View the H-Slavery Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in H-Slavery's February 2010 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] View the Next Message in H-Slavery's February 2010 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] Visit the H-Slavery home page.
1. From: GailSw2000@cs.com During the process of writing the wording for a State of Florida Historical Marker application for the African Cemetery at Key West in 2001 semantics were hotly debated. The title, said one who was in charge of the group donating the money for the marker, was "Slave Cemetery". But the people buried there - 295 - were not slaves. They were Africans, just Africans. They were not slaves when they died at Key West. They had been liberated from slavers owned by U.S. Citizens and bound to Cuba from Africa, by three U.S. Navy ships. They were not enslaved, but had been captives. After our wording, "African Cemetery" went to Tallahassee, Florida's capitol, where everyone there is a bunch of "we know, you don't" types, we found the title changed to "Slave Cemetery." I got it reversed. But this is the point that should be established: a "slave' is an object in the world's history, an "enslaved" African/African-American/other person is a human being. Let's not change historical writings, but start being human by using in our time "enslaved." Gail Swanson Independent Florida Keys Historian Author of: Slave Ship Guerrero (2005) 2. From: Mackie Blanton, buyurun7@YAHOO.COM Some of us will continue to use the phrase "enslaved Africans" because it helps to emphasize the belief that Africans were not captured in the state of being slaves at the moment of being captured and enslaved. Of course, once in "the new world," they, indeed, became someone's slaves, as their descendants certainly did. On the other hand, others will argue that some Africans captured and chained in Africa were already some African's "servant" or "slave" and was sold off to white slavers. Nonetheless, it is not at all clear that "servant" in Africa has the same semantic weight as "slave" in the Americas. 3. From: Bernard K Freamon [mailto:Bernard.Freamon@shu.edu] The answer to Ted DeLaney's question is "no." The word "slave" tells us nothing about how the person entered into that status. There is a famous jazz piece by Rahsan Roland Kirk entitled "Volunteer Slavery" which seeks to pointedly condemn those people who voluntarily and stupidly enslave themselves to wrong-headed and degrading ideas and practices in modern society. I agree that the word "enslaved" does not tell us much more but it is a slightly better usage in that it describes the condition and the action involved rather than just the status. Bernard K. Freamon Professor of Law and Director Zanzibar Program on Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking Seton Hall Law School 4. From: Robert Hinton <robert.hinton@nyu.edu? There are still many among us who think that the "Black Studies" project is about helping black people feel better about themselves. All logic and etymology suggest that if one is enslaved, then one is a slave. If someone can beat you, rape you, work you nearly to death, and then sell you down the river, you are a slave and it doesn't matter what you think about yourself or your situation ____________________________________________________ Robert Hinton The Africana Studies Program New York University
|