International Day of Remembrance of
the Victims of
Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade - 2009 .
"We must acknowledge the great lapse in moral judgment that allowed [the Transatlantic Slave Trade] to happen. We must urge present and future generations to avoid repeating history. We must acknowledge the contributions that enslaved Africans made to civilization. And countries that prospered from the slave trade must examine the origins of present-day social inequality and work to unravel mistrust between communities. Above all, even as we mourn the atrocities committed against the countless victims, we take heart from the courage of slaves who rose up to overcome the system which oppressed them."
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Background Information
The transatlantic slave trade is a major element of global history, yet little is known about the 400-year long trade and its lasting consequences felt throughout the world, or of the contribution of slaves to the building of the societies of their enslavement. The exact number of people taken from Africa from 16th to the 19th Century and shipped across the notorious “Middle Passage” of the Atlantic - mainly to colonies in North America, South America, and the West Indies - is still hotly debated but estimates go up to 28 million. What is not in dispute is the extent of the cruelty endured in chains by the many African men, women and children, and the fact that many died before they could reach their destination. Those who made it were sold for huge profit into a life of slavery, enduring the worst indignities at the hands of slave masters.
Examining the lives of enslaved Africans in the Americas and the Caribbean displays the capacity of human beings to develop even under dehumanizing conditions, as well as some of the diverse ways in which human beings confront and transcend oppression.
On 17 December 2007, the General Assembly adopted resolutions A/RES/62/122, which calls inter alia for 25 March to be designated as International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The resolution requests that the Secretary-General, in collaboration with UNESCO, establish educational outreach programme to mobilize educational institutions, civil society and other organizations to inculcate in future generations, the “causes, consequences and lessons of the transatlantic slave trade, and to communicate the dangers of racism and prejudice”.
In 2008, the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) initiated an effort to reach out to schools and other educational institutions, civil society, media and the general public. DPI, in collaboration with the ambassadors of the Caribbean Community and the African Group held a solemn ceremony on 25 March 2008 in the United Nations General Assembly Hall. An exhibition in the Visitor’s Lobby, “The Middle Passage: White Ships, Black Cargo”, attracted many. The DPI/NGO Section and UNESCO Office in New York also held a briefing titled: “Lest We Forget: Breaking the Silence on the Transatlantic Slave Trade,” which was preceded by the premiere of the documentary “The Slave Route: A Global Vision”. A group of students sailing on a replica of the Freedom Schooner Amistad retracing the Transatlantic Slave Route joined an international videoconference, when their ship docked in St. Lucia on 26 March.
OBJECTIVES
Pursuant to General Assembly resolution A/RES/62/122, the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade aims to:
* Establish an appropriate educational outreach programme;Mobilize educational institutions, civil society and other organizations;
* Inculcate in future generations the causes, consequences and lessons of the Transatlantic Slave Trade; and
* Communicate the dangers of racism and prejudice.
PROPOSAL
In 2009, in a series of events celebrating the victory of humankind over adversity, the Department of Public Information proposes to amplify the number and visibility of commemorative activities. It plans to hold a series of events around the world, where officials and the public will join in “breaking the silence, beating the drum” at the same given hour.
On 25 March in New York, UN Secretary-General Ban will kick-start the commemoration by drumming some rhythms of his own at a midday special ceremony with Ambassadors from 192 countries. That evening, a cultural evening and concert will be held in the General Assembly Hall and feature musical talents and artists from all continents. Academics, celebrities, artists, writers and poets will contribute and participate in events in other countries.
Tasked with the organization of these events, the Outreach Division of DPI will collaborate with the two other Divisions as well as with UNESCO and a large number of stakeholders. Educational institutions, civil society and youth organizations, agencies of the UN system and United Nations Information Centres (UNICs) will participate in the global commemoration.General Assembly President's Message New York
March 25, 2009Excellencies, Mr. Secretary-General, Distinguished Artists and Musicians, Brothers and Sisters All,
Let me begin by thanking you all for making today’s Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade the focus of attention not only here at the United Nations, but around the entire world. It is as if, after so many centuries, the world is finally beginning to come to terms with what is one of the darkest stains in our long history of inhumane treatment of our fellow Sisters and Brothers. It is indeed ironic that we are celebrating this commemoration of such a bitter legacy. But this transformation is cause for celebration, as well as solemn commemoration. The abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 1808 seems so long ago and far away. But I believe most of us appreciate the importance of bringing this historic event to the attention of the world.
The abolition of the slave trade, which criss-crossed the Atlantic from Africa to Europe, Latin America and North America for hundreds of years, did not actually end slavery. In fact, it provoked bitterness and bloodshed that linger today. But it was an important step towards this ban, marking one of the early decisions by the international community to join forces to combat the barbarous and enormously lucrative slave trade.
I have always been an advocate of forgiveness and reconciliation. The slave trade constitutes one of those horrendous crimes against humanity. It is a wonder that so many Africans and their African-America descendents have been generous enough to forgive these crimes; but that none of us, anywhere in the world, should forget.
A part of this historic tragedy is the fact that the slave trade and slavery itself continue to have deep, if unacknowledged relevance to our world today. We see it in the continuing racism that remains ingrained in virtually all our societies. Let us keep in mind that this pervasive evil is what makes the Durban Anti-Racism Review Conference, set to meet in Geneva next month, so relevant and so important. Let us work together ensure that this controversial conference is constructive and successful.
Slavery’s relevance today reminds us that the slave trade was an institution that not only devastated a continent but poisoned the roots of societies young and old by its corrosive presence. We all continue to suffer the consequences of this exploitation – obviously some of us much more than others.
As well, even as we focus on the victims of the slave trade, we must acknowledge that a contemporary form of slavery remains with us, often invisible and tolerated on an international scale. Despite legislation that proclaims that slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms, millions of people remain victims of slavery. One has only to refer to reports on the horrendous conditions of rural workers, often indigenous peoples, who are victims of the traditional forms of slavery.
And there are the more modern forms of slavery that rely on human trafficking – international trade at its most evil. These victims include forced laborers, child soldiers and sex slaves, as well as those trafficked in the illegal adoption trade or for the purpose of organ removal. I think we can be proud of the work of the General Assembly is working on many fronts to abolish and punish these contemporary crimes against humanity.
But today, we have come together to commemorate the countless victims of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade – and give their memory the honour and recognition that so many would rather deny. I applaud the work of the Department of Public Information and the generous spirit of so many musicians who are here to raise the profile of this commemoration. Let us all join them in the concerted effort to make slavery a distant memory rather than a nightmarish reality it remains today.
Thank you.H.E. Mr. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann
Secretary-General's Message
25 March 2009The swearing in of a son of Africa as President of the United States this year marked, for many, a milestone on an epic journey that began more than 400 years ago. Throughout the Americas and the Caribbean, the descendants of history’s greatest forced migration have fought long and hard – and continue to fight – for justice, assimilation and respect.
The International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade honours the millions of Africans violently removed from their homelands and cast into slavery. Estimates vary of how many millions of men and women were transported, but what is not in dispute is the legacy of this vile traffic. Africa has yet to recover from the ravages of the slave trade or the subsequent era of colonization. And, across the Atlantic, and in Europe and elsewhere, people of African descent still struggle daily against entrenched prejudice that keeps them disproportionately in poverty.
Despite the official abolition of slavery, racism still pollutes our world. So too do contemporary forms of slavery, including bonded servitude, forced prostitution, and the use of children in warfare and the international drug trade. It is essential that we speak out loud and clear against such abuses. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” Failure to observe this fundamental principle leads directly to the inhumanity of slavery and the horror of genocide.
Speaking out is the theme of this year’s observance. It asks us to “Break the Silence, Beat the Drum”. Since the dawn of humanity in Africa, drums have provided the pulse of our history, and they continue to help us celebrate our common humanity. Today I urge everyone, everywhere, to beat the drum to proclaim that black or white, man or woman, we are one people. When musicians play, they pay attention to each other while playing their own parts. We must follow their lead. We can achieve harmony only if we respect each other, rejoice in our diversity, and work together for our common goals.Slavery Today
“We should remember that even today, many millions of our fellow human beings are subjected to slavery-like practices…For all that has been accomplished in our campaign for human rights, we still have much to do.”
Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon
Modern Forms of Slavery
The first annual International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade also serves as a reminder that contemporary forms of slavery – such as human traficking, forced prostitution, child soldiers, forced and bonded labour and the use of children in the international drug trade – are still flourishing today, largely as a result of vulnerability exacerbated by poverty, discrimination and social exclusion.
* It is estimated that more than 250,000 children are currently being exploited as child soldiers in as many as 30 areas of conflict around the world. Many of the kidnapped girls who are made into child soldiers are also forced into sexual slavery.
* The International Organization for Migration estimates that annually 700,000 women, girls, men and boys are being traficked across borders away from their homes and families and into slavery.
* An estimated 5.7 million children are victims of forced and bonded labour, also known as debt bondage, and 1.2 million children are victims of child trafficking.
* Linked to trafficking is the commercial sexual exploitation of children of whom 1 million, mainly girls, are forced into prostitution every year. These girls are sold for sex or used in child pornography in both the developed and the developing world.“Despairingly credible comparisons of scale and suffering may be drawn with the trans-Atlantic trade in Africans in the Americas in which more than 12 million people were forcibly transported over the ocean in four hundred years. It is to our great shame that if today’s statistics are correct, and 700, 000 people are now being trafficked across borders into slavery annually, we will have equaled that total in a mere 20 years.”
Deputy Director-General, Ndioro Ndiaye, International Organization of MigrationIt is the responsibility of us all to work to address the root causes of slavery, to provide assistance and protection to its victims and to ensure that there is no impunity for those who perpetuate the practice.
Sources:
* Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict
* International Labour Organization, The end of child labour: Within reach (2006)
* Speech of the Deputy Director General of the International Organization for Migration (5 March 2007)Drums and Slavery
In sub-Saharan Africa, rhythms, spiritual dimensions and the order of the universe are not generally separated into compartments in the mind of most people. Traditional African societies acknowledge that the drum has a spirit and character that is clearly observable. It is believed by many African communities that voices of great ancestors are hidden inside the wood of trees so they could be accessed whenever men and women need them. African history has been maintained through an oral tradition.
Everywhere, slaves strived to keep the heritage and practice of drums alive. Drums from Cameroon represent various types of African drums. Due to its many peoples and unique geographical location (on the coast, deep in the heart of Africa as well as close to the Sahara), Cameroon is sometimes seen as Africa in miniature. Drums also reflect spiritual, social, ethno-anthropological and artistic perspectives. The historical and cultural significance of drums with regard to the Transatlantic Slave Trade is noteworthy.
During the Passage, slaves were encouraged to beat the drum. The hope was that beating the drum would keep their morale as high as possible. But upon arrival in the Americas, beating the drum was forbidden for most slaves. Slave owners were usually fearful of or could not understand the influence that beating the drum had on slaves. Nevertheless, the drum continued its journey, and accompanied black slaves everywhere they went, influencing or creating new musical and artistic genres, such as the call-and-response pattern first brought to the Americas and the rest of the world through the slave trade and now prevalent in blues, jazz, rock and roll, and hip-hop. But the influence of drums went beyond music. Drums galvanized the fighting spirit of black slaves during the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina or the New Orleans uprising. Everywhere in the Americas, African slaves celebrated their regained freedom by beating the drum. This is what happened on April 12, 1865 as the Confederates were leaving Mobile, when a group of youngsters decided to do something “African” to celebrate their regained freedom. They carved a drum, beat it and its powerful throbbing took them back home. One of them, Cudjo Lewis, said: “After dey free us, you understand me, we so glad, we makee de drum and beat it lak in de Affica soil.” Cudjo Lewis was among the last Africans the Transatlantic Slave Trade had brought to the United States. As their drum symbolized, freedom to them was directly linked to Africa.
The exhibit shows how uniquely important the drum has remained for all, constituting up to this day a strong link between former slaves of African origin and Africa, despite centuries of slave trade.
Very special and rare items, including royal drums are part of the exhibit for which DPI has collaborated with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Caribbean Cultural Center in New York. In addition to academic material provided by Cameroon, both institutions have contributed texts and research.Drums in African American History
Drums and the Stono Rebellion
On Sunday September 9, 1739 a rebellion erupted twenty miles from Charleston, South Carolina. It was led by enslaved men from the Kongo Kingdom (present-day Angola.) They seized a store of firearms and marched with two drums beating and banners flying, burning down plantations and killing slaveholders. After the group became large enough, numbering about 60, they “set to dancing, Singing and Beating Drums to draw more Negroes to them.” The insurgents had had military training in the Kongo Kingdom as historian John K. Thornton stressed “They marched under banners like the unit flags that African armies flew in their campaigns, and they used drums to encourage the rebels…. Military dancing was a part of the African culture of war. In African war, dancing was as much a part of military preparation as drill was in Europe….Dancing in preparation for war was so common in Kongo that “dancing a war dance” (sangamento) was often used as a synonym for “to declare war” in seventeenth-century sources.” The Stono rebellion was one of the largest in the United States.
The New Orleans Uprising
On January 8, 1811, Charles Deslondes, originally from Haiti, and several hundred men took part in the largest slave uprising in the history of the United States. It happened north of New Orleans. Defiant but poorly armed, they were headed for the city to procure firearms and turn it into a safe haven for enslaved people. Governor Claiborne wrote to Secretary of State Robert Smith, “The Negroes in the County of German Coast . . . are in state of Insurrection; their numbers are variously stated from 180 to 500. A detachment of U.S. Troops and two Companies marched against the Insurgents.” The men “advanced down the River Road with flags flying and drums beating, and “On to New Orleans was their cry.” Deslondes and twenty men were beheaded.
Benjamin H. Latrobe, Impressions Respecting New Orleans 1818-1820 February 1819
Description of drumming by African slaves in Place Congo, New Orleans: The music consisted of two drums and a stringed instrument. An old man sat astride of a cylindrical drum about a foot in diameter, and beat it with incredible quickness with the edge of his hand and fingers. The other drum was an open staved thing held between the knees and beaten in the same manner. They made an incredible noise. The most curious instrument, however, was a stringed instrument which no doubt was imported from Africa (* It was a kora, a Mandingo instrument from Mali, Guinea and Senegambia.) On the top of the finger board was the rude figure of a man in a sitting posture, and two pegs behind him to which the strings were fastened. The body was a calabash. It was played upon by a very little old man, apparently 80 or 90 years old….[Another instrument] which from the color of the wood seemed new, consisted of a block cut into something of the form of a cricket bat with a long & deep mortice down the center. This thing made a considerable noise, being beaten lustily on the side by a short stick. In the same orchestra was a square drum, looking like a stool, which made an abominably loud noise; also a calabash with a round hole in it, the hole studded with brass nails, which was beaten by a woman with two short sticks.
George Washington Cable, “The Dance in Place Congo”, Century Illustrated Magazine, February 1886.
Description of African drums and drummers in action as witnessed in Place Congo, New Orleans:
The drums were very long, hollowed, often from a single piece of wood, open at one end and having a sheep or goat skin stretched across the other. One was large, the other much smaller. The tight skin heads were not held up to be struck; the drums were laid along on the turf and the drummers bestrode them, and beat them on the head madly with fingers, fists, and feet, with slow vehemence on the great drum, and fiercely and rapidly on the small one. Sometimes an extra performer sat on the ground behind the larger drum, at its open end, and beat upon the wooden sides of it with two sticks. The smaller drum was often made from a joint or two of very large bamboo, in the West Indies where such could be got, and this is said to be the origin of its name; for it was called the Bamboula. In stolen hours of night or the basking hour of noon the black man contrived to fashion these rude instruments and others. The drummers, I say, bestrode the drums; the other musicians sat about them in an arc, cross-legged on the ground. One important instrument was a gourd partly filled with pebbles or grains of corn, flourished violently at the end of a stout staff with one hand and beaten upon the palm of the other. Other performers rang triangles, and others twanged from jaws-harps an astonishing amount of sound. Another instrument was the jawbone of some ox, horse, or mule, and a key rattled rhythmically along its weather-beaten teeth. At times the drums were reinforced by one or more empty barrels or casks beaten on the head with the shank-bones of cattle.
Drum and Freedom
The story of the “last survivor”, Cudjo Lewis and his drum of freedom: On April 12, 1865 as the Confederates were leaving Mobile, a group of youngsters decided to do something “African” to celebrate their regained freedom. They carved a drum, beat it and its powerful throbbing took them back home. As one of them, Cudjo Lewis, told famous author Zora Neale Hurston, “After dey free us, you understand me, we so glad, we makee de drum and beat it lak in de Affica soil.” Five years earlier, on July 8, 1860, he and his 109 companions had arrived in Alabama after forty-five harrowing days on the slave ship Clotilda. They were the last of the half million Africans the Transatlantic Slave Trade had brought to the United States. As their drum symbolized, freedom to them was directly linked to Africa and their first wish was to return to their families in Benin and Nigeria. Unable to do so, they established a settlement north of Mobile, called it African Town, ruled it according to customary laws, and there raised their children, some of whom spoke African languages well into the 1950s. Cudjo Lewis, the last survivor, passed away in 1935 and people who knew him are still alive today. Renamed Africatown, the young Africans’ settlement is still home to their descendants.
Drum-BitsTALKING DRUMS AND INSTANT MESSAGING
In Africa, drums are instruments of communication used on secular and sacred occasions. The ‘voice’ of the drum is always associated with important stages in life, divinations, funerals and ceremonies to honor the ancestors. The sound of the drum can often be heard across an area of five miles. Up to this day, drums are used to send messages between villages and are as efficient as a telephone. Within a community, drummers share, understand and translate rhythms and patterns of drum beats. It is almost like the Morse code. Drums can also be used for storytelling. In Africa, in call-and-response drumming and singing, a leader plays or sings a phrase or line of music, known as a call. The rest of the group, the chorus, answers back by playing or singing another phrase or line of music. This pattern is repeated over and over again throughout the song. Call-and-response was first brought to the Americas through the slave trade. Blues, Jazz, Rock and Roll, and Hip-hop have all been influenced by call-and-response.
Martinique
22 May 1848: In the Duchamp plantation, a slave named Romain was incarcerated following a complaint by the mayor of Saint Pierre that he was beating the drum while other slaves were preparing cassava. Slaves in the workshop found the punishment too harsh. They called for the support of the inhabitants of Saint Pierre and demonstrated in front of the prison, demanding that Romain be released. Police were sent to disperse the crowd by force. The police chief, a mulatto, decided to release Romain. But the mayor, who was in favor of slavery, disapproved and summoned him to the municipal council. Following this summon, slaves rallied, gathering around the city hall, determined to protect the police chief. Concerned by the turn of events, the municipal council voted in favor of the abolition of slavery. For a day and a night, slaves took full control of the city of Saint-Pierre. The revolt spread to the south of the island and the Atlantic coast. On 23 May 1848, faced with the mass uprising of slaves, Governor Claude Rostoland decreed the abolition of slavery in Martinique.
TAMBOURINES
The pitch of these hour-glass shaped drums can be regulated to the extent that it is said the drum "talks" and can be used for drum communication. These instruments are made from either goat, lizard (iguana), or fish skin and tuned by straps that connect the heads with each other. The player puts the drum under one shoulder and beats the instrument with a specialized beater. The pitch is raised or lowered by squeezing or releasing the drum's strings with the upper arm. This can produce highly informative sounds to convey complicated messages. The ability to change the drum's pitch is analogous to the language tonality of some African languages. In far North Cameroon, these drums are called Kalangou (in the Hausa language spoken in Northern Cameroon).
Tambourines are some of the oldest instruments used by West African poets, praise singers and storytellers who perpetuate oral tradition and who are also called griots or djelis. Their history can be traced back to ancient Ghana Empire. The Hausa people (and by influence, the Yoruba people of south-western Nigeria and Benin and the Dagomba of northern Ghana) have developed a highly sophisticated genre of griot music centering on the talking drum. Many variants of the talking drum exist, with essentially the same construction mentioned above. Interestingly, this construction is limited to within the contemporary borders of West Africa, with exceptions to this rule being northern Cameroon and western Chad; areas which have shared populations belonging to groups predominant in their bordering West African countries, such as the Kanuri, Djerma, Fulani and Hausa.
SAVANNAH AND SAHEL
500 BC: The explorer Hanno from Carthage in North Africa (Tunisia) is the first foreigner who reports seeing Mount Cameroon. In the following centuries a trade of slaves and goods develops from northern Cameroon across Sahara to North Africa.
1472: Portuguese from an expedition lead by Fernando Po are the first Europeans to reach the coast of Cameroon. They reach Douala and then sail up the Wouri River. They name it "Rio dos Camarões - the Prawn River -by that giving the name to the country. With the arrival of Europeans the focus of slave trade shifts to the Coastal areas. Deals are made with traders from England, Holland, France, Germany and Portugal. Mostly slaves and ivory are exported from Cameroon. The Europeans brings cloth and metal-products.
1520: A few Portuguese settlers start plantations and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The constant fight for territory produces refugees vulnerable for the slave traders. Slaves are caught in savannah and Sahel areas and brought to the coast to be shipped to the Americas. Some are encouraged t carry with them drums of these types –ganga, dimeu and miziri- so that they can beat them throughout the journey. In some slave areas in the Americas, slaves were forbidden to play drums from the moment they arrived.
ROYAL DRUMS
The music of Africa is as vast and varied as the continent's many regions, nations and ethnic groups. Although there is no distinctly pan-African music, there are common forms of musical expression, especially within regions.
Some musical genres of northern and northeastern Africa, and the Islands off East Africa, share both traditional African and Middle Eastern features.
The music and dance forms of the African Diaspora, including many Caribbean and Latin American music genres like rumba and salsa, as well as African American music, were founded to varying degrees on musical traditions from Africa, taken there by African slaves. These royal drums are ancestors to the “gwo ka” drums found in Guadeloupe, in the French Caribbean.
LONG DRUMS
These drums provide a rich nexus of interplay between the arts of Africa. These instruments set the beat for dancing and dramatic display and they are carriers of local symbolism. Well carved, they come mainly from the Grasslands of Cameroon, a region with mountainous terrain and broad savannas. Grassland’s art serves to indicate social status and rank with the most prestigious imagery and material reserved for the king (Fon) and other nobility at court. Selected artists and artisans working close by the palace serve the royal court working in materials and symbols reserved exclusively for the aristocracy. The drumhead made from animal skin is held in place by wooden pegs around which ropes are tied to secure the skin in place.
EKALI DRUMS
Drumming powerful and inspirational rhythms have provided the vibrant music for all community celebrations and events. Drums played by African slaves have continued to carry this tradition in the Americas. However, just as importantly, drums play the essential role of creating the therapeutic atmosphere for the healing sessions of traditional medicine or community rituals. Ekali drums are used for such sessions. These drums are great fun and entertaining. They provide a unique interactive experience while inspiring social group awareness and harmony. Drums are also known to help relaxation, reduce stress, and heal.
CUDJO LEWIS
“After dey free us, you understand me, we so glad, we makee de drum and beat it lak in de Affica soil.”
Cudjo Lewis, one of the 110 slaves who arrived in Alabama after forty-five harrowing days on the slave ship Clotilda. They were the last Africans the Transatlantic Slave Trade had brought to the United States. Cudjo Lewis, the last survivor, passed away in 1935.
MARIA STEWART
Most of our color have been taught to stand in fear of the white man, to work as soon as they could walk, and call “master,” before they could lisp the name of mother. Continual fear and laborious servitude have lessened in us that natural force which belongs to man, or else, in defiance, our men would have boldly contended for their rights. Give the man of color an equal opportunity and you would discover the dignified statesman, the man of science, and the philosopher. But there is no such opportunity, and our powerful ones are determined that there never shall be.
O ye sons of Africa, how can you refrain from crying mightily unto God? Cast your eyes about, look as far as you can see; all is owned by the lordly white. Like king Solomon, who put neither nail nor hammer to the temple, yet received the praise, so also have the white Americans gained themselves a name, while we have been their foundation and support. We have pursued the shadow, they have obtained the substance; we have performed the labor; they have received the profits; we have planted the vines, they have eaten the fruits of them!
SOJOURNER TRUTH
Well, children, where there is so much racket, there must be something out of kilter. I think that ’twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place. And ain’t I a woman? Look at me - look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man when I could get it — and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with a mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
That man over there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman. Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to get it right side up again!
JAMES NORCUM
$100 reward will be given for the apprehension and delivery of my Servant Girl Harriet Tubman. She is a light mulatto, 21 years of age, about 5 feet 4 inches, of a corpulent habit, having on her head a thick covering of black hair that curls naturally but which can be combed straight. She speaks easily and has an agreeable carriage. Being a good seamstress, she will probably appear tricked out in gay and fashionable finery. As this girl absconded from the plantation of my son without any known cause or provocation, it is probable she designs to transport herself to the North.
The above reward will be given for apprehending her or securing her in any prison within the United States. All persons are hereby forewarned against harboring her or being in any way instrumental in her escape under the most rigorous penalties of the law.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Friends and Fellow Citizens. He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation has stronger nerves than I do. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability than I do this day. The placards say that I am to deliver a Fourth of July Oration. The fact is, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation from which I escaped is considerable. That I am here today is a matter of astonishment.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence were great men — great enough to give frame to a great age. They were peace men, but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men, but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They believed in order, but not in the order of tyranny. You may well cherish the memory of such men. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times.
Fellow Citizens, allow me to ask why am I called upon to speak here today. What have I to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of freedom embodied in that Declaration extended to us?
Such is not the case. Your independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common; the rich inheritance of justice, liberty and prosperity bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. To drag a man in fetters into the temple of liberty and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems is sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, I would pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The conscience of the nation must be roused, the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed, and its crimes against God and man must be denounced.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing, empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns are to him, mere bombast, fraud, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages!
LOUIS DELGRÈS (Guadeloupe)
Louis Delgrès was a mulatto leader of the movement in Guadeloupe resisting reoccupation (and thus the reinstitution of slavery) by Napoleonic France. A battle hardened military officer who had long experience fighting Great Britain in the many wars that country had with Revolutionary France, Delgrès took over the resistance movement from Magloire Pélage after it became clear that Pélage was loyal to Napoleon. Delgrès believed that the "tyrant" Napoleon had betrayed both the ideals of the Republic and the interests of France's colored citizens, and intended to fight to the death. After a spirited but hopeless resistance, Delgrès and his followers found themselves trapped on the Matouba Volcano. There, Delgrès and most of his followers chose to commit suicide by detonating their own gun powder stores. This act, though it effectively ended Guadeloupe's native resistance to French authority, had powerful symbolic value and continues to be heralded as an example of exceptional heroism in Guadeloupe and beyond.
SOLITUDE, the mulatto from Guadeloupe
Solitude, a mulatto, was born a slave in 1772 in Guadeloupe. Her negro mother must have been raped during the voyage on the slave ship. According to legend, Solitude was a beautiful, brown skinned woman. Each of her eyes was of a different coloration. It is alleged that her beauty and lustful manners lead powerful men who owned slaves to fight each other with the hope of getting Solitude. When her mother fled into the bushes, she was forced to leave Solitude. Solitude lived with her masters like other mulattos in a plantation. After Napoleon restored slavery in the French colonies, Solitude became a maroon and joined freedom fighters. Blacks had tasted freedom did not want to relinquish it. She was a fierce warrior, expertly wielding a machete against the troops of French General Richepance. Solitude was fearless. When Delgrès and his comrades blew themselves up, Solitude was among them. She was seriously injured by the explosion. She was captured and sentenced to death. But Solitude was pregnant and could not be put to death. She was executed after she gave birth on 29 November 1802. Up to this day, the mystery remains on the whereabouts of her child.
Sources:
http://www.un.org/en/slavery/
http://www.un.org/en/slavery/background.shtml
http://www.un.org/en/slavery/sg_message.shtml
http://www.un.org/en/slavery/slavery.shtml
http://www.un.org/en/slavery/drums.shtml
http://www.un.org/en/slavery/drumsaa.shtml
http://www.un.org/en/slavery/drumbit.shtml