My Name Is John Punch: I am the first LEGAL #racialslave in human history.
I do not remember much about my past. That said, I do remember I wass born in the most beautiful place in the world —Africa.
I don't recall where in Africa.
Maybe Cameroon, Gabon or the Ivory Coast.
"They don't see race, but they benefit from racism."
— Charisse C. Levchak
#ColorblindRacism
"It is a sad truth of our history that American slavery based on race was invented in Virginia, very close to where I sit today.'
markfordelegate.com/content/newsle…
Africans In America: Indentured Servants: A History of Racial Slavery
#RacialSlavery
#DissimilaritiesMatter
Ira Berlin explains:
"Soon after Bacon's Rebellion they increasingly distinguish between people of African descent and people of European descent. They enact laws which say that people of African descent are hereditary slaves."
"And they increasingly give some power to independent white farmers and land holders." ...
"Now what is interesting about this is that we normally say that slavery and freedom are opposite things—that they are diametrically opposed ...
.... But what we see here in Virginia in the late 17th century, around Bacon's Rebellion, is that freedom and slavery are created at The Same Moment."
A History of Racial Slavery
Why John Punch is important.
Post-Hardcore History 1: John Punch
An indentured servant of color becomes a #racialslave.
"An enslaved African who lived in the colony of #Virginia. Thought to have been an #indenturedservant, Punch attempted to escape and was sentenced in July 1640 by the #Virginia Governor's Council to serve as a #slave".
"At first, the lives of servants and slaves were similar. They were owned by their masters and they worked shoulder to shoulder in the tobacco fields—sometimes even alongside their masters and their masters’ wives. Masters often used the courts to discipline their servants. ...
" The English common law, though only sparingly enforced, was meant to protect servants and slaves from mistreatment.Still, blacks and whites sought relief from their often grueling labor and difficult work conditions by running away, sometimes together."
"In July 1640, two such cases appeared before the colony’s judges. The decision dated July 9 describes three servants belonging to Hugh Gwyn who ran away to Maryland and were captured there. Victor, “a Dutchman,” and James Gregory, “a Scotchman,” were each sentenced to be whipped
.... , and four years were added to their indentures.'
The third servant, “a negro named John Punch,” was punished differently.
The following information is intended for good people like our dear brotha, John Punch. But, it is especially for the nasty, racist, ignorant people — the "colorblind" people, who tell black people to "get over it".
You get over it if you want to; we aren't getting over anything. We have a contract. And, we can't destroy our contract with our ancestors for you.
You're not that special.
It's always tempting to “get with the times" -- isn’t it? But, we've no time for that. We endorse Burke's principle of a contract that extends to all times, a contract "with the dead, the living, and those yet to be born".
"Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have."
— James Baldwin #tcot
Do Not Let Them Equalize In Order To Minimize Your Dissimilar History!
Don’t let anyone lie to you, tell you that The Transatlantic Slave Trade was like the slavery of antiquity, or that it was characterless and garden-variety.
It was not.
It was uniquely barbaric in all of world history.
Don’t let’ them lie to you.
Don’t help them murder your ancestors, again!
Don't assist the ambassadors of Satan, in throwing John Punch, your African ancestor(s) back into the Atlantic ocean, again -- for them.
Set the record straight.
Be ruthless.
Be unapologetic.
Tell the truth.
Africans In America: Indentured Servants: A History of Racial Slavery
#RacialSlavery
The History of Racialism: Why Europeans Invented Racial Slavery
Reaching back across the centuries, this program sheds light on historical attitudes toward human differences.
Anthony Bogues, Brown University: What is Racial Slavery?
What is racial slavery and how is it different from other forms of slavery?
#RacialSlavery
#WhiteSupremacy
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