As Webster’s dictionary defines “Reparation” as “The money that is paid by a country that has lost a war, for the damage, injuries, etc. that it has caused.” It is also the act of giving or doing something for the victims in order to show that one is sorry for the suffering that has been inflicted. The United States of America has never issued an apology for the government’s enslavement of African People in America.
In 1619, the arrival of Africans as enslaved people into what would later be called America, was the most unusual journey in history. This unforgivable sin has set the tone for America’s history that continues to affect African Americans to this day. Who were these enslaved Africans? Where did they come from? Our history far exceeds our time in slavery in America. That grand and glorious past must be noted. We are descendants of great societies in Ghana, Egypt, Mali, Songhai and Kush. Yes Kush that is talked about in the Bible in Genesis, so our history did not start in slavery.
Our knowledge of history teaches us that the greatness and riches that we once had were stolen from us, due to the wars that were going on between Africa and the ruthless, greedy European crusaders seeking wealth and free labor, vital to the opening of the “New World”.
In their quest for control and dominance of the New World, the Europeans moved with ruthlessness. The movement of human beings from Africa to the Caribbean Islands and later to the Americas with such harshness and cruelty, was the daily medicine that the enslaved Africans received.
The Europeans always regarded the enslavement of the African as a condition suitable only for non-Christians. It must be noted that the Africans subjected to the brutalization by the Europeans did not go quietly. Africans resisted and revolted, and although many Africans’ death were caused by the brutal treatment, many others Africans jumped overboard and drowned before they reaches the slave ports. Historians have noted that the middle passage was the most atrocious journey that any human being could endure. Shackled like animals without any semblance of civility or compassion. The fact that our African ancestors could survive this horrifying act is a tribute to our strength. Our ancestors endured, and stayed alive with the hope that we would reap the benefits of their struggle. The thought process of “Survival Legacy” is a dynamic trait that is passed on to the African American people from generation to generation.
America being a settler state, Britain, established colonies and uprooted the Indigenous people resulting in genocide, with the primary intention of creating an economic structure to enrich the economy of Europe and the accumulation of wealth for the Kingdom. To establish this economic engine, it required a vast free labor force, harvesting the crops that were shipped to Europe. The Europeans’ insatiable market for sugar as well as tobacco, rice, indigo and cotton led to the expansion of the Slave trade. Out of this plantation system, it created an Institutionalized system in America that never existed before.
After experiencing the horrors of the Middle Passage, enslaved Africans faced forced labor in a new environment. The emergence of Chattel Slavery, stated that the enslaved African was property for life and subsequent bills of sale stipulated that the children of Black female slaves would also be slaves for life. Chattel slavery produced laws that institutionalized a system of perpetual servitude, that dehumanized and stripped Africans of their language, culture and religion. African people could not testify against white people, own property, leave their master’s estate without permission, congregate in groups larger than four, enter into contracts, marry nor of course, bare arms.
The United State constitution which went into effect in 1779, became a major force in favor of the continued enslavement of African Americans as many of our founding fathers including Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and yes even Alexander Hamilton were slave owners.
In Part II, of a four part series, I will address the role the Constitution has had in the continued dehumanization of African Americans and highlight the reasons for reparations.
By Larry B. Seabrook
Contact Information:
Email: Larry.B.Seabrook@gmail.com