Diaspora
Let us first talk about Africa at the time that the Diaspora was beginning. Africa is a continent and from shore to shore you may find vast wealthy kingdoms with universities as well as rural warring tribes. Slavery was present in Africa, but in a different way. These people were often prisoners of war who became servants. Some kingdoms sold their slaves to traders, perhaps unknowing of what that would mean. Other Africans were literally stolen from their tribes.
America was not the only country who participated in the slave trade. This was a worldwide issue and that is why, nearly anywhere you go, you will find black people. The most infamous slave traders were the Portuguese. If you visit the Gold and Ivory coasts of Africa, you will find where the slaves were kept and get a better understanding of the atrocities committed. Many succumbed to the harsh conditions on ships, being housed on top of each other in a miasma of turmoil and disease for weeks. In the Zong massacre, some were thrown overboard and drowned as a way to collect insurance money.
Consider watching the movie Amistad. It will most likely make you uncomfortable, but I recommend it.
Slavery
Africans were not the first people that colonizers tried to enslave. They enslaved the native peoples with varying results. For a long time, colonizers (esp the Spanish) rationalized that enslaving indigenous peoples was altruistic because they were spreading the christian faith. Though colonizers were able to gain a foothold in the Americas, it was a slow process. The natives knew the land and staged frequent revolts. In 1542, the Catholic church helped to abolish this system as more peaceful conversion became the priority. I'm not sure how this was reconciled with the moral code of the Church, but the same courtesy was not extended to the African slave.
Further north in what is the USA, even "undesirable" whites like the Irish were enslaved under the guise of indentured servitude. All three of these types of slaves existed as contemporaries which would prove problematic. This method of stratification was predominately based upon wealth. And because the wealth was concentrated in a small population, it quickly became evident that there were more disenfranchised, angry people than not. And that almost always leads to a rebellion. (Don't worry, I will get into what American slavery as we know it, looked like)
Governor Berkely of Jamestown, Virginia refused to let Nathaniel Bacon either engage in the fur trade or fight the Doeg natives. This turned into a three way conflict, but to boil it down, the issue was Berkeley's tyrannical and economic control over the town. This did not sit right with a number of people and led to an alliance between European indentured servants and African slaves. They overtook the capital city and burned it to the ground. Later, after the death of Bacon, the rebellion was quashed. Though the motive behind the rebellion was less than noble, the impact is important. The ruling class had been shaken and quickly worked to pivot the basis of slavery to strict racial guidelines. In order to do that, they would have to "elevate" the importance of the poor white by dehumanizing the black slave.
Slave Patrols
So a new order was set. The Negro would become the new, solitary workforce of the developing United States. Import of slaves increased until slavers realized it would be cheaper and easier to control slaves by breeding them. This was a dark time in American history and makes me physically sick to my stomach so I will just mention some of the things by name and you can look it up yourself.
Buck breaking. Slave auctions where families were separated. House slave vs. Field slave distinction. Rape. Lynchings. Criminalizing slave education and congregation. The list goes on, but I will leave it here.
All that to say that when you inflict these kinds of atrocities on a people it fosters deep-seated contempt. So it was no wonder that rich slave owners became increasingly worried about slave uprisings. Conveniently enough, there was a ready supply of recently discharged indentured servants and immigrants without money or land. These men became plantation overseers and slave patrols as early as 1704. While they could be paid, this was not always the case. At the end of the day, they were in service to the plantation owner and if their job was not done to the satisfaction of the slave owner, the patrollers and overseers could be beaten and humiliated just like a slave. Given their tenuous social standing, I imagine they operated with a healthy dose of fear. Unfortunately, this served to perpetuate violence to slaves who were constantly under suspicion of rebellion or running away.
The dirty secret of slavery is that even after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into effect on January 1st 1863, many slave owners went about business as usual. Slaves were not told that they were free and remained enslaved for ALMOST 2 YEARS. It was not until Union general Gordon Granger read the federal orders in Galveston, Texas that the news began to spread and be enforced throughout the south. The South had flourished with free labor and had a robust economy based upon cotton and sugar. However, they had become dependent on slave labor to meet demand and were reluctant to part with that way of life in the years surrounding the Civil War. I've heard that some slave owners refused to release slaves and killed them instead, but I don't have a source to reference.
While freedom was cause for jubilation, very real questions were looming: where would these freedmen live and how would they support themselves? And, what would be their new place in society?
I'll stop there for now. I did want to put the whole thing in one post but I was spending a lot of time on this for the week and it is emotionally draining. Check back in the next few days when I will go over more current issues like Jim Crow, segregation, and redlining,