SLAVERY: BACK THEN. RIGHT NOW!
Yesterday, August 24, 2018, when I posted an essay on Facebook entitled "Ballots Are Bullets," based upon my uncle's statement that slavery did not end, at the end of the Civil War, nor with the 13-15th Amendments, but had survived into the 20th Century, in Mississippi, at least, I had no idea that "Amen's"' would be received from Arkansas, southwest Virginia, elsewhere, as to slavery's vestiges there as well!
Now to be sure, we had examined the question of when and whether African chattel slavery had ended in two symposia in 2011; "we" being the former Lorenzo J. Greene branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) to which I belong.
In Kansas and Missouri each esteemed panel of scholars from respective states' universities had concluded that chattel slavery did not end with the election of Barack Obama, nor had it with any earlier legislative enactments, nor judicial decisions preceding his seminal victory in 2008. Thus , it still existed! We did not proclaim this on any rooftops, although surely we may well have done so, in retrospect! Although local newspapers reported on our symposia's occurrence; they may have done so, given the rarity of cooperation between the states.
It was my maternal uncle's statement however that made the fact of slavery real for me; made me reflect back over prior experiences and readings, that had led me to write my essay.
Today, i called him to thank him for putting a human perspective on the academic conclusions about the ongoing issues of slavery in its facile forms: unidentifiable except to those who have lived through it. He bemoaned the killings going on by people without knowledge in our communities. He said when you try to tell them about what things were like, back in the day, they dismiss what you are saying as "back then."
But "back then" is also right now ! As my uncle says there are some white people looking to tear you down, as there are other white people trying to protect you. That sounds very much like abolitionism! Abolishing modern form of slavery and racism and discrimination now!
To top it all off, I had read several days ago, where Harriet Beecher Stowe had disdained any law's transformation power to change entrenched racist sentiments in her little known and lesser read classic A KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN (1853). It contains copious sources proving whereof she wrote in her iconic novel, of that name, that I am now re-reading! You must read at least one of her books to grasp!
She wrote:
"In the 'Code Noir' [Louisiana] we find it set down that:
"'Every person is expressly prohibited from selling separately from their mothers 'the children who have not yet attained the age of ten years.'...
"What a freshness of nature is suggested by this assertion! A thing could not have happened in a certain state because there is a law against it!...
"And what is the law, against the whole public sentiment of society?--And will anybody venture to say that the public sentiment of Louisiana 'practically ' goes against the separation of families?"
P. 92, A KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1853)
Despite the laws, Louisiana slaves' children were sold separately from their mothers at any age. One may now understand why in 2018 little Central Americans can be callously separated from their parents and deliberately scrambled and lost!
Saturday, August 25, 2018
SLAVERY THEN AND NOW
SLAVERY: BACK THEN. RIGHT NOW!
Yesterday, August 24, 2018, when I posted an essay on Facebook entitled "Ballots Are Bullets," based upon my uncle's statement that slavery did not end, at the end of the Civil War, nor with the 13-15th Amendments, but had survived into the 20th Century, in Mississippi, at least, I had no idea that "Amen's"' would be received from Arkansas, southwest Virginia, elsewhere, as to slavery's vestiges there as well!
Now to be sure, we had examined the question of when and whether African chattel slavery had ended in two symposia in 2011; "we" being the former Lorenzo J. Greene branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) to which I belong.
In Kansas and Missouri each esteemed panel of scholars from respective states' universities had concluded that chattel slavery did not end with the election of Barack Obama, nor had it with any earlier legislative enactments, nor judicial decisions preceding his seminal victory in 2008. Thus , it still existed! We did not proclaim this on any rooftops, although surely we may well have done so, in retrospect! Although local newspapers reported on our symposia's occurrence; they may have done so, given the rarity of cooperation between the states.
It was my maternal uncle's statement however that made the fact of slavery real for me; made me reflect back over prior experiences and readings, that had led me to write my essay.
Today, i called him to thank him for putting a human perspective on the academic conclusions about the ongoing issues of slavery in its facile forms: unidentifiable except to those who have lived through it. He bemoaned the killings going on by people without knowledge in our communities. He said when you try to tell them about what things were like, back in the day, they dismiss what you are saying as "back then."
But "back then" is also right now ! As my uncle says there are some white people looking to tear you down, as there are other white people trying to protect you. That sounds very much like abolitionism! Abolishing modern form of slavery and racism and discrimination now!
To top it all off, I had read several days ago, where Harriet Beecher Stowe had disdained any law's transformation power to change entrenched racist sentiments in her little known and lesser read classic A KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN (1853). It contains copious sources proving whereof she wrote in her iconic novel, of that name, that I am now re-reading! You must read at least one of her books to grasp!
She wrote:
"In the 'Code Noir' [Louisiana] we find it set down that:
"'Every person is expressly prohibited from selling separately from their mothers 'the children who have not yet attained the age of ten years.'...
"What a freshness of nature is suggested by this assertion! A thing could not have happened in a certain state because there is a law against it!...
"And what is the law, against the whole public sentiment of society?--And will anybody venture to say that the public sentiment of Louisiana 'practically ' goes against the separation of families?"
P. 92, A KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1853)
Despite the laws, Louisiana slaves' children were sold separately from their mothers at any age. One may now understand why in 2018 little Central Americans can be callously separated from their parents and deliberately scrambled and lost!