JOB’S TALE VOICEPRINTS OF OUR ANCESTORS A STORY OF SLAVERY & EMANCIPATION Retold by CLAIRE A. NELSON
A STORY OF SLAVERY AND EMANCIPATION IN THE AMERICAS AS TOLD BY HERHISTORY Retold by Claire A. Nelson Ph.D.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
INCEPTION…………………………………………………………………
THE GATHERING .................................................................................................................................................. 2
THE MIDDLE PASSAGE .........................................................................................................................................
THE PLANTATION ................................................................................................................................................ 1
REBELLION ............................................................................................................................................................ 1
REFORM & REDEMPTION ................................................................................................................................ 1
Written by History
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Retold by Claire A. Nelson A PREFACE… LEST WE FORGET… The story of the African Slave Trade is the story of our common history in the Americas. Indeed, it is the story of modern global economics and of how the West was won. The African Slave Trade is firmly embedded in the shape of how today’s economic reality came to be. Yet it is often not told. And when spoken of, it is sanitized. We are often reminded that those days are long gone--- that after all, we are free now. We have our own governments and judges and leaders in the Caribbean. And in Latin America – well Somos uno! We are one! Race does not matter --- even if poverty and exclusion wears a Black face. And even in the United States of America – well they have elected a Black man! And we imagine slavery is indeed a thing of the distant pass. But the legacy is ever present in the ghettos and favelas of the Americas. The legacy is ever present in the presumption of White supremacy and the acquisition of privilege. The memes of the deliberate construction of race as a paradigm and dark skin as a badge of shame remain constant on the substrate of our common consciousness. UBUNTU – we are because we all are. You and I! Black and White! We are intertwined in ways we don’t even realize – much less understand. To be Black in the 21st Century Americas is to be a creature of construction of shame and deprivation. Why else would seemingly normal people think nothing of bleaching their skin from dark to light in order to feel accepted. Why else would it be normal for Black women to spend near billions of dollars purchasing, straightening, weaving their hair into a parody of the Barbie principle? Why else would Black people still feel the need to keep each other in our place – lest we attempt to shine? Why else would we remain in mental slavery? But still we rise! For out of the depths of depravity visited on our ancestors their humanity, their Godselves would not be denied. They fought for freedom and won. Haiti was a beacon that would not be allowed to shine. But the drumbeat carried the passion and call for freedom in the airwaves of spirit. From Argentina to Mexico! From Trinidad and Tobago to Anguilla! African warriors – men and women alike knew themselves to be more than slave – knew themselves to be fully human and fought to be free. THIS IS THEIR STORY… THIS IS THEIR VOICE PRINT The contents of this tale are taken from the eye witness testimonies and echoes of our common ancestors who lived and fought the experience of slavery. These words are from the halls of history, for I could not be so imaginative as to imagine these horrors and why would I, when a few survived to write it down so we could know. Listen and Learn… So that we will remember who we are. Listen well... lest we forget! This story was first performed at the Embassy of Jamaica in Washington DC, August 1, 1998 by a group of community poets and performers whose own belief in their future and love of their ancestors led them to participate in the telling. It was later aired on WPFW 89.3 FM as a live Radio Drama. And the outline of that process is appended at the end. The Story was also aired on the short-lived Black World Today Radio. Directors please note that in live staging, audience participation is to be encouraged where possible. It is my hope in making it available in print, that parents and educators around the world will take it and retell it, so that we might know our history and thus better create the future we desire. We owe it to our ancestors, those who lived so that we might live, and those who died so that we might live free! SO NOW…. THE TALE BEGINS…
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SECTION I
00:00
Chant & Drum Call:
03:00
JOB:
INCEPTION
My father’s name was JOB. Job was also the name of his father before him, and his father’s father before him. The JOB of the Bible, was a man of great perseverance. Despite numerous trials and tribulations he continued to believe in the justice of his Creator. This JOB represents the spirit of all the African fathers who survived before the Bible, and in spite of the Bible. Cousins, come. I am here to tell you a tale of how we came to be. Of who we are. We Africans in the Americas. Come. Listen.
03:10
MARY: They call me Mary after the one so blessed. My great-great-great grandmother Mary was mother of a plantation that housed more than 100 slaves. Mary was her slave name. It is said that her true name was Asantewa. She was from a family of griots. She passed her stories down as best as she could to the family that she created out of the belly of the beast. Her daughter passed it on to her daughter and so on and so on, down to me. Cousins. Listen to my story.
03:20
JOB The story of our people begins with the story of the African slave trade, one of the darkest moments in the history of the human race... It is the basis for the disease of racism that plagues human civilization today. It is the common story of all of us Africans in the American diaspora. It is in the oral tradition of our ancestors that we remember our history, for they left little or no printed word, but through their VOICEPRINT echoing over the boundaries of time and space, echoing in our bellies; echoing in our bones; echoing in our souls we tell their story... our story... echoes from the past, staining the pages of the present, beginning with Christopher Columbus.
03:30
JOB: Poem --- "For Christopher Columbus" Excerpt From For Christopher Columbus
He dreamed not that the ocean would bear ships Heavy with slaves in the holds, to spill their seed And fertilize new islands under whips
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Of many knotted thongs – dreamt not indeed Massive steel eagles would keep an anxious watch For strange and glittering fish where now was weed He knew not that a world beneath his touch Springing to life would flower in cities and towns Over two continents, nor guessed that such A ferment of civilization was set down Would overshadow Europe whence he came. He could not dream how on the nations’ tongue Discovery would marry with his name. That to these simple Indians his ships brought doom For cargo; that the world was not the same Because his vision had driven him from home And that as architect of a new age The solid world would build upon his poem
04:30
MARY: But this story is our story... not my story, or his story, or even her story, our story... and we must all join in its telling... In the old days in Africa... story telling was a communal event.. everyone participated...like the call and response songs of the plantation. So now we must all join in the telling.
05:00
JOB & MARY: Litany For our Ancestors (as a duet of voices with audience participation)
We gather together as a community to remember our ancestors, tens of millions accounted for who toiled for 400 hundred years under the yoke of enslavement... Let our memories give us strength ...Give us strength We remember the numberless who perished on the death-walk from their villages and towns and hamlets to the Guinea Coast.... the millions who crossed the Atlantic and lived and mourn thecountless who died on the perilous journey across the seas Let our tears give us peace ...Give us peace We remember and forgive our forefathers who participated in our entrapment and enslavement... Let our memories give us grace ...Give us grace
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We remember those brothers and sisters of the white race who supported our struggle for emancipation .... in our common destiny as members of the human race... Let our memories give us compassion ....Give us compassion
We remember courageous survivors Gustavos Vassa, Mary Prince, Linda Brent, Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, and others who lived to record their search for freedom and justice so that we might know Let our memories give us vision ...Give us vision We remember and honor and commemorate those who fought and died for us. Cuffy and Bussa of Barbados; Cudjoe, Quaco, Nanny, Sam Sharpe, Cubah, Tacky of Jamaica, King Miguel of Venezuela; Adoe of Suriname; Chatoyer of St. Vincent; Yanga of Mexico; Cuffy, Jack Gladstone, of Guyana; Toussaint 'Ouverture and his army of Haiti; King Bayano of Panama; Zumbi of Brazil; Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey of the United States, many more that we do not name, and the thousands of nameless others who died that we might live... Let our memories give us courage ...Give us courage We look back so that we may look forward We look back so that we might gather strength for the journey that lies ahead, to do the work we must to build the African nation... Let our memories give us hope ...Give us hope We look back so that we may gather inspiration We look back so that we may acquire a right vision Let our memories give us faith. ... Give us faith (During this Litany, there is a chant or hum of a spiritual) 06:30
MARY: Everything has a beginning... the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, so let us begin this story, our story where all stories are begun at the beginning....
07:00
A STORY TELLER: Mythology of How Slavery Came to the World Once upon a time‌. All people were equal.. there were no slaves‌ there was one race.. All around the world the different tribes of the world lived in peace and harmony. The storyteller tells an Anansi Story of how slavery came to be.
13:00
SONG led by Mary- MAMUMBA (Jamaican folk song or other chant)
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SECTION II
15:00
THE GATHERING
JOB: Maybe as the legend goes, slavery can be put squarely to blame on the foibles of Anansi... but the reality seems to be more complex.... African natives became slaves in any one of five ways. They were criminals sold by the native chiefs as punishments; they were individuals sold by themselves or their families in times of famine; they had been slaves in Africa and were sold by their masters--- Slavery in Africa was an ancient and widespread institution; but it was a very different institution from slavery in the New World. In Africa at the time, owners of slaves were not driven by the desire to make large profits;---they were prisoners of war; or else they were kidnapped either by native gangs or by European slavers.
16:00
MARY: Indeed it is African warfare not African slavery that provided the slave ships with their cargoes... From Senegambia and Upper Guinea to the Gold Coast, slaving became a way of life... as far inland as 300 miles upstream on the Gambia to collect slaves... in coffles as long as 200... tied by the neck with leather thongs at about a yard distance from each other 30 or 40 in a string... Africa's children were traded-bought and sold for bars of iron, pieces of cloth, gallons of rum, and strings of beads. In the Gold Coast, cowrie shells were the currency and forty cowries to a string was called a toque and 100 toques made a grand cabess which was at one time was equal in value to 1 pound sterling... Thomas Phillips, captain of the slave ship the Hannibal gives us this account of the purchase ...
17:00
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS: "The kings slaves were the first offered to sale. The cappashiers each brought out the slaves according to his degree and quality.... our surgeon examined them well in all kinds to see if they were sound wind and limb, making them jump, stretch out their arms swiftly, looking in their mouths to judge their age.. and to examine the privities of both men and women with the nicest scrutiny, which is a great slavery but what cant be omitted." After examination the selected slaves were branded.. marked on the breast with a red hot iron imprinting the mark of the French English or Dutch companies so each nation may distinguish their own and to prevent them being changed. After the slaves were branded they were marched towards the beach... many of them coming from the interior had never seen or even heard of the sea. They were terrified by the distant sound of the surf and thought it was the roaring of some great beast.
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Then they saw the Atlantic , the great mountains of white crested breakers, and beyond the waiting ship. At this critical moment sometimes even the hippopotamus hide whips and the cat o nine proved useless. The slaves flung themselves on the beach clutching handfuls of sand in a desperate effort to remain in Africa. Some tried to strangle themselves with their chains but they were beaten, pushed, dragged and even carried to the canoes.. often manned by the Krumen."
18:30
JOB: By the end of the 17th century, the Krumen who started as a fishing people had abandoned their traditional way of life and made a profession carrying slaves through the breakers. From the forts of the French, St. Louis built in 1626 on the Senegal River, from the English fort at Cormantine built in 1631, from the Swedish fort of Cape Coast Castle... the Dutch ports of Axim and Elmina, from Goree... Africa's children.. the Yoruba, Ewe the Dahomans, the Ibo, Ibibio and Efik, Fanti or Ashanti.... were shipped as cargo to the New World... One such soul lived to tell his tale.. He was called Gustavus Vassa...
19:00
GUSTAVUS VASSA: I was named Olaudah which in our language signifies 'vicissitude' or 'fortunate' also 'one favored'. I was born in about 1745 in the kingdom of Benin. My father,was an elder of the village and besides many slaves had a numerous family of which seven lived to grow up including myself and a sister, who was the only daughter. As I was the youngest of the sons, I became the greatest favorite with my mother. "Those prisoners of war not sold or redeemed we kept as slaves, but how different was their condition from that of the slaves in the West Indies... with us they do no more work than other members of the community, than even their master; their food, clothing and lodging were nearly the same as theirs except they were not permitted to eat with those who were freeborn; and there were was scarcely any other difference between them than a superior degree of importance, which the head of a family possess in our state. Some of these slaves have even slaves under them, as their own property and for their own use.
One day when none of the grown people were nigh, when all our people were gone out to their work as usual, and only I and my sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls and in a moment seized us both, and without giving us time to cry put or t o make any resistance, they stopped our mouth and ran off with us to the nearest wood. They bound our hands and carried us the entire day. We were sold to different traders on the third day, then we he next day my sister and I were separated. After that I only saw here once more when we stopped somewhere for one night.
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Six or seven months after I had been kidnapped, I arrived at the sea coast. I had traveled by land and water through different countries and various nations I had changed hands three times. The first object that saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea and a slave ship. These filled me with astonishment that was soon converted into terror, which i am yet at a loss to describe. I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I was sound, and I was now persuaded that I had got into a world of bad spirits and that they were going to kill me.
Their complexions too, differing so much from ours, their long hair and the language they spoke, which was very different from any I have ever heard, united to confirm me in this belief. When I looked around the ship too and saw a large furnace boiling and a multitude of black people of every description chained together every one of their countenance expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted my fate and quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted.
When I recovered I found some black people about me, who had brought me on board.. I asked them if i would be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, red faces and long hair. They told me I was not and one of the crew brought me a small portion of spirituous liquor, but being afraid of him I would not take it out of his hand. Soon after this the blacks who brought me on board went off and left me abandoned to my despair. I saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country, and I even wished for my former slavery in preference to my present situation which was filled with horrors of every kind.
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SECTION III
23:00
THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
MARY: It is said that the first slave ship took sail for the west in 1483. Over the next four hundred years it is estimated that 11,863,000 slaves were shipped across the Atlantic... and that the overall death rate during the crossing was 20%. As history becomes uncovered the numbers are revised... but whatever the number, what cannot be revised is the sheer horror of the crossing. We have eyewitness accounts from Captains:
23:30
SLAVERS ACCOUNTS: As soon as an assortment of naked slaves was taken aboard a Guineaman, the men were shackled two by two, the right wrist and ankle of one to the left wrist and ankle of another. Then they were sent to the hold. The women who were regarded as fair prey and the children were usually allowed to roam during the day, but they spent the night, unless they were otherwise detained, between the decks in other rooms than the men. All the slaves were forced to sleep without covering on bare wooden floors which were often constructed of unplaned boards. One wondered to see how these slaves lived, for though their numbers mounted to six and seven hundred, by careful management of the ships it was possible to include much more Slavers of every nation -- Dutch, French, Portuguese, English boasted of their vessels being the best in the trade..
The Dutch had special ships built for the trade.--.very wide lofty and airy betwixt the decks with gratings and scuttles to let in more air. There were two schools of thought-- the loose packers and the tight packers. The former argued that by giving the slaves more room the mortality rate was reduced and a better price received for each slave... the tight packers answered that though the loss of life might be greater on each voyage, there were still greater net receipts from a larger cargo. The hold of a slave ship was about five feet high, which seemed like a waste of space, so they built a shelf or platform in the middle of it extending six feet from each side of the vessel. When the bottom was completely covered with flesh, another row was packed on the platform. If the hold was six feet, a second platform was added above the first... to enter the slave deck.. the doctors (who were only ones to go there) had to take off their shoes to avoid crushing slaves as they had to crawl over them.... every man was allowed a space 6 ft. long by 16 inches wide and about 2 feet 7 inches high; every woman a space 5 ft by 14 ins; every girl 4 ft 6 ins. by 12 ins. and every boy 5 ft. by 14 ins... The Brookes, a vessel of 320 tons, by the law of 1788 permitted to carry 454 slaves, carried as much as 609 slaves on one voyage.
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26:00
SLAVE: "If the weather was clear we were brought on deck at 8 in the morning men attached by their leg irons to the great chain that ran along the bulwarks .. we were served our first meal of the day... boiled rice, millet or cornmeal cooked with a few lumps of salt beef. Afterwards were danced.. the sailors would parade around with the cat-o-nine tails making sure we jumped.. some of us would jump until our ankles were bleeding flesh.. for those of us with the scurvy it was useless torture... ... music was provided by a slave thumping on a broken drum or an upturned kettle or by an African banjo.. we were often told to sing.. and we sang but not for our own amusement.. we sang about our fear our hunger and our memory of home... while we were up on board on occasion the hold would be washed out... but washing could not remove the stench... In the afternoon were fed our second meal.. which was the same as the first.. or horse beans. In bad weather we were never brought up on deck.. and were fed in the hold even though the air was too thick and poisonous to breathe for as often happens those of us who were far from the buckets would often ease ourselves where we lie.. some of the slaves went mad.. one woman was so mad as to be chained on the deck.. but one man was flogged to death as it appears they thought he was malingering. (SONG -- Slave –as written by the Mighty Sparrow or other Traditional Lament)
28:00
JOB: DEATH was a constant companion on the voyage.. Reverend Newton slaver later turned abolitionist observed that every morning, more instances than one are found of the living and the dead fastened together... there were diseases - small pox, measles, gonorrhea, phyllis, dengue, malaria, dysentery, yaws, elephantiasis, leprosy which in some cases led to 50% mortality in a shipment... then there were the outright murders, by flogging, and/or by walking the plank-- the most famous case being that of the Zong which jettisoned 133 slaves who were sick or weak so that they could claim the insurance.
28:30 MARY: There were mutinies and suicides... for the record shows that Africans did not submit tamely to being carried across the Atlantic like chained beasts... The danger of mutinies was greatest when all the slaves on Board belonged to a single tribe, especially one of the warlike tribes from the Gold Coast... In one of the mutinies (which failed) the captain of the Albion Frigate, James Barbot Sr. made the mistake of providing the slaves with knives so that they could cut their meat. The slaves tore pieces of iron from the forecastle door, broke off their shackles and killed the guard at the entrance to the hatchway. Before the mutiny was quelled 28 slaves had either been shot dead or had thrown themselves overboard.
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Barbot did not repeat that mistake.
29:30
JOB: The story of Another Gold Coast Mutiny is told by Captain William Snelgrave... "the mutiny began at midnight.. two men that stayed sentry at the forehatch way permitted four slaves to go up, but neglected to lay the gratings again as they should have done whereupon 4 more Negroes came on deck and all 8 fell upon the 2 sentries who immediately called out for help.
The Negroes attempted to get their
cutlasses from them but the lineyards had them fastened to the men's wrists and they could not get them off before we came to the men's aid. The Negroes perceiving several white man coming towards them with arms in their hands quitted the sentries and jumped over the ships side into the sea... This was one of three mutinies said Captain Snelgrave survived. There are detailed accounts of 55 mutinies from 1699 to 1845 and passing reference to more than 100 others.
31:00
MARY: Suicide was another form of resistance... in a coffle of 73 slaves as told by Mungo Park, the Scottish explorer,.. two of the slaves a woman and a girl ate clay in an effort to commit suicide... On the slave ship Hannibal, 12 negroes drowned themselves and others starved themselves to death for they believed that in death they would return to their own country.. On the Elizabeth one woman found some rope yarn and hung herself.. on the Brookes, one man tried to cut his throat... when sewn up by the ships surgeon, he tore out the sutures and tried to cut his throat on the other side..using his nails as his instrument.. his hands were then tied together but he refused food.. he died of hunger in 8 days.. The slaves were tortured with threats of forcing them to swallow hot coals which usually had the desired effect.. but if they still refused to eat they were flogged and if flogging proved ineffective they were forced with a speculum oris or mouth opener.. and sometimes even that failed.. When the Prince of Orange anchored at St. Kitts in 1737, more than 100 Negro men jumped overboard, and most of them died... and then there were those who died of fixed melancholy... slaves who were well fed, treated well and kept under relatively sanitary conditions would often die for no apparent cause other than a loss of the will to live.. Fixed melancholy was rife among the Ibo, and the food gathering tribes of the Gabon, but all the Negroes were capable of it.
33:00
SONG led by JOB ( Refrain from Slave - Written by Mighty Sparrow)
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35:00
MARY: But for those of them who made it to the other end--.usually the last two or three days of the Middle Passage were a comparatively better period. If there was remaining provisions, the slaves were given bigger meal as to fatten them for market and as much water as they could drink. There were several fashions of selling the slaves.. In a few instances the cargo was consigned to a single planter.. but most often there was an auction... (Sound of auctioneering in background)
35:30
SLAVE I saw slaves sold. I can see that old block now. At dem sales dey would put a niger on de scales and weigh him and den de biddin would start. If he wuz young and strong de biddin would start round a hundred and fifty dollars and de highest bidder got the nigger. A good young breeding oman brung $2,000 easy, cause all de marsters wanted plenty of strong healthy chillun. Cyarpenters, bricklayers and blacksmiths brung fancy prices from 3,000 to 5,000. A nigger that warnt more than jes a good field hand bring bout 200 dollars. The slaves are put in stalls like pens they use for cattle-- And there's a curtain sometimes just a sheet, so the bidders can't see the stock too soon. The overseers standing just outside with black snake whip. Across the square a little piece theres a big platform with steps leading to it. Then they pulls up the curtain and the bidders crowd around. Them in the back cant see so the overseer drives the slaves out to the platform and he tells the ages of the slaves and what they can do. he makes them hop, he makes em trot, he makes em jump. How much? he asks... and the bidding starts....
(Sound of auctioneering in background)
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SECTION IV
37:00
THE COLONIES
MARY: POEM- Excerpt from… They needed Slaves Triptych (Frank Collymore) I see these ancestor of ours: The merchants, the adventurers, the youngest sons of squires, Leaving the city and the shires and the seaports, Eager to establish a temporary home and make a fortune In the new lands beyond the West, pawning perhaps The old familiar acres or the assured competence; Sturdy, realist, eager to wring wealth from these Barbadoes And to build, trade, colonize, pay homage to their King, And worship according to the doctrines of the Church of England. I see these ancestors of ours Torn from the hills and dales of their motherland, Weeping, hoping in the mercy of time to return To farm and holding, shuttle and loom, to return In snow or rain or shine to humble homes, their own; Cursing the day they were cheated by rebel standards, Or betrayed for their country’s honour; fearing The unknown land, the fever and the hurricane, The swamp and jungle – all the travellers’tales. I see them, these ancestors of ours; Children of the tribe, ignorant of their doom, innocent As cattle, bartered for, captured, beaten, penned, Cattle of the slave-ship, less than cattle; Sold in the market-place, yoked to servitude; Cattle, bruised and broken, but strong enough to plough and breed, And promised white man’s heaven where they sing, Fill lamps with oil nor wait the Bridegroom’s coming; Raise chorused voices in the hymn of praise.
39:00
JOB: By the 17th Century Britain undoubtedly ruled the waves and was expanding her territories in the Americas including the fair Indies. It was in 1605, that the English laid claim to Barbados, their first possession in the Caribbean area. In 1655, the English took Jamaica from the Spanish... With the acquisition of the West Indian colonies, and an unlimited supply of cheap labor, sugar could be produced by the ton and molasses by the hogshead, when the molasses was fermented and distilled in became a potent beverage called rum and the demand for rum was universal. Sugar has never been a little man's crop. even then to yield a profit it had to be cultivated on a large scale... So Sugar was King...
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40:00
MARY: POEM- Sugar Cane Sugar Cane (Faustin Charles) The succulent flower bleeds molasses, as its slender, sweet stalks bend, beheaded in the breeze. The green fields convulse golden sugar, Tossing the rain aside, Out-growing the sun, And carving faces In the sun-sliced panorama. The reapers come at noon, Riding the cutlass-whip; Their saliva sweetens everything In the boiling season. Each stem is a flashing arrow, Swift in the harvest. Cane is sweet sweat slain; Cane is labour, unrecognized, lost and unrecovered; Sugar is the sweet swollen pain of the year’ Sugar is slavery’s immovable stain Cane is water lying down, And water standing up. Cane is a slaver; Cane is bitter, Very bitter, In the sweet blood of life.
42:30
JOB The plantation system spread across the American South, where they produced cotton.. to the islands beginning with those in the Leeward chain, Antigua, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, to the South Americas from Mexico to Argentina where they worked in the Mines, on the ranches and on plantations. Slaves were regarded as work units--units of production, births and deaths were reckoned as profit and loss, and the expense of rearing children balanced against the cost of buying new Africans...many planters frankly said it was cheaper to buy than breed. Slaves were kept in a state of terror. They were punished for a far more potent reason than simple cruelty or hope of gain. In the Caribbean, with the slave population far outnumbering the white, it had to be overawed by the white man's power.
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SLAVE VOICES:
43:00
MARY REYNOLDS My name is Mary Reynolds. "Old Man Solomon was the nigger driver. We was scairt of Solomon and his whip... he didnt like us frolickin.. he didnt like for us niggers to pray either.. We never had no church but us have prayin in the cabins. We'd set on the floor and pray with our heads down low and sing low but if Solomon heared, he'd say "I'll come in there and tear the hide off you back.. Some of the old niggers tell us that we got to pray to God that he dont think different of the blacks and the whites... we used to pray for de day when niggers only be slaves of God, prays for the end of tribulation and the end of beatins and shoes that fit our feet. What I hated most was when they would beat me and I didn't know what they beat me for, and I hated them strippin me naked as the day I was born.
44:00
KATIE ROWE When dey go to whip a nigger he made him strip to de waist and he take a cat-o-nine tails and bring de blisters and den bust de blisters wid a wide strap of leather fastened to a stick handle. Many a time a nigger git blisterd and cut up so bad dat we have to go git a sheet and grease it wid lard and wrap em up in it and dey have to wear a greasy cloth wrapped around dey body under de shirt for three four days after dey git a big whipping... My name is Katie Rowe.
44:30
THOMAS COLE My name is Thomas Cole. De slaves was woke up every morning at 4:30 by a slave blowing a horn.. Breakfast is eat and de mn folks go to the de fields.. and as soon as de women finished de housework and takes care of de babies dey comes to work too. We all works till noon den we eats our dinnah in the shade and res bout an hour and half when it is very hot.. we works til evening tween sundown and night we go back to we quarters and eat supper and by night we is all ready to go to bed and sleep.. you is always tied when you make a day like dat on de plantation.
45:00
ROSA STARKE: Dere is just two classes to de white folks- buckra slave owners and poor white folks dat didnt own no slaves.. Dere was more classes amongst de slaves.. De first class was de house servants.. butler, maids, cooks... De nex class was de carriage drivers, gardeners and carpenters, barber, and de stable men.. Then come de nex class de wheelwright, blacksmith and slave foremen.. De nex class was de cow men and de
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niggers dat take care of de dogs.. De lowest class was de field niggers. My name is Rosa Starke.
45:30
VINNIE BRUNSON: De nigger used to sing to nearly everything he did.. If he was happy it made him happier, if he was sad, it made him feel better.. de women sing as dey bend over de washtub, de timber nigger sings as he cuts de logs... de mother sings as she rocks de baby.. Singing is de nigger most joy and dey most comfort... When dey needs all dese tings de sing bout de joys in de nex world and de trouble in dis... In de cabin at night after supper de slaves would sing... one song i remember... was Am I born to Die...My name is Vinnie Brunson.
46:00
ANONYMOUS: It took a smart nigger to know who his father was.. in slavery time... I never did know anythin about my grandmamas and grandpapas. There wasn’t many slaves dat could tells you about dem either and plenty of dem didnt knows anything about der mothers and fathers. The plantation owners just sold and traded Negroes like de horse and cattle traders do now.. My marster owned three plantations and three hundred slaves.. he started out wid two oman slaves and raised three hundred slaves.. one wuz called Short Peggy and the other Long Peggy... Long Peggy had 25 children
46:30
ANONYMOUS: It was aginst de law to larn a nigger to read and write in slavery time.. white folks would chop your hans off for dat quicker can dey would for most anything else.. Dats just a saying cuz a nigger widout hands wuld not be able to work much and marster would not be able to sell him for nigh as much as if he had good hands.. Dey just beat em up bad when dey get cotched studying reading, but some owners did cut off one finger evry time dey cotch a slave trying ti git larning. I's educated. I ain't educated in de books. I's educated by de licks I got.
47:00
THOMAS COLE Master Cole was a good man. He has respect for oder peoples feelins and treated his slaves lak dey was human beins instead of dumb brutes.. he lowed his slaves more privileges den any oder slaveholder round em parts, and he tried to learn em how to make money and to counts money. De way mos of us larns to read wus de Bible.. One of de slaves would larn to read, and he would read de Bible to der rest of dem who wants to lissen.. and den finally another one would wants to larn to read and he would larn him a little, Some of de oder slave owners would not allow it.
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48:00
MARY PRINCE: I was born at Brackish Pond in Bermuda... on a farm belonging to Mr. Charles Myners... i was bought by Captain Darrel who gave me to his daughter Mrs. Williams. They named me Mary. When I had scarcely reached my twelfth year Mrs. Williams became too poor so she hired me out to Mrs. Pruden. Then Mrs. Williams died and Mr. Williams sold me to a Captain who lived at Spanish Point. This was my first most miserable existence for the mistress was a savage mistress to her slaves... to strip me naked, hand me up by the wrists and lay my flesh open with the cow-skin was an ordinary punishment for even the slightest offence. For five years in this house I met with the same treatment almost daily... then the Captain sold me to Mr. D.... and I was transported to Turks Island... i was immediately sent to work in the salt ponds with the other slaves... Though we worked from morning til night there was no satisfying Mr. D. The Captain used to beat us while raging and foaming with passion, but Mr. D was usually quite calm.. he would give orders for a slave to be whipped and assist in the punishment without moving a muscle of his face, walking about and taking snuff with great composure.. nothing could touch his hard heart... I worked about 10 years in Turks Island when Mr. D retired to Bermuda and took me to wait on one of his daughters. Mr. D continued his dreadful ways even beating his own daughter till she was black and blue... i once saved her from being killed... Several years after Mr. John Wood was going to Antigua and purchased me for $300 or 100pounds Bermuda currency. During my first three years I was flogged regularly and once I was put in the cage... Once I went to one Adam White a free black and asked him to buy me. He went directly to Mr. Wood but was informed I was not to be sold. Mr. Wood was so vexed that the next day he whipped me. I made money taking in washing, selling coffee and yams. to earn money to buy my freedom... once I bought a hog on a ship and sold it for double on the shore... but he wouldn't sell me. The Moravian ladies taught me to read... some time after I began to attend the Moravian Church where I met with Daniel James, a free black. We were married in 1826. When Mr. Wood heard he flogged me with the horse whip.
51:00
MALINDA DISCUS I am Malinda Discus. Our master took his slaves to meeting with him. There was always something about that I couldn’t understand. They treated the negroes like animals and would not hesitate to separate and sell them, yet they seemed to think they had souls and tried to make Christians of them... We used to pray all de time for we freedom.
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SLAVE NARRATIVES END
52:00
MARY: Yes, women were equal to men in slavery... as units of production they were given equal punishment... One of the milder forms of punishment was the use of stocks. The hands and feet of the offender were fastened to a wooden frame and remained confined in this position for periods of three to six hours. For serious crimes such as running away, men and woman alike were either shipped out of the country or were put to death. The only distinction is that pregnant women had their sentence suspended until after the birth of the child. The most frequent form of punishment was flogging and 39 strokes was the maximum.
53:00
SONG led by Mary (Slave Lament – Traditional – Sityrah or other Negro Spiritual)
55:00
JOB: POEM - Death of a Slave Death of a Slave. (Martin Carter) Above green cane arrow is blue sky – Beneath green arrow is brown earth – Dark is the shroud of slavery over the river over the forest over the field. Aie! black is the skin! Aie! red is heart! as round it looks over the world over the forest over the sun. In the dark earth in cold dark earth time plants the seeds of anger. This is another world but above is the same blue sky the same sun Below is the same deep heart of agony. Day passes like a long whip over the back of a slave. Day is a burning whip Biting the neck of a slave.
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Night comes from down river Like a thief – Night comes form deep forest in a boat of silence – Dark is the shroud the shroud of night over the river over the forest. The slave staggers and falls his face is on the earth his drum is silent silent like night hollow like boat between the tides of sorrow. In the dark floor In the cold dark earth time plans the seeds of anger. SONG: by JOB & MARY (Use a Chant or Call and Response Song that the Audience can be included in the process of the Story such as A Chi Chi Bud Oh.. or John Crow Sey Him Nah Wuk Pon Sunday or Guinea War)
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SECTION IV
60:00
REBELLION
MARY: Resistance and rebellion was common. The first large one was the Hispaniola revolt in 1522. Then when the British took over Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655, many of the Spaniards' slaves escaped to the hills, and became Maroons... No doubt they were led by the Coromantins... Slaves from the Gold Coast which were highly regarded by the English and usually sold at a higher price than those from other regions. They were called after the port of Coromantine. Cormonatin was not an African tribal name. Most likely they were Fanti or Ashanti. No other group of slaves aroused so much controversy. They were often the leaders of slave mutinies. It is said that in one slave uprising, 33 Coromantines, murdered and wounded no less than 19 whites in the space of an Hour. The Jamaica House of Assembly in describing a series of revolts during the middle of the 18th century reported: "all the disturbances have been planned and conducted by the Coromantin Negroes who are distinguished from the rest there by their aversion to husbandry and the martial ferocity of their dispositions".
61:30
JOB: The greatest revolts except for that in Santo Domingo took place in Jamaica and Guyana. Berbice, exploded with revolts in 1762, 1763-64 and 1767. The rebellion in 1763-64 under Cuffy engaged half the slaves in the colony. In the Demerara there were revolts in 1772, 73, 74 and 75. Serious revolt also took place in 1803 and in 1823. In the latter, thousands from 37 plantations had taken part. The other islands had also had their share for forment and unrest. In Barbados, June 1675, after a house slave named Fortuna informed her master of plans for a slave revolt which aimed at killing all the whites and making a very old slave called Cuffee king of Barbados, the alleged leaders were arrested. Six were sentenced to be burned alive, eleven others were beheaded. One of those sentenced to be burned, a slave named Tony said, "If you roast me today, you cannot roast me tomorrow."
62:30
MARY: In 1686, a conspiracy was discovered among Irish servants and black slaves... The Irish were disarmed but the twenty slaves executed. Another slave conspiracy discovered in 1692 resulted in the execution of 92 slaves. In 1816, the last and only significant revolt led by an African slave Bussa, along with Jackey, King Wiltshire, Nanny Grigg and others succeeded in holding out but they were caught.. and 214 were executed.
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63:00
JOB: In St. Vincent the Black Caribs under the leader Chatoyer fought a five month war against the British, which resulted in a peace treaty...and their extradition to Belize. In 1684 Antigua slaves took to the hills in the Southwest... One fugitive caught in 1687 had his tongue cut out and one of his legs chopped off to provide a living example to the rest... In 1736 a general uprising was frustrated by disclosure by one of the conspirators who was arrested on some other minor offense but who confessed in his panic.... The convicted were found guilty.. five were broken on the wheel, five were gibbeted and 77 were burned alive...
64:00
MARY: In Jamaica there was Tacky's War, Blackwall of Whitehall (one of Tacky's supporters). Three finger Jack, Plato the Wizard and the Mutiny at Fort Agusta and of course Juan de Bolas, Cudjoe, and Kwacko of the Maroons. The Maroons who managed to keep the English at Bay and negotiate a peace treaty which guaranteed their freedom. Although it is the men of whom most tales are told women were also part of the resistance... For the most part they ran away... like the mother of Ellen Cragin:
64:30
ELLEN CRAGIN:[SLAVE] I am Ellen Cragin. My mother she didn't work in the field but in de house. One day she fell asleep at her chores. Her master's boy saw her and told his mother. His mother told him to take a whip and wear her out. He took a stick and beat my mother till she woke up.. but she took a pole for the loom and nearly beat him to death with it. She said "I'm going to kill you. These black titties sucked you and then you come out here to beat me. And when she left him he wasnt able to walk. And that was the last I seen of her.. She left the plantation because she knew that if she stayed they would kill her.
65:00
MARY: Women also resisted work by malingering... One female slave in Jamaica named Industry was brought to slave court for refusing to work and setting a bad example to other negroes on the property by her contumacious conduct. She was sentenced to 2 weeks hard labor. Records show that in Jamaica between 1819 and 1835, 150 of the 311 cases appearing before the slave court involved women.. guilty of violent conduct or the use of violent language; and in Trinidad between 1824 and 1826 nearly twice as many women as men were referred for cases of insolence and insubordination 1782 women as compared to 941 men....
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65:30
JOB: Women schemed to do damage in ways which could not be found out.. destruction of property by fire was a popular method ...poisoning though less frequent was also tried and one slave was sentenced to execution (but transported) in 1817 in Jamaica for this crime. To be true -- house slaves had often revealed plots to save the lives of their masters-- like Fortuna in Barbados and Rebecca in Jamaica (1798), but in Jamaica there were at least two instances of women of women being sentenced for execution or transportation for their part in revolts. Venus was one of eleven convicted for a plot in 1745, and one Cubah, slave to a Jewess, who was known as the Queen of Kingston in 1760... who was eventually executed. And of course there was Nanny, Queen of the Maroons.
66:00
STORYTELLER: The Story of Nanny of the Maroons BUSH NUH NO HAVE NO LAW....
71:00
SONG --- Sityra (Traditional)
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SECTION V
73:00
REFORM & REDEMPTION
JOB: The interlocking French and Haitian revolution led by Toussaint LÓuverture shattered the tranquility such as it was, of the slaveholding regions everywhere in the Hemisphere and generated rational fear among the slaveholders. Emancipation was in the air. Emancipation to be fought for by the abolitionists on the one hand, and fired by the never ceasing fight to be free on the part of the slaves. Abolitionists came from every walk of life -- like Reverend Newton, a former slaver and author of the hymn "How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds" -- who said “custom, example and interest had blinded my eyes... I did it ignorantly... I should have been overwhelmed by distress and terror if I had known or even suspected I was acting wrongly."
3:30
MARY-POEM: Jamaica.. Written in 1776 From A Poetical Epistle, from the Island of Jamaica, to a Gentleman of the middle-temple.(Anonymous) Our tropic fruits, nurs’d neath a torrid sky, With Britain’s orchards, mild and fertile, vie. Can England boast th’Anana’s nectar’d taste? The marrowy pear, a vegetable feast? The favour’d melon, or the juicy lime? Or sugar-cane, the pride of India’s clime? Or milky apple, Venus to inspire? Or cooling tamarind, that fans the fire? Can ye, midst winter, pluck the summer’s pride, When all your gardens glow one snowy void? Or can ye sit by yonder fairy stream, Where orang’d boughs preclude the scalding beam? From Jamaica, a Poem in Three Parts, Written in That Island in the Year 1776
JOB: And can the Muse reflect her tear-stain’d eye, When blood attests ev’n slaves for freedom die? On cruel gibbets high disclos’d they rest, And scarce on groan escapes one bloated breast/ Here sable Caesars feel the christian rod, There Afric Platos, tortur’d, hope a God: While jetty Brutus for his country sighs, And sooty Cato with his freedom dies!
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Britons, forbear! be Mercy still your aim, And as your faith, unspotted be your fame; Tremendous pains tremendous deeds inspire, And, hydra-like, new martyrs rise from fire.
75:00
MARY: It was Thomas Clarkson whose conversion by divine intervention fueled his efforts and spurred his fight in the courts and on the streets of London. Along with Sharp, Josiah Wedgewood the potter, and other enthusiasts, Clarkson founded the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787. But it was not easy to let go of such a profitable business. Income from the slave trade was an important element in the economic growth of all of Europe, including Britain. And in the case of Britain, this was specially true in the case of the counties of Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands.
75: 30
JOB: It must be remembered that in the 18th century, a man could exist on 6 pounds a year and live comfortably on 30. An annual income of 100 pounds enabled one to live luxuriously. The adjusted gross income of the Liverpool merchants from the 303,737 slaves they sold in the West Indies in 11 years was about 12.3 million pounds or an average of 1.1 million pounds a year. During same period Liverpool slavers made 878 voyages to the Guinea Coast each lasting an average of nine or ten months and yielding an average cash return of 14,000 pounds per voyage.
76:00
MARY: The Guinea trade was three cornered -- it consisted of carrying Manchester goods to Africa, where they were exchanged for slaves, then carrying the slaves to the West Indies where they were exchanged for cash or three year notes of hand bearing six per cent interest; then buying sugar, coffee, indigo and ginger to carry home... to sell to buy Manchester goods and repeat the process... thus Liverpool built on the slave trade became the greatest port in the World. The slave trade quickened the tempo of the whole Industrial revolution... and Liverpool made no secret of the source of its wealth... The town hall was covered with reproductions of elephants teeth and blackamoors.. Shop windows were full of handcuffs, leg irons, collars and slave chains. Goldsmiths advertised silver locks and collars for Blacks, that is NEGROES, and Dogs. And a fashionable woman of the time, did not appear in public without her monkey dressed in an embroidered jacket, and a little black slave boy wearing a turban and baggy silk pantaloons.
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77:00
JOB: Times were flush in the Guinea Coast and in Liverpool. The guinea which was a coin minted in gold from West Africa by King Charles the II to advertise the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading to Africa, formed in 1663 by the Duke of York, was supposed to be equal to a pound sterling, but Guinea Gold was so pure and so much in demand that at one time it was worth as much as 30 shillings before being finally fixed at 21 shillings... England's merchants had much to the thankful for in the sugar cane industry.
79:00
POEM:
Barbados of 1754 (Nathaniel Weekes)
The Virtues of the Cane must now be sung; The noblest Plant of all the western Isles! What greater Subject can employ my Muse? Not India’s aromatic Groves, nor all The Treasures of her Hundred Mines, can boast A more important Trade, or yield to Man A nobler Use. Here Muse! Your Pow’r exert, The subject now you utmost Pow’r demands. To trace the Cane thro’all its various Toils, Till full Perfection crowns its Use compleat, Be now your Task to celebrate at large.
81:00
JOB: With the sugar trade valued at 6 million pounds, opposition to slavery was political suicide... enter William Wilberforce... son of a rich merchant and parliamentarian. It would take 20 years before the Slave trade was made illegal (1807)...The last ship to carry a legal cargo of slaves was the Kitty's Amelia of Liverpool...in the ensuing death throes of slavery many more slaves were transported illegally across the seas... after all a slave bought in Guinea for $50 sold in Havana for $357 a piece.. representing a profit of more than 500%.
81:30
MARY: It would take another 25 years and incidents such as the Sam Sharpe Rebellion in Jamaica of 1831-1832 in which some 20,000 slaves were involved to serve as a reminder that the slaves were impatient for their freedom. On being led to execution Sam Sharpe echoed the sentiments of the Negroes thus: "I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery".
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82:00
JOB: POEM - Epitaph (Dennis Scott) They hanged him on a clement morning swung between the falling sunlight and the women’s breathing, like a black apostrophe to pain. All morning while the children hushed their hopscotch joy and the can kept growing he hung there sweet and low. At least that’s how They tell it. It was long ago And what can we recall of a dead slave or two Except that when we punctuate our island tale They swing like sighs across the brutal Sentences, and anger pauses Till they pass away.
83:00
MARY: In 1833, Parliament passed the Emancipation Act, which abolished slavery in all of Britain's colonies, effective August 1, 1834. The legislation freed immediately only children under the age of six. The others were required to continue working for their former owners; field workers for an apprenticeship of six years, all others for four. They were to work without pay for 3/4ths of the working week, though they might by saving the wages made in the quarter for which they were paid, buy their freedom. The apprentice system was so abused that it was forced to end two years early in 1838. Thus on August 1, 1838... 78 years after Tacky's rebellion in 1760 and 160 years after the outbreak on Captain Duck's plantation in 1678, some 400 years after the first slave ship set sail across the Atlantic.... Freedom dawned on the Britain's jewels in the Caribbean Sea.
84:00
Song -- Jubilee/Freedom a Come (Traditional)
85:00 JOB: It would take several more years and many more brutal deaths before slavery would gasp its last breath in the Americas, 1863 in the United States of America and twenty years later, 1888, in Brazil. Five hundred years of desecration of humankind. The desecrated now become sacred, as we honor their living and their dying. We the children of the survivors must listen to their voiceprints. Listen...
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86:00
MARY: Listen to the voices of our ancestors calling out our names. Listen… we hear the voices echoing in our bellies, echoing in our blood, echoing in our skin, echoing in our bones, echoing in the wind, whispering words of encouragement, shouting words of praise, singing songs of faith, calling us to courage. Listen and we will hear the voices giving birth to our vision of a New Day.
87:00
JOB & MARY: POEM – As a duet I come from the Nigger Yard (Martin Carter) I come from the nigger yard of yesterday leaping from the oppressors’ hate and the scorn of myself; from the agony of the dark hut in the shadow and the hurt of things; from the long days of cruelty and the long nights of pain down to the wide streets of tomorrow, of the next day leaping I come, who cannot see will hear. And there was always sad music somewhere in the land Like a bugle and a drum between the houses Voices of women singing far away Pauses of silence, then a flood of sound. But these were things like ghosts or spirits of wind. It was only a big world spinning outside And men, born in agony, torn in torture, twisted and broken Like a leaf, And the uncomfortable morning, the beds of hunger stained And sordid Like the world, big and cruel, spinning outside. I come from the nigger yard of yesterday Leaping from the oppressor’s hate And the scorn of myself. I come to the world with scars upon my soul Wounds on my body, fury in my hands I turn to the histories of men and the lives of the peoples I examine the shower of sparks the wealth of the dreams I am pleased with the glories and sad with the sorrows Rich with the riches, poor with the loss From the nigger yard of yesterday I come with my burden. To the world of tomorrow I turn with my strength.
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You are involved This I have learnt: Today a speck Tomorrow a hero Hero or monster You are consumed!
Like a jig Shakes the loom. Like a web Is spun the pattern All are involve! All are consumed! If We Must Die (Claude McKay) If we must die let it not be like hogs….. If we must die oh let us nobly die
90:00
SONG – REDEMPTION SONG – Bob Marley then Jubilee.
DRUMMING COMES UP..
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APPENDIX ONE: RADIO SCRIPT for WPFW INCEPTION 10:31
Chant & Drum Call
10:34
Poem -
10:37
Anansi Story - How Slavery Came to Africa
10:45
Song - Mambuma
THE GATHERING 10:46
.... Elmina
10:52
.... Story of Olaudah Equiano (in his own words)
10:57
Song - Slave Lament
10:59
STATION IDENTIFICATON
11:00
NOTICES
THE MIDDLE PASSAGE 11:10
How we got over!
11:16
Song - Slave
THE PLANTATION .... Stories about Auctions, Music, Rape, Reading, Beatings, Religion
11:28
... The HerStory of Mary Prince by Herself
11:30
... About the Profits from slavery
11:32
STATION IDENTIFICATION
11:33
Poem - Death of a Slave
11:35
Song - Slave
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11:18
REBELLION 11:37
.... Mutiny at sea/Suicides
11:39
.... Uprisings in the Indies
11:40
.... The Story of Nanny
11:45
Song - Redemption Song
REDEMPTION 11:47
.... Abolition
11:50
Poem - We come from the Nigger Yard -- Group
11:53
Song - Jubilee
11:54
CLOSING - Chant/Drum Call/Tolling of Bells
11:55
STATION IDENTIFICATION
30
APPENDIX TWO: NOTES TO THE DIRECTOR
1. This is an experimental piece which can be done live, on radio, or taped for broadcast TV.
2. If Live, one could also begin and end with drumming with the actors in masks and dressed like the JONKANOO and then unmask as they tell the tale. At the end they remask and end with JUNKANOO Drums.
3. JOB & MARY are the narrators and they telling the backdrop. All their parts are historical facts. The other actors possibly five -- do all the other speaking parts. JOB & MARY remain as the narrators.
4. If being performed for paid performance or taped for sale one could use original or traditional folk musics instead of using MIGHTY SPARROW and BOB MARLEY so as to avoid copyright issues.
5. The poetry that we have included is by various poets (British and Caribbean).
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