Slavery in North America was for both the "Black" AND "White"

“Both Indian and Negro, besides white servants were bound out to a master for a term of years and received no wages. Of these there were a few in the Pilgrim group.” Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, Vol.1

Dear friends,

The Puritans of New England found no problem with human enslavement. After all, Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first British colonial settlement in North America to legalize slavery. That happened approximately 21 years or slightly less than a generation after the landing of the famous Pilgrim group.

Remember, that the whole purpose of the North American venture by the British ruling class was to extract as much wealth - precious metals or whatever, as they could, both human and non-human, for the good of their class - not their so-called "race". As Professor Lloyd Hogan explains, "It must be emphasized that Wealth Accumulation is not done in the abstract. Indeed, it must be carried out by the exercise of the conscious will of people acting in the role of wealth accumulators. These wealth owners have the onus of preserving the form of their wealth while, at the same time, striving to increase its magnitude. Just as important, is the necessity for continuous control over the Wealth Accumulation Process by the wealth owners”. (The Principles of Black Political Economy by Lloyd Hogan)

Due to the "tax benefits" of illegally trafficking in captive workers (so-called slaves), it is impossible for anyone to determine how many Africans were brought here. Although the numbers of captive workers who actually lived in New England were not as numerous as the Southern states, there was an enormous slave-dealing business in this region - particularly in Massachusetts and Rhode Island - with other British North American colonies, as well as the motherland - England herself. (A succession of British laws, over generations, prohibited the colonies to trade with other countries.)

The wealth created by the mostly free labor from all of these Black folks in North American colonies helped serve as the basis for the development of businesses and real estate and, therefore, political power, in early America. But Africans who later became African Americans were not the only people to give their labor freely. That is, since the native peoples in the Americas, for the most part, were unwilling to "cooperate" with their attackers, then the rulers had to "de-people" North America, by the murder of Early American Native peoples or so-called Indians, in order to "re-people" with poor and desperate Europeans, especially those fro England, Germany, Spain, and France.

As a result, during the colonial period of North American history, that is, prior to the War of Independence, English citizens were coaxed, tricked, coerced, and even kidnapped in order to provide the necessary (human) bodies of labor to increase the wealth of the British ruling class. As well, many miscreants were shipped here (the U.S.) for the benefit of the British ruling class to have additional labor available.

About British settlements like Massachusetts Bay Colony, Charlotte M. Waters wrote, "The colonies were used too as dumping ground for prisoners and undesirables generally, in spite of protests from the colonists. Criminals, prisoners of war, and inconvenient Irish were thus got rid of. Royalist prisoners after Worcester shared the fate with 2,000 Irish girls and boys deported by order of the Government. Kidnapping was not uncommon. Such emigrants were sold by auction..." (Waters, An Economic History of England).

Indentured servitude is the name applied to Europeans, particularly the early British settlers, who traded both their human and civil rights to British merchants, usually for a term of four years, in order to gain access, that is, barter their labor ability in exchange for passage, to North America. These indentured servants were unable to feed themselves in their European homelands. For instance, in the Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, Vol.1 it is pointed out about early New Englanders, including the famous "Pilgrim" group, that landed at Cape Cod (Plymouth Rock), that there was a small servile population. The official document reads: “Both Indian and Negro, besides white servants were bound out to a master for a term of years and received no wages. Of these there were a few in the Pilgrim group.”

Now, since there was nobody here from England already when the Pilgrims came, then that means that the slave owners were on board with their captive workers or so-called slaves. Yet, school history books, under the guise of “No child left behind”, continue to pitch the lie that the Pilgrims came here for religious freedom.

The following passage was written by a priest who wanted to see for himself exactly what European peoples had to go through on the ships that transported them to British North America. This particular six-months voyage took place around 1750 or 26 years before the start of the War of Independence. "...during the voyage on these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of sea-sickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth-rot, and the like, all of which come from old and sharply salted food and meat, also from very bad and foul water, so that many die miserably. Add to this want of provisions, hunger, thirst, frost, heat, dampness, anxiety, want, afflictions and lamentations, together with other trouble, as c.v. the lice abound so frightfully, especially on sick people, that they can be scraped off the body...Children from 1 to 7 years rarely survive the voyage; and many a time parents are compelled to see their children miserably suffer and die from hunger, thirst, and sickness, and then to see them cast into the water." (English Historical Documents, Vol. 9, edited by Merrill Jensen)

In an essay called "Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the U.S.A.", Barbara Jeanne Fields indicates, "...the rationale that the English developed for suppressing the 'barbarous' Irish later served nearly word for word as a rationale for suppressing Africans and indigenous American Indians." In other words, slavery in America was not invented for Africans. Rather, it was already a practice that went on between Europeans themselves.

The preceding information has been pointed out because, based upon the illusion that they are "white", many North Americans suffer from an identity crisis. That is, under their fantasies or illusions that they are "white", most European Americans disregard their true identities by pretending to share some kind of common heritage, based upon skin color. Regrettably, the majority of people who live in America today hide behind their whiteness - like Ku Klux Klanners in white bed sheets - concealing their true cultural pasts (which invariably are not in North America but someplace in what we now know as Europe). Even worse, the few that have genuine history in this country, going back before the North American Civil War, are themselves the descendants of slaves, albeit temporary ones or indentured servants. Please stay tuned for more on this topic. Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

"Seasoning" Our abilities for Profit

Dear friends,

Just as Columbus had initially introduced it with Early American Native peoples, African captives' first introduction to "seasoning" was, more often than not, through violence - then Christianity. In The Black Jacobins, the great C.L.R. James wrote, "All America and West Indies took slaves. When the ship reached the harbour, the cargo came up on deck to be bought. The purchasers examined them for defects, looked at the teeth, pinched the skin, sometimes tasted the perspiration to see if the slave's blood was pure and his health as good as his appearance. Some of the women affected a curiosity, the indulgence of which, with a horse, would have caused them (the purchasers) to be kicked back 20 yards across the deck. But the slave had to stand it. Then in order to restore the dignity which might have been lost by too intimate an examination, the purchaser spat in the face of the slave. Having become the property of his owner, he was branded on both sides of the breast with a hot iron. His duties were explained to him by an interpreter, and a priest instructed him in the first principles of Christianity."

This method of forced acculturation (seasoning) is still very much a part of the North American culture, although manifested in a different way. Now, instead of physical torture being used to make Black people - whether adults or children - assimilate, Eurocentricity and Negrophobia are perpetuated through cultural institutions like the legal, corporate media and educational systems.

The word cultural is used here to describe certain institutions because it is through culture that We transmit behavior and ideas to both present and future generations. However, the first thing that We must understand about culture is: it is largely tied to a people's resources. That is, social status and income as well as materials to produce what people need or desire determine how, why and through what medium folks can express themselves as a distinct group.

The crucial point to be made here is, African peoples who were forced to migrate to the Americas did not lose their cultures. Instead, each cultural group merely took on a different developmental direction. In other words, although they were enslaved, African American captive workers were still people. As a result, Black folks adapted to the new circumstances with which they were presented.

Oddly enough, most North American social theorists have paid little or no attention to the realities mentioned, thus far. Instead, their intellectual energies have been geared towards apologizing for upper class fantasies as they pertain to human progress. However, the real challenge for scholars will be to responsibly analyze societies according to what people actually do to sustain themselves, as opposed to what certain groups think of themselves.

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

the good ship Jesus

"I first heard about this enslavers' vessel a little over 30 years ago..."

Dear friends,

I first heard about this enslavers' vessel a little over 30 years ago, while reading the classic text, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, written by the late, great Walter Rodney. Additionally, I remember that, as far back as those days, hearing from one of my chief mentors in life, the great Professor Lloyd Hogan, author of The Principles of Black Political Economy. has often noted that, "Black folks are always looking for Jesus". If we look way back, with Marcus Garvey, and later Martin King, and now Barack Obama, this theory still holds.

At any rate, on the link below, is a short article about the first of the enslavers' ships to be used by the British (who were the last of the Europeans to become involved in the Atlantic Slave Trading Operations), and how Sir John Hawkins was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth the 1st, the half-sister of Queen "Bloody" Mary (they were both daughters of Henry the 8th) to embark upon the heinous enterprise of what Professor W.E.B. DuBois called, "the hunting of Black skins".

"Liberation!" - Dr, Barbara Love

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-241597.0.html Read full post

African American child in Ohio used to spread lie about Slavery in North America

“Both Indian and Negro, besides white servants were bound out to a master for a term of years and received no wages. Of these there were a few in the Pilgrim group.” - Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, Vol.1

Dear friends,

Aside from the fact that a European American or so-called "white" kid could have just as easily been depicted as a "slave", since everyone watching knows that it's only a skit. Consequently it is a pretty uninformed teacher who thinks that only African Americans have a slave past here. Additionally, the notion that using an African American child in Ohio to play a captive worker or so-called slave in a classroom play of some sort, for the purpose of providing himself and his classmates with a more realistic account of North American history is a hideous assault on the truth.

After all, a voluminous amount of literature proves otherwise. For example, in British settlements like Massachusetts Bay Colony, Charlotte M. Waters wrote, "The colonies were used too as dumping ground for prisoners and undesirables generally, in spite of protests from the colonists. Criminals, prisoners of war, and inconvenient Irish were thus got rid of. Royalist prisoners after Worcester shared the fate with 2,000 Irish girls and boys deported by order of the Government. Kidnapping was not uncommon. Such emigrants were sold by auction..." (Waters, An Economic History of England).

Indentured servitude is the name applied to Europeans, particularly the early British settlers, who traded both their human and civil rights to British merchants, usually for a term of four years, in order to gain access to North America, mbecause these indentured servants were unable to feed themselves in their European homelands.

In the Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, Vol.1 it is pointed out about early New Englanders including the famous "Pilgrim" group that landed at Cape Cod, that there was a small servile population. The official document reads: “Both Indian and Negro, besides white servants were bound out to a master for a term of years and received no wages. Of these there were a few in the Pilgrim group.” Huh? The school books lie when they said the Pilgrims came here for religious freedom. If they did, then why were some of them temporary slaves? The so-called Pilgrims came here to get loot. Plain and simple. As a matter of fact, the Pilgrims came then left. They didn’t settle here. Therefore, anyone who says that they had relatives on the Mayflower is a liar, just as the lying mother or grandmother who told them that nonsense.

At any rate, the following passage was written by a priest who wanted to see for himself exactly what European peoples had to go through on the ships that transported them to British North America. This particular six months-long voyage took place around 26 years before the start of the War of Independence (about ten generations ago). "...during the voyage on these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of sea-sickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth-rot, and the like, all of which come from old and sharply salted food and meat, also from very bad and foul water, so that many die miserably. Add to this want of provisions, hunger, thirst, frost, heat, dampness, anxiety, want, afflictions and lamentations, together with other trouble, as c.v. the lice abound so frightfully, especially on sick people, that they can be scraped off the body...Children from 1 to 7 years rarely survive the voyage; and many a time parents are compelled to see their children miserably suffer and die from hunger, thirst, and sickness, and then to see them cast into the water." (English Historical Documents, Vol. 9, edited by Merrill Jensen)

Although the above passage resembles the description of an enslaver's ship leaving Africa, obviously, it is not. To be sure, being in bondage was nothing new to any Europeans, especially the British. For instance, during the so-called early Saxon period - this began presumably around 1600 years or 49 generations ago and was supposed to have lasted for about 400 years or sixteen generations. Edward P. Cheyney points out, "In many ways England had gone back to much the same state of barbarism as that in which it had been before the Roman conquest...Gregory, a Roman deacon, in going to the market place and seeing some boys with white skins, fair faces, and fine hair exposed (naked) by a merchant for sale as slaves, was struck with their beauty and asked their race - he was told they were Angles." - (Cheney, A Short History of England)

In the so-called 'later' Saxon period, which has been said to have begun about 1200 years or 48 generations ago - lasting for, perhaps, 200 years: "There were many slaves, some being born bondmen, others captured in war and sold into slavery, and still others reduced to slavery for debt or for crime." (Cheyney, op. cit.)

Apparently, neither whiteness nor Anglo-Saxonism had been invented yet. Another thing proven in Cheyney's last passage - "some being born bondmen" - is that hereditary slavery was not invented by Europeans for Africans as is often claimed by uninformed European American social theorists and a few of their gullible African American counterparts.

Nevertheless, in a few respects, the way that Black captive workers (so-called slaves) were treated in New England was quite different than their Southern counterparts. For one, the concentration of work was, usually, on small farms as opposed to huge plantations. As well, while many were skilled artisans, a number of the Northern captive workers were trained to do things like operating grocery stores, printing presses, and other businesses (see Lorenzo Greene's timeless work, The Negro In Colonial New England). Factually speaking, there was hardly a single occupation that African Americans did not hold in either colonial or post-colonial periods.

In 1656, a Black man named Bus-Bus bought a slave named Angola from a Mrs. Kearney, in the Dorchester section of Boston. In the same book mentioned above Greene pointed out:: "...slaveholding was a class rather than a racial institution is suggested by the fact that at least one Negro family owned slaves in colonial New England, "...he continued, "while six Negro slaveholders were reported from Connecticut" in the first Federal census 202 years or eight generations ago (Greene, ibid.)

Finally, in The Myth Of Black Capitalism, based upon the research of the noted historian John Hope Franklin, author Earl Ofari (now Hutchinson added to his surname) noted that by around 1830 there were an estimated 3, 777 African American slavemasters in the United States. It is believed that some of these folks were merely "buying" their brethren out of bondage and were registered as slave owners. However, there were a number of those who actually held slaves for profit. Some of them held so many captives that they were the envy of their "white" counterparts.

Let’s stop teaching garbage to children and start telling the truth. Then African Americans and European Americans alike can see what these crooks in both government and corporations are about really.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/04/2011-03-04_bad_lesson_ohio_elementary_school_in_trouble_after_black_student_made_to_play_sl.html
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