I doubt that was the sentiment that echoed in August of 1619 when a Dutch merchant ship unloaded its cargo of Africans in Jamestown, VA. The act probably went as uncelebrated as if they had dropped off a chest of pelts or barrel of rum in exchange for some foodstuffs to help them on their journey.
While Black History Month commonly triggers reflections on the first or best activities of such an accomplished people group this
occasion is something many would rather soon forget. I believe there are forgotten aspects of human belonging that are essential to understanding black communal history and that an attempt to remember that history is being written away. But to brush it aside won't undo the damage or reveal the truth of the tragedy that was human bondage. To ignore the reality of how the transition to a New World began would be unenlightened.
Should one celebrate it, no, but what can one learn from it?
Here are a few perspectives that are often overlooked...
1. Most Africans that survived this initial voyage became indentured servants on the same legal standing that many poor Englishmen had been enduring as repudiation for their passage. Most accounts don't even mention the common idea of a racial-based slave system until the 1680s.
2. To many servitude, while not enjoyable, did not always become a degrading state of life. Many farmers and plantation owners saw their workers (black and white alike) as investments to take care of. As indecent as this comparison may sound, why would a farmer buy a horse just to kick it to death? Treatment may not have been great, but what had they come from? Was Old World Africa a paradise to be longed for? I am NOT saying that ruthless traders did these people a favor in the least as many of their familial and cultural ties were broken beyond remedy. But the protection offered in return for service must have been apparent on some level. The American slavery system became more developed and codified in its inhumane treatment around 1680.
3. Even if the above statement of protection is untrue, it is verifiable that many farmers may not have had a choice. America in the 1600s was no cartwheel in the park for anyone. The roller coaster of the seasons offered little respite from the bare minimum. It was a time and place of little peace where money wasn't enough to buy much security from colorblind diseases and ghostly malnutrition.
4. With the spread of Africans throughout Southern farming communities came the birth of a new style of agrarianism and the flowering of a neo-African culture. Although African slaves were denied many of their previous cultural elements, such as their native language and the use of drums, some practices were maintained and influenced the foundation of the American nation that stands today. Their culture and heritage are seen in everything from a renaissance of music to our current President of the US but two specific contributions you may not know about include:
- Inoculations: Onesimus instructs Cotton Mather in 1721 about what was already a common practice in Africa.
- Rice: Africans taught English settlers how to cultivate and irrigate the crop. It remained South Carolina's major economic crop long after most of the South had turned to cotton farming in the 19th century.
I hope these comments have served to help recognize the important role that Africans played in building the infrastructure of the New World they were dragged kicking and screaming to. I know that slavery carries an apt pejorative of depravity and disgrace on its back, but without the introduction of this unique people group into American society we would not enjoy.
