Commentary, Deoliver47, Black Kos Editor
Guided by the Voices of the Ancestors.
Harriet Tubman
I get enraged when some people say to me, when I’m attempting to discuss race, systemic racism and white privilege, "Oh, you people always bring up slavery... that was over a hundred years ago...ancient history..get over it!"
Yes. We bring it up ‘cause it is "up close and personal". Those of us who live in families where there are pictures on the mantel, or tales oft told round the table at family gatherings can call out their names and recite their stories. Every one of us who looks in the mirror at brown or beige or tan skin, who inherited it from a woman raped, knows of what I speak.
This is not ancient history. It is the basis for why we still live in a country where many black people still live in poverty, die earlier, have higher infant mortality, and go to prison in record numbers for longer periods of time. The hand of slavery is still upon us.
My mom spoke often of "Great Aunt Annie", who she knew during her childhood. Annie escaped at age 14 from a vicious mistress in Loudoun County via a barge owned by a freeman of color, and then headed overland, sleeping in the woods. Sometimes "good white people" would let her sleep on the porch with their dog, to stay warm. She made it all the way to Canada, but returned to settle in New Jersey , because Canada was too cold.
Those of us who don’t know individual stories know that not so far back in our family tree we find an ancestor enslaved, whether in the South or the North. Slavery built America. Slaves built my home city of New York. The TransAtlantic Slave Trade destroyed Africa. Scholars are still debating how many Africans were enslaved and died during the centuries of the trade. Current figures range from a "conservative" 10 million to estimates of 55 million. But there were those who survived the Middle passage, the Maafa, and wound up on our shores, who survived to bear live children, who survived hard labor and whippings and rape to die buried in unmarked graves... we call out their names, and pray for guidance.
I remember being told when I first started doing genealogy that I could "forget about" tracing the black side of my family . Slaves were recorded in the census with no names. They were just a number (age) and a color (black or mulatto) and a gender. That turned out not to be true; yes you have to work harder at it, but since we were "property", we were taxed, documented, sold and accounted for. I am grateful to AfriGeneas, the internet's largest black genealogy site, for providing me the support and the encouragement to "tear down the brick wall" of slavery and shine a light on my past, and the past of thousands of other searchers. They are building an extensive Slave Data Collection with information provided by families; Black, White and Native American.
A rich resource I uncovered during my enslavement period researches were the actual stories of over 2,300 former slaves. They named their kin, some named their enslavers, and I’ve been busy tracing their descendants, to provide them with a better understanding of those upon whose shoulders they stand.
I ask you to take but a few moments of time and listen to the voices of those who were enslaved. Listen as if they are sitting across from you. Telling you how it was. Telling you in their own voices.
This is from my ancestor George’ Jackson’s story, which I diaried in full in, They were slaves in Virginia.
I was born in Loudon County , Virginny, Feb., 6, 1858 . My mother's name was Betsy Jackson. My father's name was Henry Jackson. Dey were slaves and was born right der in Loudon County . I hed 16 brothers and sisters. All of dem is dead. My brothers were Henry, Richard, Fesley, John and me; Sisters were Annie, Marion, Sarah Jane, Elizabeth, Alice, Cecelia and Mary. Der were three other chillun dat died when babies. I can remember Henry pullin' me out of de fire. I've got scars on my leg yet. He was sold out of de family to a man dat was Wesley McGuest. Afterwards my brother was taken sick with small-pox and died. We lived on a big plantation right close to Bloomfield , Virginny. I was born in de storeroom close to massa 's home. It was called de weavin' room -- place where dey weaved cotton and yarn. My bed was like a little cradle bed and dey push it under de big bed at day time. My grandfather died so my mother told me, when he was very old. My grandmother died when se bout 96. She went blind fore she died. Dey were all slaves. My father was owned by John Butler and my grandmother was owned by Tommy Humphries. Dey were both farmers. My massa joined de war. He was killed right der where he lived. When my father wanted to cum home he hed to get a permit from his massa . He would only cum home on Saturday.
My mother’s family name is Weaver, taken from the task that many of my ancestors were forced to do.
I was elated with this little piece of history, and as I worked my way through narrative after narrative I began to hear many voices. Some spoke of cruelty and pain.
State: Arkansas Interviewee: Crane, Sallie "I been whipped from sunup till sundown. Off and on, you know. They whip me till they got tired and then they go and res' and come out and start again. They kept a bowl filled with vinegar and salt and pepper settin' nearby, and when they had whipped me till the blood come, they would take the mop and sponge the outs with this stuff so that they would hurt more. They would whip me with the cowhide part of the time and with birch sprouts the other part. There were splinters long as my finger left in my back. A girl named Betty Jones come over and soaped the splinters so that they would be softer and pulled them out. They didn't whip me with a bull whips they whipped me with a cowhide. They jus' whipped me 'cause they could---'cause they had the privilege. It wasn't nothin' I done they jus' whipped me. My married young master, Joe, and his wife, Jennie, they was the ones that did the whipping. But I belonged to Miss Evelyn.
State: Arkansas Interviewee: Douglas, Sarah "To whip me she put my head between the two fence rails and she taken the cow hide whip and beat me until I couldn't sit down for a week. Sometimes she tied our hands around a tree and tie our neck to the tree with our face to the tree and they would get behind us with that cow hide whip with a piece of lead tied to the end and Lord have mercy! child, I shouted when I wasn't happy. All I could say was, 'Oh pray, mistress, pray.' That was our way to say Lord have mercy. The last whipping old miss give me she tied me to a tree and oh my Lord! old miss whipped me that day. That was the worse whipping I ever got in my life. I cried and bucked and hollered until I couldn't. I give up for dead and she wouldn't stop. I stop crying and said to her. 'Old miss, if I were you and you were me I wouldn't beat you this way.' That struck old miss's heart and she let me go and she did not have the heart to beat me any more.
Few were questioned about rape, or attempted rape by the interviewers, though throughout the narratives we are told "my father was the overseer", or the master, or the masters son.
Here is the tale of one woman who fought back, told by her son:
State: South Carolina Interviewee: Goodwater, Thomas Liss "Lise Winning wasn' a mean man. He couldn' lick pa cus dey grow up togedder or at least he didn' try. But he liked his women slave. One day ma was in de field workin' alone an' he want there en' try to rape 'er. Ma pull his ears almos' off, so he let 'or off an' gone to tell pa he better talk to ma. Pa was workin' in the salt pen an' w'an Mr. Winning tell him he jue' laugh cus he know why ma did it."
A Brief History of the Narratives
Under the FDR administration, the WPA established a project to interview former slaves. There have been criticisms of the process, there has been a critique of the use of "dialect"...but frankly I don’t give a damn about critiques. In these hundreds and hundreds of interviews are the voices of our great grandmothers and grandfathers, great uncles and aunts. Many of those former slaves were afraid to tell the "whole truth" to white interviewers. Scholars have compared those interviews conducted by whites as opposed to blacks, like Zora Neale Hurston. No matter, they are there talking, telling of their lives, no longer simply ciphers, "slaves", but real human beings who lived to tell their tale, not just to their children and grandchildren, but for us all.
For those of you who have never read any of the narratives quite a few are available online. The entire work has been published as
The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography
From 1936 to 1938, many ex-slaves in the United States told, for the first time, stories of what it was like to be a slave in America, and what life was like when freedom finally came. These interviews and narratives were collected under the auspices of the Work Projects Administration (and are therefore known as the WPA Slave Narratives), and were originally edited by George P. Rawick and published by Greenwood Press in an 18 volume set titled The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography in the early 1970s. Two supplements to this set ("Series 1" with 12 volumes, and "Series 2" with 10 volumes) were collected by Rawick and published by Greenwood in 1978 and 1979. For a complete timeline of the project, click here.
The Library of Congress, The New Press, and Smithsonian Productions have a book and audio cassettes available. They speak of why the voices former slaves were stifled over the years, as the discourse about the slave period was shifted (my bold).
Remembering Slavery
Northerners who fought and won the war at great cost incorporated the abolitionists' perspective into their understanding of American nationality: slavery was evil, a great blot that had to be excised to realize the full promise of the Declaration of Independence. At first, even some white Southerners -- former slave-holders among them -- accepted this view, conceding that slavery had burdened the South as it had burdened the nation and declaring themselves glad to be rid of it.
But during the late 19th century, after attempts to reconstruct the nation on the basis of equality collapsed and demands for sectional reconciliation mounted, the portrayal of slavery changed. White Northerners and white Southerners began to depict slavery as a benign and even benevolent institution, echoing themes from the planters' defense of the antebellum order. They contrasted the violence and enmity of the postwar period with the supposed tranquility of slave times, when happy slaves frolicked in the service of indulgent masters. Such views, popularized in the stories of Joel Chandler Harris and the songs of Stephen Foster, became pervasive during the first third of the 20th century.
Against this new romanticized representation of slavery stood the men and women who had survived the institution. Frederick Douglass and other members of the old abolitionist generation railed against the rehabilitation of slavery's reputation, testifying from personal experience to its ugly power. But as death shrank their numbers, the old opponents of slavery could rarely be heard outside the black community. Their frail and distant voices were generally ignored, if heard at all, by the majority of white Americans.
For access to the narratives online please visit:
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
American Memory
or order a copy of the HBO documentary:
UNCHAINED MEMORIES: READINGS FROM THE SLAVE NARRATIVES
For one of the only existing narratives of a Caribbean woman who was enslaved, read Mary Prince’s story.
When I read their words they are sittin’ here next to me. When my family told those stories over and over, I have not forgotten. Not. One. Word.
So whether or not you had a slave as an ancestor, or an ancestor who enslaved a black person, hear the voices of those who built America on their backs and bones. They are the ancestors of the America you live in; they are restless souls as they share stories with our Native American dead. Hear their voices. Just as Harriet Tubman guided many folks to freedom, let us all be guided by their voices to address the plight of their descendants.
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Bid Em In
Oscar Brown Jr.
Bid Em In(lyrics)
Bid 'em in! Get 'em in!
That sun is hot and plenty bright.
Let's get down to business and get home tonight.
Bid 'em in!
Auctioning slaves is a real high art.
Bring that young gal, Roy. She's good for a start.
Bid 'em in! Get 'em in!
Now here's a real good buy only about 15.
Her great grandmammy was a Dahomey queen.
Just look at her face, she sure ain't homely.
Like Sheba in the Bible, she's black but comely.
Bid 'em in!
Gonna start her at three. Can I hear three?
Step up gents. Take a good look see.
Cause I know you'll want her once you've seen her.
She's young and ripe. Make a darn good breeder.
Bid 'em in!
She's good in the fields. She can sew and cook.
Strip her down Roy, let the gentlemen look.
She's full up front and ample behind.
Examine her teeth if you've got a mind.
Bid 'em in! Get 'em in!
Here's a bid of three from a man who's thrifty.
Three twenty five! Can I hear three fifty?
Your money ain't earning you much in the banks.
Turn her around Roy, let 'em look at her flanks.
Bid 'em in!
Three fifty's bid. I'm looking for four.
At four hundred dollars she's a bargain sure.
Four is the bid. Four fifty. Five!
Five hundred dollars. Now look alive!
Bid 'em in! Get 'em in!
Don't mind them tears, that's one of her tricks.
Five fifty's bid and who'll say six?
She's healthy and strong and well equipped.
Make a fine lady's maid when she's properly whipped.
Bid 'em in!
Six! Six fifty! Don't be slow.
Seven is the bid. Gonna let her go.
At seven she's going!
Going!
Gone!
Pull her down Roy, bring the next one on.
Bid 'em in! Get 'em in! Bid 'em in!
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News and Events by Amazing Grace, Black Kos Editor
Obama Honors 1st African-American Elected To U.S. Senate, President Barack Obama paid tribute on Wednesday to fellow political trailblazer Edward Brooke, who in 1966 became the first African-American elected to the Senate by popular vote.
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The Obamas’ Marriage...the Obamas mix politics and romance in a way that no first couple quite have before.
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Discriminatory Housing Lockouts Amid Post-Katrina Rebuilding. Rebuilding efforts in St. Bernard Parish, a small community just outside New Orleans, have recently gotten a major boost. One nonprofit focused on rebuilding in the area has received the endorsement of CNN, Alice Walker, the touring production of the play The Color Purple, and even President Obama. But an alliance of Gulf Coast and national organizations are now raising questions about the cause these high profile names are supporting.
Obama Lifts a Ban on Entry Into U.S. by H.I.V.-Positive People President Obama on Friday announced the end of a 22-year ban on travel to the United States by people who had tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS
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Nigeria Signs $875M Railway Deal With ChinaNigeria on Monday signed a deal worth almost a billion dollars with a state-owned Chinese engineering firm to resuscitate part of its dilapidated railway system, the transport minister said...The deal constitutes the first phase of the country’s railway modernisation plans.
Keeping the Flame Burning for a Beloved Queen of Salsa Celia Cruz’s mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx looks downright homey. Colorful plants flank a modest walkway, and clear side windows let visitors peer inside, where family photos, a rosary and a Cuban flag rest atop the singer’s tomb...
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Roy DeCarava dies at 89; art photographer depicted the African American experience. He was known for his pictures of everyday life in Harlem and for his candid shots of jazz musicians. Shadow and darkness are hallmarks of his style.
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"Five Amazing Thing’s to Know" The Week of November 2, 2009
TV- Wanda Sykes comes to late night TV-Saturday, November 7, 2009 11ET/10CT. For more information.....
Concerts- Esperanza Spaulding, November 6 and 7, 2009, Samueli Theatre, Orange County Performing Arts Center. For times and ticket information...
For times and ticket information...
Books- Tracy Morgan. "I Am the New Black" available now. For more information...
Movies- "Precious" Lee Daniels critically acclaimed movie in select theatres November 7, 2009, opening nationwide November 13. For more information...
For more information...
Live Jazz- McCoy Tyner, Royce Hall UCLA, November 12, 2009. For ticket information...
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This Week in History
November 2
Haile Selassie became Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930.
Charles C. Diggs, Jr. was elected Michigan's first Black Congressman in 1954.
November 3
John Willis Menard became the first Black elected to Congress in 1868. His victory over a white candidate in Louisiana's 2nd District was contested and he was not seated.
In an anti-Klan rally in Greensboro, NC, aka "the Greensboro Massacre", five people were killed as Klansmen fired on them, 1979.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson announced his candidacy for President of the United States on this date in 1983.
Kurt Lidell Schmoke, won his bid for mayor of Baltimore, MD, 1987.
Carol Mosley Braun became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate, 1992. The Illinois Senator became only the second Black Senator of the 20th century.
The Supreme Court upheld California's Proposition 209 in 1997. Under the guise of a "civil rights bill," Prop 209 was a tool to eliminate affirmative action in California.
November 4, 2008
Barack Hussein Obama II was elected the first African American President of the United States.
November 5
Madison Washingtonled a successful revolt on the slave ship Creole 1841.
Nat King Cole, jazz vocalist, pianist and band leader, hosted the Nat King Cole Show. Cole was the first Black to host his own television show.
Shirley Chisholm, NY and Louis Stokes, OH were elected to Congress, 1968. Chisholm became the first Black woman in Congress.
Mervyn M. Dymally and George L. Brown were elected Lieutenant Governors of California and Colorado, 1974. They were the first 20th century Black Lieutenant Governors.
State Senator Lawrence Douglas Wilder was elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia 1986. the first Black to hold this position in a Southern state since Reconstruction.
November 6
Absalom Jones, activist and leader in the Black Pioneer period, was born a slave in Sussex, DE, on this date in 1746.
Sharon Pratt Dixon became the first black woman to be elected mayor of a major American city, Washington, D.C.
Oscar DePriest was elected to the 71st Congress from Illinois' First Congressional District in Chicago 1928. DePriest was the first Black Congressman from the North, and the first Black in Congress since 1901.
Augustus F. Hawkins became the first Black Congressman from the West in 1962.
Coleman Youngwas elected mayor of Detroit, MI, 1973. Young and Thomas Bradley of Los Angeles, CA were the first two Black mayors of cities with populations of over 1 million.
November 7
Arthur Wergs Mitchell defeated his Republican opponent, Oscar DePriest, in Chicago, becoming the first Black Democratic Congressman, 1934.
Alexa Canady, the first Black woman neurosurgeon, was born in Lansing, MI, on this date in 1950.
Carl B. Stokes of Cleveland, OH and Richard G. Hatcher of Gary, IN won mayoral elections, 1967. Stokes was the first Black to serve as mayor of a major American city.
Andrew Jackson Young, Jr., civil rights activist, and diplomat, was elected Congressman from Georgia, 1972.
David Dinkins was elected as the first Black mayor of New York City, 1989.
Lawrence Douglas Wilder was elected Governor of Virginia in 1989; the first Black Governor in the United States since Reconstruction.
November 8
Crystal Bird Fausetwas elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives,1938. Fauset was the first Black woman elected to a state legislature.
Edward William Brooke, III, a Republican from Massachusetts, was elected as the first Black U.S. Senator of the 20th century on this date in 1966.
Ruth J. Simmonswas elected as the 18th President of Brown University, 2000. Simmons became the first Black to head an Ivy League university.
Minnie Julia Riperton, vocalist, was born in Chicago, IL, 1947.
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The front porch is now open. Come on up and set a spell.