Part I Coming to America: Slavery and Abolition

Hi and welcome to the Wiki History lecture series called History is Power! Produced by robinlofton.com where history is power.  In the introductory lecture, we read a journal entry by Jackie Robinson about how he felt that he was living in a fairy tale on the day that joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. His moving entry helped us to understand that fairy tales (or happy endings) can happen to everyone, including you and me. And that is one reason to learn history: inspiration.

Today, we continue our Wiki lecture series about the importance of knowing African American history.  We can ask again: why is history important?

Let’s begin with another journal entry.

Look at www.robinlofton.com for the written excerpt by Frederick Douglass.

That was from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. He very eloquently describes how slaves were treated with such inhumanity, nearly like animals, and kept ignorant of even their identity. And this is where we begin our lecture.

Today’s wiki lecture is called Coming to America: Slavery and the Abolition movement.

I know that some of my listeners are now rolling their eyes and asking themselves: why do we need to know about slavery?  African slavery is finished and has been for almost 150 years.  Why can’t we just move on and forget about it?

Those are good questions and this is a good time to address them. 

There is a great quote by a very wise man, Daniel Boorstin (a former librarian of Congress) who said: “Trying to plan for the future without a sense of the past is like trying plant cut flowers.”

I will repeat it because it is so relevant to this question of why it is important to know history.

“Trying to plan for the future without a sense of the past is like trying to plant cut flowers.”

In other words, it is impossible for African Americans to move forward and build a true and meaningful presence in America without knowing our history.  Slavery is just one part of our history. Of course, there are other parts including our important contributions to the United States and the world. Contributions in areas like music, language, science, medicine, law, religion and spirituality, art, literature, and culture are all important parts of our past that we should know and cherish just like we should know about the parts that include slavery, injustice, suffering, and struggle. These are aspects of our history that have had a direct effect on us as individuals and as a people. And those effects are still felt today. So, we will examine slavery today and learn of its lasting effects on African American culture.

Slavery in America was a unique and terrible institution. It was marked by violence, brutality, and degradation. It also broke up families, and destroyed traditions, cultures, and languages. It used fear, torture, ignorance, and severe punishments to control the growing slave population. Whippings, executions, and rapes were common. In the antebellum (pre-civil war) South, slaves constituted one-third of the population.  These measures were used to control the large and growing number of slaves in the region.

Slaves were considered as property. They were bought and sold as one would buy or sell a horse or a cow. There are many slave narratives that discuss the brutality and difficulties of life as a slave. But they also discuss how slaves worked to keep their dignity, develop and maintain relationships, and how they struggled for survival for themselves and their families.  One of the best slave narratives is written by Frederick Douglass. There is also a very moving collection of narratives called Remembering Slavery. This collection also contains audio recordings by former slaves about life during slavery. Here is an interview with Phoebus, a former slave in Virginia, reflecting on her grandmother’s experiences working in the fields as a young child:

Grandma said slaves had to pick so many pounds of cotton a day, they were given an awful whipping if they didn’t get this amount. My grandma said that she was small and just couldn’t get her proper amount, but was jolly and always ran to get water for the other slaves when they wanted it. At the end of the day, one of the men would tell another, “Give that little black girl five pounds of  cotton. She’s all right.” When they evened her up, she wouldn’t get a beating but lots of time she would come up short and would have to take the whippin. All the slaves who had fallen short had to stand in line with their backs bare for their whippin. Grandma said that often she was whipped until she could barely move.

From the arrival of the first slave ships in the American colonies in 1619 until slavery was abolished in 1865, the slaves fought for their freedom.  They never just accepted their fate.  They never accepted themselves as less than human. And they fought to maintain their dignity. Freedom was always on their mind and in their hearts.

There were slave rebellions and organized revolts. And, of course, slaves continuously tried to escape and reach the so-called “free” states or even Canada. Nat Turner’s Rebellion in Virginia was one of the largest and most famous rebellions, consisting of more than 70 free and enslaved Black people.   The rebellion was quick and violent. On August 21, 1831, Nat Turner and his band went from house to house setting free every slave that they found. More than 60 people were killed on that night.  Nat Turner and the others were caught and executed.

So, slaves were constantly fighting for, struggling for, or running towards freedom. The response was often harsh punishment, torture, and death to the slaves themselves and sometimes to anyone who helped them.  Although some historians label the slaves as “exceptionally docile”,  there were as many as 300 such rebellions by slaves who sought freedom. In fact, slave owners deeply feared rebellions and took brutal measures to deter and suppress them.

The peculiar institution of slavery divided the United States. This was partially the fault of the delegates who wrote the national Constitution in 1787. Although certain sections of the Constitution made vague references to slavery, it was never formally addressed by the document. Delegates on both sides fought fervently for their position. Yet slavery was left as an issue belonging to the states. Nevertheless, the movement to abolish slavery was gaining momentum. 

By the 1850’s, the abolitionist movement had a lot of support. It was promoted by both African Americans, notably Frederick Douglass (himself an escaped slave who became an eloquent orator, prolific author, and leading abolitionist figure both nationally and internationally), Sojourner Truth (also escaped from slavery who became a leading abolitionist and suffragette), Harriet Tubman (who led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom along the Underground Railroad, and worked as a spy and nurse during the Civil War), and Benjamin Banneker (who was born free but wrote notable letters to President Thomas Jefferson accusing him of violating the “self-evident” rights of all people).  There were also white people who demanded the abolition of slavery like Harriett Beecher Stowe (who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin), John Brown (who led an important revolt at Harper’s Ferry and who gave an eloquent speech about his desire to free the slaves before his execution) and William Lloyd Garrison (who founded the American Anti-Slavery Society and demanded the immediate abolition of slavery).

It was, indeed, a multicultural movement! Countless others contributed to the movement to end slavery in great and small ways. Some contributed money. Others opened their homes to escaped slaves. Still others wrote articles, gave speeches, taught slaves to read and write. And each contribution was important to end the peculiar and terrible institution of slavery in the United States.  Following abolition, many of these same people fought for equal rights for Black persons and for equality of all people. 

Abolition of slavery and the beginning of the reconstruction era were two big steps for African Americans. Freedom was important, it was imperative but it was just the beginning. The story (or the “fairy tale”) continued and is still being written today.

Slavery was without a doubt one of the most difficult times for African Americans.  The violence and brutality are heartbreaking and infuriating. But the slaves’ bravery and courage are moving and inspiring.  We should never forget what they suffered for generations, what they endured for centureis Or the effects of hundreds of years of slavery. Yes, slavery is over. But the story continues.

In the next History is Power! Podcast, we will continue our “fairy tale” . It moves from the fight for freedom to the fight for equality. We will examine the struggle for civil rights. Some names and events will be familiar, particularly those from the civil rights movement.  But others will be new and surprising. The struggle for equal rights began long before the 1950s. And you will hear about them in the next podcast in the first week of December.

I hope that you enjoyed this History is Power lecture at robinlofton.com.  Please remember to subscribe so that the wiki history lectures and the History is Power! lectures will be sent directly to your mailbox.  I also encourage you to make comments, ask questions, or just leave me a message. I love to hear from you all.

Remember to keep believing in fairy tales and never plant cut flowers.

See you again soon!