Thread by @michaelharriot

Thread: Wrestler Rocky Johnson, passed away yesterday

Years ago, for some reason, I looked up Johnson's bio and noticed that he was a descendant of the Nova Scotia "Black Loyalists."

The Black Loyalists' story is a tale of resistance that affects everyone reading this thread

It started ten days before Kwanzaa in 1773, a secret organization called the Sons of Liberty organized a
protest against a parliamentary law that allowed the British East India Company to import tea from China. Apparently, white people really like tea.

At the Boston Tea Party, protesters rioted and looted like the Patriots had won the Super Bowl. (If you’re wondering why they called it a “party,” you must understand that Caucasian parties are different. Very few colonists could perform the kick-turn part of the Electric Slide.)

When the British heard about the disturbance, they sent soldiers to quell the discord. A few months later, a gunfight broke out in Middlesex County, Mass. The first shots took place in Lexington, Mass. and proceeded in Concord.

The American Revolution had officially begun.

So, on November 7, 1775, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, royal governor of the British Colony of Virginia, asked for help from “all indentured servants, Negroes, or others...free that are able and willing to bear arms.”

An estimated 100,000 enslaved Africans joined the British

After the US won in the championship round of the American Revolution playoffs, many of the Africans who fought for the British were re-enslaved.

But around 3,000, were put on ships and sent to Nova Scotia along with white British loyalists.

But soon, the white loyalists were mad that the Black Loyalists had land and money, so the whites attacked a black Novia Scotian town.

The Black Loyalists finally had enough. They wanted to get away from wypipo altogether. Plus, IDK if you know this, but Canada is cold AF!

Of course, white folks had BEEN colonizing Africa. But, the British wanted more. So, they came up with an idea. They chartered the Sierra Leone Company, and the owners went to the Black Loyalists and said:

"Y'all ain't cold? And what's up with all these pasty white people?"

The Loyalists were like: "IKR? But what can we do?"

So, in 1792, decades before American free blacks founded Liberia, Black Loyalists loaded up in 15 ships in Nova Scotia, sailed for the coast of Sierra Leone, and founded the town of Freetown.

Yep, they went back to Africa.

But the American Revolution wasn't the first Revolution,

In Jamaica, enslaved Africans would escape and form their own communities in the mountains. Britain sent soldiers to attack the Maroon settlements in 1728, prompting the First Maroon War

The Jamaican Maroons kicked ass

The British couldn't beat them and decided to sign a treaty, allowing Maroon settlements to govern themselves.

One of the provisions in the treaty was that a white superintendent would live in the Maroon Communities.

But you know colonizers are never satisfied.

The British started getting mad because slaves were running away to Maroon communities and there were slave revolts throughout the Caribbean (Hait, Cuba, etc)

They were REALLY upset that the maroons wouldn't help them put down the slave revolts, which was in the treaty)

In 1795, the British sent 5,000 troops and outnumbered the maroons 10 to 1. But the maroons knew the land.

They kicked the British's ass.

AGAIN.

So the British sent word to Cuba and shipped 100 bloodhounds to hunt the Maroons. Then they started burning shit.

It was a stalemate.

The Maroons agreed to lay down their arms on one condition: That they wouldn't be deported.

But you know white people aren't the most trustworthy when it comes to enslaving. That's how colonizing works.

So the British rounded up the Maroons and sent them to Nova Scotia, too.

Can you imagine moving from Jamaica to Nova Scotia? I don't know if I've mentioned it, but Canada is cold AF!

Of course, the Jamaicans were unhappy. And cold.

Well, back In Freetown, the Black Nova Scotian settlers were upset that the Sierra Leone Co. was ruling over them harshly, so they rebelled.

But the British had an idea:

Instead of putting down the rebellion themselves, they sent these battle-tested Jamaican maroons to quell it

Yep, 1800 Britain pitted freed slaves against freed slaves and started a war

But they eventually came together for one reason:

In 1807 Britain banned slavery. Not only did they ban it, but they began attacking the ship of any slave traders

To do this, they put a naval squadron in Sierra Leone. The West Africa Squadron was one of the most feared naval outfits in the world. There was only 1 problem:

The white soldiers kept dying.

Tropical diseases ravaged British soldiers and it was hellish.

So the British Crown enlisted the help of the battle-tested maroons and settlers. About 1,000 black soldiers were in the Squadron by 1845.

And those motherfuckers could FIGHT.

Between 1808 and 1860, the West Africa Squadron captured 1600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans

Most of those freed Africans were resettled in Sierra Leone.
It's one of the most diverse countries in the world.

That's also why English is the official language but the most widely spoken language is Krio, which sounds like a mix of SC Gullah, Jamaican patois, Igbo and Yoruba

But despite being obscenely mineral-rich places on earth, Sierra Leone is also one of the poorest countries in Africa.

Why?

Because, aside from HUGE deposits of diamonds, titanium, iron and gold Sierra Leone has a huge deposit of one other thing:

White people.

All of Sierra Leone's diamond mines, mineral deposits and extraction operations are owned by private companies who extract the wealth and ship it out of the country.

Debeers, Israel, Russia, and Britain intermittenly fuel unrest by robbing the country of its wealth.

It has the largest iron ore deposit in Africa and the 3rd largest in the world. 50 percent of its diamonds are smuggled out of the country illegally. It has one of the world's 5 largest stores of the titanium ore called rutile, used in paints and welding.

Whether you're reading this on a smartphone or a desktop, something inside probably came from Sierra Leone.

So, when white supremacists ask: "Why is Africa so poor," this is why.

Whenever anyone says:

"BuT AFriCaNs SoLd SlaVes, tOo"

Remind them that, despite being a small percentage of America, Canada or Great Britain, WE were the ones who fought them, worldwide, for freedom.

And when they say: "Go back to Africa," tell them how there is no escape from colonizers.

But goddammit, we tried.