A Brief History of African American Slavery
What being colored symbolizes today
*Through a simple conversation and extensive research, this article is a brief summary of slavery from enslavement to abolition.*
In order to establish dominance and cultivation in the New World Africans were taken from Africa — where they had Kings and Queens — to America while chained in 12 inch high cubicles where only 15% survived the Middle Passage. On the way many have suffocated, caught disease, or committed suicide in the harsh living conditions.
From there blacks were taken from their families as slaves to be traded and handled by slave owners. There they would receive new names, which include the surnames and forenames of their slave masters.
Shortly thereafter, Americans start breeding blacks as commodities under the supervision of scientific management. As a result, breeders could increase prices for their slaves, which were used as property. In due time, slave trading in America was then circulated at a value higher than gold and silver. While there is little evidence to support this critically acclaimed fact, this would also explain how African Americans are stereotyped as better athletes.
After years of whippings, labor and poor malnutrition, the Emancipation proclamation supposedly “freed” the slaves. While the intentions of the emancipation proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln, was to free slaves after the civil war, many of these slaves were forced to rent land from their previous slaveowners— forcing them back into slavery — or join in the fight amongst the union against the confederate. Meanwhile, slaves remain laborers in the south in the absence of proper resources and support to allow them to truly be free.
Most Spike Lee fans are familiar with the quote “40 acres and a mule” which was a promise made to newly freed slaves in 1865 that was never followed up. The idea was originally brought to light and then issued by William T. Sherman along with other African American leaders. Had this supposed first step been carried out to reduce the power slave ownership had on blacks, millions of former slaves would have been gifted land that could have altered many black businesses and properties today.
Because of slavery there are many traditions known by African Americans today that influence food, marraige, or their hairstyles. African Americans weren’t legally allowed to marry. To compensate, their slaveowners imposed a tradition that signifies sweeping away the old and making way for the new beginning by jumping over a broomstick. Slaves on the plantation were also given food to accommodate themselves. Although, they were often given cornbread, greens, yams, maize etc. Most times the food also had to be self-prepared which is how the traditional chitlins dish became popular in African homes after using pig intestines as the main ingredient. In addition, the traditional cornrow hairstyle seen on African Americans today served as a convenient style to have on the plantation when their hair got longer while also receiving better treatment from slaveowners than the alternative kinky hair they usually have.
Being “black” today means your bloodline made it through the harshest boat ride to a completely foreign land — the New World — Being black in America today means carrying a history of strength, perserverance, dissaproval, and now appropriation. Being African American today means you come from a lineage that endured years of mistreatment and brutality while holding on to the vision of a better future. To have colored skin today is to have power, to be proud of your innate fortitude. A fortitude that is now combined with white privilege to create change in all 50 states across America.
