![]() I just read a great new book: “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America,” by Clint Smith. Smith’s main point is that people, northerners and southerners, are now learning things about slavery they were not told in school -- the depths of depravity by which a female slave could be labelled a “good breeder” by her owners, and other aspects of good old-fashioned American enterprise. Many people in this country still see slavery through a sentimental haze: slaves were better off here than they would have been in Africa; they were handled benevolently at the plantations. You know, good people on all sides. Nowadays mayors and school boards and governors are trying to forbid controversial or academic critiques of America. (Some of these moronic governors are aiding Covid by not mandating vaccinations and masks at work and school.) Smith’s book about slavery lies is a companion to the so-called “Big Lie” about alleged election fraud and the merry tourists who flocked to the Capitol last Jan. 6. For all the chicanery and cowardice in high places, the worst parts of slavery are impossible to hide as Smith makes his rounds. As a one-time news reporter, I respect his shoe-leather approach -- visiting hot spots of the slave trade. A staff writer for the Atlantic – and a poet – Smith interviewed tour guides and museum directors as well as tourists, plus participants in Confederate commemorations. The new cadre of historians and guides make it clear that that people, white people, mostly male, not only performed violent deeds but also knew what was being done, mostly in rural and southern states. Smith begins where, in a sense, the country began – Thomas Jefferson’s plantation, where he "owned" slaves while preparing to write the Declaration of Independence. While he put pen to paper, his white staff put whips to the backs of Black slaves. Background music for Jefferson. At Monticello, Smith chats with two visitors -- white, Fox-watching, Republican-leaning women, who hear a guide talk about Jefferson’s long association with a female slave. Speaking to Smith, who is Black, the two women seem aghast. Smith quotes one of them: “’Here he uses all of these people and then he marries a lady and then they have children,’ she said, letting out a heavy sigh. (A reference to Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman, who bore at least six of Jefferson’s children. The two were never married.) ‘Jefferson is not the man I thought he was.’” That is the theme of the book – many Americans in position of responsibility and knowledge deliberately deflected what was known about slavery. And not just in the South. I know somebody who did college research on commerce in New England, and never came across the mention of slaves in Yankee states. Then again, in a 2020 farewell to the great John Thompson, I praised a recent book about Frederick Douglass and noted that in all my school years in New York (with many history electives in college), I never heard the name "Frederick Douglass." (To be clear, I did know his name, just not from school. Our parents were part of a Black/white discussion group, and they extolled heroes like Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson, and all of the children have learned from our parents.) Smith points out that the Dutch and English, who pushed out the Lenape natives, welcomed slaves on the oyster-laden shores of lower Manhattan, and used them for labor, and shipped thousands to farms and other towns. New York was the second largest entry port, distributing slaves culled from Africa. Those who died were tossed, unmarked, into a pit near Wall Street. One chapter in this book about slavery jarred me because I did not see it coming – a visit to the dreaded Angola Prison in Louisiana. Smith explains his visit to Angola by pointing out that Black prisoners worked for free or for pennies, at the penal equivalent of plantations. In fact, Angola had a big house, where the warden and his family were served by trusted Black prisoners. Prisons as plantations: As it happens, I have heard the metallic clank of the heavy door slammed behind me in three different prisons – and all three stories involved Black men. (See the links below.) Smith’s itinerary includes: Monticello Plantation, Va.; the Whitney Plantation, La.; Angola Prison, La.. Blandford Cemetery, Va., Galveston Island, Tex, where emancipation was belatedly revealed to Blacks, leading to the recent proclamation of a new national holiday -- Juneteenth; New York City; and Gorée Island, Senegal, the legendary focus for the African slave trade. In a moving Epilogue, Smith interviews his own elders for stories of prejudice, slavery and downright brutality they experienced or heard from their own elders. Clint Smith’s book makes it clear that white America knew more about slavery than it discussed -- just as many of our "public servants" like to talk about sight-seers who had a fun day in the Capitol last Jan. 6, brandishing flagpoles, gouging eyeballs and shouting racial epithets. It never went away. It’s who we are. * * * Two book reviews in the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/books/review/how-the-word-is-passed-clint-smith.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/books/review/how-the-word-is-passed-clint-smith.html Three of my stories from prisons, when I was a news reporter: https://www.nytimes.com/1971/11/09/archives/frazier-sharp-in-tough-prison-talk-show-frazier-sharp-as-he.html https://www.nytimes.com/1972/10/02/archives/new-jersey-pages-a-scholar-in-the-new-alcatraz-felon-finds-himself.html https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/12/archives/carter-reacts-stoically-to-denial-of-new-trial-i-hope-im-still.html * After writing this piece, and reading the thoughtful comments, I discovered a new book: “Land,” by Simon Winchester, a writer with great and varied interests. (We met in 1973 when he was posted to Washington by The Guardian.) Now living in the U.S., Winchester is writing about the creation and development of land.
An early paragraph about the original inhabitants of this continent fits right in with the tone of this discussion: (Page 17) “The serenity of the Mohicans suffered, terminally. The villagers first began to fall fatally ill – victims of smallpox, measles, influenza, all outsider-borne ailments to which they had no natural immunity. And those who survived began to be ordered to abandon their lands and their possessions, and leave. To leave countryside that they had occupied and farmed for thousands of years – and ordered to do so by white-skinned visitors who had no knowledge of the land and its needs, and who regarded it only for its potential for reward. The area was ideal for colonization, said the European arrivistes: the natives, now seen more as wildlife than as brothers, more kine than kin, could go elsewhere.” Winchester’s newest book then goes in many directions. I look forward to reading the rest.
Andy Tansey
8/8/2021 10:06:27 am
Thanks for the sobering reminder, George. Over the past year and a few months, sparked by the George Floyd murder, there has been movement and, at first an urgent and optimistic call to action to eradicate racism, especially among younger generation members. I am not so optimistic, but I have given thought about which causes are the best to support.
George
8/10/2021 10:02:06 am
School curriculum is important....but when I look at school districts around the country that are divided over whether children should save their lives, via masks, I think we are a hopeless lot. On the local level, not just moronic governors like in Florida and Texas, GV 8/8/2021 10:11:36 am
As the Man sing:
George
8/10/2021 10:07:10 am
Tom, thanks for sending me the links to the Sunday morning soccer radio show in St. Louis. I did rant a bit about the Manfred Mann on second base in baseball...and other blights.
bruce
8/8/2021 12:17:03 pm
george,
bruce
8/8/2021 12:21:13 pm
george,
George
8/10/2021 10:08:20 am
Bruce, you are more courant about a lot of Americana than I am, from your perch in the frozen tundra of the True North Strong and Free.
bruce
8/10/2021 10:46:35 am
george,
Edwin W Martin Jr
8/8/2021 02:11:23 pm
Thanks GV. Interesting how many times I express this to you.
George
8/10/2021 10:09:59 am
Ed, thank you for the suggestion...and also for your finding that link to slavery issues on the Swarthmore website. Best to you both, GV 8/8/2021 03:58:43 pm
An excellent and timely topic.
George
8/10/2021 10:12:26 am
Alan, you are a very active person...good for you. I agree with your pessimism. Prejudice is baked into this country. GV
Alan D. Levine
8/10/2021 04:28:53 pm
I think it was when I was reading a USSC case about the Legal Tender Clause that it dawned on me that considerations of race are involved in each and every legal issue in this country.
Alan D. Levine
8/9/2021 12:03:19 am
I had read a history of jazz. published by Penguin, written by an Englishman. The first chapter was a very brief history of slavery in the U.S., containing examples of horrific, barbaric treatment of slaves on American plantations. When I offered some of these descriptions in contradiction to Mr. Weinkrantz's description of the treatment of slaves as not really being too bad, he insisted there might be a few bad examples, but not more than that--that the slaves were really not treated very badly. He also said us students were incorrect in saying the Civil War was fought over slavery rather than the issue of the Southern states not wanting to comply with the will of the majority of the states. Hello! What was the issue they were in disagreement over?
George
8/9/2021 10:14:59 am
Alan, I can picture Mr. Weinkrantz and even hear his voice but I can't remember being in his class. Probably an Honors class, right? You had read a book and had a point of view. My parents had an activist position about race..(a mixed B/W discussion group in working-class Queens) but it was contemporary. I think slavery was a static bad thing in those years....and then in the 60s, civil rights were more current (not that slavery did not contribute) but that's when the debates began. I covered a lot of that...in sports and the Real World...and now, thank goodness, scholars and activists are going back to all the myths and lies in the US. Good for you, for being ahead of your time.GV
Alan D. Levine
8/9/2021 10:27:15 am
I think it was just a regular first-term American History class. Second term senior year I was in Mr. Rose's honors class. He told me that if I went to law school I shouldn't practice personal injury law. HAH!
Altenir Silva
8/9/2021 09:19:16 am
Dear George, 8/9/2021 11:14:00 am
George,
George
8/10/2021 10:18:15 am
Alan, you were lucky to have so many role models ..and lucky your dad had that radio store on the UWS. I got lucky (I've told this story before, so truncated version) with an attendant at the gas station, across from the open lot where we played baseball in grade school. Bill was from, I think, Virginia, and took no guff from anybody, was such a strong personality, and served not only as an umpire (from across the street!) in our games but also in bigger issues. I think of him often. GV
Randolph
8/9/2021 06:08:07 pm
George,
George
8/10/2021 10:20:26 am
Randy Absolutely right. After this post was up and or two, I realized it needed a footnote that "our" record against native Americans was also miserable. Thank you so much for the reminder. GV
Altenir Silva
8/9/2021 08:15:12 pm
Dear George,
George
8/10/2021 10:24:53 am
Dear Altenir: I don't know what the public dialogue is in Brazil about the slave trade....or other countries that were developed by slave labor. But clearly it was a lucrative business for Europeans...GV
Altenir Silva
8/10/2021 07:36:21 pm
Dear George,
Alan D. Levine
8/9/2021 08:53:21 pm
You know, I'm not at all certain that what i consider the attempt at miseducation I mentioned above was Mr. Weinkrantz's fault. I think it very possible that he was simply teaching the NYC Board of Ed history curriculum.
George
8/10/2021 10:28:04 am
Alan, Clint Smith spends a whole chapter in downtown New York, delineating the impact of the slave trade on New Amsterdam/New York. And yes, we were not told about the race riots in developing Mannahatta, the Lenape island. Where a Dutch leader staged a massacre, just because...GV 8/10/2021 11:32:31 am
NYC and New England were initially strongly pro-slavery. It was common for free and escaped slaved to be arrested and turned over to bounty hunters. 8/10/2021 11:20:24 am
There are many excellent books about slavery, but if you read only one it should be:
bruce
8/10/2021 01:00:45 pm
alan et al. 8/10/2021 03:59:01 pm
Bruce.It is not a case of how to view a glass of water. It is much more about whether the electorate is sufficiently aware of the issues and can evaluate facts impartially.
bruce
8/10/2021 06:08:06 pm
alan, 8/11/2021 02:23:54 pm
Bruce.It is not a case of how to view a glass of water. It is much more about whether the electorate is sufficiently aware of the issues and can evaluate facts impartially.
Ed
8/11/2021 02:54:50 pm
Alan, Gang, the level of misinformation, and sadly deliberate misinformation is so high right now, that is hard to remain my historic optimism. i still have a belief, but I think we are at or near, the end of a negative pendulem swing. Global Warming, Vaccinations, Income disparity, Systemic racism, etc. All the subject of denial by a frightening number of people, but…basic optimism is all we have going forward, I no longer see what we dreamed of, “Overcoming”. In my lifetime, but..,.eventually the majority will grow.
Altenir Silva
8/12/2021 02:34:03 pm
Dear George,
George Vecsey
8/14/2021 11:52:32 am
Dear Altenir: Thank you for your insights, including earlier one about Brazil. When I was working with Loretta Lynn for her book, "Coal Miner's Daughter," she said that from their ranch west of Nashville, she can hear the lamentations of the dispossessed Cherokee, centuries ago, along the Tennesee River. (Loretta is part Cherokee.)
Altenir Silva
8/14/2021 09:13:12 pm
Dear George, 8/14/2021 12:11:59 pm
Altinir,
Altenir Silva
8/14/2021 09:15:08 pm
Dear Alan, 8/16/2021 01:41:41 pm
The older I get the more aware I am of how narrow and limited and biased my public school education was when it comes to US history and the role which slavery played in it. It was, essentially, "and then Lincoln freed the slaves and we all lived happily ever after." We are still paying the price on a daily basis for slavery and our failure to properly deal with its aftermath. This will go on for a very long time, I fear. As for me, I grew up in a blue-collar Philadelphia suburb where a black person never dared to show their face and went to an essentially all-white high school. Now my old mostly-Irish/Italian neighborhood is populated by African-Americans, Haitians and Vietnamese and white students are a minority at my old high school. A transformative experience for me, for which I will always be grateful, was working for the summer at the age of sixteen as a pot-and-pan washer and meal-server in the kitchen of the county hospital where I was the only white employee. It was in many ways, an awful job-hard work, all day in an un-air conditioned kitchen during the hot and humid Philly summer. But I wouldn't trade the experiences or the education I got from my co-workers, who put up with me and eventually accepted me as one of their own, for anything.
George Vecsey
8/17/2021 09:42:23 am
John, me, too. I went to K-6 in a leafy little corner of Hollis, Queens -- one dark-skinned kid in 7 years, and he was from Ecuador. Now that neighborhood is part of the vibrant Rap/HipHop/Caribbean world of Queens. Never had a teacher of color, all through school, including college. Good to hear from you. GV
Randolph
8/16/2021 02:42:09 pm
John,
bruce
8/16/2021 05:13:07 pm
randolph,
Randolph
8/16/2021 07:46:43 pm
Bruce,
Josh Rubin
8/16/2021 05:42:34 pm
Just catching up with this. I am reading the book now and it is excellent, thorough, thoughtful, and nuanced. We visited Whitney Plantation a few years ago. The candor about the conditions and economics of slavery and the plantation system was bracing.
George
8/17/2021 09:47:13 am
Josh, great to see your name here...Hope all is well. I just rewrote my piece here, omitting the politics, for a newsletter a friend produces for a Civil War study and travel group. My main message, which I added, was that people visiting historic sites should not be shy about asking questions -- that Clint Smith (good reporter that he is) used to elicit layered responses from guides as well as people with regional points of view. Local pols are fools. The truth is out there, and these tour guides seem prepared. Best to you all. GV Comments are closed.
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