The Tortures of Slaves

When looking at slavery, when sometimes forget how serious the injuries inflicted by slave owners were. Many slaves were beaten day and night without any means to recover from the beatings. Furthermore, slave owners would experiment on slaves to see whether they were capable of enduring large amounts of pain. Due to the slow progress of medical procedures and medicine, slaves were not able to treat themselves from the betaings of their slave owners. Not to mention the diseases passed onto the slaves. Many women were raped by their slave owners and then abandoned or even murdered. Many women who did not become pregnant had sexual diseases that slowly killed them from the inside.

Many people today may asked how can african americans ever forgive white slave owners or people that enslaved other people.

Malcom X

Malcom X is an African American human rights activist who was born in 1925 and died in 1965. All his life, he defended the rights of the African American community. Some people consider him to have been the most influential African American in the US history. Malcom X was from a family were the black pride was very strong, his father would teach him about self reliance and pride. At first, he got involved in several criminal activities and was sentenced to jail for this reasons. He soon became a member of Nation Al Islam and became its main speaker. At that time, Malcom X would advocate for black supremacy, a strategy at the odd of the Civil Right Movement. Also, instead of advocating for integration of the Black community, he believed blacks and whites should be separated. In 1964, Malcom X became a sunni Muslim and changed radically his point view about the Integration issue in the united states. Indeed, he disapproved his previous behavior as a Black supremacist and disavowed racism. Toward the end of his life he worked with several civil rights leaders and was finally killed on February 21, 1965 by its former partners of Nation Al Islam.
I found really interesting to see the offensive side of the African American activism, to be opposed to the pacifism of the civil rights movement.

This is a picture of arguably one of the most influential men in United States history. I am actually very surprised that nobody has made a post on this blog of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King was played a crucial part in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s era, and he did so in a “nonviolent manner”. Martin Luther King Jr. is also regarded as one of the greatest public speakers, and it is proven in his “I Have A Dream” speech. Over 200,000 Civil Rights activists marched on Washington to the Lincoln Memorial, and Dr. King delivered his seventeen minute “I Have A Dream” speech. It can be argued that this event is one of the biggest turning points in the history of the African American struggle and the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King, and many other activists, protested with signs, had sit ins, got hosed down by police forces, and had been arrested in the name of Civil Rights, and up until this point they never obtained full legal equality. After this speech was delivered, it wasn’t until just about a year later when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 came about, and provided equality for African Americans. Although this was a major step for society as a whole, racism and bigotry still existed, and still exists in this world today. It is very hard, arguably impossible, to eliminate racism from this world, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did everything in his power to stop as much of it as he could. If our world today had more people like Dr. King, this world would be an equal place, and a better place all around.

By: Jake Robinson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfsY2y7xrXo

Booker T. Washington vs W.E.B. DuBois

Lift Every Voice and Sing

Lift every voice and sing,

'Til earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chast'ning rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,

Out from the gloomy past,

'Til now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,

Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who has by Thy might

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,

Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,

May we forever stand,

True to our God,

True to our native land.

In 1900, for Abraham Lincoln's birthday, 500 pupils from the Stanton School recited a poem called "Lift Every Voice and Sing" to welcome Booker T. Washington to their school. The poem was written by the school's principal, Weldon Johnson, for the occasion.
The poem marked many spirits, especially those of African Americans. They could use it to protest against their condition, but also as a way to express their hopes for the future. 5 years later, Weldon Johnson's brother made it a song that has been engraved into the African-American history.
The song became so popular and meaningful for the African American community that in 1919, it became "The National Negro Anthem". During the second half of the century, it was even often sung in accompaniment to the "The Star Spangled Banner" at public events and performances across the US that involved a significant black population, reflecting that notion of identity, pride, and unity that African Americans share.

Follow the Drinking Gourd

Perhaps no song is more closely associated with the Underground Railroad than this one.

To follow the North Star was the message embedded in this spiritual; instructions are included in the song to follow the points of the drinking gourd (the Big Dipper) to the brightest star, which is the North Star.

The Story Behind the Song

A one-legged sailor, known as Peg Leg Joe, worked at various jobs on plantations as he made his way around the South. At each job, he would become friendly with the slaves and teach them the words to the song, Follow the Drinking Gourd. Each spring following Peg Leg Joe’s visit to these plantations, many young men would be missing from those plantations.

Peg Leg Joe’s plantation visits focused on the area north of Mobile, Alabama, around 1859. The escape route travelled north to the headwaters of the Tombigbee River, through the divide, and then down the Tennessee River to the Ohio River. To guide the slaves along the way, the trail was marked with the outline of a human left foot and a round circle in place of the right foot.

The trip from the South to Ohio took most refugees a full year, so they were encouraged to leave in the winter to make it to the Ohio River the following winter. As the Ohio is too fast and too wide to swim across, it was best crossed in winter when it was frozen.

The first verse instructs slaves to leave in the winter—“When the sun comes back” refers to winter and spring when the altitude of the sun at noon is higher each day. Quail, a migratory bird, spends the winter in the South. The “drinking gourd” refers to the Big Dipper, “the old man” means Peg Leg Joe, and “the great big river” refers to the Ohio River.

The second verse told slaves to follow the bank of the Tombigbee River north. They were to look for dead trees marked with the drawings of a left foot and a round mark, denoting a peg leg. In the third verse, the hidden message instructed the slaves to continue north over the hills when they reached the Tombigbee’s headwaters. From there, they were to travel along another river—the Tennessee. There were several Underground Railroad routes that met up on the Tennessee.

Slaves were told the Tennessee joined another river in the song’s last verse. Once they crossed that river, a guide would meet them on the north bank and guide them on the rest of their journey to freedom.
Lyrics:

When the Sun comes back
And the first quail calls
Follow the Drinking Gourd,
For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom
If you follow the Drinking Gourd

The riverbank makes a very good road.
The dead trees will show you the way.
Left foot, peg foot, travelling on,
Follow the Drinking Gourd.

The river ends between two hills
Follow the Drinking Gourd.
There’s another river on the other side
Follow the Drinking Gourd.

When the great big river meets the little river
Follow the Drinking Gourd.
For the old man is a-waiting for to carry to freedom
If you follow the Drinking Gourd.

A Negro Hung Alive by the Ribs to a Gallow

This disturbing image was created for a book entitled, Narrative of a Five-Years' Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam. The author, Englishman John Gabriel Stedman, was hired by the Dutch to help quell slave uprisings in their South American colony. In his "narrative" he describes the plants and animals he encountered, as well as how he and fellow soldiers tortured runaway slaves who had been recaptured.

A Negro Hung Alive by the Ribs to a Gallows is based on a crude sketch by Stedman, engraved by the famous English poet and artist, William Blake. Its graphic depiction of a slave in Surinam hanging by a single rib illustrates the general lack of compassion whites had when dealing with enslaved Africans throughout the world.

John Lennon - Woman is the "N" of the World

Slave song by Sade Adu

I see them gathered, see them on the shore
I turned to look once more
And he who knows me not
Takes me to the belly of darkness

The tears run swift and hard
And when they fall
Even, even the comfort of a stone
Would be a gain
There was a time when I thought
I would have to give up
But I'm thankful that I'm
Strong as I am and I'll
Try to do the best I can

Tears will run swift
And tears will come that fall like rain
I pray that it's swift though
Tears will fall as cold as pain

I pray to the almighty
Let me not to him do
As he has unto me
Teach my beloved children
Who have been enslaved
To reach for the light continually

So many times I prayed
So many times I've prayed for you
Prayed for you

The tears run swift and hard and cold as pain
Even, even the comfort of a stone would be a gain
Had I not had the strength and wisdom of a warrior
I would have to give up
But I'm thankful that I'm
Strong as I am and I'll
Try to do the best I can

I pray to the almighty
Let us not do as he has unto us
Teach my beloved children I've been a slave
But reach for the light continually

Wisdom is the flame
Wisdom is the brave warrior
Who will carry us into the sun
I pray that it's swift though
Tears will come that fall like rain

So many times, so many times

Summertime

This song was sang by Fantasia on American Idol. It is not only a beautiful song; it also depicts the live of an African American in the south. It illustrate how African Americans have used music as inspiration and the importance of music in the community.

Summertime and the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high
Oh, your daddy's rich and your ma is good lookin'
So hush little baby, don't you cry

One of these mornings, you're goin' to rise up singin'
Then you spread your wings and you'll take the sky
But 'til that mornin', there's nothin' can harm you
With daddy and mammy standin' by

One of these mornings, you're goin' to rise up singin'
Then you spread your wings and you'll take the sky
But 'til that mornin', there's nothin' can harm you
With daddy and mammy standin' by

'A Change Is Gonna Come'

Sam Cooke was one of the first singers to bring Soul music to the forefront. His music served as an inspiration to incredibly iconic artists like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder just to name a few. Early in his career, Cooke was known for more light-hearted songs like one of my personal favorites, 'You Send Me.' However, Cooke had been inspired in 1963 when he heard Bob Dylan's 'Blowin' In The Wind.' He was deeply moved by Dylan's lyrics that told of the sad reality of racism in America. After attending at sit-in demonstration in Durham, North Carolina, Cooke wrote what would become one of the greatest songs in all of music history according to Rolling Stone. Cooke was born in Mississippi and had been affected by harsh discrimination in the Deep South. Specifically, Cooke and had band and tried to register at a motel for whites only. By doing so, they were arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana for disturbing the peace according to law officials. Naturally, he wanted to incorporate these emotions and experiences into his music. However, he was at first hesitant because he had garnered many white fans and he didn't want to alienate them. Luckily, Cooke overcame his fears and wrote the song that lived within his heart. I couldn't find a video of Sam Cooke singing this song live. However, I encourage you to listen to this song with your eyes closed. When I did so, I was able to feel the emotion and pain in his voice. I imagine the pain must be similar to what blacks felt during the era of slavery. Even though Cooke's life has been hard, he remains hopeful that change will come. Sadly, Cooke died a year after he wrote 'A Change Is Gonne Come.' Rest in peace, Sam.

On a side note, if you wish, please watch this second video. The interviewer asked Sam Cooke to hum 8 bars of what soul represented to him. The 30 second clip gave me goosebumps!

Go Down Moses!

1. When Israel was in Egypt’s land,
   Let My people go!
   Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
   Let My people go!
   • Refrain:
     Go down, Moses,
     Way down in Egypt’s land;
     Tell old Pharaoh
     To let My people go!
2. No more shall they in bondage toil,
   Let My people go!
   Let them come out with Egypt’s spoil,
   Let My people go!
3. Oh, let us all from bondage flee,
   Let My people go!
   And let us all in Christ be free,
   Let My people go!
4. You need not always weep and mourn,
   Let My people go!
   And wear these slav’ry chains forlorn,
   Let My people go!
5. Your foes shall not before you stand,
   Let My people go!
   And you’ll possess fair Canaan’s land,
   Let My people go!
6. The song clearly commands the pharaoh to let the israelites go from oppression and slavery. The words are not inspired by Moses, but by the words of God. Slavery is not just an invention of the 20th century, but has been as old as the world itself. Black slaves that lived in the south could have used this song to encourage themselves. The song cannot only be referred to slavery in the United States, but also be applied to slavery in today's society. Slavery exists in many forms. Some are oppressed by keeping them captive in small environments. One way slavery is still present in society is through human trafficking. Songs such as "Go Down Moses", or "Wade In The Water", have inspired many to overcome their struggles. Many songs that have been written during slavery were songs that were instructions for slaves to flee from their slave owners. The slaves would use their church as a meeting place to discuss their escape. Through songs they were able to communicate on a level unfamiliar to whites. It was like speaking another language.
7. Jezreel Asare

WEB Du Bois

This is a picture of one of the most important African American protest leaders in the United States in the first half of the 20^th century: W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois, born in 1868, has written many books, shared the creation of what is known as the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and edited a magazine called The Crisis for 24 years. Do Bois went to a African American college in Nashville, Tennessee called Fisk University, and he graduated in the year 1888. He later went on to earn his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895. He may have had a history degree, but he had a vast knowledge of social sciences, and he was concerned with the conditions African Americans were in at the time. Du Bois lived in a time where lynching, Jim Crow segregation laws, riots, and disfranchisement was at its highest, and he argued that social change could come about through means of protest and agitation. This opinion clashed with another man who was one of the most influential African American leader of the time, Booker T. Washington. Washington believed that African Americans should accept discrimination for the time being and move forward, work harder, and become economically sound. In 1905 Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement, which basically attacked Booker T. Washington’s platform. This group met regularly until about 1909, and stopped due to internal squabbles and opposition from Washington. However, this was important because it ended up being an inspiration for the creation of the NAACP. Du Bois later in life joined the Communist Party in 1961. He was very much into the ideas and practices of socialism.

-Jake Robinson

Booker T. Washington - The Atlanta Compromise Speech (1904)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/weekinreview/09harris.html

I was searching around Booker T. Washington and this picture captured my interest. It is Booker T. Washington sitting down for a meal with Teddy Roosevelt, with a picture of Abraham Lincoln in the background. This shows three characters in history that have all thought that there should be equality amongst blacks and whites. The infamous Theodore Roosevelt once said "I have not been able to think out any solution of the terrible problem offered by the presence of the Negro on this continent, but of one thing I am sure, and that is that inasmuch as he is here and can neither be killed nor driven away, the only wise and honorable and Christian thing to do is to treat each black man and each white man strictly on his merits as a man, giving him no more and no less than he shows himself worthy to have". He also appointed several African Americans to federal office. Along with Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington was also an icon in the African American society. Probably the most influential African American person during this time period. In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt actually invited Booker T. Washington to dinner, and that is what this picture portrays. They showed that there was a possibility for equality amongst blacks and whites, giving hope to a somewhat demoralized African American culture.

A perfect example Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington said, "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. I think he live up to his saying and with this I was able to find out seven things sayings that will keep human beings determined at any point in time.

You can listen to and read all of the self-development in the world, but if you don’t put what you’re learning into action, things won’t change. There’s a Swedish proverb that goes, “God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.” You have the potential to succeed, but you’re going to have to work the principles that you know.

In order for your life to change, you must change. To the degree that you change your thoughts, will be to the degree that your life changes. Don’t expect anything to change if you’re not changing. Don’t expect your marriage to get any better, if you’re not changing. Don’t expect your health to get any better if you’re not changing. If you want massive change, you must make massive change.

When you reach for great things you will stumble; just be sure to learn from the stumble. A stumble could be the best thing that ever happened to you. A stumble may prevent total chaos in your life, if you learn from it. Learn to value stumbles and to learn from the stumbles.

Success does not come from what you attain, but from who you become. Success is not a big car; success is you being big on the inside. When you’re big on the inside, you can attract a big car, but the car does not make you, you make the car. If you decide to grow up, you will succeed. Jim Rohn said, “We can have more than we’ve got because we can become more than we are."

The good news is you always have possession of the ball in the game of life. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that they have possession of the ball. They’re waiting around for someone to pass them the ball, and they already have it. Take charge of your life, you got the ball, it’s in your court, what are you going to do?


The hard part is always the beginning, the push through the crowd. But if you make it through the crowd, you can make it to the top. I said, “If you can make it through the crowd, you can make it to the top.” Commit today, to push through the crowd.


Vision is your ability to see down the road. Use your imagination to see all the way down the road. I like what Robert Collier said, he said, “The great successful men of the world have used their imagination, they think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building – steadily building.”
Keep on building, and your vision will become your reality. Keep on building and success will be yours.

Remembering Lena Horne

Lena Horne was beautiful, talented and passionate. However, most of all Lena Horne was a trailblazer. She passed away last year at the age of 92 leaving behind a legacy of a career that spanned 70 years, as noted in the CBS news clip. Horne is an incredible inspiration; she grappled with discrimination and adversity before and during the volatile Civil Rights era. However, she gracefully handled the difficulties, which helped her to persevere. Lena Horne was a pioneer. As stated in the report, she was the first African American to accomplish many achievements in the entertainment industry. It could not have been easy to pave the way. She was met with many blatant examples of discrimination and racism. Her story may be different but most definitely resonates with that of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. Horne, along with Douglass and Jacobs, had the courage to push beyond prevalent stereotypes and misconceptions that in turn helped to redefine America. It’s unimaginable that large cities in America like Memphis, Tennessee actually cut footage of Horne from being shown to the public. To look back now, it seems ridiculous. In the past, people’s personal prejudices and ignorance affected the lives of every African American. Lena Horne was just a famous example. However, she did not let these negative forces overtake her. She joined the fight for equality and even marched in Washington D.C. in 1963. Lena Horne will be forever remembered for her beauty and elegance in her music and movies, but America must also remember her as the heroine she was as well.

Whites Only

This picture I have come across takes us back to the days that sparked the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. This is a picture of a water fountain that can be found in many public establishments and institutions, but as you can clearly see, there is a sign is something wrong with this picture. Above this water fountain hangs a sign that reads “Whites only”. Although slavery ended with the Civil War over a century ago from this time period, African Americans faced more hardships with racism and inequalities. Segregation was very prevalent in this era; white people and black people were not allowed to eat in the same restaurants, use the same restroom, and go to school with each other. Like most people, I am somewhat befuddled on the matter of why this racism came about. I understand that the times were different, but how could people in the 1950s and 1960s overlook the facts they were harming their neighbors, brothers, and sisters? White people would not be hurt by African Americans if they drank from the same fountain: it was the sure unjust hatred that brought this about. However, this sort of discrimination could be argued to be a blessing in disguise. It is because of things that African Americans started waking up, and standing up for themselves. These bits and pieces of segregation brought African Americans together, and eventually led to the fight for their equality, and freedom, which was eventually obtained. I believe racism still exists in this world today, and we may need to work hard to eliminate it completely, but we have come a long way, and the steps we as a nation have taken are very positive.

- Jake Robinson

Emmett Till

http://www.himho.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/emmett-till-funeral-photo.jpg

Emmett Louis Till was a 14 year-old African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi after supposedly flirting with another white woman. He was from Chicago, Illinois visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to a white woman named Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store. A few nights later, the woman’s husband and his half-brother, arrived at Till's great-uncle's house. They took him and transported him to a barn, then repeatedly beat him and gouged out one of his eyes. After torturing the boy, they shot him through the head and disposed of his body in a river, weighting it with a 70-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. His body was discovered and retrieved from the river three days later. Till was returned to Chicago and his mother insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket to show the world the brutality of the killing. Tens of thousands attended his funeral or viewed his casket and images of his mutilated body were published in black magazines and newspapers, rallying popular black support and white sympathy across the U.S. Intense scrutiny was brought to bear on the condition of black civil rights in Mississippi, with newspapers around the country critical of the state. Although initially local newspapers and law enforcement officials decried the violence against Till and called for justice, they soon began responding to national criticism by defending Mississippians, which eventually transformed into support for the killers. The trial attracted a vast amount of press attention. Bryant and Milam were released of Till's kidnapping and murder, but months later they admitted to killing him in a magazine interview. Till's murder is noted as one of the leading events that motivated the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Published in 1852

Stowe, a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Academy and an active abolitionist, focused the novel on the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other characters—both fellow slaves and slave owners—revolve. The sentimental novel depicts the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love can overcome something as destructive as enslavement of fellow human beings.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible. It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s.In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States alone. In 1855, three years after it was published, it was called "the most popular novel of our day."The impact attributed to the book is great, reinforced by a story that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe at the start of the Civil War, Lincoln declared, "So this is the little lady who started this great war." The quote is apocryphal; it did not appear in print until 1896, and it has been argued that "The long-term durability of Lincoln's greeting as an anecdote in literary studies and Stowe scholarship can perhaps be explained in part by the desire among many contemporary intellectuals ... to affirm the role of literature as an agent of social change."

Lucy Terry

Lucy Terry (c.1730-1821) is the author of the oldest known work of literature by an African American. Terry was stolen from Africa and sold into slavery as an infant. She was owned by Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield, who allowed her to be baptized into the Christian faith at about five years of age during the Great Awakening. Her work, "Bars Fight", is a ballad about attack upon two white families by Native Americans on August 25, 1746. The attack occurred in Deerfield, Massachusetts in an area called "The Bars", which was a colonial term for a meadow. The poem was preserved orally until it was finally published in 1855.A successful free black man named Abijah Prince purchased her freedom and married her in 1756. In 1764, the Princes settled in Guilford, Vermont, where all six of their children were born.

A persuasive orator, Terry successfully negotiated a land case before the Supreme Court of Vermont in the 1790s. She argued against two of the leading lawyers in the state, (one of whom later became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont) and won her case against the false land claims of Colonel Eli Bronson. Samuel Chase, the presiding justice of the Court, said that her argument was better than he'd heard from any Vermont lawyer. Prince died in 1794. By 1803, Terry moved to nearby Sunderland. She rode on horseback annually to visit his grave until she died in 1821 on July 11.

Dred Scott (1795-1858)

Dred Scott is an African American slave born in Southampton County, Virginia. Dred's real name was Sam, but when his older brother Dred passed away, he decided to use his name. With his masters, the Blow family, he moved to different states during his life, like Illinois, Alabama or Missouri, detail that will be important to explain the turning point of his life.

Dred Scott could not manage to get freed, so in 1846 he suied his master in St. Louis Circuit Court, unsuccessfuly. However, about 4 years later, as new evidences were provided, he was allowed another appearance before the Court, and obtained freedom for him and his wife. Indeed, some of the states that they lived in with their masters prohibited slavery, making Scott's enslavement illegal. That is why in 1850, Dred Scott and his wife were given their freedom by the court.

However, two years later, their freedom was taken away, as they did not sue when they actually lived in the slavery-free states. In 1857, the Scotts appeared in Court again hoping for citizenship, but the Court ruled that African Americans had no claim to freedom or citizenship. Three months later, Scott and his wife were returned to their original owners who freed them, as they had become part of the anti-slavery movement.

Dred Scott's case was a big event that aggravated the tensions between North and South, and that for sure brought America even closer to the Civil War that was right around the corner.

Brooker T. Washington

Booker Taliaferro Washington represents the last generation of African Americans born in slavery. He was born in 1856 in the state of Virginia as a slave and was freed in 1865 as the civil war ended. After working for years in different manual jobs, Washington finally gots an education at Virginia Union University. He soon became a great and influential spokesman and leader for the black community in the United States. He believed that black citizens should temporarily abandon their fights for full civil rights and focus more on getting industrial jobs, saying that this would help the African American community get stable and be stronger to go forward in the future. For Washington, the acceptance of blacks by the white community had to go through a temporarily acceptance of discrimination and segregation. This strategy was suppose to wipe off the divisions between the two races and would leads to equal citizenship for all. These sentiments were later called the “Atlanta compromise.” Washington was received at the white house 1901 to defend his ideas. Among his generation, he was definitely the most influential spokesman.
Nonetheless, Washington encountered some opposition to this strategy in his own community. Indeed W.E.B Dubois deplored Washington's emphasis on industrial skills rather than academic development and civil rights.
I found really interesting to see how the black community did not have a common standpoint in the strategy to adopt in order for black people to achieve equal citizenship and civil rights. The personality of Washington could be related to Fredrick Douglass in that they have both been influential spokesman of the African American community.

Interestingly enough all the slave story that we have treated in class has shown that the slave masters used the bible to back up their wrong. But honestly, the forced enslavement and barbaric treatment involved in the transatlantic slave trade certainly broke biblical laws on slavery. The transatlantic slave trade broking biblical laws can be seen by the explanation done by the abolitionist.

Abolitionists repeatedly quoted the Golden Rule in Matt 7 v12 (‘whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.’) They applied this to the British public by trying to get them to imagine what it would be like if they and their families were enslaved. Coupled with this, abolitionists worked hard to evangelize the slaves themselves as their masters often denied them the hearing of the gospel in case it would undermine their service. The abolitionists appealed to people’s consciences by warning them of God’s judgment and wrath against sin, especially God’s anger at the exploitation of the poor. The Quaker Anthony Benezet warned ‘Will not the groans of this deeply afflicted and oppressed people reach heaven, and must not the inevitable consequence be pouring forth of the judgment of God upon their oppressors, must we not tremble to think what a load of guilt lies upon our Nation.’ The abolitionists emphasized to the people that ‘national sins produce national judgments’.

Many have written and argued that Slavery was a Sin of the South. I would argue most strongly that Slavery was NOT a Sin of the South; It was the Sin of a Nation. The simple picture of Slavery as a Southern Sin does not reflect the much broader participation, exploitation and profit in Slavery as an Enterprise.
The Slave Ship was owned by a New York Slave Trader, It was full of Native African Men, Women, and Children, and it was delivering the Cargo to be sold in the South.
My belief is that few today could look at these images, and read the accompanying story without being appalled, repulsed, and even outraged.
A time to imagine: Look at the picture of these people, created by God and in his image, packed onto this ship like cattle. Gaze at the image, and then spend several minutes reflecting on what it must have been like to be crammed onto a ship so tightly that you could not lie down, so tightly that you could hardly breathe. Think of the sounds of the dying all around, the stench of the diseased and deprived hanging in the air, and the utter hopelessness of the situation.
The facts of the conditions on the Slave Ship are quiet disturbing. This picture tells us of how fellow men intentionally insult mankind. However, the newspaper report is in a light-hearted, fashion. I think the article describes lacks the indignation and passion that one would think would be associated with being an eye-witness to such a human catastrophe because it is not really make certain the intelligence, and presumably the worth of these people. Also when the people appear to be praying, or praising God, it could be mistaken that the people could not be aware of God.
The plantation culture of the south helped to create demand for slaves, rich northerners were more than happy to use their ships and wealth to trade in slaves for profit, and then the popular press, potentially influenced by the wealthy that were benefiting from the slave trade, appears to have been willing to simply look the other way.