Black American slaves had a hard time envisioning how freedom would come. They prayed in the cotton fields, but, for the first time in 200 years, blacks slaves realized by insurrection to the rebel slave-owners or escaping to the British ships along the east coast, there was a glimmer of hope. Late eighteenth century was a brutal and cruel period in Black Americans history. Slave owners sought to strike as much fear as possible into thye minds of their slaves from attempting to escape. There was an island in the Charleston harbor known as Sullivan's Island. Slave owners were informed a community of about 500 runaway slaves were settled there, so they staged an attack. Dressed up like Indians, about forty whites reportedly beat, scalped and murdered over 50 blacks and captured the rest for sale back to their owners.
It was the American Revolution which increased the occurrenco of slave insurrctions in America. Prior to the American Revolution, whites deliberately keep firearms out of the hands of black slaves. With the British offering American slaves freedom and arming them to fight on their side, George Washington was pressed for action.
The point to this blog is that Black Americans had to utilize the enemy of the slaveowners for their own freedom. It was smart and tactical. Today, who is the enemy of our present day slave-owners ?
www.trafford.com/062972 21st Century Vision for Black America
Posted By: jamal Abraham
Thursday, November 4th 2010 at 9:49PM
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