First, a word from a historian to make it plain:
Christopher Brown — Henry Louis Gates’ ‘Reconstruction’ — author filmed clip — You Tube — Copyright © PBS
That is Christopher L. Brown an exceptional History professor at Columbia University. He made this point in a Henry Louis Gates documentary. Slavery explains everything in America. African slavery. It does. Nothing would have happened or be the way it is without African people being forced into slavery and exploited.
And African slavery — The story of it — discredits the American story. That is why some believe it must be snuffed out. Ron Desantis, the 45th President and others are flailing as they try. But it won’t work. The story is too well documented. It is already recorded. Too many people will sing and yell this story daily and it won’t die.
Each time there is an attempt to bury the story, it rises up like a cake in the oven and speaks. It has never stopped speaking. This is why the latest moves by Desantis, said governor of Florida, reek of racist desperation.
Dehumanization
In 1970, William J. Wood, a practicing attorney set forth the air tight case that “slavery” was “illegal” from the beginning in America, and in particular, the colony of Virginia.
“One thing is certain,” Wood wrote in his article. “Slavery was originally illegal in Virginia and the other English colonies. The first charter granted by James I to the Virginia Company in 1606 recited that all colonists “shall have and enjoy all liberties, franchises and immunities within any of our other dominions, to all in tents and purposes as if they had been abiding and born within the realm of England.”
Despite this, by the mid 17th century, Africans were slaves for life in Virginia and the other southern colonies as well. And not only that, the children of the Africans who had been enslaved were slaves and so on and on. It was an inhumane existence and state policy that dehumanized all who did the enslaving. The Africans could still fight and hold onto their humanity; the enslavers could not without denouncing the trade and refusing the benefit from the wicked activities.
Each time America denies slavery, seeks to write it out of the educational system, and bury it, dehumanization continues. African Americans are always told to forget about slavery; it is not everything and it has been over for a long time.
America
But it hasn’t been over for a long time and it is not really over if you consider the political structure it created.
There is little about the foundation of America, its political history, and economic power not connected to slavery. According to Robin Einhorn, slavery in America has had an influence over most of America’s political policies. Slavery, according to Einhorn, has shaped America’s political institutions. This is why many want to not study the institution or talk about it because most of what is happening today politically in America can be traced back to slavery.
The electoral college is a relic of slavery. The states that maintained slavery sought protections in the electoral college vote for President politically. If the President were elected by popular vote, the Republican Party, the primary protectors and caretakers of slavery’s legacy, would have only won one election since 2000 (2004 when George W. Bush was re-elected). The reason for their failure to secure the popular vote is blamed on many things. All except the true reason: the whole political electoral apparatus was rigged from the beginning to appease the slave states, the states that represented uncut white supremacy.
Because the South was certain a large portion of the Northerners would likely oppose slavery after independence, the slave states insisted upon anti-democratic carve outs in the political system. In other words, all of that language about freedom and equality could not apply to the Africans they wanted to hold in bondage and work for free. Thus, they did what they wanted for decades.
The South, as a result of its power as slaveholding states, also possessed disproportionate representation in Congress as a result of this status. This prevented the Northern states from actually exercising power over what was basically “a slaveholding Republic,” according to Einhorn.
Even now, this has caused the legislature to be incapable of passing popular legislative bills. There is no reason for the system to exist anymore either. Many have insisted over the years that Virginia and West Virginia should become one state again because we have two states now because half of Virginia did not want to secede so it broke off and became West Virginia.
These issues — disproportionate representation and the electoral college — remain with America today. Any attempt to even discuss changing the electoral college system or eliminate the disproportionate representation numbers is met with fierce opposition. These are both relics of American slavery.
The Republican Party again — the caretakers of this racist history — are at such a disadvantage now with the new demographics, they just allege that elections they lose are rigged. The elections are rigged but in a different way. Slavery remains alive and well in our political system.
Poverty and Wealth
And likewise, poverty, inequality, and lack of wealth amongst African Americans is traced back to slavery. African Americans — most — were forced to work for free in America for hundreds of years. They earned nothing. They were often collateral that guaranteed loans from banks that slaveowners were granted. African Americans built roads and bridges and schools for others who were able to use that infrastructure for their own betterment.
Here’s Bonnie Martin explaining the power of slavery over economic issues in America:
“Human collateral was used to raise a significant amount of cash and credit; however, the mortgage contracts were dispersed in courthouses and commandants’ headquarters across the colonial South, camouflaging the power and scope of the financial engine created. A web of local credit networks anchored by mortgages began to grow in the colonial period. In the nineteenth century these informal community credit networks expanded.”
Martin’s reference to collateral is a reference to the Africans, the human beings put up like cattle to secure wealth. How can we ignore these events and how they have shaped this society and be honest with ourselves?
Final words
When Eastern European nations went to hardcore oppression and censorship following World War II, the population still communicated with one another. The communications were done differently and in secret. The truth was heard and shared. Oppression and fascism lost.
Ron Desantis and other racist tyrants are desperate to hide the truth from the children about slavery. They are inept fascists.
But the children will learn the facts anyway. There is too much Desantis cannot control. As in Eastern Europe, the truth of America, bad or good, will be shared.
As an academic, I have met too many young people, of all ethnicies and economic backgrounds, who were too curious to be denied. They might have lived in the middle of nowhere and had little access to America’s broad and rich history. Yet, they sought it out and today they walk towards lives of truth regarding America and slavery without fear. I plan to do my part to help them continue their learning and enlightenment.
Sources
“The Illegal Beginning of American Negro Slavery,” Author: William J. Wood, American Bar Association Journal , JANUARY 1970, Vol. 56, №1 (JANUARY 1970), pp. 45–49
Slavery, Robin L. Einhorn, Enterprise & Society , SEPTEMBER 2008, Vol. 9, №3 (SEPTEMBER 2008), pp. 491–506
Slavery’s Invisible Engine: Mortgaging Human Property Author(s): Bonnie Martin
Source: The Journal of Southern History , NOVEMBER 2010, Vol. 76, №4 (NOVEMBER 2010), pp. 817–866
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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