Slavery by What Other Name?

[Author-Poet Aberjhani]

(photo of a chain gang in Thomasville, Georgia, 1898, by Carl Weiss)




Ask any student of American history what year the enslavement of African Americans ended in the United States and she or he will answer with cheerful confidence, “1865” (even though President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the constitutional amendments that made it a nationally inclusive law came later).

Ask that same question of author Douglas A. Blackmon, who recently picked up a very cool 2009 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for his book Slavery by Another Name, and he will suggest a different date: “I would put 1942 as the date for the technical end of slavery in the Unite. States,” said Blackmon. Why? Because according to Blackmon’s research, spun into the compelling narrative of his book, the condition of what he refers to as “neoslavery” did not end until that time.

Neoslavery was the practice of abducting African Americans, and/or imprisoning them based on exaggerated or false criminal charges, and forcing them into servitude long after the days of the Civil War that supposedly put an end to such practices. As the subtitle of his book indicates, the practice basically constituted “The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.” Blackmon maintains that the practice was particularly prominent in the states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Moreover, the “free” labor it provided was utilized by a number of corporations and allowed them to become some of the wealthiest and most powerful in modern U.S. history.

Significantly enough, Blackmon shared his insights and theories with a packed to capacity audience last week (Friday, May 15, 2009) in the brand new annex of the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum in Savannah, Georgia. Considering that Savannah once-upon-a-time in the 1700s American South was one of the busiest slave port cities in the country, it seems like something more than a coincidence took place when Blackmon was scheduled to give a book signing and lecture in the city only weeks before he won the Pulitzer. That kind of almost magical confluence of events is something authors and booksellers hardly dare to even dream about much less hope for. In this case, the lucky bookseller turned out to be The Book Lady, which temporarily moved its base of operations from 6 East Liberty Street in Savannah to the Civil Rights Museum for the lecture and signing.

Sitting in on Blackmon’s lecture, I couldn’t help being as moved as anybody else in the very diverse audience by what he had to say: “This is not only a story about what was done to African Americans. It’s a story about what was done by White Americans… It isn’t black history. It’s American history.” The emphasis on the words “to” and “by” in the previous sentence are his. They were further underscored by a series of some thirteen canvases, by artist Robert Morris, mounted on easels near the back wall of the annex. Some of Morris’ work combined painted images with copies of authentic newspaper articles from the 1700s advertising slave auctions or rewards for runaway slaves. Included among the images are locations only recently identified as places where slave trading or related activities took place in Savannah .

So now visitors on their way to the city know where to drop in to pick up an autographed copy of Slavery by Another Name fresh off the Pulitzer lecture circuit. Moreover, art from the Robert Morris exhibit is also currently on display at The Book Lady. AND: it just so happens that you can also pick up a copy of ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love at that same location. Feel free to reserve a copy of either book by calling [phone].

Slavery by Another Name raises some serious issues in relation to some of my own nonfiction works, particularly Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance and The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois . For that reason, and for others dealing with the book’s potential impact on studies of American and African-American history during this era of the United States’ first African-American president, I will periodically revisit the subject in this blog.


For a related article, please read Authors Weigh in on Neoslavery Debate


by Aberjhani

[Andre Emmanuel Bendavi ben-YEHU]

Just recently the Courts of Deutschland (Deus + land) and USA decided that they had jurisdiction and authority to prosecute a soldier that served in a concentration camp in WW II. That reinforced our power to demand that the Vatican, The Church of England and its successor in USA.... and all of their affiliated organizations respond for the abduction (Kidnapping) of Africans and the slavery of their children in the Colonies and in The USA Republic since its foundation.

We must not forget that history can also be a LURE of the SLAVE MASTERS, and read the United Nations Charter. We may find out that there are FIVE PERMANENT SLAVE MASTERS, doing business as engineers of wars, starvation, social unrest and terrorism, which under the UN Charter are styled as United Nations Security Council's Permanent Members.

I hope that Author Douglas A. Blackmon did mention on the patrons of slavery, and that his book shows way to justice on the matter.

I did learn through the lines of "Slavery by What Other Name?", and hope that people learn that our country is not a THEOCRATIC REPUBLIC, and that the State Business is people's responsibility.

My respect and admiration,

Andre Emmanuel Bendavi ben-YEHU

[Dixie Dawn Michelle]

An outstanding article of social and historic background etched on the Scroll of our reality.

May we learn to be humans.

Respectfully,

Dixie Dawn Michelle

[dave cox]

no one has the right to treat people in this way we are born with the same bloood in our veins so what if our skin is a differant colour, that is down to where we live on this planet those who people were taken by force from there native lands and brought into our "so called civilised society" to be sold as slaves , how can one person own another i can never understand this, we in Britain took part in this dibolical trade as well back in history and i feel ashamed that we did thankfull y life had got better over the years but this disrespect still goes on. and i cannot understand why,

[Romantic Poetess]

The photo rips & pounds at my heart with sorrows grief, compassion, & anger, it is just horrid to be a prisoner by the selfish ignorant greed of another. Lies & deception paving to ruin lives of any race at any decade is hard to understand. My best friend who is originally from Mississippi shares a great deal of her history growing up with me, she is 59 years old, and she is an African American woman. I just recently learned her last name is not her heritages ancestral last name. As awful as this is going to sound & as awful as I felt to hear it…her family’s last name is the inherent last name of what she called the master family’s last name. She said she wished she knew what her family’s real last name is, but that is the history of where her family’s last name originated from, and apparently if all else wasn’t enough for those participating in slavery, people did that sort of thing also as a common practice. It is hard to comprehend all the ignorant atrocities of slavery at any decade committed to any person/race/nationality, and anyone feeling superior to any race just makes me wonder how could they feel entitled to it. I think people who feel superior to another race are actually perhaps feeling inferior about their own self. The stories my friend shares with me are brutal & murderous. Identities stolen, being treated like garbage, or maybe being treated ok-yet still like a piece of property, and then there’s no dignity for the human soul & life itself. It is so hard for me to phantom the type of person who feels superiorities ignorance. These types of people still try to thrive even today despite history; gangs, moose lodges ect….. Some ignorant persons burnt down a black family's new home which was from the community by Houses For Humanity just a couple years ago....then back in 1989 or 1990 my friend who is married to a black man & they have a child wanted to buy a home in Highland, Indiana...someone put a cross on the lawn & torched it as a warning. I have lived next to people who felt supreme for almsot 2 months-I couldn't stand them for it. I just don't see why they think they are so high & mighty. I see them as small cowards

[Art Sun Hernandez]

Aberjhani, the world has changed just a little more than we have hoped and prayed for, and yet it requires so much more, the change of arms at the highest level of the United States ca change our present history and the future, yet we are left to analyze and reflect upon the unfortunate and sadness of our past. To view and to bring forth the past is to know thyself, and there are very few among the many who can expose the cruelty of its nature and to enlighten the minds and souls of those who seek understanding. Life is a tragic journey at times and we must accept many faults, even at the hands of those who supposedly are guiding us, such as the times of slavery. We cannot change our past but we can reflect upon it and strive to keep its repetion from happenning again. May God be at our side to be the true guide and to carry us through the future in the hands of who holds the reigns of our country, a man who surely knows his past.

Sincerely, your friend
Art Sun...