Michael Wright

Michael Wright

 

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00:47:44:00

FOXWORTH:

 

so when we think about the

continent of Africa and the fact that

individuals decided to get on a boat not

just to go to Africa and look for rich

minerals and you know resources but to

then go and get human beings if you

could share with us what was that in

your mind and it has as history tells us

what was I won't jump to slave trade

what was the slave trade about?

 

 

00:48:20:00

WRIGHT:

 

Well first of all to respond to questions

about the slave trade one must go back a

little further and look at the the

decades the…the Millennium of African/

Asian international trade following

period we call the Crusades Europe was

underdeveloped, Europe was in poverty,

diseased, lacking of natural resources

whereas the rest of the world, Africa

Central Asia India China were prosperous

so we call that the Golden Age of

African Asian international trade so--

which prompted the Columbus event. The

Columbus event trying to find a way to

reach India and China and to establish

trade and essentially to bring back food

sources to Europe to a starving Europe

and so we know that the Columbus event

then happened upon what was to them an

unknown new continent and then that

became ripe for their exploitation for

its natural resources so thereafter

shortly thereafter then we can see that

their encounters with Native Americans

was always hostile

but the Europeans saw an opportunity to

create a new economic source for

themselves and so this is where the the

idea of enslavement or the the the the

exploitation of Natural Resources in

another continent began to crystallize

so it was initially the Spanish the

Portuguese in what we now refer to as

South America and Brazil and then later

in the upper Atlantic area or North

America we call it today where the

British became involved in colonization

and to facilitate their colonization

looked for labor and so the African

continent being in closer proximity to

the Americas then--than far Asia Africans

were then viewed as a potential labor

source and so this is how this process

began the system began so it was the

establishment of the first British

colony in the New World was 1607 at

Jamestown and so we know by the

historical records and that that that

site still exists we know from the

records that the Jamestown Colony was

populated by under a hundred persons

later the African American presence

there began in 1619 we know that there

was a Portuguese ship that carried some

30-odd Africans we were not certain how

they got onboard that ship but they were

there and the Portuguese ship coming to

Jamestown wanted to replenish its

supplies and whatnot these Africans were

released into the Jamestown Colony so

the history that we do know that we can

speak to is that these initial Africans

were part became part of the Jamestown

Colony they became colonists and so they

became integrated into the the Jamestown

community they were not enslaved

persons

 

well we know that the Jamestown

Colony had difficulty surviving there

was a starvation there were attacks by

Native Americans who did not want them

there

the Africans managed to survive in that

process and later more English people

came to the colony to replenish it and

whatnot and brought over more British

laborers and so the term that historians

we will use are called indentured

servants that is that these were from

England these were people who were many

of them in prisons waiting sentencing or

even execution for crimes in England

were given the opportunity to either

continue to be a prisoner or to be

executed or to go to Virginia which in

those early times meant a pretty early

death anyway and so these people came to

the colonies as indentured servants

usually for 7-year indenture or

contracted laborers and so it was the

the growth of the tobacco industry that

usually that that set off the the

profitability of enslavement now the

process that this went through was that

as people began to learn how to survive

in the Americas -- overcame illness

overcame diseases over overcame

starvation overcame the attacks by

Native Americans that the tobacco

industry in the Carolinas and Virginia

began to flourish and the indentured

servants if they lived through the

indenture seven years became free

persons so this is key

so as these British indentured servants

became free persons then they became

entrepreneurs themselves and started to

what compete in the tobacco industry

well it wasn't long after that people

realized that the more indentured

servants that they brought the more

temporary laborers that they brought it

started to cut into their profit making

potential and so what they came up with

in terms of an idea was a permanent

labor force that would never be free

that would never become part of the

competition and thus their profitability

their profits on their exchange of

tobacco would continue so it is that

process that initially a trickle of

people from the African continent came

to a a flood.

 

 

00:55:18:00

 

FOXWORTH

 

And so when you see that process, and thank you

 

For sharing that historical perspective, because

 

A lot of people simply start with, boats were mounted

 

Up and then went to Africa…but there was history

 

As to why those boats were even designed or created

 

And so that was extremely helpful.

now these boats start heading to Africa

on a frequent basis and they get to a

continent and they find human beings

there that somewhere in their mind

probably based upon their experience

with the temporary indentured servants

that they could simply capture by force

-- human beings put them on a boat take

them to a place that they had never been
…

for purposes that only they knew what

they would be like if you would take us

through just that component

of those boats arriving and how Africans

must have been totally shocked in the idea

that these captors were asking other

Africans to take family friends you know

anybody


WRIGHT

00:56:44:00

Okay. In answer to that question

about the early encounters between

Europeans and West Africans the

relationship between Europeans and

Africans is pretty well-established they

have knowledge of each other so they

know where they are, they know what kind

of people they are I would say that the

vulnerability of some of the peripheral

African communities on the western coast

of Africa made it possible for Europeans

to engage in minor trade with these

African kingdoms we'll call them -- they

were -- and initially the exchange of

people were done in much the same way

they were done in England in indentured

servants through contracted laborers in

many cases African Kings were,  were

viewed to to cooperate with European

traders we'll call them in exchange for

people with with regard that these

people would be indentured servants or

contracted laborers for a length of time

these Africans brought with them when

they came to the Americas as indentured

servants they brought with them skills

they brought with them farming

techniques metallurgical techniques

these were people products that were

transferred from the African continent

to the Americas so these were were

people who were not empty-handed and

came with skills and with a viability to

sustain an agricultural economy now the

later the demand for increasing numbers

of laborers became so acute that people

started to

be captured by force

now this created a an economic system

whereby African nations west coast

African nations what either be involved

in exchanging people or themselves be

captured and so it kind of created a

competition amongst African nations and

so to survive you you you kind of had to

engage in this in some way or another or

you would be victimized by it so I liken

it today to the International economy

that we talked about today in

contemporary times that how the world is

is interdependent in its economic system

and that cellphones are inescapable and

we find cell phones and the internet and

so everywhere well the slave trade was

an all encompassing kind of a system as

well based on race based on color that

either you were involved in it or you

became victimized by it and so we had a

spiraling downward into this system and

there was probably no area in the world

that was immune from its tentacles the

the patterns of the slave trade as we

know now begin we could say in a

triangular kind of a pattern shipping

pattern from the west coast of the

African continent to South America will

say to North America and then to England

so there was a pattern whereby the labor

was extracted laborers were extracted by

force from the African continent taken

to either the Americas south or north

and the products

of their labor were then transferred to

Europe and so that is the the the

distribution channel of labor to to

production to distribution in England so

the African continent becomes weaker it

is becomes depopulated the Americas

become infested with this slave

plantation economy and then the fruits

or products of that slave economy are

then transferred to Europe and Europe

becomes stronger and richer and

healthier they were placed in West lorry

Gouri well there was one of the major

holding yeah gori gori castle or glory

fort or became a storage warehouse

whereby people were people were captured

from the interior marched to the coast

and to coastal area and then they were

housed in these warehouses factories

shall we say of enslavement until the

slave ships arrived whether they be

Spanish or Portuguese or England English

and then from there transferred out of

the holding facilities on to ships that

took them to the Caribbean and to South

America and then to North America

process

once they arrived on the shores in this

instance to the Americas there there was

a cleaning up because they hadn't have

been treated like human beings they were

correct that boys took up to 60 days and

Christmases was a voyage where many lost

their lives were tossed overboard still

chained to one another fed to sharks

quite honestly that process began so if

we could just talk about that voyage a

little bit more of what that boy is you

must have been like you know coming

across and then get to hitting the

shores well the the whole process of

enslavement is dehumanizing a process

and so to your question about what that

process must have been like we can only

imagine so it's very difficult for

historians academics to piece that

together but it is possible for us to

get a good a good sketch of that and so

we know that these these people who were

free and independent people in their own

Nations were captured by force and to

become permanent laborers in the new

world so in order to to do that there's

a process of dehumanization

we call that chattel slavery so chattel

slavery is the process of stripping one

of their humanity of their of their life

of their culture of their language

depriving them of all manner of human

decency so we know that people are

chained together in many cases and

placed on these ships packed on to the

bowels of these ships where there's no

sanitation facilities there's no fresh

air there's no you know regular food

sources and so this is part of the

is purposeful this is a purposeful part

to strip that person of their sense of

self there since they're sent their

personal sense of dignity of their

nationality and so this is the first

stage of that dehumanization is the the

trip from the African continent to the

so-called New World and so we know that

from records that we can look at that

many people are died many Africans died

many Africans contracted diseases from

the lack of sanitation and fresh water

air etc starvation there were many

revolts on these ships whereby africans

revolted against the enslavers on these

ships and so there were many many

violent attacks and Africans again lost

their lives in that way many of them

decided that drowning or committing

suicide was more advantageous than being

a permanent slave much like Native

Americans I would say in the initial

contact with the Spanish in the in

Mexico and whatnot often took the same

route by committing suicide their

children and killing themselves rather

than be placed into permanent

enslavement so this is a process that is

going on of dehumanization that is part

that is an essential part of the

orientation to slavery perpetrated by

Europeans be they Spanish Portuguese

English or whatever so then the second

stage of that of course is in the

Caribbean there's a there was a

seasoning if you would or a training

process that further dehumanized

Africans into this slave economy this is

this slave condition whereby Africans of

the same ethnicity who spoke the same

language had the same cultural beliefs

were separated from each other so that

they could not speak with each other

they there was a language barrier and so

that they had to depend upon the

language of the cap door to communicate

and so these this was a process that was

part and parcel to the entire

dehumanization process and then once

that process had been achieved to the

extent that the enslavers were satisfied

with it then they were then exported to

various areas into the American colonies

into South American colonies so the

Caribbean became kind of a second stage

a training ground for permanent

enslavement just prior to plantation

life that process now having these boats

that have been on the water for 60 days

and sanitation poor sanitation and

disease and all the things you mentioned

and so the next step is to get them

ready to be sold

we're told that they were hose down on

they were tar was filled in their lashes

and that they were then kind of you know

covered in fat grease and to make look

shiny put on a new pair of clothes and

they were then placed on these auction

blocks that process of now the official

compensation

there was money obviously that traders

had in their ability to be able to

purchase these so they different from

what you described about the temporary

indentured servants so if you could talk

about the economy now on that trading

yeah well it's a the the whole system of

enslavement is a multi-faceted and

complex kind of a system so you have you

have cap doors people who are engaged in

that aspect of capture people to

transport people then there are people

in the Caribbean who whose job it is is

to to further indoctrinate people into

enslavement and then of course there are

the plantation owners then then there

are the businesses the entrepreneurs who

have these tobacco plantations who are

looking for laborers that the plantation

based economy so you have different

people sets of people doing different

functions performing different functions

for that system so once once these

people arrive say for example in

Charleston Harbor in South Carolina one

of the main Atlantic distribution points

is where people were brought off ships

and then sold to the various plantation

owners and then distributed throughout

the Carolina colonies I can tell you

having visited Charleston that many of

those facilities trade to slave

facilities the ports the docks the

trading bins and the planters hotel and

whatnot where they stayed what waiting

arriving of slave ships are still there

as is Goree island in West Africa so

there's a complex process by which this

this process of enslavement to actually

distributing people on various American

plantations to to work it takes place

this is its most complex

his most complex Native Americans were

there

Native Americans having knowledge of the

land and the countryside many of them

were enslaved as well but for the most

part Native Americans retreated into the

interior of the frontier whereby the

Europeans were unwilling to go having no

knowledge of that they stayed on the

coastal area the periphery and so this

made the slave trade became profitable

in this process everyone made money on

it each aspect and the the plantation

owners of the plantation operators then

using African slave labor to enslaved

labor to produce initially the cash crop

was tobacco right so there there are two

components of we can say in brief about

plantation life one is the fear amongst

the white plantation owners or operators

that the Africans will will revolt so

they're in constant fear of that and so

to counter that fear there is a system

of punishment to keep people enslaved to

keep people or try to get them to accept

their condition their permanent

condition so there's always this

component of the Africans themselves in

revolt mode on the verge of remote

revolt as they did in many cases and

then the the white overseers and

plantation owners trying to counteract

that potential fear with a punishment

and so those punishments were anywhere

from lashing whipping severing of limbs

etc some of the most grotesque kinds of

tortures that one can imagine in human

history so the the the Africans in

America are constantly overworked

undernourished

surviving on the the after leftovers of

of what the white plantation owners have

oftentimes eating whatever's left after

animals are fed in many cases livestock

and animals were regarded as even more

valuable than than people and so this a

system of survival and so the Africans

always lacking in nutrition and and and

proper enough food to survive made a

kind of survival meals that out of

leftovers and out of that which was

discarded referred to in 20th century as

soul food in many cases or melons melons

a high in high in vitamin the water and

melons or high in vitamins and so

Africans often turn to melons which in

fact they brought from the West African

continent as a means of sustenance to

keep themselves alive

and so this was

the just barely touches on the cruelty

and inhumanity of this this system based

on color let's not forget based on based

on race based on once continent of

origin it is a race based system without

a doubt size of men you know mandingo as

we heard so certain separations within

the population of Africa right well the

the acculturation of the of the the

slave culture in the south was always

done to maintain control and so always

fear of revolt violent revolt which

which in many cases did occur by the

Africans so the process of of

acculturating these people to their

slave conditions often the white slave

holders or enslavers would pit shall we

say one group against the other a

competition

maybe people who were lighter skinned

Africans received lighter work duties

women were placed to work into the

houses with white women and white men

and we're by different groups were

placed in different stratums

and so this created a kind of complex

distribution of labor and service that

complicated the system for Africans

enslaved Africans in the Americas

whereby but all designed to further

reinforce the slave condition by no

means was it designed to facilitate

African identity or compassion for each

other so they were always as always

designed to create a inter competition

or rivalry and so we have these these

terms those who worked in the houses and

those who worked in the fields and so

those who worked in the houses ate

better or wore better clothes and then

those who worked in the fields and so

there created a kind of undercurrent of

of treatment and the perception that

those who engaged in lighter work were

more sociable more intelligent more

acceptable than those who worked did the

harshest types of labor so we get these

terms of house and and field applied but

they're all enslaved and so the the

levels of their the psychological

development of of these different

different tasks within the plantation

different stratums created a kind of a

prejudice if you would amongst the

enslaved Africans themselves and of

course the in slave owners enslavers

enjoyed this to a large extent

and so this competition so we're all

familiar with the the famous Willie

Lynch letter of I believe it's 1720 or

1715 I can't recall the exact date of it

but I do have a copy of it and and so we

can recount this and read this and

understand this as a method to how do

you create a slave how do you keep a

person in Slate and how do you how do

you orient this person to engage in

their own enslavement without shackles

without fences how do you how do you get

them to accept enslavement well this is

of course you know pitting the young

against the old the tall against the

short the light against the dark etc etc

much of which we we have seen and much

talked about in contemporary American

african-american life in America so to

some extent these these mental maladies

of 300 years ago can still be seen here

today I don't think I don't think you

missed anything I think we could say

something about that the colonies at

some point all of the colonies legalized

slavery however some of the the northern

colonies began to begin policies where

slavery was outlawed slowly outlawed in

the northern colonies and so this was

kind of a view of hope for Africans if

they could get to the north or if they

were happen to disembark in Baltimore

Harbor for example which is kind of in

the middle of the Atlantic States and

some of them had the fortune to go north

then their their conditions were less

severe and the potential for freedom was

there and

fact there were many free Africans in

the northern colonies during up into the

time of the Revolution we can point to

the David Walker David Walker's appealed

and his famous letter after the

Declaration of Independence he is a he

is a free obviously african-american man

living in Boston and he is an

entrepreneur he has a clothing store

haberdashery and he writes this famous

essay on criticizing mr. Jefferson and

the Declaration of Independence as not

extending the notion of natural rights

the freedom of natural rights to African

Americans and so I think that's an

important an important component in

addition there's another important

component is that the the only social

activities that Africans were allowed to

engage in on the plantations was that of

Christian worship so they were allowed

to have their own services or Christian

Church services on the plantation well

we know from our history that

Christianity was it played a fundamental

part of enslavement itself whereas

religion is used as a weapon both

against Native Americans and Africans so

that in Christianity they found in

Scripture they found the the famous

quote about slaves obey your master and

you will receive your your reward in the

by and by and so that that was allowed

to Christianity or Christian services

were allowed to Africans to conduct on

the plantations and that was the only

social institution in which they had

some degree of control later we have

Richard Allen in Philadelphia forming

the free African Methodist Church

which is still in existence today and we

know that the Christian Church in black

communities across America is perhaps

still the only viable singular

institution that black Americans control

themselves Christianity but I think that

it should be reinforced that

Christianity was used as a weapon not as

a tool of liberation but as a weapon for

enslavement initially against Native

Americans in Mexico and South America

and then African Americans as they came

here as they were brought here you're

welcome okay my name is Michael G right

w RI ght I am a doctor of political

science history and media and culture

and I teach in a variety of in higher ed

institutions across the state

thank you welcome good all right now