WHERE IT ALL BEGAN, SLAVERY

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My father used to say that stories are part of the most precious heritage of mankind.

-Tahiu Shah

Cultural Norms

In the South before the Civil War, many slaves were diagnosed with forms of mental illness because their behavior violated cultural norms. Drapetomania was a psychological disorder in which a slave had an uncontrollable urge to escape from bondage. Dysaesthesia Aethiopica was a disorder in which a slave was disobedient to her or his owners. Although labeling the desire to be free and the resentment of human bondage as disorders seems ludicrous today, such labeling illustrates how culture can shape our perception of mental illness. How many false perceptions of truth prevail today?

Albert Einstein is thought to have said, "I think the most important question facing humanity is, is the universe a friendly place?" It is up to us to decide whether to believe in a friendly or hostile world. When you trust in goodness, that is what you tend to find. If no one will step up and admit that we have some responsibility for the pain of others, there is an impasse with communication and a denial that our behavior will have an impact beyond our current time in history.

Slavery was so long ago. Can't you forget about it? Our answer is, no. Our lives are like an open book that forms a real life's narrative. Whether one thinks it is worth reading depends on their willingness to form an authentic relationship. It is much easier to show your own photos than for you to look at my book. The United States was not a nation until 1776; therefore, we cannot be accountable for the years of slavery before the country was founded; therefore, Blacks were not in slavery for four hundred years. You cannot claim that you were in slavery for four hundred years because there was no nation. Makes sense, doesn't it? Maybe to you but not to the discordances of slavery.

Our lives have a way of accelerating, making the past not so distant. Count it by hours, count it by days, count it by years and however you count it, it will add up to a life time of repercussions from slavery. Every aspect of African American women's lives is influenced by the aftermath of slavery including health care, economics, education, housing, religion and entertainment. Nothing can undo history and we cannot let history repeat itself. Reversal is not a choice. So, we dig our heels in and try to build a relationship with you. Who will step across the line first? There is a system set in place to deliberately inhibit our chances to succeed. To understand African American women, you cannot ignore our history, as ugly as it may be. It is what we bring to the table. I found it odd and amusing that a person of another race would recommend that I go see "I am not your Negro" by James Baldwin because I would find it insightful and an eye opener. Really? "The objective reality is that virtually no one who is white understands the challenge of being black in America." Pin a sign on the back of a white American woman that says treat me like I am black and pin a sign on the back of an African American woman that says treat me like I am white. What do you think would happen?

In a foreword to the book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome authored by Joy DeGruy Ph.D., Randall Robinson writes that African Americans are being urged to forget slavery, to forget Jim Crow and to forget about what Africa was prior to the advent of trans-Atlantic slavery. "In as much as African Americans are the only Americans whose forebears were dragooned to America against their will and enslaved in American for nearly three centuries, a curiosity about our past, questions about ancestors known and unknown, and a need to know about Africa before we were torn from its breast is not only normal, but, indeed, is a sign of a healthy intellect, psyche, and a soul." What is so bad about the middle passage, slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, killings by policemen, unemployment, uneducated, undereducated, poverty, drug infested neighborhoods,?. Get over it; move on!

Let us be realistic; we didn't get off to a happy beginning. We started as slaves. There was no sisterhood bonding. It must be remembered that it was not just men who owned the enslaved. Some women built up their own plantations and others inherited estates from deceased husbands. Enslaved women were often given to white women as gifts from their husbands and as wedding and Christmas gifts or if young as companions or play friends. Harriet Jacobs in Incidents of a Slave Girl (1861) was scathing about the treatment meted out by the slave owner's wives explaining it as retaliation for their husband's sexual interaction with enslaved women. The mistress, who ought to protect the helpless victim, has no other feelings towards her but those of jealousy and rage. Mary Prince recorded that Mrs. Flint's nerves were so strong, that she could sit in her easy chair and see a woman whipped, till the blood trickled from every stroke of the lash. If dinner was not served at the exact time on that Sunday, she would station herself in the kitchen, and wait till it was dished, and then spit in all the kettles and pans that had been used. Perhaps she thought this would prevent the slaves from eating left overs.

In the past, it was assumed that female slave owners were not as brutal as their male counterparts. However, there was no a sex divide. There were good and bad male and female slave owners. Some of the harshest treatments could be meted out by a slave owner's wife against a female slave who her husband had been intimate with or an enslaved child that was the result of a sexual encounter between her husband and a slave. Some European women took out revenge on the enslaved for their punishment by cruel fathers or husbands. European women's cruelty shocked many observers in the Caribbean. Mary Prince stated that her mistress caused me to know the exact difference between the smart of the rope, the cart-whip, and the cow-skin, when applied to my naked body by her own cruel hand. And there was scarcely any punishment more dreadful than the blows I received on my face and head from her hard, heavy fist. She was a fearful woman, and a savage mistress to her slaves. White women must have been angry at black slave women because their husbands considered sexual access to them as part of his property rights. Are they still angry? Enslaved women usually had a double task as a slave and as a wife and mother. As a result, women often worked much harder than men. The physical abuse...