Debunking the Biggest Myths About the Antebellum Era in North America
In honor of "Black History Month", it would be a good moment to take the time to debunk many of the biggest myths about American chattel slavery that we have been taught in public schools and mainstream media. Contrary to popular believe, many of the things most so-called "African-Americans" are taught about chattel slavery have more so to do with foklore and myths and not historical facts. With that being said, let's explore:
Five of the BIGGEST MYTHS About North American Chattel Slavery
Myth #5: There were mass "slave-breeding farms" used to create the slave population after 1790.
Reality: The 3/5ths compromise DELIBERATELY under-counted the southern slave population by 40%; the "Black" slaves in southern territories were not accounted for UNTIL those territories became official states within the Union. From 1820-1860, the fertility rate of enslaved "Black" women was actually around the same rate of that of White women. The narrative of mass "slave breeding farms" is the result of modern sensationalism through films such as Goodbye Uncle Tom and the like.
Myth #4: White people were never slaves in North America, only "indentured servants"
Reality: For the first 100 years or so of successful Anglo-Saxon colonization of North America, (1619-1720), most slaves in the 13 colonies were actually Whites FALSELY LABELED as "indentured servants". Unlike in countries like Australia, "White slavery" was often downplayed and pushed to the side for the sake of deceitful historical revision. As the years have gone on, this denial of White slavery has been gradually uncovered.
Myth #3: "Black" slaves almost never resisted chattel slavery
Reality: There were over 250+ slave uprisings and over 100,000 runaways during chattel slavery, not to mention the Yamasee and Seminole Wars. Two prominent examples of a runaway slave were Bass Reeves, and Fredrick Douglass. "Drapetomania", "Negritutde", "the violent 'Black' brute", and other pseudo-scientific/minstrel archetypes were created to explain away these problems with violent/runaway slaves. Let us also not forget the "colored regiments" of "Black" men that voluntarily defected to the Union to fight against the Southern Confederacy.
This 'fear of the Negro revolt' would later be used as one of the reasons to justify the rise of The Black Codes and Jim Crow segregation.
Myth #2: "Black" slaves in the Antebellum South almost all descended from West Africa
Reality: Over 95% of the (allegedly) 10-12 million African slaves shipped to the Americas NEVER ended up in North America, as West African slaves were a) mostly male (70-80% of all African slaves shipped to North America) and unfamiliar with Southern "cash crops" such as tobacco and American cotton, and b) were faaaar too expensive for the average slave owner to import (Irish slaves before 1700 went for about 5 pounds sterling, African slaves went for around 20-50 pounds sterling).
As time has progressed, it has been revealed that most of the evidence used to "prove" that majority of "Black" Americans descend from West African slaves has been distorted, plagiarized, or outright fabricated, such as the plagiarized fictional story of Roots by Alex Haley, Goree Island, Goodbye Uncle Tom, African DNA testing, the famous "Gordon whipped slave" (that was actually a Congo chief), the Brookes slave ship drawing (a ship that never existed, by the way), Kwanzaa, Congo Square, etc.
Hell, even the "Out of Africa" theory that has been parroted about for decades was also debunked as being unproven conjecture.
Most of the Antebellum "Black" slaves that you see constantly depicted in photos/drawings were actually descended from the enslaved and reclassified remnants of darker-skinned Amerindian tribes from the Caribbean Islands, Mesoamerica, and the East Woodlands. Even the term "American" (noun) is defined in the 1828 Webster's dictionary as "a native of America: originally applied to the aboriginals, or copper-colored races found here by the Europeans, but now applied to the descendants of Europeans born in America" (here's an 1828 copper penny for reference, as well as a reference to "copper skin" from the book "The Circle" by Dave Eggers).
This is why the vast majority of the southern "slave diet" is Amerndian foods/cooking styles mixed with Euroopean influences, such as cornbread, gumbo, grits, turkey, sweet potato pie, wild rice, barbecuing meat, etc.
There are numerous other indicators of most "Negro slaves"/"Negro freedmen" being of Indigenous stock as opposed to West African stock.
For example, the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) people are from modern-day Northampton,Virginia, but the Nottoway Plantation is in White Castle, Louisiana.
This Chacta (Choctaw) slave was listed as a "Black slave".
The "Letter to King Francis" written by Giovanni De Verranzzano in 1524, landing near modern day Cape Fear, North Carolina and sailing north up the coast, describes meeting dark-skinned people with thick hair that were "agile and swift runners". Several times. The Narragansett, who were described as a tribe of people ranging from a light tan to dark brown complexion with "beautiful, shapely women", were centuries later being labeled as "Negroes".
"Wakanda"/Waconda is defined by the Collins Dictionary as "the worship of nature among the indigenous North American peoples".
The word "coon" derives from the word "raccoon", an animal native to North America.
The word "nigger" in the early United States was used in reference to American Indians. (No, seriously.)
The so-called "ghetto" name "Tawanna"/"Tawana" is Chickasaw for "beautiful running water" and "little princess".
The word "buck" (as an insult) is defined by thefreedictionary.com as "a Native American or black man"
The word "pickaninny" (meaning small 'black' child) was used in reference to a fictional Native American tribe in Peter Pan
The word "sambo"is defined as someone of mixed Indian and African blood.
The state of California is named after a "mythical" "Black" woman named Queen Califia.
The cultural staple of pouring out alcohol to mourn the deceased is also rooted in ancient Amerindian customs.
The durag/wave cap that we are told comes from slavery was actually worn by southeastern tribes in North America.
This excerpt describing the Cusabo people from South Carolina in 1524 (in the book titled "Early History of the Creek Indians" by John Reed Swanton) depicted them as dark brown-skinned people that loved to rhyme and chant, dance, and play sports.
Even the modern game of basketball comes from an ancient form of basketball played in the Americas by the Olmec and Aztec (who also had barbershops in large urban centers and embedded jewels in their teeth, similar to the culture of many "Black" Americans today. They also engraved/sculpted themselves as dark-skinned people with locs, afros, and braids. Which also looks suspiciously like many people calling themselves "African-American" nowadays. And it also turns out that after the collapse of the Aztec/Mayan empire, some of the Mayans/Aztecs were sold as slaves to the southern plantations in North America. Perhaps Ulysses S. Grant was onto something when he explained that he had "7 million Aztecs" ready to build the transcontinental railroad.)
Myth #1: The vast majority of "Black" women who were enslaved were frequent victims of sexual abuse
Reality: Most of the sexual liasons between White men and "Black" women during the antebellum period were CONSENSUAL encounters between either between free White "Johns" and promiscuous "Black" prostitutes (in the North) or between White slave owners and "Black" concubines (in the South). The TV show "Scandal" is loosely based off of the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his concubine named Sally Hemmings. (Kerry Washington, who played Olivia Pope in "Scandal" even looks like the late Sally Hemmings.) The Tawawa house in southern Ohio near Wilberforce College was used as a vacation resort that wealthy White slave owners would use to take their "Negro" slave mistresses to for a 'private getaway'.
In fact, during the last few months of the U.S. Civil War, "Black" men, "Black" women, as well as White men and White women, all reported recently seeing emancipated "Negro" slave women having wild sex parties with White Union troops throughout the South (and I do mean WILD).
The cultural pathologies known as "colorism" in the "Black" American community (as well as "cultural appropriation" of "Black" women by White women) actually stems from White slave holders having a sexual preference for their "Negro" concubines/mistresses over their White wives, while giving preferential treatment to their "mulatto" children over the other slaves. It also stems from dark-skinned "Black" prostitutes having petty jealousy for their lighter-skinned female counterparts.
"Black" women being sexually abused by White men was actually MORE problematic during Reconstruction and Jim Crow segregation than during Antebellum slavery. Some southern states intentionally lowered the age of consent to 12 or 14 because there were too many White teen boys and men having sex with "Black" women and girls.
In fact, the very court case that made interracial dating totally legalized in the United States, Loving Vs. Virginia in 1967, involved a "Black" (read: Rappahonnock Indian) woman and a White man whom she had been dating since she was 11 years old.
A more recent example of this can be found in the case of Virginia Democrat Jim Morrisey, who in 2013, had sex with his then 17-year-old "Black" female secretary named Myrna Pride and sent text messages to his friend, attorney, and aide bragging about it. Somehow, he would later win a state seat for the Virginia Senate. (By the way, here's a picture of Joe Morrisey with Myrna Pride, dressed up as if they were attending a placage event from the 19th century).
Why do these myths persist?
1) Intellectual dishonesty/ignorance/laziness
A lot of people are not aware of this information, which is totally understandable, especially with today's fast-paced living. However, some people consciously ignore this information and/or make up history themselves, as evidenced by the debunked 1619 project by BLM activists.
Many of the most prominent Pan-African figures/scholars, when the veil of "Black pride" is removed, were revealed to be either inveterate anglophiles (who pissed away large sums of donated money from "Black" Americans) or were freemasonic puppets. Hell,even the whole "Back to Africa" movement that was originally pushed by the American Colonization Society (founded by Robert Findley) ended up in the original party of newly freed "Blacks" that were allegedly sent "back" there creating an oppressive caste system which eventually led to the sparking of the Liberian Civil Wars.
Another example of intellectual dishonesty can be found in how the story of Aztec "human sacrifice" was really based off of Spanish Conquistador propaganda and a deliberate misunderstanding of the Aztec's version of public execution (usually related to war or related to violent crimes stemming from public drunkenness and alcoholism).
2) Liberal Racism
Simply put, the soft bigotry of low expectations. As opposed to conservative racism, which encourages outright discrimination such as redlining, liberal racism encourages having a more paternalistic view of so-called "Black" Americans (aka the White savior complex). If so-called "Black" Americans grow up being taught that their only presence in America was that simply of lost African stowaways that were packed in like sardines in (nonexistent) ships, and were hopelessly passive, raped, assimilated people that ran away for "freedom" and marched for Civil Rights, then how do you think that affect their psyche? Why talk about the numerous contributions that many of their ancestors have made to modern society when it ultimately doesn't matter?
Why strive for greatness when you can instead strive for....
3) Identity Politics
Many of these lies about chattel slavery are pushed in order to give an emotional justification for modern-day identity politics, even in areas where it doesn't make sense.
For example, the rise of notions such as "intersectionality" and "misogynoir" have risen in the public consciousness in so-called "Black" America. According to "Black" social theorists such as Kimberle Krenshaw, Moya Bailey, so-called "Black" American women have had to deal with oppression and discrimination both from being "Black", as well as being a woman (due to the history of women being denied suffrage, for example).
It sounds good at first. Until you realize that there's no empirical evidence to support these claims. However, because these terms make for great emotional soundbites, these misconceptions become utilized in "woke" hot takes in order to rally for political support behind certain candidates/causes. Prime example of this can be found in the "gay is the new Black" trend in liberal politics, as well as using the "intersectionality" angle to retroactively deny the history of "Negro" concubines in the Antebellum era.
And while so-called "Black" Americans (especially "Black" women) are (aggressively) encouraged to support identity politics, especially through unquestioning and unwavering support for leftist democrats and the LGBTQ+ crowd (and their 32,000 flavors of gender), Democratic president Joe Biden quietly passed a law that would remove federal references to gender, as well as remove legal protections from women in favor of "trans" rights.
Another group that was/is privy to promoting lies about chattel slavery (as exposed earlier) can be found in "Black Lives Matter", an LGBTQ+ Marxist organization that uses the facade of putting "Black" women first, as well as gaining publicity from police brutality cases in order to collect billions of dollars in donations that hasn't actually gone towards anything in the so-called "Black"community.
But if you were to point these things out, you would be labeled a a "misogynist", because another reason for the pontification of slavery myths is largely about learning how to.....
4) Deflect/defend dysfunctional gynocentric social norms in the "Black" community
These myths and lies about chattel slavery are often used to defend a lot of these gynocentric cultural norms and failed public policies in the name of being "woke". As long as these slavery myths are upheld, any rude, disrespectful, or outright anti-social/toxic behavior from a so-called "Black" woman can be justified as "being strong (and independent)" or a "survival tactic from slavery" (even though, ironically, "Black"women being seen as rude/unsubmissive, and domineering was actually used as a tool to socially uphold the institution of slavery).
And if so-called "Black" women have to be "strong" (read: emasculating and insufferable) in the name of "survival"/"self-preservation", then is there any wonder why many of the "woke" people that they support frequently write them out of romantic leads in movies, books, and TV shows?
We can observe how this "fake wokeness" (i.e. spreading social awareness through lies and misconceptions) coming from the far left has directly contributed to destroying the lives of "Black" women more than anyone else, at least here in North America. "Black" women identify as feminist (along with most women) and vote democrat more than any other group in the U.S. Also, coincidentally, "Black" women major in (low-paying) liberal arts degrees (despite attending college more than their male counterparts), carry more outstanding student loan debt on average, get more abortions, get married the least, as well as single "Black" women having the lowest net worth overall.
Or how when discussions arise regarding the obesity rate regarding so-called "Black" women, instead of investigating the validity of the lipid hypothesis (that has been promoted over the last 60 years), or why so many "Black" women work sedentary jobs, the argument is instead made that "Black" women are fat because of racism (read: Trump).
In another example of "fake wokeness", single motherhood in the 1960s and 1970s was heavily pushed by either welfare offices or by left-leaning politicians and activists such as Johnnie Tillman and Richard Nixon. Not to mention the rise of alimony obligations under no-fault divorce and moms being awarded sole custody of children the majority of the time. These factors contributed heavily, if not were driving forces behind the sudden uptick in "Black" single motherhood and out of wedlock births from around 1960 to around 1980 onwards. (This clip from the documentary "The Vanishing Family: Crisis in "Black" details the changing attitudes towards single motherhood and the rise in social acceptance of it as being "fashionable"/favorable.)
Decades later, not only have these welfare programs failed to effectively fight poverty, but they've also failed to make a more safe and stable upbringing for the children themselves. One unfortunate reality of the rise in "Black" single motherhood over the last 50-60 years is that "Black" girls raised by single moms are targeted by sexual abusers more than any other demographic in this country (especially if the mom is very poor), but that specific point doesn't get discussed more often because it doesn't fit the "strong and independent 'Black' woman" narrative. What is also ignored is that "Black" single moms are unfortunately overrepresented amongst perpetrators of child abuse/neglect. (It is also worth noting that Blacks Lives Matter, who caught flack for wanting to disrupt the nuclear family, has had some of its more prominent activist members busted for child trafficking, fraud, and child pornography. Another unrelated study on global human trafficking shows a surprising rise in sex trafficking perpetrators that are women.)
Now, pointing these things out aren't meant as an attempt to be giving out a "Take Extreme Ownership" speech, but rather to point out how these identity politics that have emerged in the last half century and are reinforced by lies and myths regarding chattel slavery are actually completely counterproductive to any sort of genuine social progress.
You see, if it is indeed true that the vast majority of enslaved "Black" women in the Antebellum period were enslaved African women taken from half a world away, only to be savagely raped and defiled while their male counterparts sheepishly looked the other way (as well as them participating in the same oppression during Reconstruction and Jim Crow), then why bother having any self respect? Seriously, why?
Why bother celebrating the accomplishments of dark-skinned women such as Angela Bassett, Summer Walker, Ari Lennox, Sarah Rector, or Lauryn Hill, when you can simply endlessly complain about "lack of representation" in Hollywood?
Why bother striving to be physically fit and attractive like Raven Jackson, Heather Denise, Santia Deck, Shannon J. Thorton, etc. when you can have "body positivity"?
Why bother fighting hair discrimination in the workplace by filing class action lawsuits when you can instead have discussions about the "complexity" of "Black" women's hair?
Why bother striving to be a suitable wife/girlfriend (if that's what you genuinely desire) when ultimately, any so-called "Black" man that you will date will simply treat you like a glorified pet and punching bag (as evidenced by "classics" such as The Color Purple, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and Their Eyes Were Watching God)?
(Or hell, why even bother trying trying to date so-called "Black" men when you can do what the "Negro mistresses"/"Negro concubines" of generations past have done and get your "swirl" on? Who cares if you end up getting a little scratched up/yelled at or a few diseases here or there?)
Whenever "Black" men or "Black" women point out the serious failures/flaws of leftist and gynocentric public policy and social engineering on the so-called "Black" American communities, they are usually dismissed as "sellouts", "pick-me's","misogynists", etc. that don't understand the plight of "Black" Americans. Especially the plight of "Black" women, who allegedly are oppressed for both their skin color and as a woman (read: "Black" men oppress "Black" women too).
And when you are always being told as a "Black" American woman that you have been oppressed by your male counterparts WITH NO FACTUAL EVIDENCE TO BACK UP THESE CLAIMS, this breeds a ton of underlying contempt and hatred for your male counterparts.
Which brings us to:
5) Rationalizing conscious cultural misandry against most "Black" men in the "Black" community
As writer Imran Khan has pointed out, modern American society (post-1960s) operates on a giant misandry bubble. And in the so-called "Black" American community, the misandry bubble is on STEROIDS. The vast majority of "Black" American men grow up being tirelessly lectured and scolded about how disproportionately and pathologically sexist, misogynist, and colorist they are.
The same disproportionately and pathlogically "sexist", "misogynist", "colorist" (and even extremely homophobic) group of men that do not practice nor advocate for social norms such as forced child marriage, forced abortions, female genital mutilation, denial of access to birth control and feminine hygiene products, bridal kidnappings, etc. (No seriously, anyone trying to advocate these things in so-called "Black" America would given the side eye at best and would be thrown in jail at worst.)
(Also, it should be noted that allowing women full political participation and giving them equal (but separate) duties in tribal affairs was a common and widespread practice amongst many Amerindian tribes, especially in the East Woodlands and West Indies.)
Now, it doesn't necessarily matter if it's true or not, or to how much of an extent it is true if it is. The point is that if you grow up being told (directly and indirectly) that you are pathologically more misogynist than any other man, you are going to inevitably make yourself miserable constantly chasing the (fleeting) validation of your female counterparts trying to prove that you aren't.
Not surprisingly, many modern industries profit off of the misery of men in general, but ESPECIALLY "Black" men, such as the divorce court industry, the prison-industrial complex (by the way, did you know that the average cost of housing an inmate is over $33,000?), primarily as related to the criminalization of marijuana use and distribution.
What is even more ironic when observing the misandry bubble in action in "Black" America is the long history of coddling "Black" men that are legitimately violent criminals, whilst throwing innocent/non-violent perpetrators in jail (which goes back to slavery too). We've heard story after story of legitimately violent criminals get slaps on the wrist and/or be able to walk free for YEARS before getting caught (such as Kellen Winslow Jr., Darren Sharper, Anthony Sowell, Joshua Matthews, etc.). Yet at the same time, so-called "Black" men and boys such as Shawn Oakman, Dewey Bozella, Brian Banks, George Stinney Jr., Clarence Thomas, four members of The Central Park Five, etc. can have their entire lives derailed/destroyed over an allegation of rape/murder/domestic abuse WITH NO LEGITIMATE PROOF WHATSOEVER. (Let's not even get into the historic targeted lynchings of "Black" American war veterans.)
Ultimately, the reason why lies about chattel slavery are promoted is to emotionally justify the modern misandry bubble that exists in extremist in "Black" America. If the mainstream narrative is true that "Black" American men almost all originally came from halfway across the world packed like sardines in slave ships and passively observed their female counterparts get sexually brutalized without EVER having done anything to stop it or to fight back (with permission from "da White man"), then this story gives almost anyone carte blanche to disrespect/dehumanize "Black" American men because they deserve it for being "weak". It's okay to crap on any "Black" man for working a 9-5 job, wanting to be the head of his household, the dating/mating plight of "Black" women (and "western" women overall), etc. because they are ultimately "da White man's" beotch.
And hell, if you ever decide to lash out in frustration, just know that these same people will try to question your motives for doing so.
