Cbr15bingo North America, bingo
I’ve been following Michael Harriot, a writer for The Grio, on social media for a couple of years now. He always has informative and incisive posts about current events and US history, especially Black history and about how it has been hidden and misrepresented in our education system and in the media. He’s also very funny. So when I saw that he had a book out, a history no less, I had to get it. Black AF History is a bold, sometimes shocking, but fascinating factual account of America’s history, which he describes as a history of white supremacy. He starts with the colonizers and works his way through the Revolution, Civil War, Reconstruction, World Wars, the Civil Rights movement and current politics — just like any US history would — but Harriot gives a side of the story only hinted at (at best) in the histories we were raised on. And he has receipts — plenty of footnotes referring to scholarly research and primary sources to back up his theses about 1. the inherent racism at the root of our social/economic/political system from its inception, and 2. the struggle of Black folks in America to simply survive and resist. “The goal was never to become American, but to live, and live freely. To become and remain whole human beings.” Harriot argues that Black people have not only saved themselves throughout history but they have also saved the United States. This book is a powerful and persuasive argument for that.
Harriot opens with the age of exploration and the introduction of the slave trade to the “new world.” There is a lot of great information here, but some of the parts that stood out for me were:
- While slavery was present in Europe and Africa, the form that slavery took in North America was different in that it was a hereditary state, turning humans into chattel. That was not the case elsewhere, where an enslaved person still had rights and protections under the law and often a means of attaining freedom.
- The English colonizers who first came to America had no idea how to do basic things like farm, which is why some of the early settlements were a disaster or always seemed to be struggling to go on. Slavery, i.e. forced labor, was a solution to this problem, and having enslaved laborers allowed landowners to be gifted more land. Laws followed to make sure those who had been enslaved, and their descendants, stayed that way.
- The enslaved people brought incredible wealth to landowners not just with their physical labor but with their knowledge. It was Africans from West Africa who knew how to grow rice and make it a profitable crop in South Carolina. Enslaved laborers from Ghana and Gambia were talented herdsmen and became the first “cow boys.”
With the increase in the enslaved population came a growing fear among whites of their potential power. Rebellions did occur (Harriot describes a number of them, including Haiti), and communities of “maroons,” i.e. self-emancipated Black people who formed their own hidden communities in woods and outlands, were known to be able to defend themselves successfully against whites. Harriot provides a lot of great information about Black heroes who defied white power, organized enslaved laborers within plantations, and provided vital assistance to the Union during the Civil War. I had heard of some of these folks but as Harriot points out, too many of them have been left out of the history books.
The chapters on the Civil War and Reconstruction are especially enlightening. Harriot points out that political leaders, including Lincoln, really didn’t feel the need to end slavery; their goal was to “preserve the Union.” Black people, however, using the Underground Railroad, started to free themselves. Once war began, enslaved laborers in the South like Robert Smalls found ways to undermine the Confederate Army and aid the North. And certain Union Generals, Like Major General David Hunter, relied on Harriet Tubman for reconnaissance and then pushed the federal government toward passing the Confiscation Acts of 1862, which allowed the Union Army to seize rebel property, including those who had been enslaved, and emancipate them. Enslaved laborers had already been emancipating themselves but these acts recognized their freedom well before the Emancipation Proclamation.
The story of what happened to Black people under Reconstruction and beyond is utterly shameful. During the all too brief period of Reconstruction, they were able to get land and vote; they formed successful communities, sent men to congress and state governments and began to thrive. Whites were furious (and not just in the South) resorting to violence and political deals behind closed doors. By 1877, the gains were reversed and lynchings became all too common. Harriot shows how Black communities organized to protect themselves and keep pushing to live freely (and be left alone by whites). There is so much outstanding information in this book about folks like Ida B. Wells, the rise of Hoover and the FBI, and some of the lesser known heroes of the Civil Rights movement.
Harriot includes personal stories in this history as well as some funny review questions at the end of chapters. His footnotes and personal asides are always worth reading. As a white person reading this book, I can’t help but feel angry and ashamed of this country. You cannot help but be struck by the parallels between our country’s entire past and the present: the violence directed at Black bodies and the BLM movement, the rise of fascist white militias and police brutality, and the role white women play in promoting segregation and a whitewashed version of history. I highly recommend this very readable and important book for anyone who wants to fill in the huge gaps in our understanding of US history.