Today In History Ben Carson Is Beyond An Idiot

…there were other immigrants who came at the bottom of slave ships…”Ben Carson said. My body screamed, my heart dropped and several expletives crossed my head. A supposedly educated man calling former enslaved “immigrants” and he is a black man who disrespected his ancestry. Well maybe his black did not come from West, Central or Eastern Africa. This is the very same man who was a candidate for USA Presidency. I can’t, I just cannot fathom why some intellectual people sometimes do  not think before they open their mouths to defend any particular issue at hand. To call enslaved immigrants is to deny their chattel servitude. Immigrants who are employed have bosses, enslaved had masters who lord over their life. How the fuck are you sane when you call enslaved immigrants? At least immigrants want to  go to their destination but guess what Ben Carson, enslaved were chained to ships to cross the Atlantic.

I would love dearly for Ben Carson to explain if his comments were taken out of context but I honestly do not see how.

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He Said What?

He said “My nose is running like a slave.”
I said “What did you say? Tell me you just did not say…”
He said “Yes,my nose is running like a slave with a whip on its back.”
Ohhhh I planned to lay it in on him, really thick for having the nerve to compare his cold to Slavery.
So I said “I will write about you.”
Hours later and I am contemplating his statement and my response.

Why am I sensitive whenever someone juxtaposes Slavery with a subject I deem too crazy for such referencing?
What gave me the authority to feel a bit flabbergasted by his comment and at times disgusted by some others?
Why does just the mere mention of the word Slavery heightens my senses flowing maydays to my aorta of self-defense?
When do I learn to build a wall like China that would hinder all illegal foreign unmentionable from climbing into my sensitive thinking zone.
Oops but isn’t that the Trump wall?

But the solid opinion holds firm like old oak in hurricane winds that talk of Slavery moves me.
Not only am I a student of history but I am an accepted descendant of some enslaved.
Not only does the chocolate colour of my skin and my nationality shows my claim but my emotional connection plunges me into that world which scares many away.
Maybe I will keep my sharp inhales which sometimes pierces like the final whistle on the ball court,to myself.
But maybe not because that weapon dressed up in pink that God blessed me with is perhaps as sharp as the iceberg which sunk the unsinkable ship.

NO I WILL NOT “GET OVER SLAVERY”

If you feel the need to “get over slavery” then by all means go ahead but please do not extend that ‘courtesy’ to myself. The transatlantic slave trade is part of my history, present and future. Why? It is the trade of enslaved people from Senegambia, Congo and Eastern Nigeria merging with the pre- Columbians and Europeans who contributed to me. A forever History student who appreciates all facets of her existence. You want me to remember the French master who passed on his last name yet you do not want me to point out that my ancestry came from across the Atlantic? If the mere mention of the word ‘slavery’ makes you break out in a nervous sweat then lay your troubles elsewhere but do not dare attempt to say “let sleeping dogs lie.” They need to wake up and bark then maybe the Jim Crowe laws would never exist. Perhaps my homeland governance would not transitioned to neocolonialism cermenting a reliance on a so call mother country who want us off her titties- BREXIT anyone.

Harriet Jacob’s: The Life of a Slave Girl

 

 

 

 

 

“One justification for such patronage was a belief that proving the authenticity of African American narratives was vital. Our Nig and Incidents were written at a time when southerners, recognizing how anti-slavery sentiments threatened slavery’s continuation, were keen to depict African American as northern propaganda, misrepresenting the benevolent institution of slavery. To combat such mendacity, abolitionists urged African Americans to limit themselves to straight autobiography, arguing that such simplicity enhanced credibility.”

See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2015/11/harriet-jacobs-life-slave-girl/?

A Pre- Emancipation History of the West Indies [ A Book Review]

It is probably the most concise discussion that I have read on the West Indies, from European exploration to the end of slavery. I am definitely recommend the book to anyone interested in West Indian early history. Even if you have never read on the topics but suddenly feel like it, you have a good book here.  It is a History Nonfiction, but it does not read like the diplomatic dry and sometimes difficult tone of some History text. It is a comfortable read, the definitions and explanations are simple, making it easy to understand.

Although, the author does not go into advanced details for topics such as The Mercantile System to help you write a 10, 000 thesis, he does offer enough information for a shorter essay. Enough to understand the underlying terms, preparing anyone for more technical terms in other research material. Furthermore, I appreciate the holistic treatment of the West Indies and not dwelling mostly/ only on the British colonies. Furthermore, it is not a case  study of each island except when examples are necessary but the examples did touch on the  Danish, Dutch, Spanish, British and French colonies.

The author’s style of including a conclusion after every section, helps you recall what you read and pulls out the key terms of that segment. There are also questions following each conclusion, fabulous tool to help the reader revise the content recently read. At the end of the book there are Examination Questions based on each section, such as questions on Discovery and Rivalry. In addition, the author included a list of short topics from the book and other suggested subjects not addressed in the book. The topics break the sections into more details to aid in further research and for revision.

Life Of A Slave: A Brief View

It was early afternoon in February 1659 as the sun lashes down on the elongated sandy beach where the Atlantic kisses the coast. At the mouth of the river there is a very large fortress made of stone surrounded by my village of rough huts decorated in their bizarre rows and columns. Further inland my village is swamp with mangrove where insects buzzed to their neighbours in the jungle beyond.

I was standing at a point of my village viewing the sea, when sighting a huge canoe coming towards me. As the object came closer, I heard men of a different nation speaking, they look different with white complexion, blue eyes, yellow hair as they plunge their flat paddles into the water. Quickly they drew nearer, dragging their boats on the sandy beach. They broke into the gates, capturing some of my friends just as I alerted people close by of the attack. I tried to run to let others know what was happening when gun shots sailed around. Suddenly I felt someone leaped on my back, pressing me down- it was one of the strange men, soon another of his kind chained my neck and arms. I was in pain and I struggled to free myself but it was in vain, I am captured.

Slavery: From Africa->West Indies->Europe-> [A History Student Project]

     

Source: tbhpp.org
[The Elmina slave fort]

                    

Introduction

In this project, you will have the knowledge of the transatlantic trade in Africa, the way in which African slaves laboured in areas other than sugar production, you will learn of the manufacturing process on a typical sugar plantation before the year 1838. In addition, the writer will identify the markets for the by-products of sugarcane. There are pictures included to give an additional view to the words.

The Slave Dwelling Project | ~ Developing Resources to Preserve African American Slave Dwellings ~

The Slave Dwelling Project | ~ Developing Resources to Preserve African American Slave Dwellings ~.

“Now that I have the attention of the public by sleeping in extant slave dwellings, it is time to wake up and deliver the message that the people who lived in these structures were not a footnote in American history.”

– Joseph McGill, Founder of the Slave Dwelling Project

The Forgotten Legacy of the ‘white Christian republic’

“Fifty years after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law we should not be patting ourselves on the back that a black man has been elected president or that a black woman has just been nominated for U.S. Attorney General. Were we truly living in a post-racial America these things would pass without comment, and these people would be judged solely on how they performed their jobs.”

Back In The Day (History): September 22nd

On September 22nd, 2004, the Federal Communication Commission fines CBS owned stations $550,000 after the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction.” However, in 2008, the United States Court of Appeal voided the charges. Television guidelines were never the same after said incident, technically there are seconds of screening added to the ‘live’ concept.

 

In the September 22nd, 2010 Swiss elections saw the first ever female majority in Cabinet (4 women out of a seven member Federal Council), less than 40 years after women won the right to vote.

 

 

Sarah Jane Moore approached the President Gerald Ford on September 22nd, 1975, she shot him but she barely missed. Moore received a  life in prison sentence, she escaped briefly in 1987 by climbing over the prison fence, but she was quickly recaptured. On December 31, 2007, Moore accomplished freedom from her prison confinement, [meaning her release from prison].

 

 

Full-scale war breaks outs between Iraq and Iran on 22nd September, 1980. The war lasted eight years.

 

 

On September 22nd, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Declaration of Emancipation for enslaved blacks within all rebels states, their freedom date would begin on 1st, January 1863.