Alter Thought: A Requiem of Slavery Ep.8

Transatlantic Slave Trade

From 1662 to 1807 the British empire focused on strengthening their capitalist economy by means of inhuman and cruel enslavement of free persons from the continent of Africa. Stolen People. This was undoubtedly a deliberate intent to profit off the free labor provided by these enslaved Africans. Around 3.1 million enslaved Africans were transported across the mid-Atlantic route during the active Transatlantic Slave Trade. When Whites came to Africa, we had the land, and they had the Bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed: when we opened them, the Whites had our lands and we had the Bible…[1]  The aboriginal Africans were abducted with no warning by local slavers. The local slavers took the abducted people to the shores were they were prepped and organized for trade with White British Slave traders. Weapons from Europe were typically traded for abducted aboriginal Africans. However, it was imperative that these abducted individuals were of increasingly high value; meaning they had to know a sought-after trade like blacksmith or farmer. These aboriginal Africans were hand-selected to meet the appetite of the British Slave Traders.[2] The British needed strong and smart people to aid them in successfully mining and farming in the Caribbean. Once an abducted aboriginal African began in processing:

The purchasers examined them for defects, looked at the teeth, pinched the skin, sometimes tasted the perspiration to see if the slaves’s blood was pure and their health as good as their appearance. Some of the women affected a curiosity, the indulgence of which, with a horse, would have caused them to be kicked 20 yards across the deck. But the stolen Person had to stand it. Then in order to restore the dignity which have been lost by too intimate an examination, the purchaser spat in the face of the stolen Person. Having become the property of their owner, they were branded on both sides of the breast with hot iron. Their duties were explained by an interpreter, and a priest instructed them in the first principles of Christianity.[3] 

Once an enslaved African was in route to the Caribbean via ship, the process of “Christianizing” began through means of indoctrination and sexual humility which is referred to as “Breaking the Buck.” Public sodomy to male and female stolen People daily was a way to not only establish power but break the human spirit that naturally resists. Some took the opportunity to jump overboard, uttering cries of triumph as they cleared the vessel and disappeared below the surface. A spoon-fed theology tailored for a stolen person was created to control their ethics and morals. The “Slave Bible” was created to teach stolen people that God wants them to obey and respect the new masters that have been appointed over them by God. This illegal enslavement of Africans was not a temporary campaign, so it was crucial to breed the next generation of slaves because their business relied on it. A less resistant stolen person was great for business and increased productivity.[4]

Let us make a slave. What do we need? First of all, we need a black nigger man, a pregnant nigger woman, and her baby nigger boy. Second, we will use the same basic principle that we use in breaking a horse, combined with some more sustaining factors. We reduce them from their natural state in nature; whereas nature provides them with the natural capacity to take care of their needs and the needs of their offspring, we break that natural string of independence from them and thereby create a dependency state so that we may be able to get from them useful production for our business and pleasure.[5] 

There are many speculations and belief that Willie Lynch did not write a letter on the process of Making a Slave due to the language used in the letter. However, this letter explained how fear, distrust, and envy were tools used to gain control over enslaved stolen people and particularly woman. The letter persuasively express how important it was for enslaved people to trust and depend on not only their master but White Europeans whether French or Spaniards. They must love, respect and trust only us. The letter explains how after enslaved people received this particular indoctrination, they would be dependent upon the White European race and their offspring would inherit this way of existence. To guarantee that the offspring or next generation of slaves were dependent and submissive to the White European race, the primary strategy was to focus on breaking the enslaved female. If you break the female, she will break the offspring in its early years of development and, when the offspring is old enough to work, she will deliver it up to you.[6] By separating her from the enslaved man who served as her protector and support system; she now will submit to the will of the White master. She understood this is how she will survive or exist and would teach her offspring to do the same in order to self-preserve. By having enslaved women eat from the White master's hands, the children would learn to trust and do the same. The slave children never knew their biological fathers because these enslaved men were only used to impregnate the other enslaved woman and then were sent to the next plantation to repeat this process. The only mentor or authoritative figure the next generation of slaves could rely on, was the White European slave owner that spoke Spanish or French.

[1] Nawej, Kayemb Uriel. White Poison: A Black Christian Is a Traitor to the Memory of His Ancestors - Africa Wake Up!Middletown, DE: Kayemb Uriel Nawej, 2007.

[2] Klein, Herbert S., and Ben Vinson. African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

[3] James, Cyril L. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint LOuverture and the San Domingo Revolution. 2nd ed. Revised. New York: Vintage Books, 1963

[4] Williams, Eric Eustace. Capitalism & Slavery. Press, 1994.

[5] Lynch, William. The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave. Long Island City, NY: African Tree Press, 2017.

[6] Lynch, William 2017, page 17