First of all, I actually prefer the term captive or enslaved Africans, depending on the context. To use the term slave indiscriminately and across the board may be inaccurate.
The humans involved (minus the kidnappers and traffickers) were victims of human trafficking in all cases. They were taken aboard a ship, perhaps rat infested, and packed like sardines.
At this point they were kidnappees and captives.They landed in Virginia , and at that point, the purchaser of the trafficked victims offered a price.
The process of enslavement on a tobacco plantation was about to begin.
A new form of human rights violation, brutality and terror awaited them. Those who liberated themselves from the shackles ( the so-called "runaways") were no longer "slaves."Some analysts have a hard time using an appropriate term for those Africans that were no longer enslaved whether from self- liberation or from judicial intervention.
So when did the first African arrive in the US, in 1619 or 1526? I suspect that if the author had started from the earlier date, critics would have argued that the United States, in the context of British colonialism started in the 1600s, and that going earlier than than undermined the true initial Anglo roots of the US as a British colony.
I don't necessarily agree with the argument but it has some merit.
The land purchases made later were to consolidate the initial structure.
Bear in mind also Van Sertima's proposition that Africans were in the Americas before the Columbine invasion, and we can even go back to the beginning to Brazil's Luzia, to complicate the discourse-
but I will leave it at that. This is
in reference to the era before terror.
Brazil's Luzia:
By the way I hope the Wikipedia note is there exactly as Harrow and Ryan cited it. It is now 3.26 Eastern Time.
Gloria Emeagwali
On Jun 2, 2021, at 12:16, Connor Ryan <connoro.ryan@gmail.com> wrote:
Have folks read Laila Lalami's novel The Moor's Account? Not her best work, but the book's premise alone is enthralling. In a way, she writes the history the 1619 project overlooks. The novel is framed as the (fictional) memoir of Estebanico, an African slave mentioned in historical records from the 1527 Spanish expedition lead by Cabeza de Vaca through, among other places, present-day Florida.I found the novel intriguing for how Lalami interrogates what "slave" entails in the context of the expedition, and how the slave's bondage dissolves as the Spanish masters wander further from everything that once enshrined their authority. The novel also reflects what the wikipedia note mentions about rebellion and falling in with indigenous communities.Connor--On Sunday, May 30, 2021 at 6:03:30 AM UTC-5 Kenneth Harrow wrote:could one of you historians explain to me why the 1619 project wants to make the claim that the first slaves brought to the u.s. was in 1619 when the spanish had done so earlier?here's a piece of the wiki reference on this:In Spanish Florida and farther north, the first African slaves arrived in 1526 with Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón's establishment of San Miguel de Gualdape on the current Georgia coast.[38][39] They rebelled and lived with indigenous people, destroying the colony in less than 2 months.[40] More slaves arrived in Florida in 1539 with Hernando de Soto, and in the 1565 founding of St. Augustine, Florida.[39][40] Native Americans were also enslaved in Florida by the encomienda system.[41][42] slaves escaping to Florida from the colony of Georgia were freed by Carlos II's proclamation November 7, 1693 if the slaves were willing to convert to Catholicism,[43][44] and it became a place of refuge for slaves fleeing the Thirteen Colonies.[44][45]
ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/64480fb9-0c4d-41f1-b057-3503f36fc139n%40googlegroups.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment