Proving the Mississippi River a Major Underground Railroad Uhuru (Freedom) Route in the Deep South
Introduction:
The Friends of the Forks of the Roads Society Inc. (FRS) is a 501 c (3) nonprofit corporation based in “historic Natchez Mississippi.” FRS was founded by grassroots African descendant and professional community advocate, Ser Seshs Ab Heter-Clifford M. Boxley. It is a charitable organization dedicated to bringing about equal history commemoration and tourism economic democracy in the lower south, especially Southwest Mississippi and Central Louisiana. FRS’s mission is to empower African descendants to take collective charge to rescue, resurrect, reconstruct, present and interpret their history, legacies and culture in ways that publicly achieves equality in history preservation, presentation, interpretation and commemoration and tourism awareness and education.
In 2002, FRS received a small grant from the Southeast Region National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, matched by private donations, for the purpose of conducting a research project relative to the existence of Network to Freedom defined Underground Railroad (UGRR) activities, events and history in the Deep South’s Mississippi River corridor.
FRS’s research project is entitled: Proving the Mississippi River a Major Underground Railroad Uhuru (Freedom) Route From Memphis to the Gulf of Mexico.
FRS’s proof that the Mississippi River in the Deep South was a major UGRR route has been compiled into 750-page database. FRS is still collecting unfolding information and data that can be added t its groundbreaking research database.
FRS announces its groundbreaking Deep South UGRR research work by posting what may be described as boilerplate or prelude text actually included in our researched source document. This text along with only the table of contents of the source document was submitted to the Network to Freedom Program as FRS’s final report as called for by National Park Service contract. However, the table of contents shown on our web page posting here does not include pertinent or summary pertinent data and information corresponding to a particular table of content title as was included in our 290 page final report submitted to the Network to Freedom Program.
Your attention is called to the fact that our final report was a condensation of the data information comprising our overall research database compiled.
As you read our explanation and pre-fix guide to understanding how our final report was formatted to reflect the table of contents and inclusions of certain selected information entered under the headings of the items comprising the table of contents of the overall document, you will be able to see the various table of content items for which research data and information was collected.
Information and data compilations included in our final report from the beginning to the table of content heading: Mississippi’s Enslavement Traffickers at Natchez Forks of the Roads “2nd Largest” Sale Market in the Deep South has been actually copied from the condensed final report.
Then, onward from the table of content entitled: Remembering George Thomas, AKA George Washington, by Great, Great Grandson James Scott, only the balance of all the table of contents included in our overall research compilation project document to date, excluding their data information, are listed. Later, we hope to be able to publish our groundbreaking data and information in CDRom, a book and a teachers’ guide for teaching Deep South Underground Railroad history.
With the information and data compiled, we now have the documented proof to kill the myth that the Underground Railroad freedom routes directions was exclusively north and on to Canada. In addition, our research data will kill myths that were historically professed that once enslaved people were sent to the Deep South, they could not escape. Finally, our data and information will kill many untruths and misconceptions about the characteristics of “helpless and satisfied” enslaved people in the Deep South.
We again, want to thank Nana Bennie McRae of Lest We Forget Web for providing FRS with a website as a public service at no cost to us. Also, we thank him for the great amount of information we have included in our source document about Civil War Union Army Freedom Fighting Troops of African Decent who were a decisive a part of the Union Army’s successful capture of the Mississippi River. Thus, leading General Grant to declare that the faith of the rebellious Southern Confederate states had been sealed.
Ser Seshs Ab Heter-CM Boxley
Coordinator and Researcher
Barbara Tagger, Coordinator
National Park Service
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program
1924 Building
100 Alabama Street S. W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Enclosed are 290 pages of a condensed overview of 740 pages and counting
PROVING THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER A MAJOR UNDERGROUND RAILROAD UHURU (FREEDOM) ROUTE FROM MEMPHIS TO THE GULF OF MEXICO document.
Please accept this 290 pages condensed document overview as our final report due.
It our intent to continue the research on the above entitled project and widen our scope to the broader Deep South when funds and staffing allows.
It has been a rewarding and great experience researching and compiling the data and information contained in this final report condensation overview and the overall project document.
Should you or others be inspired by our work and the great results, we would certainly be opened to grants or allocations to publish our work completed to the point of our submission of our final report. We will also welcome a continuation grant or allocation to go on to other areas of needed investigation as pointed out in the prefix to understanding our report.
Please read the Glossary of Certain Terms before attempting to read this report. Being familiar with certain terms will help readers grasp the soul of this report as a reflection of the Spirit of our overall project document.
Again thank you kindly for all your help. I know you will find that this project has gone much farther beyond the limited grant value that was allocated.
If you have any questions, you know you can call my person and I will respond.
All the best!
Ser Seshs Ab Heter-CM Boxley, Coordinator
PREFIX
FOR
UNDERSTANDING
THE
PROVING THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER A MAJOR UNDERGROUND RAILROAD UHURU (FREEDOM) ROUTE FROM MEMPHIS TO THE GULF OF MEXICO
REPORT THAT
FOLLOWS
In compliance with the National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program’s (NPSNUGRRNF Program) contractual agreement between the NPSNUGRRNF Program and Friends of the Forks of the Roads Society Inc (FRS) identified as Federal Grant number GA6059C0014 for the period 05-15-02 to 9-30-03 and extended to 9-30-04 regarding submission of final project report
Whereas NPSNUGRRNF Program Southeast Region’s Coordinator has requested the Coordinator of FRS to submit to her office said final report called for in the above federal grant numbered contract by May 31, 2004
Following final report per said federal grant contract for PROVING THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER A MAJOR UNDERGROUND RAILROAD UHURU (FREEDOM) ROUTE FROM MEMPHIS TO THE GULF OF MEXICO (PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM) project is hereby submitted by: Ser Seshs Ab Heter-CM Boxley, Coordinator and Chief Researcher for said FRS PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM project.
Signed Ser Seshs Ab Heter-CM Boxley
FRS PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM Prefix page two
Date Submitted: May 19, 2004
Person and Address Submitted To:
Barbara Tagger, Coordinator
National Park Service
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program
1924 Building
100 Alabama Street S. W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
The Report is formatted to show the reader what is now in the overall 736 pages size 8 font word-processed project document. The format allows the reader to see the titles and sub-titles of various categorical contents and to obtain a good idea of what the overall project document contains.
The Report format also allows the inquiring reader to actually use the data and information provided in this condensed 290 pages report. NPSNUGRRNF Program, other National Park Service staff or other persons may contact the FRS Coordinator regarding the detailed data and information of a particular categorical title or sub-title in the overall PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM project document.
At present, there are twenty-three (23) pages of various categorical titles and sub-titles comprising the overall project document table of contents. This report is developed by inserting data and information in between the spaces for each categorical title and sub-title. No page number of the location of each title or sub-title in this report is provided. Exact Page numbers will be inserted for each title and sub-title category contained in the overall project document as it is now still an ongoing research work in progress.
Certain different terms and verbal expressions have been added in front of certain terms and verbal expressions that were developed and used by the white supremacy domination system’s enslavers and general population during the period of enslavement of Africans and their descendants in America. To continue
FRS PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM Prefix page three
to use such racist, oppressive and dehumanizing terms today unless in quotations directly from text from that period is to continue internalizing racist and
oppression and denial of the humanity of persons so enslaved then and the descendants of said enslaved persons now. For example continued use today of the European originated, oppressive and dehumanizing term “slave” is offensive, dehumanizing and conveniently free flowing from the mouth of today’s whites unabated when there is no social significance for continuing to use such term. Just as the European created racist, offensive and oppressive N word term is of no social redeeming nature to be used freely in today communications, the term “slave” continues the legacy of making African descendant Ancestors and Foreparents non human and alien. It’s as if they never had human attributes and obscures their human desires, family values, agricultural, engineering, culinary, craft and many other African institutional skills and values retention, especially freedom. It severs them and their subsequent descendants from their history, culture and heritage of being the originators of civilization in the Rift and Nile Valleys of Mother Africa.
As opposed to continuing the use of white supremacy domination, racist descriptions and terms as common language without stating that such terms were in fact just that. The use of such terms as: enslaved persons or people, enslaver or enslavers and enslavement trafficking and traffickers or dealers is a more historical correct description of the actuality of the historical events that happened during the enslavement culture of that period. Words, terms and or expressions inserted to undo the white supremacy domination system’s racism, oppression and dehumanization are enclosed with the symbol { }. The same symbol containing the word {skip} means a certain amount of text from a particular place source was skipped over or left out at that particular place and the text at some other place in the source included after that which was skipped over. In certain situations {skip} could mean text following the {skip} was deleted or not included.
Proof Reading, Spelling and Grammar
This PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM project document final report may contain minor errors of spelling, grammar and terms omissions as its data and information was copied from the voluminous overall project document which is an ongoing work in progress and yet to be worked over with a fine tooth comb scrutiny.
Text Extracts and Quotes
Certain extracts and quotes of data and information contained herein this report may not have the permission of use from authors or primary sources yet. A great deal of such data and information used falls under public domain.
FRS PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM Prefix page four
Art-Pictures-Graphic Inserts
Maps, art, pictures and graphics displays will be inserted in the work in progress document at some other time coming.
Unique Deep South Information and Data
As proclaimed in FRS original proposal that historically and still today the UGRR has been projected publicly as an eastern seaboard to the north and on to Canada and a mid-western to the North and on to Canada phenomenon. The Deep Southwest had been categorized as being unlikely a place that enslaved persons escaped from. As it has been said, it is a known fact that the Mississippi River was an escape route, but very little compiled factual data and information has been presented providing detailed proof. There is an abundance of information and data about the use of the Mississippi River as an UGRR escape route from Kentucky and Missouri northward. Now the PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM project document in fact presents such proof in great detail from Memphis to the Gulf of Mexico. Get ready to experience enslaved persons escaping from the Deep South up and down on the Mississippi River and up along and down along the Mississippi River as far away to Canada and Europe.
Publication of Educational Modules as Previously Proposed
FRS intends to publish an educational manual guide for learning and teaching about enslaved persons’ freedom struggles in the Deep South on and along the Mississippi River relative to the Underground Railroad Story. FRS has already submitted a proposal for publishing such an educational and informational manual guide to the Southeast Region’s NPSNUGRRNF Program Coordinator.
Public Reading From FRS PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM Project Document
FRS Coordinator has conducted two public readings of selected material from the PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM Project Document as an experiment of one method of educating the public about Deep South freedom from enslavement stories along and on the Mississippi River. The format for such readings is the gathering of a dozen or more readers at a given venue who then read selected extractions of data and information from the PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM Project Document. The first reading of the kind was done at Expressions Book Store in Indianapolis Indiana. The second reading was done at Different Accent Import Store in Natchez Mississippi as part of FRS “Black History Month” program. A combined eighty or more people attended these readings. The largest number of around sixty persons attended the reading in Natchez. The Natchez reading audience and readers were interracial and held in downtown. Good press coverage before and after the reading took place.
FRS PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM Prefix page five
Ongoing PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM Project Research
As already stated the PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM Project is an ongoing research project. There is a non-ending amount of information to be ascertained and looked at and almost weekly additional information and data becomes available from all parts of the world. Pieces of the whole Deep South freedom struggle puzzle are surfacing all the time.
Other Than Mississippi River Deep South States That PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM Project Would Like to Research But Was Not Able Due to Lack of Funds
Western Alabama. Western Arkansas. Western and northeastern Louisiana. East Texas. Eastern and Northeastern Mississippi. Central Tennessee. South Western Missouri. Central and western Kentucky.
Looking at the Whole Runaway Ads and Freedom Stories Data and Information of the Deep South States of Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Alabama
The broader story of enslaved persons resistance to and freedom struggle from enslavement in these Deep South states needs to be studied and compiled. Such data and information will bring to light and life the extent to which the freedom struggle from enslavement was waged on the part of enslaved and non-enslaved African descendants and others who assisted.
Grants Needed
Need it be more said. However FRS has spent untold hours and days voluntarily researching and gathering data and information for its PMRMUGGRRUFRMGM Project Document. There is a serious need for financial assistance for work in progress continuation, publications and production of data and information. This report is an example of what was accomplished with the small grant from the Southeast Region’s NPSNUGRRNF Program.
Other Sources Other Than in the Selected Bibliography
The source documents and other sources used by FRS to compile the data and information in this report other than those reported in the Selected Bibliography are numerous and extensive. Many will be included in the work in progress document at a time coming.
And
Now Here Is The Final Report
AFRICAN DESCENDANTS UHURU (FREEDOM) STRUGGLES FROM CHATTEL ENSLAVEMENT ON DE (THE) MISSISSIPPI RIBBAH (RIVER)
A MAJOR ROUTE
OF
THE OVERGROUND AND UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
IN THE DEEP SOUTH
FROM MEMPHIS TO THE GULF OF MEXICO
ESCAPES-RUNAWAYS-CIMARRONES-SEMINOLES-UPRAISINGS-REVOLTS-REBELLIONS-CONSPIRACIES-RESISTANCE-DEFIANCE-“UNCIVIL” WAR DOUBLE VICTORIES
LEADING TO 19TH & 20TH CENTURIES CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENTS
“ALUTA CONTIUA” AND THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES
BACKSIDE OF COVER PAGE
Partially Funded By: A Southeast Region National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program Grant
Non-Federal match share contributors:
David Dreyer Indianapolis Indiana
Hallinan Consultancy Venice California
Professor Ronald Davis California State University, Northridge
Project Sentinel Fair Housing Program Palo Alto California
GNO Communications New Orleans Louisiana
Amsouth Bank Natchez Mississippi
Kentucky Underground Railroad Institute
Ser Seshs Ab Heter-Clifford M. Boxley Natchez Mississippi
A NATCHEZ MISSISSIPPI FORKS-OF-THE-ROADS
ENSLAVEMENT MARKET SITES
RESEARCH CONTINUUM
VISIT FORKS-OF-THE-ROADS ENSLAVEMENT MARKET WEBSITES
AT:
AND
PROVING THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN THE DEEP SOUTH
AN UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM ROUTE
“The current task is not simply to identify places where fugitive slaves stayed while en route to freedom, but rather to find and interpret evidence of the complex story of slavery and resistance in American history”.
RESEARCH AND COMPILATIONS
BY: SER SESHS AB HETER-CLIFFORD M. BOXLEY
DEVELOPER EUROPEAN/AFRICAN ROOTS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TRAVELING EXHIBIT 2001
COORDINATOR FRIENDS OF THE FORKS-OF-THE-ROADS SOCIETY INC SINCE 2002
COORDINATOR SOUTHWEST MISSISSIPPI CENTRAL LOUISIANA UNDERGROUND RAILROAD ASSOCIATION SINCE 2000
COORDINATOR FORT McPHERSON-FORKS OF THE ROADS CIVIL WAR U. S. COLORED TROOPS CHAPTER SINCE 2001
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR AFRICA HOUSE MUSEUM NATCHEZ MISSISSIPPI 1995-2002
PHOTOGRAPHER AND CURATOR OF EUROPEANS WEST AFRICAN ENSLAVEMENT FORTS EXHIBITION SINCE 1995
AUTHOR OF ANCESTORS WISDOM YESTERDAY AND TODAY SELF PUBLISHED 1994 AND SELF DISTRIBUTED SINCE
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF AFRICAN AMERICAN RESEARCH HERITAGE PROGRAM SINCE 1966
DEVELOPER AND CURATOR OF AFRICAN ORIGINS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION SHOW AND TELL EXHIBITION SINCE 19666
This is a work in progress
Plantationization
Cimarrone
Seminole
Mulatto
No Nation
One-Eyed Sexual Predator
UnCivil War
Also See “Bill Arp From The Uncivil War To Date, 1861-1903” Http://Docsout.Unc.Edu/Arp/Arp.Html
The Great River Road
Bayou
{Skip}
{ }
Slave(s)
Ex-slave
Enslaved Person(S)
Enslaver(s) = Owners-Masters-Mistresses
Non-enslaved Captif(s)/Captive(s) = So-called Free Persons of Color or Persons No Longer Enslaved
Maroons
Chattel = Private Property a European Concept
Trafficking
Dealing
Self-Emancipation
African Burial Grounds
Contraband
Juneteenth
Educulture
Ser Seshs Ab Heter Boxley
Mzee
Civil War Double Victories
Freedom Fighters USCT
Cotton Bowl = A Football Game Commemorating the Cotton Kingdom of the Deep South
Sugar Bowl = A Football Game Commemorating the Sugar Kingdom of the Deep South
MAAFA = Term created by African American Scholars to more adequately describe What Happened to Africa and enslaved African descendants vs using the term holocaust which invokes the story of people whose religion (not race) was Jewish.
America’s Domestic Enslavement Trafficking
Indigenous Nation(s)
Captifs
Captives
Passages of Sorrow
Kingpin
Slavery System = Method(s) of captivity or capturing and forcibly holding persons.
Enslavement Institution = Behavioral Mind Conditioning and dehumanizing methodology
Doors of No Return
Prince Tobacco = Cash crop agricultures products produced by enslaved persons.
Princess Rice = Cash crop agricultures products produced by enslaved persons.
King Cotton = Cash crop agricultures products produced by enslaved persons.
Queen Sugar = Cash crop agricultures products produced by enslaved persons.
Invaders = European-European American Settlers, explorers
Enslaving Planter(s)
Direct Oppressor = Overseer(s)
Captive Pen = Jail or holding building
Forced Shipped
Ill-Gotten
Ill Getting
Herstorian
N Word
Import
Export
Gang
Pickaninnies
Muntu = GodMan Goddesswoman in Zulu
Plantation = Institution of Behavioral Mind Conditioning and dehumanizing methodology
Bondsmen
Speculator
Serf
Coffle
Institution of Slavery = System of Captivity
Atlantic Slave Trade = European-American Wealth Taking and Destruction of African Independence MAAFA
Smuggler
Discoverer
Explorer = Intruder
Wench
Missionaries = European Religion Indoctrination-Spies-Brainwashers-Propagandists
Illegal Trafficking
Legal Trafficking
Pagan = Muntu (God Man and Woman)
Chattel Enslavement = A European originated chattel system of forced captivity, imprisonment, disenfranchisement, extraction of labor and dehumanization perpetrated upon African descendants who were traditionally free and independent.
Overground Railroad = Various land and water routes from the Upper Southeastern Seaboard and Midwestern States used to force walk and ship thousands of African descendants in captivity to Deep South selling markets thus fueling the “Black” presence in the Deep South then and now.
INTERPRETING THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD UNDER THE 1998 U. S. CONGRESS MANDATE VIA THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD NETWORK TO FREEDOM PROGRAM
“National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1998, Public Law 105-203. One Hundred Fifth Congress of the United States of America Second Session. An Act: To establish within the United States National Park Service the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program, and for other purposes. This Act may be cited as the ‘National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1998’. The Congress finds the following: (1) The Underground Railroad, which flourished from the end of the 18th century to the end of the Civil War, was one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement during its evolution over more than three centuries. (2) The Underground Railroad bridged the divides of race, religion, sectional differences, and nationality; spanned State lines and international border; and joined the American ideals of liberty and freedom expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to the extraordinary actions of ordinary men and women working in common purpose to free a people. [skip] (4) The Underground Railroad Advisory Committee found that—[skip] (c) no single site or route completely reflects and characterized the Underground Railroad, since its story and associated resources involve networks and regions of the country rather than individual sites and trail; and (D) establishment of a variety of partnerships between the Federal Government and other levels of government and the private sector would be most appropriate for the protection and interpretation of the Underground Railroad. (5) The National Park Service can play a vital role in facilitating the national commemoration of the Underground Railroad. [skip] (b) PURPOSES—The purposes of this Act are the following: (1) To recognize the importance of the Underground Railroad, the sacrifices made by those who used the Underground Railroad in search of freedom from tyranny and oppression, and the sacrifices made by the people who helped them. (2) To authorize the National Park Service to coordinate and facilitate Federal and non-Federal activities to commemorate, honor, and interpret the history of the Underground Railroad, its significance as a crucial element in the evolution of the national civil rights movement, and its relevance in fostering the spirit of racial harmony and national reconciliation. Sec. 3. National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. (a) IN GENERAL- The Secretary of the Interior (in this Act referred to as the ‘Secretary’) shall establish in the National Park Service a program to be known as the ‘National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom’ (in this Act referred to as the ‘national network’) Under the program, the Secretary shall—(1) produce and disseminate appropriate educational materials, such as handbooks, maps. Interpretive guides, or electronic information; (2) enter into appropriate cooperative agreements and memoranda of understanding to provide technical assistance under subsection (c); and (3) create and adopt an official, uniform symbol or device for the national network and issue regulations for its use. (b) ELEMENTS- The national network shall encompass the following elements: (1) All units and programs of the National Park Service determined by the Secretary to pertain to the Underground Railroad. (2) Other Federal, State, local, and privately owned properties pertaining to the Underground Railroad that have a verifiable connection to the Underground Railroad and that are included on, or determined by the Secretary to be eligible for inclusion on, the National Register of Historic Places. (3) Other governmental and nongovernmental facilities and programs of an educational, research, or interpretive nature that are directly related to the Underground Railroad.”
“Recognizing that all human beings embrace the right to self-determination and freedom from oppression, the historical Underground Railroad (UGRR) sought to address the injustices of slavery and make freedom a reality in the United States. The National Park Service, through leadership with local, state, and federal entities as well as interested individuals and organizations will:
Promote programs and partnerships to commemorate, preserve, sites, and other resources associated with and educate the public about the historical significance of the Underground Railroad.
Programs and activities shall be known cumulatively as the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. The program will extol the historical significance of the Underground Railroad in the eradication of slavery and the evolution of our national civil rights movement, and its relevance in fostering the spirit of racial harmony and national reconciliation.
The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program (“the Network”) tells the story of resistance against the institution of slavery in the United States through escape and flight. The National Park Service (NPS), through the Network, is coordinating preservation and education efforts nationwide, and is working to integrate local historical sites, museums, and interpretive programs associated with the Underground Railroad into a mosaic of community, regional, and national stories.”
For additional information on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, please visit the website: www.cr.nps.gov/ugrr
EXTRACT FROM THE AFRICAN/EUROPEAN ROOTS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TRAVELING EXHIBIT DEVELOPED
“Africa is the American Negro land of origin, said Martin L. King, Jr. in a speech against apartheid South Africa at Hunter College, New York City 12-10-1965. Africa is also the land of origin for those African descendants who were involved in the Underground Railroad. The African/European Roots of the Underground Railroad Exhibit is designed to help us visually comprehend how African humans were force brought from Africa in captivity, were enslaved in America, and always resisted (slavery) and captivity in pursuit of freedom. This freedom struggle was transported over the (“horrible Middle Passage”) to the Americas. One of the most dramatic expressions of African people’s struggle for freedom can be seen in the Underground Railroad story. And the struggle continues… [skip] African Royal Kingdoms/Queendoms (such as Ghana, Mali, Kanem-Bornu, Zimbabwe), institutions of self-government, spiritual science, cultural developments, and their traditional independence and freedom observed and recorded by European foreigners were the continuation of centuries old institutions developed by (Black) African Nile Valley Civilizations, such as Kush, Ethiopia and Kamit (Ancient Egypt) that spread throughout the African Continent. Thousands of years before the Atlantic Enslavement Traffic, Africans developed the tenets of civilization in the form of geometry, art, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, metallurgy, agriculture and much more.”
“The African continent is no recent discovery; it is not a new world like America or Australia…while yet Europe was the home of barbarians one of the most wonderful civilizations on record had begun to work its destiny on the Nile.”
Quoted by Dr. Yosef A. A. Ben-Jochannan in his book: Africa Mother of Western Civilization. He extracted this truism statement from the book: History of Nations, Vol. 18. New York, 1906 page 1.
“There a people now forgotten discovered while others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences, a race of men now rejected for their sable skin and frizzled hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature, those civil and religious systems which still governs the universe.”
Count C. F. Voluney, Ruins of Empire 1789 (preface of 1st edition)
THE LATE MZEE JOMO (BURNING SPEAR) KENYATTA WROTE:
“The African is conditioned, by the cultural and social institutions of centuries, to a freedom of which Europe has little conception, and it is not in his nature to accept serfdom for ever. He realises that he must fight unceasingly for his own complete emancipation; for without this he is doomed to remain the prey of rival imperialism, which in every successive year will drive their fangs more deeply into his vitality and strength”.
Facing Mount Kenya page 306.
(FROM) CONFRONTATION: BLACK AND WHITE THE BREAKING OF THE BOND BY LERONE BENNETT JR. NEGRO DIGEST FEBRUARY 1966
“Every slave protest, direct or subtle, was a step in the development of new forms of life organization. Every {enslaved person} slave protest was a choice made in the face of death for life. A {enslaved person} slave underground crystallized around the stealing of goods, the trading of information on the intentions and state of mind of the enemy, and the hiding and passing on of fugitive {enslaved persons} slaves. All {enslaved persons} slaves did not participate in the underground. Some—a definite minority—had been so crushed by slavery that they were timid and afraid. Others—mainly house servants—had been so conditioned by the cast-off clothes and cast-off ideas of their masters that they kissed their chains. Still others a definite majority—maintained a sense of expectancy and hope that is one of the most memorable tributes to the indomitable tenacity of the human spirit. The dominant responses of the vast majority of {enslaved persons} slaves were discontent, unrest, and protest. There were repeated insurrections, and there is solid evidence that the South lived in constant fear of the “docile” [enslaved persons} slaves. The most dramatic form of resistance was terrorism, arson, murder, sabotage carried out for the most part, by the so-called (bad Negro), a germinal figure in Negro folklore. {Enslaved persons} Slaves also used a variety of techniques in undramatic, day-to-day resistance to slavery. On occasions, they staged sit-downs and slow-downs in the cotton fields. On impulse sometimes and sometimes on plan, they sat down and refused to move until workloads were lightened. Some groups fled to the forests at the height of the cotton-picking season and sent emissaries to negotiate with (“old master”). Quieter still and equally effective was the day-to-day sabotage, the gate left open for cattle to escape, the expensive tool or implement (“accidentally”) dropped or broken. At one time or another, almost all slaves dropped their masks—a little. The dissatisfied look, the slow unwilling movement, the labored stroke of the hoe, (“the drawling tone, the slow hearing, the feigned stupidity, the sham pains and sickness, the short memory”), and always, the mocking smile and the accusing laugh, these were the tactics of the undramatic slave. Despite, or perhaps because of, all attempts to crush it, the rebellious will of the slave endured. There was something tragic about this stubborn will, but there was also something heroic about it. By escaping or helping others to escape, by reading and teaching others to read, by stealing and helping other to steal, by homicide, suicide, and infanticide, the {enslaved person} slave opposed his will to his master’s. The unpleasant fact is that {enslaved persons} slaves did not feel that they had unqualified moral obligations to white people—and white people knew it. It was considered right and proper to steal from white people, and to lie to them. In an odd reversal of the Taney dictum {enslaved persons} slaves acted as though white people had no rights they were bound to respect—if they were clever enough, and quick enough.”
[Extracted from Confrontation: Black And White The Breaking Of The Bond By Lerone Bennett Jr. Negro Digest February 1966 pages 86-87]
Underground Railroad scholar and expert Charles Blockson’s July 1984 National Geographic Underground Railroad map “Flight to Freedom” reflects the Mississippi River a major Deep South route feeding the main arteries of Northern Underground Railroad states. The same map is included in his Hippocrene Guide to the Underground Railroad. The only reference to the Deep South’s Mississippi River route in his or the National Park Service’s Special Resource Study is a Jefferson Davis’s observation. “Negroes do escape from Mississippi frequently, and the boats constantly passing our long line of frontier furnish great facility to get to Ohio.” Glaringly absent from the vast amount of extant documented information about the Underground Railroad is substantial compilations showing actual Underground Railroad related escapes, runaways, maroon communities, uprisings, revolts, rebellions, conspiracies, resistance, defiance, un-civil war double victories and other freedom stories in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee. Thus, the need to study and compile definitive evidence and a database showing the Mississippi River was indeed a major Underground Railroad escape and freedom route from Memphis Tennessee to the Gulf of Mexico. In the National Park Service Underground Railroad Special Resource Study issued September 1995, there are only seven (7) listings for Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee combined. Two of these listings are actual Underground Railroad stations in Tennessee. Five listings are extant plantations, enslavement dealer’s home and home of a mulatto barber who enslaved people of African decent and kept a diary of mainly white life-styles. In these three historically Deep South slavery states the National Park Service and public/private tourism entities have been basically handicapped when it comes to preservation, presentation and interpretation of Underground Railroad activities, stories and sites.
Part of the reason for this disabling handicap lay with white power operatives in the Deep South who intentionally refuse to present and interpret slavery. Also, researchers have not specifically focused their research efforts on UGRR related research in the Deep South. Yet another crucial part is the scarcity of resources available to too few self-empowered African-Americans endeavoring to tell the other side of the same antebellum history Euro-Americans are selfishly and resourcefully preserving, presenting and interpreting. Consequently, the UGRR story is perceived as a North/Northeast story and is very unbalanced as a United States historical story. This research project addresses the existing need for specific documented information about UGRR related stories of escapes, runaways, maroon communities, uprisings, revolts, rebellions, conspiracies, resistance, defiance, un-civil war absconding, support, military activities and double victories, in the Deep South along the Mississippi River. Current UGRR publications by NPS and other sources contain little specific stories and information of UGRR activities in the Deep South states proving the Mississippi River a route for freedom efforts or escapes from enslavement. By focusing research along the Mississippi River, this project can successfully obtain solid documentation that will provide the Network to Freedom Program an instant instrument for mitigating the public perception of the UGRR as an up North/Northeast phenomenon. The Network can verifiably, quantifiably and explicitly amend its current UGRR program to tell the story of resistance against the system of enslavery in the Deep South through escapes, runaways, maroon communities, uprisings, revolts, rebellions, conspiracies, resistance, defiance, un-civil war absconding, support, military activities and double victories. Professor Edward E. Baptist of the University of Miami in a recent story for a traveling exhibit called Stony the Road They Trod, calls enslaved runaways participation in the Civil War, “the greatest slave rebellion in the history of the United States.”
This research project will visit individuals, museums, archives, libraries, colleges, county, city and any other repositories accessible, to research, copy/extract from actual or microfilm newspaper runaway ads and other extant written/oral stories, information pertaining to River escapes, maroon communities and resistance from Memphis to the Gulf of Mexico. Example: Rodney Telegraph April 10, 1838: Runaways, William/wife Mary purchased in Ky., left the steamboat Kentuckian below Natchez January last. Researched information will be compiled into charts, maps, a report and eventually an exhibit that compliments the Network’s Forks-of-the-Roads website and African/European Roots of UGRR traveling exhibit. It will also help explain the largely untold story about the major U. S. internal enslavement trade’s Overground Railroad river/land routes leading to the major markets at Natchez and New Orleans. The NPS and others can use this research data to help fill the need for actual UGRR stories in the Deep South.
“The current task is not simply to identify places where fugitive slaves stayed while en route to freedom, but rather to find and interpret evidence of the complex story of slavery and resistance in American history”.
From History Channel Documentation: Rolling Along North The Underground Railroad
“The Underground Railroad is the symbolic name for the 200 year long struggle to break from slavery in America. It includes every slave who tried to escape and every free person who helped them along the way. The Underground Railroad was the 1st Civil Rights movement in the quest for freedom. If you take slavery out of the American experience, you don’t have America. Slavery is at the core of what America is.”
[Quotes extracted from comments of various historians and herstorians speaking in the movie documentation]
“Many {enslaved Persons} slaves ran away farther south. Indeed, {enslaved Persons} slaves living in the Lower Mississippi River Valley or in Mississippi and Alabama were more likely to run south and west than north. The stream of runaways moving from parishes and counties along the Mississippi River and its tributaries---especially Natchitoches, Rapides, Pointe Coupee, East and West Feliciana, East and West Baton Rouge in Louisiana and Adams, Jefferson, and Wilkinson counties in Mississippi-southward to New Orleans was relentless.
Ranaway from the subscriber’s plantation, in the parish of Natchitoches, one notice read. William Chambery, about twenty years old and well constituted. The {enslaver} planter not only sought Chambery, but the return of his negro {person} wench Louisa, negro {person} wench Eliza, and a black man, Henry Price. They were, he said, heading down the Cane, Red, and Mississippi rivers, to New Orleans. One {enslaved Person} slave apprentice from West Feliciana Parish went down the river so often that his employer could usually retrieve him within two weeks. Sometimes those who were seeking to return to the Upper South ventured down the Mississippi River. He is very artful a Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, {enslaver} slaveholder said in 1833, concerning Davy, a thirty-three-year-old runaway brought from Virginia. One of the reasons he had been sold to the Lower South was his habit of running away. Now he had stolen his {enslaver’s} owner’s skiff and gone down the river, or crossed over it, taking with him a fifteen-day ration of pork and corn bread, a blanket capote, a change of clothes, and two hand saws. Skilled as a blacksmith and cartmaker, his {enslaver} owner said that he may have taken the saws the better to impose on the community, by passing for a neighborhood carpenter. Eventually the {enslaved Person} slave would try to return to Virginia. Others went south because they believed their chances were better if they reached towns and cities along the river.
The three {enslaved Persons} slaves who absconded from the superintendent of public works on Bayou Boeuf in Rapides Paris in 1835 were well prepared to leave. They possessed a double-barreled shotgun, an axe, an assortment of clothes, fur hats, shoes, and may have a pass procured from one of them who can write a fair hand. They were last seen heading down the Red River toward the Mississippi River and New Orleans.
When it might be suspected that they would take to the river, some {enslaved Persons} slaves who lived along the Mississippi deliberately struck out across the countryside, away for the river. The circuitous escape route of George, a field hand with two missing font teeth, was typical of this group. Leaving Wilkinson County, Mississippi, near Woodville, George ran away to the east, not to the river a few miles away, moving through the hilly and sometime densely forested countryside to the Pearl River. He followed the river as it meandered southward forming the border between Mississippi and Louisiana. When sighted near Pearlington, a hamlet near the mouth of the river, he was heading toward the Gulf of Mexico, a few miles distant. Those who ran away form Missouri, or Kentucky, to the Lower South were often similarly attempting to confuse their {enslavers} owners. Who would suspect that someone living so near freedom, especially if they were close to the Ohio or Mississippi rivers, would run away to the Deep South?”
[[Extracted from “Runaway Slaves Rebels on The Plantation by John Hope Franklin, Loren Schweninger, New York, Oxford Oxford University Press 1999 pages 112-1113]
“Old Man River was sho’ purty in de fall, when dem wild geeses come in droves and de blossoms red and yaller. De fogs come hang over and chills and fever gits started. De women sot by de fire piecin’ quilts and spinning’ thread, and de old men weave cotton baskets and chair bottoms, and de young men work on de levees, so dey hold Old Man River back when he start prowlin’ round ‘gain. Floods come down, no matter what time of year. One day Old Man River be runnin’ ‘long, jes’ as peaceful and quiet, and everybody happy. Everybody meet de boats at de landin’. Den way in de night you wake up and hear a roarin’ like thunder and dat river be on a tear. Folks know he am in de ugly mood, and starts movin’ to higher ground. Everybody what have a wagon and mule gits out. Some jes’ gits to de levee. It look like my folks told me when dey run from de Yankees, only dis time it’s de river. Old Man River sho’ treach’ous. After he go on one he rarin’ and tearin’ spells; den he gwine be so peaceful and quiet like. Look like he try to make up for he meanness.” William Stone was born in a covered wagon, on the way from Alabama to Texas, about 1863. Though he was too small to remember many things told him by his parents and other former enslaved {persons} ex-slaves. William lives in Hart, Texas. Text is the interviewer’s comment. Brackets mine
[Extracted from the narrative of William Stone as reported in The American Slave A Composite Autobiography Series I, Volume 4 Texas Narratives, Parts 1 and 2 George P. Rawick General Editor, Greenwood Press. Pages 64-66]
“The opinion appears to be going around in Europe, that this mysterious river, to ascertain the termination of which so many unsuccessful attempts have been made, and so many lives lost, flows into the Nile. In closing a review of the first volume of Buckhardt’s arrives, the quarterly has devoted several pages to this subject, and has at all events collected some circumstantial evidence tending to establish this important fact. Mr. B. (Buckhardt) was repeatedly assured that the Niger of Louden and the Nile of Egypt were one and the same river, and the reviewers say that, the same opinion has been repeated by every Arab merchant and black pilgrim in the north and western Africa. The Egyptian slave merchants, also confirm this opinion, by saying that the fact is not to be doubted.”
[Bracken Sentinel 9-9-1820. With permission extracted from Slavery in Newsprint: Central Ohio River Borderlands Volume 1 1797-1839, compiled by Caroline R. Miller, Standard Quick Print, Maysville, Kentucky, 2003, page 64]
“HOW COME WE HERE” AFRICAN DESCENDANTS IN AMERICA
THREE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED PLUS YEARS OF INVASIONS INTO AFRICA
“Africa has supported outsiders for thousands of years. In looking for the underlying connections of similar things, look at the 3500+ years of hostile and violent foreign invasions into Africa by a people who brought nothing to Africa except war, aggression, overkill weapons, destruction, rape, exploitation and stolen legacies. These invasions began with the Hyksos, the Semitic Persians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs. Invasion and raping of Africa continued with Semitic Islamic Arabs and Anglo-European Christian crusades for the wealth of Africa. The Arabs began the modern trafficking in African people (mainly women) for marketing in North Africa, Arabia, India and Southern Europe. The continuous invasion of Africa by foreigners coupled with intermarrying and integration of these foreign cultures into African society, according to Chancellor Williams (Destruction of African Civilization), laid the foundation for undermining of African Civilization and eventually its destruction between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries A.D. Africa sustained hundred of years of invasions and pillage, yet Africa rose to new heights time and time again. Africa’s development of the Khemetic Nile Valley dynastic form of government saw nearly five thousand years of peaceful growth and development. The Romans and Greeks destroyed this Khemetic dynastic form of royal government. This model of the longest uninterrupted and peaceful government remains a beacon of emulation for the world today. Building on a foundation of past wisdom and knowledge, Africans showed their resilience again by developing a modified form of their royal dynastic government called kingdoms and empires. Africans marched into Europe and conquered Italy, Portugal and Spain. Africans ruled Spain for nearly eight hundred years. When Africans invaded European nations, they brought construction instead of destruction. African rule of Spain greatly influenced the European Renaissance. An extensive European contact with Africa and its God blessed abundance of natural resources, began with the Hyksos’s invasion and continued for hundreds of years, has fed Europe and other cultures of the world from the earliest of times and still does today. Africa has never been justifiably repaid or separated.
African Kingdoms, Queendoms and Empires Were Modifications and Continuations of Ancient Ancestral Wisdom and Knowledge Institutions
The Africans have, from the very beginning of hueman and huewoman kind, always built successive cultures based upon modifications of their past institutions and foundations of God Centered cultural wisdom and knowledge. The Africans who reconstructed African civilizations after Greek, Roman and Arabic invasions and domination of Northern Africa, did so based upon a continuation of their earlier Nile Valley institutions, governments and foundations of spiritual-science heritage. The traditional social, political, spiritual-science, economic, educational and government structures of the African Traditional Way suffered relentless alterations from foreign invasions, interruptions, integration, and missionary corruption. Yet a strong African people prevailed even after being subjugated by Islamic and Christian nations. The great empires and kingdoms/queendoms of Ghana, Songhia, Monommotapa and Mali are well documented to this fact. The underlying structures of those civilizations can be traced directly back to their Nile and Rift Valley’s origins. Ghana was the oldest of those modified and reconstructed African civilizations. Its national colors of red, black and green tricolor flag has served as a national symbol of African people nationalism for centuries untold.
The Africans that drew the continuous interests and envy of Europe and subsequently the America(s) were not Africans who were “slaves.” The massive wealth and human resources of Africa with which it has been blessed, is the plumb that Christian Europe and America(s), Jewish and Islamic Middle East and Aryanized Semitic Northern Africa have been plucking for centuries to ensure their own survival. Traditionally, Africans have never really needed anything from the outside world, except to be left alone.
Europeans and Semites of the Middle East and North Africa were all familiar with the wealth of African people. These outside of Africa foreigners conducted a lucrative traffic in African goodies for centuries via the ancient trading routes of Northern Africa that ran into Southern and Mediterranean Europe; into the Middle East; into India and onward to Asia. The Arabic trafficking especially in African women captives had gone on for centuries before the European invasions.
Ironically, it was reportable the trip (Hajji) to Mecca in Saudi Arabia taken by Mansa Musa that increased the Europeans’ lust for the gold of Africa. Mansa Musa reportable spent more gold on his Hajji to Mecca than was in all of Europe at that time. On the whole, feudal and tribal war-torn Europe was basically bankrupt, corrupt and starving for medicinal herbs, spices and gold, as a prelude to the so-called Atlantic slave trade. Recall that fourteenth century Europe was, to use their term, a feudal Europe. It lacked the political, economical or intellectual and technical where-with-all for self-sufficiency and was very much dependent upon goods such as medicinal herbs, spices and luxuries from Asia supplied through the Mediterranean and Black Sea trade routes by mainly Venetian merchant traders. By the second half of the fifteenth century, nation states under centralized governments with strong kings emerged from European feudalism. Spain and Portugal succeeded in re-conquering their countries by finally ousting the African Blackamoors.
Christian Europe had now reached a level of social organization and stability it had not previously realized. But its economic well being was dealt a serious blow by the Islamic Turks who occupied and closed the Mediterranean and Black Sea trade routes through which came the medicinal herbs, spices and other luxuries of Asia that were the life line of Europe. Christian Europe was powerless against this Islamic economic stranglehold blockade and trade monopoly.
In a desperate effort to survive, European nations tried to circumvent both the Venetian and Islamic economic control and blockage by searching for an alternative route to India via the Atlantic Ocean. With maritime information gleaned from old records of ancient sea travelers and recent sailing technology learned from the African Blackamoors, the Portuguese were said to be the first 15th Century Europeans to sail a short distance away from the then known European coastline.
In general, the European technical sailing and maritime knowledge was basically relegated to its small time experience in the Mediterranean Sea. They were ignorantly fearful of and technically incapable of sailing out into the Atlantic Ocean. In an effort to find a back door way to India and outflank the Muslims and Venetians who held Europe in an economic stranglehold, Portugal took the lead in hopes of acquiring political and economical power it could not achieve in Europe. Prince Henry of Portugal was the main instigator in seeking an all sea route to India.
When he captured the African Blackamoors’ stronghold of Crueta on the Moroccan Coast in 1415, he learned of the lucrative trans-Saharan trafficking and the gold producing land of West Africa. Prince Henry’s (who would historically be called the Navigator) lust for a powerful Portugal centered around three basic motives of political, economical and religious objectives.
The political and economical motives have been alluded to above. The religious motive reflects a continuation of the age old Christian-Judeo-Islamic co-called Holy Wars. The Islamic Blackamoors had a firm grip on the trans-Saharan gold trade via North Africa. Prince Henry wanted to eliminate the Muslims from North Africa, thereby securing for Portugal, the lucrative Trans-Saharan traffic in African gold, ivory and human captives. While still maintaining his major objective of finding an all sea route to India, Prince Henry, the Instigator, became the driving force behind the Portuguese invasion of West Africa.
His obsession for the wealth of West Africa and India led him to set up an observatory and school of navigation at Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent. Here he brought absconded charts, globes, navigational instruments and books. He sought the knowledge of Arab and Jewish mapmakers. He added the geographical knowledge of the Greeks, Romans and Arabs to that of the African Blackamoors. Consequently, the Portuguese succeeded in invading the African coast slowly but steadily, as they discovered they would not fall off the ocean if they sailed west into the Atlantic Ocean. It took 54 years (1415-1471) of feeling their way along the West African coast just to reach Ghana in 1471, where they saw an abundance of alluvial gold just lying around above ground.
In 1441, two military commanders of separate probe ships from Portugal, bent on impressing Prince Henry and making a reputation, boldly decided to kidnap some African people and take them back to Portugal. They commenced to go ashore and on two occasions and attacked, maimed and killed innocent African people, while taking twelve or so captive. Once back in Lisbon, one of the kidnapped Africans interrogated by Prince Henry revealed that he was of chiefly birth and was from a rich area of Africa. So encouraged was Prince Henry, he sent a special embassy to the Pope explaining his plans for further raid and even conquest. Inspired by this mundane ulterior motive, the Pope (Nicholas V) gave his blessings by welcoming this pre-meditative plan for invading West Africa and extended to all of those who shall be engaged in said war, complete forgiveness of all their sins.
Prince Henry’s plan of war and conquest of West Africa was officially consecrated by the highest office of Christianity in Europe and the conspiracy against Africans was implemented in 1443-1444, when the Portuguese reached the Island of Arguin, which became their notable offshore staging grounds. From Arguin, the Portuguese carried away thousands of captured Africans per year to markets in Sicily, Tunis, Portugal and Spain. Within a fifty-year period, the Portuguese had reached the coast of Guinea and through various schemes of trafficking, that romantic historians have called African trade, were annually ripping off up to 3,500 African captives for induction into enslavement in Europe (The European New World America(s) did not exist at this time).
In addition to dealing in humans, the Portuguese were trafficking in gold, ivory, wrought iron and textiles. Portugal and Spain grew prosperous from their African conquests. In 1472, the Portuguese saw plentiful alluvial gold in an area of Ghana they named El Mina (The Mine). Trafficking in humans destined for Europe became secondary to the gold to be found on what became known to Europeans as the Gold Coast. The Portuguese enjoyed a virtual monopoly in West Africa for nearly a hundred and fifty years. The Spanish, fresh off their victory of re-capturing their country in the war with the Blackamoors and desperate in need of having their treasury replenished, engaged Christopher Columbus’s mercenary plan to sail to India by going west. Columbus, an Italian (Chistobol Colon), had gleaned the current sailing expertise of the Portuguese and was convinced he could reach India by sailing west in the Atlantic. Unfortunately for Africans and the indigenous people of the Caribbean and what has become known as the America(s), he never made it to India. He still made his men pretend they had reached India and called the people he saw in the new land in which he was lost, Indians. Columbus took his erroneous belief of the America(s) being India to his grave. Spain now had a foothold on foreign soil and continued her arrangements with the Portuguese for delivery of African captives to be enslaved in Brazil, Mexico, Central America, Hispanola and Florida.
THE EUROPEAN TRIBAL SCRAMBLE FOR A SHARE OF THE ATLANTIC TRAFFIC IN AFRICA’S HUMANS AND RAW MATERIAL RESOURCES
In 1493, the Pope issued a monopoly to Portugal, which excluded other European nations-states from the riches of Africa. Portugal grew wealthy by trafficking in gold, ivory, pepper, gum Arabic, ostrich feathers and African people. They manipulatively pushed cheap European-made trinkets of cloth, beads, cooking ware, iron rods, etc. for hard raw African resources and humans.
This cheap goods or inequitable trafficking in Africa’s human and raw material resources was subsequently copied by the other emerging European states-nations. Even today, Africa does not receive a fair market return from the Arabic, Asian, Semitic and Western world (America(s)-Europe-Australia) for her valuable raw resources and human labor. The term trade is not sufficient to describe the conspirator and pre-meditated under-development of Africa at the hands of the Europeans, Semites and Semitic Arabs. Trade evokes the concept of fair exchange, as was demonstrated in the bartering system of ancient Africa and African controlled areas of Canaan, Sumner, First Babylon, Indus Kush and Lebanon for thousands of years. Africans also trade bartered in Asia and throughout the America(s).
Europe and Arabia brought nothing to the African table, but consistently raided, plundered and raped Africa of her raw resources and the youngest of her children. With the advent of religious freedom gained through Protestantism, other European sta