A Silent Power Rooted in the Past, Commanding the Present and Creating our Future Gilman Jones Tuesday, February 25, 2014 Slavery uniquely punctuates recorded catastrophic events around the world but nowhere has the lingering impact of it been more pronounced than in America.
Ironically, the American experience of slavery has proven to be more socially destructive than the historical horror itself since the signing of the thirteenth amendment in April of 1864, which states that no person can hold another as a slave anywhere in the United States.
The proliferation of Slavery across the globe has been a blot on civilization for centuries, each incidence manifesting its unique characteristics and brand of suffering.
In 2014, our personal challenges remain daunting to make our history work constructively for us. To see the broad scope, historically, is to more fully comprehend our rich and jaded history and the ramifications thereof; An era in history when the territorial, human, and cultural conquests, that resulted from the legal slave trade market, essentially formed the basis for many national economies of today.
In just under a century, the actual wealth from the slave trade catapulted Western Europe, Brazil, Haiti, Russia and North America forward, from being relatively poor countries to being the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world; each country’s history forever stained by the brutality, degradation and inhumanity that was inflicted on humankind.
The sociological impact in the wake of legal slavery has been profound, leaving a haunting question as to how we will create stepping stones to a brighter, stronger future while yet burdened under the weight of this reality.
But embracing this challenge through the shadows is something we all must do; with the understanding that “we can over come” , we have the power, and the reward of doing so, as wonderfully articulated by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross below, warms the human spirit.
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
It has become evident to me as my research continues that the documentation of slavery since approximately 3000 BC, precludes any denial that its influences have been integrated into the fabric our various cultures and values in some form or measure. Either as slavers or slaves, irrespective of race or nationality, our lives have likely been directly or indirectly touched by this human tragedy called Slavery.
So lets us recap an abbreviated version of:
The History of Slavery in Our World As early as 3000 BC
Slavery arrives as part of the package of civilization, along with armies, public works and social hierarchies. However, as a rule, hunters and primitive farmers have no use for a slave. They collect or grow just enough food for themselves. One more pair of hands is just one more mouth to feed. There is no economic advantage in owning another human being. Still slavery has arrived and becomes a phenomenon that will thrive for centuries to come.
The development of towns and cities, in this early time, forced a surplus of food to be created in the outlying areas and countryside. Developing and maintaining a surplus, at this time, was an effort to accommodate the demands of a budding, urban market place. This generally occurred on the privately owned, larger tracks of property which were more efficient for this purpose.
This food and material made possible the manufacturing of a wide range of products in the towns and cities. Either on a large farm or in a workshop real benefit is established in having a reliable source of cheap labor, costing no more than the minimum of food and lodging. This phenomenon meets the conditions for slavery.
Every ancient civilization used slaves and it proved easy to acquire them. The ancient world hosted the introduction of slavery but was. Ironically, relatively devoid of racism as we currently define it. Nevertheless, history will bear this out.
Findings at the time of Egypt’s first black pharaoh, (Piye), indicate that Piye’s dark skin was irrelevant. Artwork from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome shows a clear awareness of racial features and skin tone, but there is little evidence that darker skin was seen as a sign of inferiority. It appears that slaves were thought to be inferior because of their station in life rather than because of their race or color.
1720 BC The Code of Hammurabi is the first surviving document to record the law relating to slaves
Information about slaves in early societies relates mainly to their legal status, which is essentially that of an object ; part of the owner's valuable property. The Code of Hammurabi, from Babylon in the 18th century BC, gives chilling details of the different Rewards and penalties for surgeons operating on free men or slaves. But it also reveals that the system is not one of unmitigated brutality. Surprisingly, Babylonian slaves are themselves allowed to own property. Following The Code Of Hammurabi the first civilization in which we know a great deal about the role of slaves is that of ancient Greece.
Slavery in Ancient Greece
War is the main source of supply for forced labor in ancient Greece, and wars were frequent and brutal in most early civilizations. When a town fell to a hostile army, it was normal to take into slavery those inhabitants who will make useful workers and to kill the rest. There are several other ways in which slaves were acquired. Pirates offering their captives for sale, a criminal may be sentenced to slavery or a bad debt could also bring an end to liberty. The impoverished sell their own children and the children of slaves are themselves slaves although not many owners will allow their slaves the diversion of raising a family.
The principal use of slavery in ancient Greece, however, was in agriculture, and was foundation of the Greek economy. Some small landowners might own one slave, or even two. It is certain that rural slavery was very common in Athens, and that ancient Greece did not know of the immense slave populations found on the Roman latifundia. No free Athenian worked in a domestic capacity, for it was considered shameful to be another man's servant.
The most unfortunate Athenian slaves were the miners, who were driven often to the point of death by their owners; the mines are state owned but are leased to private managers. By contrast other categories of slaves, particularly those owned directly by the state, such as the 300 Scythian archers who provided the police force of Athens were able to acquire a certain prestige.
Slaves in Rome: from the second century BC
Slaves in imperial Rome were the most privileged slaves. The highest were the secretarial staff of the Emperor, but these are the exception.
In the two centuries before the beginning of the empire (the last two centuries BC) slaves are employed by Romans more widely than ever before and probably with greater brutality. In the mines they are whipped into continuing effort by overseers; in the fields they work in chain gangs; in the public arenas they are forced to engage in terrifying combat as gladiators. There are several slave uprisings in these two centuries, the most legendary of them led by Spartacus. 1700 BC Hebrews are a captive tribe
The biblical account suggests that around this period the Hebrew are a captive tribe in Egypt. First, the political, essentially fear driven, demographic reason that caused the Israelite s' enslavement is described briefly at the beginning of the book of Exodus:
A new king arose over Egypt, who had not known Joseph. He said to his people, "Look, this people of the sons of Israel are bigger and more numerous than we are. We must have a plan to deal with them, lest they grow even more numerous. If there should be a war, they might join our enemies and fight against us and go up from the land." So they set taskmasters over them, to afflict them with burdensome labor. (Exod 1:8-11)
722 BC
Tragically, the Assyrians overwhelm the north of Israel and the ten northern tribes vanish from history; the majority of them probably dispersed or sold into slavery .
The captivities began in approximately 733/2 BC
“And Elohim (God) of Israel stirred up a spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tigathpileser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.� (I Chronicles 5:26)
In 722 BC, Nearly twenty years after the initial deportations, the ruling city of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Samaria, was finally taken by Sargon II after a three-year siege started by Shalmaneser V.
Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents.
But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in this man Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.
Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.(II Kings 17:3-6) This would be classified as “war slavery� and there seems little to doubt the biblical evidence recorded during this period from the bible.
416 BC Fast forwarding 300 years the infamous Battle of Melos was fought in 415 BC between Athens and Melos. Melos had attempted to remain neutral in the Peloponnesian War, but Athens attacked and forced Melos to surrender. The history is clear that all Melian males capable of bearing arms were killed, and the women and children became slaves.
700 The African slave trade Zawila, is established as a trading station It is with Islam that a sustained economic network is established. The city of Zawila was founded in the late seventh or early eighth centuries. Yet the city remained a center for the Ibadi sect for a long time. Gold was the driving commodity in the Sijilmasa trade system, but in Zawila it was slaves.
Captured in the region around Lake Chad, slaves are sold to Arab households in a Muslim world which by the 8th century stretches from Spain to Persia. Authors of the late twelfth century describe Zawila as a city of modest size but with numerous, flourishing bazaars, specializing in the slave trade. Recent scholarship confirms that the Fezzan region, a south western region of modern Libya, was the largest avenue for slave traffic into the Maghrib and Egypt through the nineteenth century.
850 The caliphs in Baghdad begin to employ Turkish slaves, or Mamelukes, in their armies
In 795 through his death in 842, the reign 0f al-Mu'tasim bi-'llah was marked by the introduction of the Turkish slave-soldiers . The premier dynasties of the Muslim world nearly all depended on military slaves. These are the governments which governed the greatest areas, lasted the longest, and most influenced the development of Muslim institutions. 900 Slavery in Germany and Russia During the eastward expansion of the Germans in the 10th century so many Slavs were captured that their racial name becomes the generic term for a 'slave'. It is thought, however, that Germany did not to any measurable degree participate in slave trading. At the same period the delivery of slaves to the Black Sea region is an important part of the early economy of Russia.
1446 The center of their slave trade on the west African coast Portugal claims ownership By 1450 slavery was practiced in diverse ways in the different communities of West Africa prior to European trade. With the development of the trans-Saharan slave trade and the economies of gold in the Western Sahel, a number of the major states became organized around the slave trade, including the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, and Songhai Empire.
The Caravel, a sailing ship developed in the Mediterranean and used down the west coast of Africa, was adapted by the Portuguese for Atlantic use. The Portuguese settlers on the Cape Verde islands are granted a monopoly on the new slave trade.
The Cape Verde Islands played a pivotal role in the transatlantic Slave Trade. European colonization of the new world required a labor force to exploit the land and was a ready market for the cheapest labor of all, slaves. Along with goods, the Cape Verde Islands also had exclusive rights to the trade in slaves from the West African coast all granted by the Portuguese Crown.
The Portuguese were the first to engage in the New World slave trade, and others soon followed. These slavers were of different nationalities: Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and last, but certainly not least, the ever-present English, always constant when injustice and horrors have been committed.
Slaves were considered cargo by the ship owners. They were to be transported to the Americas as quickly and cheaply as possible to be sold for labor in coffee, tobacco, cocoa, cotton and sugar plantations, gold and silver mines, rice fields, construction industry, timber cutting for ships, and as house servants.
This was known as, what has come to be the infamous, “Atlantic Slave Trade�. The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the 16th through to the 19th centuries.
Northern Africa
The slave trade was multi-layered involving numerous nations and groups of people. Slaves were captured by the hunters who were other Africans who went inland from the African coastal regions raiding unsuspecting villages and marching their captives to the coast. How many died during these brutal marches will never be known.
Chattel slavery had been legal and widespread throughout North Africa when the region was controlled by the Roman Empire (47 BC - ca. 500 AD). The chattel slave is an individual deprived of liberty and forced to submit to an owner who may buy, sell, or lease him or her like any other chattel, i.e. movable property.
The Sahel region south of the Sahara provided many of the African slaves held in North Africa during this period and there was a trans-Saharan slave trade in operation.
Chattel slavery persisted after the fall of the Roman Empire in the largely Christian communities of the region. After the Islamic expansion into most of the region, the practices continued and eventually, the chattel form of slavery spread to major societies on the southern end of the Sahara; such as Mali, Songhai, and Ghana.
Arab slave trade
The Arab slave trade, established in the 8th and 9th centuries AD, involved a small-scale movement of people largely from the eastern Great Lakes region and the Sahel. Islamic law allowed slavery but prohibited slavery if it involved other pre-existing Muslims; as a result, the main targets for slavery were the people who lived in the frontier areas of Islam in Africa.
Slaves in the Middle Ages: 6th - 15th century
In the period after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west, slavery continues in the countries around the Mediterranean. But the slaves are employed almost exclusively in households, offices and armies.
The gang slavery characteristic of large Roman estates does not reappear until the tobacco and cotton plantations of colonial America (one notable exception is the salt mines of the Sahara). Nevertheless the slave trade thrives, and the Mediterranean is a natural focal point.
More than anywhere else, the Mediterranean provides the geographical and economic environment to encourage a slave trade. Civilized regions surround the central sea. To the north and south stretch vast areas populated by relatively unsophisticated tribes.
Border warfare results in tribal captives being enslaved. In addition to this, market forces encourage the tribes to seize prisoners of their own to service a developing slave trade.
South America 16th Century
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Brazil dominated the production of sugarcane. One of the earliest large-scale manufacturing industries was established to convert the juice from the sugarcane into sugar, molasses, and eventually rum, the alcoholic beverage of choice of the triangular trade. Ironically, the profits made from the sale of these goods in Europe, as well as the trade in these commodities in Africa, were primarily used to purchase more slaves.
During the 18th century, Saint Domingue (Haiti) surpassed Brazil as the leading sugar-producing colony. The number of slaves brought to the tiny island of Haiti equaled more than twice the number imported into the United States. The vast majority came during the 18th century to work in the expanding sugar plantation economy. When the Haitian Revolution of 1791 abolished slavery in 1804 it also ended Haiti's dominance of world sugar production.
The Christian Gospels
The Christian Gospels make no specific mention of slavery, though slaves may be expected to benefit from the general bias in favor of the poor and the oppressed. During the early Middle Ages the missionaries and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church argue against the ownership of slaves in the emerging dynasties of northern Europe. At first they make little headway. But gradually slavery disappears in western European countries - largely replaced by the serfdom of the feudal manor.
A new and disastrous chapter in the story of slavery begins with Portuguese slave trading in west Africa in the 15th century.
Captured people, now slaves are brought to the market and town of Hoden; there they are divided: some go to the mountains of Barcha, and then to Sicily, others to the town of Tunis and to all the coasts of Barbary, and others are taken to , Argin, and sold to the Portuguese leaseholders. As a result every year the Portuguese carry away from Argin thousands of slaves. It is said that the Portuguese ships were many and dotted the coastline all year.
The crown prince, Henry the Navigator, leased the island of Argin to Christians for ten years, so that no one could enter the bay to trade with the Arabs except those who held the license from him.
The Arabs, who were hostile to Christians, and the Portuguese specifically, were in fierce competition for dominance in the slave trade. In the face of much danger the Portuguese pushed forward in Africa knowing that the prize would bring them favor with the Crown and riches.
The Arabs have many valued Berber horses, to trade , exchanging them with the rulers for slaves. Ten or fifteen slaves are given for just one of these horses, according to their quality. The Arabs also took their trade articles of Moorish silk, made in Granata and in Tunis of Barbary, silver, and other goods, obtaining in exchange any number of these slaves, and some gold. These slaves were brought to the market and town of Hoden where they were distributed.
1619 AD
Slavery on the North American Continent Emerges
Ironically with all the fierce, competitive activity in Africa between the Portuguese and the Arabs the first 19 or so Africans that arrived ashore near Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, were brought by Dutch traders who had seized them from a captured Spanish slave ship. The early colonists of Virginia treated the first Africans in the colony as indentured servants. They were freed after a stated period and given the use of land and supplies by their former masters.
Until 1866, in the entire history of the slave trade to the New World, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million survived the dreaded Middle Passage, disembarking in North America, the Caribbean and South America. And how many of these 10.7 million Africans were shipped directly to North America? Only about 388,000.
In fact, the overwhelming percentage of the African slaves were shipped directly to the Caribbean and South America; Brazil received 4.86 million Africans alone! Some scholars estimate that another 60,000 to 70,000 Africans ended up in the United States after touching down in the Caribbean first, so that would bring the total to approximately 450,000 Africans who arrived in the United States over the course of the slave trade.
In 1654, John Casor, a black indentured servant, was the first man to be declared a slave as a result of a civil case. The transformation of the status of Africans from indentured servitude to slavery whereby they could never leave happened gradually. But, in 1640, the Virginia courts sentenced a black servant, John Punch, to slavery for attempting to escape his indenture.
During most of the British colonial period, slavery existed in all the colonies. People enslaved in the North typically worked as house servants, artisans, laborers and craftsmen, with the greater number in cities. The South depended on an agricultural economy, and it had a significantly higher number and proportion of slaves in the population, as its commodity crops were labor intensive
African American Slaves
Enslaved African Americans could never forget their status as property, no matter how well their owners treated them. This is Chattel slavery previously sited in West Africa. But it would be too simplistic to say that all masters and slaves hated each other.
Human beings who live and work together are bound to form relationships of some kind, and some masters and slaves genuinely cared for each other. But the caring would have been always tempered and limited by the power imbalance under which it grew. Within the narrow confines of slavery, human relationships ran the gamut from compassionate to contemptuous. But the masters and slaves never approached equality.
The diets of enslaved people were inadequate or barely adequate to meet the demands of their heavy workload. They lived in crude quarters that left them vulnerable to bad weather and disease. Their clothing and bedding were minimal as well. As in ancient Rome, slaves who worked as domestics sometimes fared better, getting the castoff clothing of their masters or having easier access to food stores.
The drivers, overseers, and masters were responsible for plantation discipline. Slaves were punished for not working fast enough, for being late getting to the fields, for defying authority, for running away, and for a number of other reasons.
The punishments took many forms, including whippings, torture, mutilation, imprisonment, and being sold away from the plantation. Slaves were even sometimes murdered. Some masters were more "benevolent" than others, and punished less often or severely. But with rare exceptions, the authoritarian relationship remained firm even in those circumstances.
One of the worst conditions that enslaved people had to live under was the constant threat of sale. Even if their master was "benevolent," slaves knew that a financial loss or another personal crisis could lead them to the auction block. Also, slaves were sometimes sold as a form of punishment. And although popular sentiment, as well as the economic self-interest on the part of the owners, encouraged keeping mothers and children and sometimes fathers together, these norms were not always followed. Immediate families were often separated. If they were kept together, they were almost always sold away from their extended families. Grandparents, sisters, brothers, and cousins could all find themselves forcibly scattered, never to see each other again. Even if they or their loved ones were never sold, slaves had to live with the constant threat that they could be.
Survival in large part depended on their wit and cunning. It was in their quarters that many enslaved people developed and passed down skills which allowed them to supplement their poor diet and inadequate medical care with hunting, fishing, gathering wild food, and herbal medicines. There, the adults taught their children how to hide their feelings to escape punishment and to be skeptical of anything a white person said.
The religion of enslaved African Americans helped them resist the degradation of bondage. Most rejected the Christianity of their masters, which justified slavery. The slaves held their own meetings in secret, where they spoke of the New Testament promises of the day of reckoning and of justice and a better life after death, as well as the Old Testament story of Moses leading his people out of slavery in Egypt.
1863 Emancipation Proclamation April 8th 1864 passing of the 13th Amendment
Radical Republicans led by Senator Charles Sumner and Representative Thaddeus Stevens sought a more expansive version of the 13th and 14th amendment. On February 8, 1864, Sumner submitted a constitutional amendment stating: “All persons are equal before the law, so that no person can hold another as a slave; and the Congress shall have power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry this declaration into effect everywhere in the United States.”
And so the chapters of legalized slavery closed around the world one by one but by no means did this end human suffering in the world.
Unspeakable atrocities throughout the ages leave us with no measure for the suffering of humanity as a result. Just a few examples are listed below: From the 1490's when Christopher Columbus set foot on the Americas to the 1890 massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee by the United States military, the indigenous population of the Western Hemisphere has declined, the direct cause mostly from disease, to 1.8 million from around 50 million. American writer David Quammen has likened the colonial American policies and practices toward Native Americans with those of Australia toward its aboriginal populations, calling them "brutal, hypocritical, opportunistic, and even genocidal in the fullest sense of the word.”
Cambodia The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, Ta Mok and other leaders, organized the mass killing of ideologically suspect groups, ethnic minorities like the ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese (or Sino-Khmers), Chams and Thais, former civil servants, former government soldiers, Buddhist monks, secular intellectuals and professionals, and former city dwellers. Khmer Rouge cadres defeated in factional struggles were also liquidated in purges. Man-made famine and slave labor resulted in many hundreds of thousands of deaths. Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After 5 years of researching 20,000 grave sites, he concluded that "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution.
Nazi Germany “The Holocaust”
The term "the Holocaust" is generally used to describe the killing of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by the National Socialist German Workers Party in Germany led by Adolf Hitler. However, some scholars maintain, and I agree, that the definition of the Holocaust should also include Germany's genocide of millions of people in other groups, including Romani, communists, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Soviet civilians, homosexuals, people with disabilities, Jehovah's Witnesses and other political and religious opponents, which occurred regardless of whether they were of German or non-German ethnic origin. The total is about 6 million Jews and about 5 million other people.
Dersim Kurds
The Dersim massacre refers to the depopulation of Dersim in Turkish Kurdistan, in 1937–38, in which approximately 65,000–70,000 Alevi Kurds were killed and thousands were driven into exile. A key component of the Turkification process was the policy of massive population resettlement. The main policy document in this context, the 1934 Law on Resettlement, was used to target the region of Dersim as one of its first test cases, with disastrous consequences for the local population.
Darfur, Sudan
April 2007, the Judges of the ICC issued arrest warrants against the former Minister of State for the Interior, Ahmad Harun, and a Militia Janjaweed leader, Ali Kushayb, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On July 14, 2008, prosecutors at the ICC, filed ten charges of war crimes against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. The ICC's prosecutors have claimed that al-Bashir "masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part" three tribal groups in Darfur because of their ethnicity. The result of the genocide ,
initiated by the Sudanese government , was the obliteration of the Darfurian way of life, the destruction of houses and livestock, and the killing and rape of innocent Darfurian civilians.
Armenia On April 24, 1915, the day when Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople marks the beginning of the genocide. Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse commonplace. The majority of Armenian diaspora communities were founded as a result of the Armenian genocide. Mass killing of Armenians continued under the Republic of Turkey during the Turkish–Armenian War phase of Turkish War of Independence.
Making Sense of it All~One person, One sentence at a time
From the inception of Slavery at about 3000 BC through the tragedy of Darfur to present day human trafficking it would appear that we have many dark reasons for remaining stuck in the tragedies of time. Can we use these abominable events in our history as stepping stones to a brighter, stronger, more positive future and not be overtaken by the demons of bigotry, cynicism, distrust, anger or even hatred? Yes ..we have the power to forge a better world and we can do it each day as we share our truths with others within our sphere of influence; one person at a time-one sentence at a time. Ralph Waldo Emerson explains very clearly when he articulates:
“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.�
Regardless of color, country or religion, from all corners of the earth we are part of the same club called humanity; Even if some of our members sometimes horrify us , disgust us or disappoint us. Can we make our club better? YOU BET !! One person at a time, one sentence at a time; by directing our emotional prospective and reaching out to others in the most productive, constructive way possible.
You might be thinking that your influences are small and that you do not have the power to make a difference in this world, BUT YOU DO! And this is why. It is true that all of us have influence with another in our lives. Whether as a neighbor, a friend, a teacher, a parent, a child, husband, girlfriend, wife or coworker we interact with one another every day. Our words are powerful and each person we help, guide, encourage, advise or have positive interactions with matters a great deal. Why?? Because they take your words and actions with them and when they do you have made the world a better place. The opposite is also true. Would you contribute to the healing of the planet or to the destruction of our world, one person, one sentence at a time??
Focusing on the pain
It is easy to see that the world has been full of pain and injustices. There is an understanding that comes from the preceding information, one of which is obvious. . There are no isolated pockets on the planet from which evil springs. Slavery for example has touched every country on the globe not just in the middle East, or in Brazil, or America. As a parent , teacher or concerned adult how would you guide the young minds of the maturing, next generation? How will you choose to disseminate your truths; understanding that each young man and every young woman represents the future of the world. They will be our next Presidents, Doctors, Educators, Engineers , construction workers and trainers of a future generation. What an awesome responsibility we have when we choose to guide another!
Your words have power. Will you arm your children with truths that will strengthen them or burden them forever under the weight of anger, hatred, animosity and fear? If the latter is not your intent then maybe a positive adjustment is in order to achieve what you really desire. You see, intention makes all the difference and each time someone learns from YOU , in a positive way, you have truly helped them in a special way, you have allowed more light into your own life, and YOU have contributed to the healing of the planet. To this I say BRAVO ! * �We all do the best we can with the knowledge and awareness that we have at the time. When we know more we do things differently.� Louise Hay
“The Brutal Truth” (Sound familiar?)
There are many sayings about “truth” like “the truth hurts” , “you can’t take the truth”, “The brutal truth”, all such expressions are telling about the cynical prospective of truth. How do you disseminate your truths? Would you guide your people in your sphere of influence with rancor, with hatred, with bitterness and fear or with love, kindness, fairness, wisdom, gentleness, and forgiveness? Would you include, as best you can, all things that may contribute to the shaping of internal strength and goodness as you communicate your truths? Be on guard as you use your influence that cynicism and bitterness often masquerades as wisdom.. The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light; moussing for vermin, and never seeing noble game. The cynic puts all human actions into two classes; openly bad and secretly bad.
As we have considered throughout this paper there is much fodder for the cynic in our world but there is more need of clear-sighted strength, goodness of intention and the wisdom of character and judgment. I think of it as the “majesty of light” within us.
REMEMBER THAT YOUR WORDS HAVE POWER and the delivery of a “truth” may have more impact than the “truth” itself.
Ask the question of yourself as you share with those in your sphere of influence; what is my purpose for disseminating this information”? What is my intended “Goodness” in it all? What seeds am I planting today? If you have shared the “Goodness” in your life; if you have shared your light with others then your light will grow within you, you will have positively contributed to our world, and gifted the individuals with whom you have influence.
It stands to reason then that the more” Goodness” each of us shares the more ALL of us benefit from it. You may influence people who you don’t know and people who you may never meet. Strangers possibly will feel the impact of this light or Goodness within you; through others. The opposite is also true. It is the spirit of it all that we feel inside of ourselves as we make our choices and share within our center of influence. This is truly our guide.
Consider the student who meets you in the market 20 years after he or she was in your class and says” Mr. / Mrs. ____ You probably never realized it but you have influenced my life. Remember when you said X, Y or Z? Well, I never forgot it and it has guided me all these years, so thank you.
You could be the teacher or student, a mother or child, a friend or a spouse. Whoever you might identify with in a similar scenario, the impact would be the same as you walk away smiling from the inside out. What a wonderful gift this is when your light shines through and you are able to help change someone’s life for the better.
*”To affect the quality of the day is the highest of arts.” * Henry David Thoreau
Color Your Life With Light
Imagine drawing your life-space as a large oval that contains the content of all of your choices and intentions that fill your life, on a sheet of white paper. Let the white space inside represent the goodness or the light in your life. Now gradually shade a little in with a pencil. What happens as you shade? Of course the amount of goodness or light is lessened as you shade and the darkness takes its place in your life-space; the more darkness the less goodness or light. So it is true with our lives in reality.
We have the power to choose each day; what you will let into your life and what you want to keep out of your life?; what will YOU project? What will YOU protect? How will YOU color your life? How will YOU use your influence?
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Author's note: I have been moved to write “A Silent Power” for more than a year. I hope you have enjoyed your time as I shared my thoughts with you. This will be the first of several connected short works which will eventually be published collectively. Thank you for your time and your continued efforts to create a better future world.. Sincerely, Gilman Jones
Research and Suggested Readings:
Ø “Those who experience tremendous adversity can also experience tremendous growth…and great satisfaction as new life emerges.’” Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu Ø Philippians 4:6-7 Ø Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Ø Bales, Kevin, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy (1999) Ø Campbell, Gwyn, Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller, eds. Women and Slavery. Volume 1: Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval Atlantic; Women and Slavery. Volume 2: The Modern Atlantic (2007) Ø Davies, Stephen (2008). "Slavery, World". In Hamowy, Ronald. The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE; Cato Institute. pp. 464–9. ISBN 978-1-4129-6580-4. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024. Ø Davis, David Brion. The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823 (1999) Ø Davis, David Brion. The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (1988) Ø Drescher, Seymour. Abolition: A History of Slavery and Antislavery (2009) highly regarded history of slavery and its abolition, worldwide Ø Finkelman, Paul, ed. Encyclopedia of Slavery (1999) Ø Gordon, M. Slavery in the Arab World (1989) Ø Greene, Jacqueline. Slavery in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, (2001), ISBN 0-531-16538-8
Ø Joseph, Celucien L. Race, Religion, and The Haitian Revolution: Essays on Faith, Freedom, and Decolonization (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012) Ø Joseph, Celucien L. From Toussaint to Price-Mars: Rhetoric, Race, and Religion in Haitian Thought (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013) Ø Lal, K. S. Muslim Slave System in Medieval India (1994) ISBN 81-85689-67-9 Ø Miers, Suzanne, and Igor Kopytoff, eds. Slavery In Africa: Historical & Anthropological Perspectives (1979) Ø Morgan, Kenneth. Slavery and the British Empire: From Africa to America (2008) Ø Postma, Johannes. The Atlantic Slave Trade, (2003) Ø Rodriguez, Junius P., ed., The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery (1997) Ø Rodriguez, Junius P., ed. Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia (2007) Ø Shell, Robert Carl-Heinz Children Of Bondage: A Social History Of The Slave Society At The Cape Of Good Hope, 1652–1813 (1994) Ø Westermann, William Linn The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity (1955) Ø What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you… Ralph Waldo Emerson Ø Can one child’s suffering, one man or woman’s anguish conceivably be held more or less important, more relevant; even more righteous than the other??..Gilman Jones Ø It is the "try" that is the more often counted as righteousness, and NOT the success or failure. Failure to anyone should be as a stepping-stone and not as a millstone Ø "If am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?" It is a wonderfully succinct summary of the balance between protecting one's own rights and needs,(sp) yet also caring for those of others...Hillel
Ø “Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world...Hillel