Mr. Stokes studies the history of Africans and in this event, he talked about slavery in Newport, Rhode Island in the late 1600s. Before he got to his main presentation, Mr. Stokes briefly talked about African American history month and how the founder, Harvard historian, Carter G. Woodson,wanted to have it in February because of the February birth dates of Frederick Douglas, who was a famous slave, and Abraham Lincoln.
At the beginning of the presentation, Mr. Stokes argued that there were too many African historical discussions on slavery and not enough on where they came from or their personal backgrounds. I agree with that because not only did I learn only about Africans as slaves in my history class, but many films portray Africans and other people of color are rarely any of the title characters. When Linda Christensen, the author of the article Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us, and her class were watching cartoons in one of their units, "people of color and poor people are either absent or servants to the rich, white, pretty, people." (pg. 130) Even if a lot of blacks did have ancestors that were slaves, they should not feel ashamed about that.
I learned that The first Africans arrived in Newport, Rhode Island around 1652 and the first documented slave ship called the Seaflower arrived to Newport via Barbados, which carried fourteen slaves in 1696. Most of the slaves came from the African countries Ghana or Guinea. I knew that Newport had wealthy people because of the popular mansions, but I was surprised that slavery actually occurred in Rhode Island. I always thought that slavery took place in the Southern part of the United States. Another shocking fact was that by 1755, seven thousand Africans lived and made up twenty percent of Newport's population. One in three families owned at least one slave. This reminded me a bit of Lisa Delpit and her aspects of the culture of power from the article, The Silenced Dialogue. Aspect number four is "If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier." (pg. 25) That aspect of power made me think about the African slaves first arriving to Newport and then having the white people telling them what to do. This increased the whites' power and when a slave was punished, the power of the whites increased even more. What I didn't find out until later in Mr. Stokes' presentation was that most of the slaves in Newport were teenagers and younger! I can never imagine permanently moving to another continent just to get educated on becoming a skilled worker and serve for a wealthy family. Unlike slavery in the South, the slaves and the white families shared space in the house. Because of this many white men had affairs with African women.
I have been to Newport several times and enjoy looking at the old architect. What I never knew was that most of the buildings were built by the African slaves! They also changed Newport by establishing The African Union Society and an African school. The Africans even brought their culture and rituals to Newport. One of their rituals was when someone in the African community died, they would wear white, sing, and chant. It is amazing that their masters accepted some parts of their culture. Unlike the African slaves, Richard Rodriguez from Aria, was not only forced to speak his nonnative language, but he eventually lost his family culture by becoming "an American", which was sad and so wrong. Not all of the African culture was accepted by the whites. Like Rodriguez, the masters gave the slaves American names, which can also relate to Delpit's fifth aspect of the culture of power. Once these slaves were eventually free, they returned to their original African names. Overall, it seemed that slavery in Newport wasn't as brutal as it was in the south, even though these slaves still had a rough life. The final part of Mr. Stokes' presentation was a slideshow of a famous cemetery in Newport called God's Little Acre, where many of these African slaves were buried. Watching this part was sad because many of the headstones included African babies and young children that died from yellow fever and cholera and did not have the medicine that we have today to help save their lives. At the end of the slideshow, Mr. Stokes included this powerful quote from Tess Gerritsen, who wrote the novel, The Sinner "The ones that are truly dead are those who are forgotten." That quote really spoke to me because when we talk about memories of people who have passed away, it keeps their spirit alive, but if we don't think, say, or remember anything about a person, then that person is truly dead and forgotten.
Here is a link on more information about slavery in Newport, Rhode Island. What I don't get is why we only focus on the negative discrimination of blacks in the south in our history classes. We never actually learn about any positive accomplishments of the African community. Mr. Stokes did an excellent job on not making his presentation so sad and negative. According to Mr. Stokes, racism is relatively new and the whites use it to sustain power and control. This made me think of Delpit's fourth aspect of the culture of power "the rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power." (pg. 25) In other words, whites have the power and they can get away with reacting negatively to those who do not come from the same culture as them. In conclusion, Mr. Stokes emphasized that instead of watching movies, which often dramatize history, we should read reliable resources or got to a historical society. I think that while movies are entertaining, they are not one hundred percent accurate. Overall, I am glad that I attended this event and got to listen to an interesting and accurate story on slavery in Newport.
No comments:
Post a Comment