by Clint Smith
Oppression is never about humanity
or lack there of
it is and always has been about POWER.
An enslaved persons body dead or alive was the site of experiments that propelled the entire medical field forward, black women’s bodies were used in experiments to advanced medicine, like the field of gynaecology.
Girls were raped on the slave ships, raped on the plantations, raped daily and it was legal.
Most were raped daily their entire lives.
50 to 60 a head of women were kept constantly for breeding/ no man was allowed to go near them except white men, from 20 to 25 children a year were born on that plantation -as soon as they’re ready for market they are taken away and sold as mules or other cattle. People. Children. Sold.
Families were constantly and consistently separated and sold.
Children ripped from mothers.
On and on and on.
This is our history in the United States of America.
“We have to talk about who they were,
we have to talk about their resiliency,
we have to talk about the resistance,
we have to talk about their strength ….
I want to get you to see them,
because I know as a Black woman
what my challenges in society have been,
so if I can’t get you to see them,
(the enslaved)
I can’t get you to see the person standing in front of you..”
tour guide Yvonne
on why she doesn’t highlight
all the extreme horrors of slavery
in a 90 minute tour.
Read this book.
It is truth.
It is necessary.
🖤
Nellie was born in little town that is no longer on the map, Stonica Station, MS. The family Bible gives her the birth date of January 30, 1896. She worked in the cotton fields beside her mother as soon as she could follow directions. She never received an education. Nellie lived until 2008. I was her night shift nurse 2005 and 2006. She taught me history by telling me stories. She knew the Bible by heart. By the time I cared for her she was blind. She loved Chicago, she ran there from the south and became a housemaid for a white “madam”. She had horrific night terrors from childhood. She loved sour cream. She had flashbacks. She talked about being born in a field. She loved to feel my hair, she insists there’s a story in it. She was a pistol and I loved her. She knew I was pregnant without me telling her. She was a living history for 112 years. She considered herself born into slavery.
A child of slaves.
(Her words)
(Slavery “ended” in 1865)
People I tell this story to say slavery was too long ago for it to be true.
This book showed me how many people think similar to that. It also taught me more than I knew. It highlighted the lack of education I know is true for people. Including me.
Book description:
A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view. Truth.
Pub Date June 2021
