I Celebrate Black History and Wish to Honor Those Forgotten and Hidden Heros of It but It Must Be Honestly?
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at
2:49 pm
Rja asked:
represented. We know that slaves were here and alll the horrors of the master -slave relationship.We know that a war was fought to free them. But to be accurate shold we not acknowledge that some white masters were good people and kind. Should we not also know that some free Blacks were also involved in the slave trade. Is there no documentation to say that the blacks were bought as a commodity from other blacks and transported to the New world as a commodity by shippers paid to do the transport. Do we have no evidence that there were some good ship captains who at least wished to deliver their cargo intact and in good health as the cargo was valuable. Is there no history in black literature of good crossings? Was there no black historical account of how these captured individuals would have fared if the didn’t get on the ship and stayed with their captors in Africa? All the heros of this horrible time in Black history should be acknowledged to be fair accurate.
represented. We know that slaves were here and alll the horrors of the master -slave relationship.We know that a war was fought to free them. But to be accurate shold we not acknowledge that some white masters were good people and kind. Should we not also know that some free Blacks were also involved in the slave trade. Is there no documentation to say that the blacks were bought as a commodity from other blacks and transported to the New world as a commodity by shippers paid to do the transport. Do we have no evidence that there were some good ship captains who at least wished to deliver their cargo intact and in good health as the cargo was valuable. Is there no history in black literature of good crossings? Was there no black historical account of how these captured individuals would have fared if the didn’t get on the ship and stayed with their captors in Africa? All the heros of this horrible time in Black history should be acknowledged to be fair accurate.
Tagged with: Good Health • Ship Captains • Slave Trade
Filed under: Commodity Trading
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The heroes were those involved in freeing the slaves- for example, those involved in the underground railroad.
P.S.- Black history isn’t all about slavery.
u can always try taking an african history class, i am taking a class called west africa and the atlantic diaspora which talks bout slavery, before it starts, after it did etc
u can alo read a book called “Prince among Slaves”
Canada’s Head of State is Her Excellency Michelle Jean, she is a decendent of slaves herself. She came to Canada as a refugee as a child. She recently visited different countries in Africa. What follows is an account of her visit to Ghana on the west coast of Africa. I consider it a major step in the right direction,
Africa must ‘learn from the lessons’ of slavery
By ALEXANDER PANETTA
ACCRA, Ghana — Michaelle Jean told an African audience Tuesday that the continent must recognize its own role in the slave trade to help turn the page on a shameful chapter in history.
The Governor General used a state dinner to congratulate Ghana’s government for offering such an apology and suggested other African countries should do the same.
She made the remarks on the eve of an emotional pilgrimage to a seaside fortress where thousands of slaves were shipped to the Americas.
“The time has come to recapture that moment of African history in order to move ahead together,” Jean said in a speech.
“As it looks to the future, Ghana has shown that it is willing to confront the past.
“I am impressed by your government’s decision to apologize for what was done hundreds of years ago by the people of this region involved in the slave trade.”
More than 15 million men, women and children were captured and sold to Europeans during the colonial age and crammed onto wooden ships bound for the Americas.
Ghana was a major hub of the international slave trade concentrated in West Africa, and the national government has recognized the role Africans here played.
“As a descendent of slaves, that touched me very much. I know that we cannot go back and solve past injustices. All we can do is learn from the lessons of the past, even the painful lessons, and use that knowledge to build a better future.”
Jean will visit Elmina Castle today and step up to its so-called Door of No Return, the infamous final spot where the captured natives were taken from African soil.
Jean said she planned to gaze at the ocean and reflect on what happened there.
“I will think of the millions of people packed tightly in rickety ships bound for unknown lands. Faraway lands where they were deprived of their memories, of their languages, of their heritage, of their dignity and, most of all, of their freedom,” she said.
“I will stand and pray for those who never completed the journey and whose bodies were thrown out to the ocean.”
“As I will stand there and reconnect with the land of my ancestors, I will salute your openness and I will accept your apology.”
Ghanaian President John Agyekum Kufuor gave an extremely detailed account of the history of slavery to an international conference in July, where he drew attention to historical facts that many Africans would rather forget.
He described how Phoenicians and Greco-Romans had been enslaving Africans thousands of years ago and how Africans themselves profited from the trade with Europeans.
As a Canadian of English/Irish decent, I can honestly tell you I’m very proud of her and the fact she represents Canada at the highest level.I’ve decided to finish this with a part of the account following her visit. Sorry it’s so long, but I feel it’s important.
The Governor General triggered a chain reaction of tears from her entourage as she broke into sobs while touching the rusty iron gate of the so-called the Door of No Return.
For more than three centuries, the chains of African captives scraped the rugged stone floor as they were shoved onto ships waiting below to carry them into slavery.
Jean gently touched the gate, then grabbed onto it tightly, and knelt as she wept for several minutes while praying in silence and gazing from the dark cellar into the sunlit horizon.
She said she prayed for millions of slaves, including her own ancestors, and for the untold millions who died during the journey and whose corpses were dumped into the ocean.
“My life will never be the same again,” said Jean, the Haitian-born descendant of slaves.
“I said one thing (during my prayer): we shall never be chained again. We shall never be on our knees again. We shall never be humiliated again.”
Upon emerging from the castle, the Governor General shook her head and waved off staff who attempted to set up a news conference with Ghanaian and Canadian media.
A moment later she regained her composure and changed her mind.
Jean then delivered an eight-minute monologue without a single reference to the joyful irony that a slaves’ descendent would return here as vice-royalty.
Jean was asked if she had a message for Canada’s black community and declined to offer one.
Instead she spoke about what she called modern-day slavery: the children who are forced into armies around the world, or to work for little or no pay.
“This doesn’t concern just the descendants of slaves,” she said when asked for a reaction. “There are still children who are enslaved. I know that slavery is still a reality today.”
“We can’t say that we’re unaware this is happening . . . Indifference is guilt. Indifference is a killer …”
“Not only would we betray the people still living in those conditions . . . we would also be betraying ourselves.”
A half-hour helicopter ride from the Ghanaian capital of Accra, Elmina Castle was first established as a Portuguese trading post in 1482 to exchange European goods for African gold.
But it was soon overtaken by the slave trade and served that sole purpose under the Portuguese, Dutch and British until the practice ended in the 1830s.
It has found a new vocation as a shrine to inhumanity.
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For some reason the word doesn’t exactly describe the true definition of what we commonly now know as survivors. These it seems are the most of the unsung heroes and they are represented in the very fact that their descendents are still here.
Quite personally I will like a black person if the way they act is nice but honestly I will never think the way they look is attractive. The hair looks like steel wool, the nose is wide, flat with upturned flaring nostros, the lips are thick and big.