Speaker 1: And now go my mic back.
Speaker 2: You're like that, you can strike waters from headquarters behind him.
Speaker 1: And then if you're just tuning in the civic zacher,
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Ramses Jock.
Speaker 3: He is Ramses joh, I am q Ward. You are
Speaker 3: listening to civic cipher.
Speaker 1: And uh, yeah, We've got a lot fore to stick
Speaker 1: around for, including the Willie Lynch Letter. For those that
Speaker 1: are unfamiliar, there is a letter that has existed for
Speaker 1: all of my adult life in the consciousness of lots
Speaker 1: of black people. You may have heard it much longer
Speaker 1: than that sure shirt, and you may have heard it
Speaker 1: in hip hop songs. You may have heard it referred
Speaker 1: to here and there, and certainly you've heard us refer
Speaker 1: to it on this show. Well, we never took the
Speaker 1: time to actually break down what it is, and of
Speaker 1: course I can't get into the whole thing, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to share some key points with you to just
Speaker 1: kind of make that breathe a little bit. And then,
Speaker 1: of course, for our way black History fact, we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about American slavery again compared to slavery elsewhere
Speaker 1: in the world. So a lot to stick around for.
Speaker 1: First and foremost, let's discuss be Aba. How to become
Speaker 1: a better Ally Baba. This Weeek's Baba sponsored by Major Threads,
Speaker 1: where high fashion meets timeless men'swear. Visit majorthreads dot com
Speaker 1: to find out more. So what we want you to
Speaker 1: do to become a better ally is watch a movie?
Speaker 1: A movie, A movie, a movie Man. The movie is
Speaker 1: called is That Black Enough for You? On Netflix? Is
Speaker 1: that Black Enough for You? I'll read a bit from
Speaker 1: celebrated writer and film historian Elvis Mitchell. Is That Black
Speaker 1: Enough for You? As both the documentary and deeply personal essay,
Speaker 1: the film examines the crack and power of cinema from
Speaker 1: a perspective often overlooked, the African American contribution to films
Speaker 1: released from the landmark era of the seventies. It's a
Speaker 1: deep dive into the impact that point of view on
Speaker 1: movies as well as popular culture. A love letter to film,
Speaker 1: it poses questions they've never been asked, let alone answered.
Speaker 1: Crucial artistic voices including director Charles Burnette, Samuel L. Jackson,
Speaker 1: will Be go Over, Laurence Fishburns and Dea and others.
Speaker 1: Artists offer their distinctive prism on the creators and films
Speaker 1: that dazzled and inspired, providing insight into the history of
Speaker 1: black representation going back to the earliest days of cinema
Speaker 1: and the cultural impact of witnessing unapologetic blackness. Had a
Speaker 1: chance to watch that.
Speaker 3: Movie, I still need to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I know I kind of surprised you with this,
Speaker 1: but I watched that movie and I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, we needed to share it with people. It's
Speaker 1: a great film. It's not nearly as heavy as some
Speaker 1: of the other things we talk about on the show,
Speaker 1: so you know, you're welcome to sit and enjoy it
Speaker 1: with other folks. It's not a huge tear jerk or
Speaker 1: anything like that, but it's super informative and it gives
Speaker 1: you some perspective on a part of a facet of
Speaker 1: society that is very important. You don't even realize how
Speaker 1: important it is until you have someone like this tell
Speaker 1: you how important it is to be represented in cinema
Speaker 1: and see the impact, the cultural impact and the ripple effect.
Speaker 1: And once again, everything kind of starts off black and
Speaker 1: then gets repackaged for the masses. So again, is that
Speaker 1: black enough for you? On Netflix? Now? The Willie Lynch Letter,
Speaker 1: let me give you some background on Willy Lynch. So
Speaker 1: there is this letter that this gentleman allegedly I have
Speaker 1: to say that this is important. It's largely been suggested
Speaker 1: that the letter is not a first hand account, it's
Speaker 1: not an original letter from an original person. This has
Speaker 1: largely been the consensus in so far as we know
Speaker 1: from the community scientific literary community that researches these. So
Speaker 1: we have to assume this is a work of fiction.
Speaker 1: With that said, is exceptionally profound, and we still recognize
Speaker 1: the truths written in this work of fiction.
Speaker 3: Okay, if that be the case, we're not saying it's
Speaker 3: absolutely fiction either.
Speaker 1: Thank you. But you know, we need to preserve our
Speaker 1: journalistic integrity here, so we're not going to gloss over that.
Speaker 1: As Q mentioned. So, the WILLI Lynch letter basically is
Speaker 1: Willy Lynch's a support supposedly in an old white man
Speaker 1: who is a seasoned slaver and teaches other slavers, slaveholders,
Speaker 1: and slave masters the best way to get orderly production
Speaker 1: from their slaves without having to perpetually, perpetually, yes, without
Speaker 1: having to lynch all of them, you know, Because there's
Speaker 1: a there's a statement that I'm not sure if I
Speaker 1: put in a notes here, but I know it to
Speaker 1: be true just from being familiar with this letter. He
Speaker 1: says effectually that human beings. Oh, I'm sure he doesn't
Speaker 1: refer to black people as human beings. But we have
Speaker 1: a natural tendency to seek our customary freedom. So our
Speaker 1: natural state is not to be captured and you know,
Speaker 1: imprisoned or enslaved. Our natural state is to be free.
Speaker 1: Compares us a lot to horses. Us by us, I
Speaker 1: mean black people. Now, before I get into this any further,
Speaker 1: please take a moment. It might take you thirty minutes,
Speaker 1: maybe thirty forty five minutes to read through the whole thing.
Speaker 1: It will change your life. Read it once a year
Speaker 1: on Juneteenth, if nothing else, Okay, just to remind you
Speaker 1: of the legacy that slavery can have. I know, I know,
Speaker 1: we don't like talking about slavery either. I know you
Speaker 1: don't like hearing about it. We don't like talking about it.
Speaker 1: But this kind of helps us bring it full circle.
Speaker 1: So you understand why it's important that we talk about it,
Speaker 1: Why it's important that we address it, Why it's important
Speaker 1: that we talk about things like reparations, Why it's important
Speaker 1: we talk about things like systemic racism, and what it
Speaker 1: is that we need to move forward as a people
Speaker 1: so that we're not constantly on the bottom of the
Speaker 1: list for healthcare outcomes, and on the bottom of the
Speaker 1: list for income inequality, and on the bottom of the
Speaker 1: list for police brutality, and the injustices and the criminal
Speaker 1: injustice system, and so forth and so on. We don't
Speaker 1: want to be there. It's not our natural state. We
Speaker 1: don't celebrate being there. We need to fix it, but
Speaker 1: we need to have these important conversations. I'll continue, all right,
Speaker 1: So again, Willie Lench, you writes this letter, and I
Speaker 1: guess delivers a speech to other slaveholders in the South,
Speaker 1: teaching them how to get as you mentioned, perpetual servitude
Speaker 1: out of black people. And I want you to listen
Speaker 1: to this letter for the brilliance of this because it
Speaker 1: makes sense. That's why it's in the I believe it's
Speaker 1: in the Library of Congress, even though they acknowledge it's
Speaker 1: a work of fiction, or they suggested may be a
Speaker 1: work of fiction. That's probably why I were to say
Speaker 1: that they still keep it on the archives as an
Speaker 1: important document that is exceptionally relative to relevant, sorry to
Speaker 1: American history. So I'll read through it and will pop
Speaker 1: back and forth me in UQ.
Speaker 3: That works.
Speaker 1: So he starts saying, I have a full proof method
Speaker 1: of controlling your black slaves. I guarantee every one of
Speaker 1: you that if installed correctly, it will control the slaves
Speaker 1: for at least three hundred years.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: In the actual letter, he says three hundred years, if
Speaker 1: not forever. Says on the top of my list is age,
Speaker 1: but it is only there because it starts with A.
Speaker 1: The second is color or shade. There is intelligence, sex,
Speaker 1: size of plantations, and status on plantations, attitude of owners,
Speaker 1: whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill,
Speaker 1: east west, north south, have fine hair, coarse hair, or
Speaker 1: as tall or short. Now that you have a list
Speaker 1: of differences, I shall give you an outline of action.
Speaker 1: But before that I shall assume sorry. I shall assure
Speaker 1: you that distrust is stronger than trust, and envy is
Speaker 1: stronger than adulation, respect or admiration. So this letter basically
Speaker 1: starts off with him saying that we need to separate
Speaker 1: these people, We need to create a class system, that
Speaker 1: this type of hair is better than that type of hair,
Speaker 1: this type of skin is better than this type of
Speaker 1: status on a plantation is better than that type of status,
Speaker 1: you know, to create nb, to create division and to
Speaker 1: separate these folks who are all slaves, but to basically,
Speaker 1: what is it stratifying? Is that the word I'm looking for?
Speaker 3: I'm not certain, but it's just listening to this. It's
Speaker 3: such a cruel and evil genius, that's the thing about it.
Speaker 3: And it doesn't just apply to slaves. Applies to human
Speaker 3: It has since then and seems that it forever will
Speaker 3: apply to all classes of human beings. The masses, the majority,
Speaker 3: divide them and here are the ways that you can
Speaker 3: do that. And we've read this before, so we kind
Speaker 3: of see where this is going before our listeners keep listening. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it gets heavy, all right, so let me see where was.
Speaker 1: I don't forget. You must pitch the old black male
Speaker 1: versus the young blackmail, and the young Blackmail against the
Speaker 1: old blackmail. We'll take a moment right here. For those
Speaker 1: of you who've watched Django Unchained, it's a Quentin Tarantino
Speaker 1: film came out some years back. Some of this stuff
Speaker 1: is on full display. Okay, all right?
Speaker 3: And that film is it satirical but based on some truth?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly. That's kind of the similar approach
Speaker 1: that people have to this letter, where it's you know,
Speaker 1: these things didn't happen, but this type of stuff happened.
Speaker 1: These concepts were pulled from other places and are verified
Speaker 1: in other parts of society. They're just compiled in this
Speaker 1: and this is kind of a reader's digest version of slavery,
Speaker 1: you know, or how to make a slave, which is
Speaker 1: the title of the letter. All right, you must use
Speaker 1: the dark skinned slaves versus the light skinned slaves, and
Speaker 1: the light skinned slaves versus the dark skinned slaves. Que
Speaker 1: that's sound familiar, Yeah, oh yeah, all right. You must
Speaker 1: use the female versus the male, and the male versus
Speaker 1: the female. You must also have your white servants and
Speaker 1: overseers distrust all blacks. It's necessary that your slaves trust
Speaker 1: and depend on us. They must love, respect, and trust
Speaker 1: only us. Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control.
Speaker 1: Use them, have your wives and children, use them, never
Speaker 1: miss an opportunity. If used intensely for one year, the
Speaker 1: slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful of each other. All right,
Speaker 1: let us make a slave. What do we need? First
Speaker 1: of all, we need a black I wish I could
Speaker 1: say this to you, but the FCC is listening, So
Speaker 1: we'll say a black inward man, a pregnant inWORD woman,
Speaker 1: and her baby inWORD boy. Second, we will use the
Speaker 1: same basic principles that we use in breaking a horse,
Speaker 1: combined with some more sustaining factors. What we do with
Speaker 1: horses is that we break them from one form of
Speaker 1: life to another. That is, we reduce them from their
Speaker 1: natural state and nature. Whereas nature provides them with the
Speaker 1: natural capacity to take care of their offspring, we break
Speaker 1: that natural string of independence from them and thereby create
Speaker 1: a dependency status so that we may be able to
Speaker 1: get from them useful production for our business and pleasure.
Speaker 1: Now I cut that out of the middle of a paragraph.
Speaker 1: That's a deep one. You know, we gotta again. This
Speaker 1: is the reader's digest, of the reader's digest. But please
Speaker 1: read this. I'm just giving you some some key points here.
Speaker 1: But as you know, you know he's he's suggesting that
Speaker 1: we need to change the family dynamic. You'll you'll I'll
Speaker 1: make that point a little bit further as I continue
Speaker 1: to read, or rather he'll make the point. You'll hear
Speaker 1: me illustrate that on his behalf, and a lot of
Speaker 1: things may come together for you. You know, when you
Speaker 1: think of like the angry black mama trope, you know,
Speaker 1: the strong black woman trope, you know that is a
Speaker 1: function of that that it was born out of necessity.
Speaker 1: You'll you'll see in just a minute, this is why
Speaker 1: that is a character in our society where we all
Speaker 1: know this is not a woman that you want to
Speaker 1: have a problem with versus, you know, a black man. Now,
Speaker 1: there is such thing as an angry black man. But
Speaker 1: in your mind, which one do you think you can
Speaker 1: appeal to more? Probably the black man. You don't want
Speaker 1: to win an angry black woman. I don't want to
Speaker 1: wit an angry black woman. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I know what that person has gone through and what
Speaker 1: that person is trying to protect. So I'll continue, all right,
Speaker 1: here's another passage. Accordingly, both a wild horse and a
Speaker 1: wild or nature natural sorry inWORD, is dangerous even if captured,
Speaker 1: for they will have the tendency to seek their customary freedom,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, and in doing so might kill you
Speaker 1: in your sleep. So what is he saying here? Be
Speaker 1: afraid of these black people because what we're doing to
Speaker 1: them is wrong. It is not natural for them, and
Speaker 1: they may kill you in their attempts to return to
Speaker 1: their natural state, which is that of being free. So
Speaker 1: what does that do? That not only creates division within
Speaker 1: the ranks of black people in the society, but it
Speaker 1: also creates a further divide, and it kind of compromises
Speaker 1: your human capacity to empathize. You know, they'll kill you
Speaker 1: if they get the chance. Who wants to be friends
Speaker 1: with someone who might kill them? Now, let's keep them
Speaker 1: over there. You know, this is the same thing that
Speaker 1: happens when we think of the you know, the prison
Speaker 1: industrial complex. You know, you've got to bear in mind
Speaker 1: that there are absolutely bad people in this world, and
Speaker 1: there are good people who end up in the criminal
Speaker 1: justice system because of technicalities, because they're political prisoners, because
Speaker 1: of whatever quotas that governments have to maintain in order
Speaker 1: to satisfy the privatized prison industrial complex. And so it's
Speaker 1: important that you do not feel empathy for those people
Speaker 1: who are subjected to human rights vilization violations. This is
Speaker 1: something that's true in a lot of areas in society,
Speaker 1: not just with black and brown people, not just with prisons.
Speaker 1: But you know, stay woke, all right, I'll continue. Therefore,
Speaker 1: if you break the female mother, she will break the
Speaker 1: offspring in its early years of development, and when the
Speaker 1: offspring is old enough to work, she will deliver it
Speaker 1: up to you for her normal female protective tendencies will
Speaker 1: have been lost in the original breaking process. For example,
Speaker 1: take the case of the wild stud horse, a female
Speaker 1: horse and an already infant horse, and compare the breaking
Speaker 1: process with two captured inward males in their natural state,
Speaker 1: a pregnant inward woman with her infant offspring. Now it's
Speaker 1: about to get heavy, okay, so buckle up, take the
Speaker 1: stud or sorry, take the stud horse, break him for
Speaker 1: limited containment. Completely break the female horse until she becomes
Speaker 1: very gentle. Whereas you or anybody can ride her in comfort,
Speaker 1: I don't love that.
Speaker 3: Can you explain what you or anybody can ride her
Speaker 3: in comfort means?
Speaker 1: In this content? I can absolutely do it. I think
Speaker 1: that you're asking the question answers it, but I will
Speaker 1: kind of paint a little bit more of that picture.
Speaker 1: You or anybody can ride her in comfort means that
Speaker 1: you will not get any pushback, and that she now
Speaker 1: acknowledges that this is a life and death decision, and
Speaker 1: she's choosing life, and what comes with it is this.
Speaker 3: And we're no longer talking about the horse.
Speaker 1: And I will make that point abundantly clear with this
Speaker 1: next paragraph. When it comes to breaking the uncivilized inward,
Speaker 1: use the same process, but vary the degree and step
Speaker 1: up the pressure so as to do a complete reversal
Speaker 1: of the mind loss for a second ahead. When it
Speaker 1: comes to breaking a person, step up the degree of pressure.
Speaker 1: So take what you would do to a horse, and
Speaker 1: increase the amount of pressure that you apply him. I
Speaker 1: reading that correct, proceed Take the meanest and most restless inward,
Speaker 1: strip him of his clothes in front of the remaining
Speaker 1: male inwards, the female and the inward infant, tar and
Speaker 1: feather him. Tie each leg to a different horse, faced
Speaker 1: in opposite directions, set him a fire, and beat both
Speaker 1: horses to pull him apart in front of the remaining inward.
Speaker 1: The next step is to take a bull whip and
Speaker 1: whip the remaining inward mail to the point of death
Speaker 1: in front of the female and the infant. Don't kill him,
Speaker 1: but put the fear of God in him, for he
Speaker 1: can be useful for future breeding. So what this does,
Speaker 1: and please read this for yourself. That was a graphic
Speaker 1: point in this letter. Again, I'll remind you that what
Speaker 1: I read to you was actually what this says, and
Speaker 1: actually what happened. You know, you tar and feathered, if
Speaker 1: you know anything about that, that is painful by itself. Okay,
Speaker 1: It burns your skin, and then they throw feathers on you,
Speaker 1: just as like mocking you. They stick to you, can't
Speaker 1: get it off, you know that sort of thing. Then
Speaker 1: they tie you to horses, set you on fire, and
Speaker 1: then whip the horses so the horses run in opposite directions.
Speaker 1: And here's her body apart. This happens in full view
Speaker 1: of a woman who is pregnant and has a baby already. Okay,
Speaker 1: So the idea here is that she will see that happen,
Speaker 1: realize that death is on the menu. Then she will
Speaker 1: see you grab a whip and beat the other black
Speaker 1: male slave who put it kindly to the point of death,
Speaker 1: but you don't kill him, and then she will be
Speaker 1: left frozen in fear. She will realize that she is helpless.
Speaker 1: Her protector has now been destroyed in front of her.
Speaker 1: And the reason that it's important that she witnesses it
Speaker 1: is so that she will then raise her children in
Speaker 1: reversed roles because if nothing happens to her, she feels like, Okay,
Speaker 1: let me make sure that these people do not trip.
Speaker 1: I have a little boy. I do not want to
Speaker 1: see my boy get ripped apart in front of me.
Speaker 1: That is that type of trauma.
Speaker 3: You know. And moreover, if I have a little girl.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And if I have a little girl, I
Speaker 1: need to make sure that the little girl knows that
Speaker 1: she needs to be the person to uh interact with
Speaker 1: these slave masters.
Speaker 3: In whichever may in whichever way would make them less violent.
Speaker 1: Now, the trauma of this type of thing, you know,
Speaker 1: You've seen slaves get whipped, You've seen slaves get killed,
Speaker 1: hung from trees, all this sort of stuff. You may
Speaker 1: not know that oftentimes when there was like a public
Speaker 1: sorry public may not be the right word, but widely
Speaker 1: shared punishment of a slave, that the slaves, the rest
Speaker 1: of the slaves had to witness it. They kept everybody
Speaker 1: on the same page. This what happened to you if
Speaker 1: you break break the eggs that you were supposed to
Speaker 1: be making for breakfast, or if you weren't quick enough
Speaker 1: and washing the master's clothes or whatever, you know, that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff. So you get whipped in front of
Speaker 1: everyone else, they see the blood, the flesh chunks, you know,
Speaker 1: getting whipped off your back, and everyone else would bear
Speaker 1: witness to that trauma. It would then traumatize them and
Speaker 1: keep them frozen in fear. Right, So this is kind
Speaker 1: of the result of that, you know. But it starts
Speaker 1: with showing the black woman what can happen to the
Speaker 1: black men, and then you raise again, you raise your
Speaker 1: children in reverse roles. You raise the woman to be
Speaker 1: the strong one, the one to negotiate, the one to appeal,
Speaker 1: the one, you know, whatever, all these things. You raise
Speaker 1: the man, your male child, rather to be submissive, to
Speaker 1: be you know, you don't want to have any problems
Speaker 1: with these people. Let's, you know, keep you in the
Speaker 1: shadows and make sure you get to work and you work,
Speaker 1: and then when your work is done, then you know whatever,
Speaker 1: we can have our party on Sunday during church or whatever.
Speaker 3: And when he says reverse roles, I don't want people
Speaker 3: to the impression that you're raising the daughters to be strong,
Speaker 3: because you're raising them to be submissive as well. You're
Speaker 3: just raising them to be the ones that interact most right.
Speaker 1: That's why there's less.
Speaker 3: Likely to receive the amount of rage and physical abuse
Speaker 3: that your son will.
Speaker 1: So I'll read a little bit more from this to
Speaker 1: make that point that you just suggest. There we skip
Speaker 1: down and says test her in every way, because she
Speaker 1: is the most important factor for good economics. If she
Speaker 1: shows any sign of resistance and submitting completely to your will,
Speaker 1: do not hesitate to use the bull whip on her
Speaker 1: to extract the last bit of B word resistance out
Speaker 1: of her. Take care not to kill her, for in
Speaker 1: doing so, you spoil good economics. When in complete submission,
Speaker 1: she will train her offspring in the early years to
Speaker 1: submit to labor when they become of age. So this
Speaker 1: is about as much as we can cover from this letter,
Speaker 1: and it kind of shows you. Gives you a glimpse
Speaker 1: into the mentality of a slaver right, of a slaveholder,
Speaker 1: of a slave master, which is not something you often get.
Speaker 3: Can you read that last line again, please.
Speaker 1: When in complete submission, she will train her offspring in
Speaker 1: the early years to submit to labor when they become
Speaker 1: of age.
Speaker 3: What a system to put in place.
Speaker 1: And I want to go back to what you said,
Speaker 1: which is that the system was designed to be perpetual.
Speaker 1: So the family dynamic has been altered using a cemented
Speaker 1: by trauma that is now passed passed on, And even
Speaker 1: if you don't feel the actual trauma or recall the
Speaker 1: witnessing it, you know, the effects of that trauma are
Speaker 1: still very president.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, after a generation, this version of it isn't
Speaker 3: even as necessary anymore. Right.
Speaker 1: The parents are doing that teaching for you, for you,
Speaker 1: and that's their natural state at that point. So unless
Speaker 1: something comes along to resets it, to reset it, that's
Speaker 1: just kind of what it is. But fortunately we're working
Speaker 1: on that too. Thank if you for listening. It was
Speaker 1: important that you know that we've got to move on.
Speaker 1: So now it's time for the Wave Black History Fact,
Speaker 1: which is a little bit more of the same. Today's
Speaker 1: Way Black History Fact sponsored by hip Hop Weekly magazine
Speaker 1: All the latest in hip hop culture, is available at
Speaker 1: hip Hopweekly dot com. Today's Way Black History Fact comes
Speaker 1: from the Guilder Lehrmann Institute of American History. In Today's
Speaker 1: passage was written by Stephen Mintz. The title is Historical
Speaker 1: context American Slavery in Comparative Perspective. All right, I'll start
Speaker 1: of the ten to sixteen million Africans who survived the
Speaker 1: voyage to the New World, over one third landed in Brazil.
Speaker 1: Between sixty and seventy percent ended up in Brazil or
Speaker 1: the sugar colonies of the Caribbean. Only six percent arrived
Speaker 1: in what is now the United States. Yet by eighteen sixty,
Speaker 1: approximately two thirds of all New World slaves lived in
Speaker 1: the American South. For a long time, it was widely
Speaker 1: assumed that Southern slavery was harsher and cooler than slavery
Speaker 1: in Latin America, where the Catholic Church insisted that slaves
Speaker 1: had a right to marry, to seek relief from a
Speaker 1: cruel master, and to purchase their freedom. Spanish and Portuguese
Speaker 1: colonists were thought to be less tainted by racial prejudice
Speaker 1: than North Americans, and Latin American slavery was believed to
Speaker 1: be less subject to the pressure pressures of a competitive
Speaker 1: capitalist economy. Remember in the section before, you know you
Speaker 1: don't want to ruin sound economics, like we're not human beings.
Speaker 1: You know, we talked about the slave trade. You know,
Speaker 1: once you introduce the economics. Now, rather than warring tribes
Speaker 1: warring for the sake of whatever their disagreements are or
Speaker 1: a land territory resources. They're warring just because they need
Speaker 1: to get more slaves so that they can It's like
Speaker 1: an arms race anyway, I'll continue in practice, Neither the
Speaker 1: church nor the courts offered much protection to Latin American slaves.
Speaker 1: Access to freedom was greater in Latin America, but in
Speaker 1: many cases masters freed sick, elderly, crippled, or simply unneeded
Speaker 1: slaves in order to relieve themselves of financial responsibilities. Death
Speaker 1: rates sorry death rates among slaves in the Caribbean were
Speaker 1: one third higher than in the South, and suicide appears
Speaker 1: to have been much more common. Unlike slaves in the South, West,
Speaker 1: Indian slaves were expected to produce their own food in
Speaker 1: their free time and care for the elderly and the infirm.
Speaker 1: The largest difference between slavery and in the South and
Speaker 1: in Latin America was demographic. The slave population in Brazil
Speaker 1: and the West Indies had a lower proportion of female slaves,
Speaker 1: a much lower birth rate, and higher proportion of recent
Speaker 1: arrivals from Africa. In striking contrast, Southern slaves had an
Speaker 1: equal sex ratio, a high birth rate, and a predominantly
Speaker 1: African born population.
Speaker 3: A predominantly American born population.
Speaker 1: Sorry, that's exactly what I'm a predominantly American born population.
Speaker 1: Thank you for catching that one. Slavery in the United
Speaker 1: States was especially distinctive in the ability to the ability
Speaker 1: of the slave population to increase its numbers by natural reproduction.
Speaker 1: In the Caribbean, Dutch, Guyana, and Brazil, the slave death
Speaker 1: rate was so high and the birth rates so low
Speaker 1: that slaves could not sustain their population without imports from Africa.
Speaker 1: The average number of children born to an early nineteenth
Speaker 1: century Southern slave woman was nine point two, twice as
Speaker 1: many as in the West Indies. You're starting to kind
Speaker 1: of see how it was different even from Latin America.
Speaker 1: The slavery in the US was different. And so the
Speaker 1: folks who tried to hide behind the fact that slavery
Speaker 1: who's practiced around the world are ignoring the fact that
Speaker 1: the legacy of the slavery that was practiced here is
Speaker 1: a different beast. Slavery sucks all around the world, had
Speaker 1: no positive impact on anybody who wasn't white or you
Speaker 1: know whatever. But yeah, anyway, I continue and the West
Speaker 1: Indies slaves constituted eighty to ninety percent of the population,
Speaker 1: while in the South only about a third of the
Speaker 1: population was enslaved. Plantation size also differed widely, and the
Speaker 1: Caribbean slaves were held on much larger units, with many
Speaker 1: plantations holding one hundred and fifty slaves or more. In
Speaker 1: the American South, in contrast, only one slaveholder held as
Speaker 1: many as a thousand slaves, and just one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty five had over two hundred and fifty slaves. Half
Speaker 1: of all slaves in the United States worked on units
Speaker 1: of twenty or fewer slaves. Three quarters had fewer than fifty.
Speaker 1: These demographic differences had important social implications. In the American South,
Speaker 1: slaveholders lived on their plantations and slaves dealt with their
Speaker 1: owners regularly. Most planters placed plantation management, supply, purchasing, and
Speaker 1: the supervision in the hands of black drivers and foremen,
Speaker 1: and at least two thirds of all slaves worked under
Speaker 1: the supervision of black drivers. Absentee ownership was far more
Speaker 1: common in the webs when the West Indies, where planters
Speaker 1: relied heavily on paid managers and on a distinct class
Speaker 1: of free blacks and lattos to serve as intermediaries with
Speaker 1: the slave population. Another important difference between Latin America and
Speaker 1: the United States involved conceptions of race, and Spanish and
Speaker 1: Portuguese America, an intricate system of racial classification emerged. Compared
Speaker 1: with the British and French, the Spanish and Portuguese were
Speaker 1: much more tolerant of racial mixing, an attitude encouraged by
Speaker 1: the shortage by a shortage of European women, and recognized
Speaker 1: a wide range of racial gradiations, including black, mestizo, quadroon,
Speaker 1: and octoroon. Don't ever use those words. The American South,
Speaker 1: in contrast, adopted a two category system of race, in
Speaker 1: which any person with a black mother was automatically considered
Speaker 1: to be black. So again, there's a lot more reading
Speaker 1: that you can do there one more time. It's at
Speaker 1: the Gilder Lehmann Institute of American History. This passage was
Speaker 1: written by Stephen Mintz and the title is Historical Context,
Speaker 1: American Slavery and Comparative Perspective.
Speaker 3: And that last thing was so that more people could
Speaker 3: be considered black, so that more people could be slaves.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And I think that again it's important
Speaker 1: that today's episodes were kind of winding down and given
Speaker 1: our last thoughts, it's important to know really what slavery was,
Speaker 1: how it was different here, and what the legacy of
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 3: And these were cliff notes. Another read Digest versus. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you so much more reading and information to do with
Speaker 3: regards to the differences of slavery on this continent right
Speaker 3: than anywhere else in the world, than anywhere else in
Speaker 3: the world history.
Speaker 1: And I recognize that you, our listener, are probably a
Speaker 1: kind human being, a human being who probably wants to
Speaker 1: do the right thing, maybe is searching for what the
Speaker 1: right thing is. And me and Q are very different.
Speaker 1: You know, we came up in a faith tradition. This
Speaker 1: was to in our house, which oftentimes was the most educated,
Speaker 1: you know, most the leader in the black communities, oftentimes
Speaker 1: the minister, preacher, religious figure, and we got opportunities to
Speaker 1: learn this history. So we know this, and we recognize
Speaker 1: that you don't. And you know, we have a show,
Speaker 1: we have a couple of microphones and some satellite dishes
Speaker 1: around the country. So recognizing that you may never have
Speaker 1: these conversations, these are things that may never make their
Speaker 1: way into your world, These passages may have otherwise never
Speaker 1: shaped your worldview. We felt it was important to share
Speaker 1: it with you today and we appreciate you listening. We
Speaker 1: hope that you take this and digest it. Obviously, this
Speaker 1: is available as a podcast, so you can download it
Speaker 1: and run it back again, or of course you can
Speaker 1: look everything up yourself, but that's going to do it
Speaker 1: for us today on Civic Cipher. Once again, I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsy's job.
Speaker 3: He is Ramses jaw I am Qward and you have
Speaker 3: listened to another heavy episode, another heavy show with your
Speaker 3: friends at Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: This indeed, today's show is produced by our producer, Maggie b.
Speaker 1: Noen and please hit the website civiccipher dot com submit
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Speaker 3: I am Qward on all social platforms.
Speaker 1: Then do and of course you can download this and
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Speaker 1: game in your life. We all need it and we
Speaker 1: all can use it and hopefully we're providing you just
Speaker 1: that for you until next week.
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