Celebrating and Honoring of the End Of Slavery

American Slavery was the most inhumane way that a human being could be treated. The United Stated profited from the system of enslavement and its commerce in persons, both as a colony and as a free interdependent part of the world capitalist system. In the USA, the enslaved African was profitable on three basic levels:1) as a commodity to be sold; 2) as an object of labor to be rented; and 3) as a producer of cash products such as cotton, sugar, tobacco and rice. Around the economic process, commercial and industrial areas grew up, first in New England and New York, and then the South. WOW! That growth led DuBois (1969) to conclude in his seminal work that this economic process, involving merchants and planters, became “the very life of the colonies.” In fact, up to the mid-19th century, American economic development rested mainly on foreign commerce with enslavement and products grown by enslaved Africans at the center of the process.

Enslavement also had its basis in the practicality of the process. The practicality of African enslavement rested in their low escape possibilities as opposed to Native Americans and whites due to unfamiliarity with the land, high social visibility and lack of a nearby home base. Also, there were no major political repercussions for the enslavement of Africans, unlike the Native Americans who had people here to retaliate and the whites whose enslavement would challenge the tenets of Christianity and the Age of Enlightenment and reason on which Europe prided itself.

Finally, the basis of the American system of enslavement was in its justifiability in European racist thought. Although the enslavement of Africans was based in economic reasons, it also rested in racism as an ideology. Racism as an ideology became a justification and encouragement for African enslavement. It expressed itself in religious absurdities, biological absurdities and cultural absurdities. Thus, religiously, it was argued God ordained whites to conquer, civilize and Christianize the African “heathen” and of course, take his/her wealth in the process. Moreover, the biological absurdities included redefinition of Africans out of the human race, denying their history and humanity and giving them animal characteristics to suit their bestial treatment by whites. And finally, the cultural absurdities revolved around claims of white cultural superiority and social Darwinist claims of having both the natural right and responsibility to conquer and use the human and material resources of “lesser” people’s for the advancement of the more “noble and advanced” ones.

Although Rodney (1974:88-89) at first argues that Africans were enslaved for economic, rather than racist reasons, he later concedes the dialectical relation between the two. He correctly concludes that “oppression of African people on purely racial grounds accompanied, strengthened and became indistinguishable from oppression for economic reasons.” Moreover, he maintained that “by the nineteenth century white racism had become so institutionalized in the capitalist world (and notably in the USA) that it sometimes ranked above the maximization of profit as a motive for oppressing Black people.”

This is why “Juneteenth” has such significance and importance to African Americans because it is honoring the “END” of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger led thousands of federal troops to Galveston, Texas to announce that the Civil War had ended, and slaves had been freed. Approximately 250,000 Texan slaves had no idea that their freedom had been secured by the government. Abraham Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation” meant immediate freedom for slaves throughout the nation. However, since the country was in the midst of the Civil War, those states that had seceded from the Union did not adhere to the Proclamation, and slaves in the states remained unfree. Though much of the language in the “Emancipation Proclamation” suggests otherwise, Lincoln’s primary objective was not to ameliorate the lives of those in bondage. Rather, his intent was preserving the Union.

In August 1862, Horace Greely, the editor of the New York Tribune, published an editorial addressed to Lincoln pressuring his stance on slavery and urging him to abolish it. Lincoln responded in an open letter to Greely, published in the Tribune that same August. The letter said “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to “SAVE OR DESTROY” slavery. Lincoln wrote “What I do about Slavery and the Colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union.” “Wow!” “Wow!” “Wow!”

We as a people were “Never” looked upon as being “Humans.” They have and still do look upon us as “Animals!” The only reason we are hearing so much about “Juneteenth” today is due to “ALL” of the marches that have been going on throughout this country due to the many “POLICE” massacres that have been going on throughout our country. Wake Up! Wake Up!

The above information that I have shared with you is from “Introduction To Black Studies” By Maulana Karenga, which was one of my son’s books when he was attending college. This text is essentially a contribution to the efforts to develop a standard body of discipline-specific literature for BlackStudies. It is to raise provocative questions about the Black experience which cultivate the use of and on appreciation for inquiry and analysis as indispensable tools to an effective grasp and critical discussion of Black Studies.

I realize that you will be reading this column five days after “Juneteenth” but I am writing it on the “Actual” day. I wanted to do it this way so that after “Juneteenth” is over these words will still be appearing before your eyes to be “Always” remembered and “Hopefully” never to be forgotten. It saddens my heart that to my knowledge none of our “African American” organizations did “Anything” in honor of today. If so, I was not made aware of it. Why Not? Peace!

Also, former city of Newburgh policeman, Butch Amthor is being considered to be appointed as the city of Newburgh’s next police chief. Being that Ray Harvey, president of the NAACP, had recently sent a letter to the city of Newburgh stating their concerns re: this appointment being a person of color. He is very disturbed about this. NU-VOTER’S movement has also expressed their concerns in a flyer which they are circulating. I also tried to reach Rev. Mays, president of the Newburgh Ministerial Fellowship, because they also had sent a letter to the City Manager and City Council re: their concerns re: the next police chief being a person of color.

This is “Lillie’s Point of View” and I’m just having my say. Now you can have yours! PEACE!