The Great Migration

The Great Migration was the mass movement from 1915 to 1960 (with some sources saying as late as even 1970) of about 5 million African-Americans to the north and west. Initially, they moved to major cities in the United States such as Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and New York City; but as time went on and towards the time of World War II, they had moved also as far west as Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle.

The African-American people who were living in the South during this time were experiencing not only just economic oppression, but also social oppression. Economically, there was a combination of the desire to escape oppressive conditions in farming and other opportunities that left little room for advancement. Socially, the heightened amount of lynchings, enforcement of Jim Crow laws, inequalities in the justice system and educational areas, and overall growth of violence within southern communities.

Additionally, the Northern states sent recruits to bring farming African-Americans up North to fill the positions left behind by the people who went to World War I. There were numerous opportunities in jobs such as farming, railroads, steel mills, factories, and tanneries. Since there was such a large need for workers up north, many southern African-Americans took the chance to leave the South to make a better life in a major city.

Those who left traveled by train, boat, bus, sometimes car, or even horse-drawn cart. The process of getting there was long and exhausting and took a lot of energy to make the stops and deal with people who were still unwelcoming to them. Often times this journey would occur in stages—stopping along the way to work for a while and then continue on their way.

These men, women, children, families; settled into the cities of the North (and later the West) and thus began the Urbanization in America. The influx of people in each city brought chaos, yet lots of diversity with the masses. Ultimately, the history of the African-American people began to change and they became more socially, politically, and culturally prominent in American cities, changing their backgrounds and stories forever. Out of this migration came the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age—both incredibly influential periods of time in American society.

Sources: 

http://www.blackpast.org/aah/great-migration-1915-1960

http://www.american-historama.org/1913-1928-ww1-prohibition-era/ww1-great-migration.htm

http://www.inmotionaame.org/print.cfm;jsessionid=f8301459291491843025959?migration=8&bhcp=1

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long-lasting-legacy-great-migration-180960118/

4/6 Class Notes

Today in class, Dr. West encouraged to share our own experiences and influences that have shaped our relationship with race and racism in our in-class writing at the beginning of class. Dr. West mentioned the importance of this activity was to help us start to understand racial justice. We must start with the mind and “notice the water we swim in” which is often heavily influenced by our race. We should not feel the heavy burden of taking responsibility for our ancestors, rather be honest about our history and not gloss it over. She discussed the importance of balancing stories (the unfortunate details and the themes of love and resiliency of the human spirit) since there is an entanglement of goodness and brokenness.

Next, Morgan shared his historical context about the Underground Railroad. The name refers to the secret communication of “conductors”, “passengers”, and “stationmasters”. Encoded letters and gospel songs sung while working on the plantations would pass along messages. White and black abolitionists worked to free 100,000 slaves and instigate the Civil War. Some key figures in the operation were: Isaac Hopper, Harriet Tubman, Levi Coffin, and Frederick Douglas.

Dr. West shared a presentation that continued to give us context for the novel in a chronological fashion. Prior to 1650, indentured servitude was utilised before slavery. Freedom was an option if servants were baptized, and children were free when they were born. Starting in 1650 until 1700, slavery was race-based in the New World. Slaves were treated as economic commodities, mere pieces of property rather than humans. Violence and terror were used as control mechanisms. Families and groups were divided by language so as to suppress communication. Children were now born as slaves and women were raped to produce more slaves. Baptism did not lead to freedom any longer. 1700-1860 was defined by violent slavery. These conditions were reported. Class and color hierarchies were formed to further division. Laws passed in 1850 made it very difficult to remain free. Female slaves turned to infanticide to protect their children from the horrors of life as a slave. This period of time was challenged by abolitionists such as Frederick Douglas, David Walker, and Harriet Jacobs. Looking back on this time is crucial to avoid repeating it, yet glossing it over is even more dangerous than ignoring it. Dr. West shared the importance of a plantation museum that was created recently that does not romanticize plantation life. The Whitney dedicated a monument to writing the name of each slave they could trace. Statues were erected all over so visitors would not be able to ignore the fact that slavery took place there.

Next, we watched an interview with Yaa Gyasi, the author of Homegoing. She discussed How she wanted to write about the legacy of Ghana in America. She is from Ghana, but has lived in America. During a trip to Ghana in college,she realized how much she did not know about Ghana and the slave trade and wanted to make that information easier to get a hold of. She wanted her book to be fiction that was factually correct without preaching.

We ended class with an activity that had partners dive into a specific chapter of the novel to analyze the plot (what?), setting (where/when?), and character (who?) in that chapter. We will be creating a map to keep everything straight. We created a basic timeline of each sister’s descendents:

Effia (~1770s; Fante village/Cape Coast Castle)

Quey (~1779; takes over for father in the castle, then village)

James (~1824; British and Asante Wars, Fante, Kumasi, near the castle, and village)

Abena (~1860s; village and Kumasi)

Esi (~1770s; Asante and then Castle)

Ness (~1796; Alabama cotton plantations)

Kojo (~1850s-1860s; Baltimore)

The Underground Railroad

The time of American Slavery was a dark time in America. Most people around the south either owned slaves or were losing slaves. There was no in between. During the time period of 1810-1850, the south lost over 100,000 slaves. Although, most of the slaves that escaped were from the southern states that were closest to the North. Most slaves that were in the Deep South were not able to escape on the Underground Railroad because the distance between it and them was quite sizable. Some people may be wondering how you could lose one hundred thousand people. Well, the answer is The Underground Railroad. There is a common misconception about this so called “Railroad”, it is not a railroad at all. It got it’s name because it was during started right after the time of steam locomotive was invented. Along with the slaves route to freedom being called The Underground Railroad, came the railway terms for many different things. For example, the places the slaves would rest and eat were called “stations” and were run by “stationmaster’s”. The slaves themselves were called “passengers”, or “baggage” to go along with the railroad induced theme. There are many other ways that the Underground was commonly misconceptualized as a true railroad because of the way it was used to transport people and allow them to move unnoticed. The Underground Railroad did not have a true structure of people who were able to help move the slaves or house them, but there were plenty of volunteers to help with the process. Arguably the most famous “conductor or Engineer” on the Underground was Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was a former slave who escaped via the Underground Railroad and then made nineteen more trips into the south to escort over 300 slaves to freedom. Harriet was nicknamed “Moses” by an abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison because she reminded him of a modern day Moses.

The Underground railroad and its many different secrets were kept in the dark to almost everyone except for a few trustworthy people here and there. Not only are the people who were running the Underground putting themselves at risk, but the slaves are also risking a lot on trying to escape from the slave owners. If a person was found to have been aiding a runaway slave, they could spend up to 6 months in jail with other fines and consequences. A family of slaves knew they were going to be rescued when they got an encoded message that contained a song. They were told to wait for the song and that would be the signal to begin their escape. Most of the people who were “engineers” along the railroad knew only about a few surrounding stops, but not the whole route. This helped keep them out of trouble if anyone came looking around for information about the slaves. The people who came looking for the slaves, were often bounty hunters who just wanted to get the reward for not only the slaves, but for the people who were helping them escape. Many of the “conductors” who would transport the slaves to their next stop would have different routes they could take in case they were caught in a tough situation. Normally, when they arrived at their destination, the conductor would say, “i am a friend with friends” to let the new station know that they were about to receive new guests. Although the railroad was quite useful to those who knew about it, the slaves in the Deep South did not even know this escape existed until slavery was abolished.

The underground railroad also played a key role in the abolishment of slavery. During this time period, Abraham Lincoln was becoming the President of the United States and he was working on a way to end the feud between the North and the South. Yes, we had the Civil War in which the North won and finally ended slavery, but one of the main reasons that the North was so angry with the south was because of the slaves that the south had. When some of the slaves from the south escaped using the railroad, it made the north realize how bad everything was getting on the slave plantations. In modern day America, we have documents and laws protecting people from being enslaved like that again. Article four in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”. This law helps protect anyone from ever being put in this situation ever again. Another good Article that portrays this is Article one in the UDHR. It states, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”. This article also shows an example of the laws and documents that are in place to ensure that no one will ever be enslaved again.

In conclusion, the Underground Railroad was not a walk through the park to get through. Not only was it extremely dangerous but it was also pretty unconditional. Although, I do suppose it was better than shipping yourself to a White abolitionist like one slave did to escape his slave owner. Although, the time of slavery was a rough time, it helped bring about laws to stop that from ever happening again in America. The railroad played a big part in allowing accounts of slaves to be recorded and to help free slaves from their tough lives. In the end, The Underground Railroad saved many lives of many great people and it helped our country become a unified place that now protects each others human rights.

http://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/tag/underground-railroad/

Citations

• http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/22/the-perilous-lure-of-the-underground-railroad
• http://www.harriet-tubman.org/underground-railroad/
• http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/underground-railroad
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html
• http://www.historynet.com/underground-railroad

April 4 2017 Class Notes

Our class today on April 4, 2017 began with a quote from Things Fall Apart which Dr. West wanted to share.  The quote from Achebe is that “there is no story that is not true’ said Uchendu. ‘The world has no end and what is good among people is an abomination with others’” (Achebe 141.  Dr. West wanted us to consider this quote in context of what can be culturally appropriate in different societies, and what is universally true for all human beings. In this class specifically where we are discussing difficult subjects like the slave trade, it is important to keep these ideas in mind.

            Jordan and Zariah began the class and discussion about the slave trade with the discussion about the Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Sahara slave trades, discussing the and comparing the differences of Islamic slave trade and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.  Jordan began with the subject of slave trade.  The TS slave trade was conducted in the Swahili coast, where many slaves perished in route to the Arab world.  The slaves were viewed as lesser than the slave owners, much like the slaves in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.  Children were often killed at birth, and women were sexually exploited.  It is estimated that 140 million slaves were victims of the TS slave trades.  The spread of Islam was also a result from the TS slave trade, resulting in now Muslim majority nations in Africa such as Morocco and Egypt.  Another important factor that Jordan spoke about in her presentation was that slavery was not abolished until recently, until the early to mid 20^th century.  The TS slave trade had been in place since the 15^th century, and the effects of the trade have been lasting.  Zariah presented her information on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which is the slave trade discussed in the book Homegoing. She explained that three million slaves were brought to the new world in countries such as Haiti, Brazil, Jamaica and America.  She discussed the beginning of the Gold Coast, and how the treatmnts of different slaves in different castles varied among the gold coast.  As the need for slaves increased the more routes came to and from the Gold Coast, where they would cargo men, women and children.  Zariah explained the harsh conditions for the slave ships, including tight quarters, where 12% of the people would die from disease.  She explained the different methods of  how the slaves were auctioned off and sold throughout the states, which was an emotionally painful and scaring process.

            Dr. West spoke about her own personal experiences with living in the deep south of Jackson, Mississippi and why she speaks a lot about racial literature.  Being the descendants of probable slave owners, she shared her personal testimony living in an environment where racial inequality was very much the norm.  It was important as students to hear her experience since it allows us to understand where she is coming from and why she chose this path to study African-American literature.

            The rest of class discussed Homegoing and the context surrounding the story. Dr. West presents a PowerPoint presentation about racial discrimination against African Americans in the history of America and also the slave trade.  The importance to talk about the slave history is because we are continuing to recover from the affects of African American exploitation in American history.  We discussed conversational ideas like the invention of race, the four subcategories of Homo sapiens, and humankind’s diversity.  We also talked about terms such as ethnicity, and diaspora, the idea of dispersion of people from their original homeland by force. 

            At the end of class, we got into a circle and discussed how the class felt about the book.  Many people discussed how they liked the generational aspect, and the historical viewpoint of the entire family. They enjoyed the individual stories, and how the stories in them have  glance in the lives of the characters which are eventually cut off.

Homegoing: Open Reading Response

There is so much to write about in Homegoing that I'd like to leave it up to you what you want to focus on in your response. The parameters are that you need to choose a focused idea and illustrate it with particular passages from the text, but beyond that, it's up to you. I'd love to hear about what interests you most about the novel.

Historical Context: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade vs. Trans-Sahara (Islamic Slave Trade)

 

Comparing the Trans-Atlantic and Tran-Sahara Slave Trade

 A significant amount of attention is given to the Trans-Atlantic (TA) slave trade (America and European Nations, also known as the Triangular slave route). The Trans-Atlantic slave trade predominantly had a presence in western (Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin) and south-west (Cameroon, Angola, Namibia, South Africa), Africa. This was infamously known as the Golden Coast. However, the Eastern region of Africa also suffered from the slave trade. This is known as the Trans-Sahara (TS) or Islamic Slave Trade. The East Coast slave trade was known as the Swahili Coast. Unlike the slave trade in western Africa, the slave trade by Muslim countries in Eastern Africa had a presence at least two centuries prior to the American and European nations arriving. However, there was significant demand for slaves by Arab nations during the second half of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century (Vernet, Thomas). As a result, the Islamic Slave Trade began to gain attention by its western counterparts.

 The purpose of the slave trade for American and European nations consisted of economic factors and the conquest of territory (for raw resources). Due to America’s agrarian lifestyle (especially in the south), there was a high demand for labor. In addition, after the Berlin Conference, the European Nations and America (Allied Powers) decided to cut the African countries out of the process of negotiations, and they began to divide the land for economic and military benefits, and overall influence on the world stage. This tactic was known as imperialism. 

The purpose of the TS slave trade was similar to the TA slave trade. Specifically, the desire to spread ideology and gain a stronger military presence. However, Muslim countries had a higher demand for domestic slaves, nannies, and women to “serve” in the Harems and concubines (The Arab Muslim Slave Trade Of Africans). The TA slave trade required that two out of every three slaves were a man (due to the manual labor requirements) Whereas, the TS slave trade required two out of every slaves to be a woman. This lead to a significant amount of sexual exploitation. However, sexual exploitation was very present in both the East and West slave trades.

Furthermore, the childbirth rate was very high in the Muslim slave trade. However, many of the children were killed at birth. In America and European nations, many children were born into slavery, however, they were not killed. Yet, in many cases, they were inhumanly sold from their mothers. In addition, the Arab nations would often castrate the male slaves to limit the reproduction offspring. As a result, there is little lineage to African-Arab slaves and ambiguous data as to how many slaves were transported (Vernet, Thomas).

The mortality rate from the Swahili Coast slave trade is significantly higher than its counterpart, the Golden Coast. While it is estimated that approximately ten percent of slaves died in route to America, Brazil or England. The mortality rate from the Swahili Coast across the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea was estimated to be significantly higher. However, the exact numbers are ambiguous (Vernet, Thomas). This increased mortality rate is possibly due to the architecture of the ships. The Trans-Atlantic slave ships had more protection from the outdoor elements than the ships from the Islamic slave trade, which were vulnerable to the turbulence of the seas.

“It is largely unacknowledged that the structures of racism, slavery and oppression existed and flourished just as well in the Arab-Islamic world as they did in Europe and the Americas.”

 (Trans-Saharan Slave Trade and Racism in the Arab World)

   This is interesting primarily due to the fact that the slave and slave owner often looked alike. Many of the Arabs saw Africans as less than human, just as their American and European counterparts. This rhetoric in the Arab culture was integrated into the fourteenth century, before their European counterparts (Trans-Saharan Slave Trade and Racism in the Arab World). In fact, many of the kings in the African nations would sell slaves to Arab merchants. For example, this was seen in Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi how the king set up a deal with the English merchants on the Golden Coast, the same was done in East Africa on the Swahili Coast. The question of the role of race still plays an integral factor when examining the genesis of slavery in Africa, especially in the Islamic Slave Trade. Just as there are many differences in the TA and TS slave trade there are more ideological similarities.

To summarize, while there is a significant amount of information on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade there is very little on the Trans-Sahara slave trade, which was going on as early as the 1500s. This is primarily due to little evidence of the genealogy of African-Arabs (Vernet, Thomas) Additionally, while slavery was officially abolished in the United States in 1865 and England in 1833, the Islamic Slave Trade continued in multiple Arab nations for a longer duration. For example, Qatar did not abolish slavery until 1952, and Yemen in 1962 (Abolition of Slavery Timeline). Additionally, despite the abolishment of slavery, the presence of slavery, especially in the form of sex trafficking is still very much present in Eastern Africa and the Middle East. In Northern Uganda, 20,000 children were captured by the Lord Resistance Army to serve as soldiers and sex slaves in the past twenty years (Human Rights No Slavery).

In class, we began the semester examining the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In Article 4, it states that “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms” (Human Rights No Slavery).  Regardless of the factors that play a role into the enslavement and abuse of a people group, slavery is a tragic stain on the human condition, thus making it a universal problem that invokes a universal response.

Works Cited:

Admin. "The Arab Muslim Slave Trade Of Africans, The Untold Story." Originalpeople.org. Original People, 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Abolition of Slavery Timeline." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 01 Apr. 2017. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

"Human Rights No Slavery: UN Universal Declaration Violations & Abuse, Torture & Slavery,." United for Human Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

"Introductory Maps." Introductory Maps. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.http://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/intro-maps

Shahada, Alik. "ARAB SLAVE TRADE | Definitive History of the Arab Slave Trade in Africa." History of the Arab Slave Trade in Africa. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

                                                

"Trans-Saharan Slave Trade and Racism in the Arab World." Ballandalus. WordPress, 19 Apr. 2015. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

Vernet, Thomas. "East African Travelers and Traders in the Indian Ocean: Swahili Ships, Swahili Mobilities Ca. 1500â 1800." Trade, Circulation, and Flow in the Indian Ocean World (2015): 167-202. Academia.edu. Web. 2 Apr. 2017.