Home > Blogs > Post Content
|
|
Peace, On Page 7, of The Frederick Douglass Encyclopedia, it states: "Douglass was unconvinced that living and working in Africa would appreciably be more effective in abolishing the slave trade, because the "savage chiefs" in West Africa were little different than slave traders in America in terms of morality and economic interests." Of course Frederick Douglass was right, about the fact that there were African rulers that sold our ancestors to Europeans. However, I'm questioning whether Douglass was right or misinformed, when he stated that there was little difference between African slavery and European slavery, in terms of morality, considering the fact that European enslavers sought to strip us of our identities/humanity, made us breed like some of their livestock, prohibited us from becoming educated, kept us in unsanitary conditions, etc. I welcome all feedback, thank you in advance.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Wednesday, February 1st 2012 at 4:36PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
|
|
|
One of the things I note right away in the book, was that he did not mention Arab/Muslim enslavers, but sub-Saharan Africans.
Of course, we know that the "savage chiefs" term was a term that white people applied to black people in Africa, essentially dismissing any sense of civilization and culture amongst African people.
Then, one has to wonder what was Douglass' source of information, to come to this conclusion? During the late 1800s, who really had access to information about Africa? Hell, we can't even get it straight today, right in our own neighborhoods, and that's with all of the modern technology of today????
Wednesday, February 1st 2012 at 4:38PM
Siebra Muhammad
|
|
|
Maybe it could have been 'The Slave Trade in the Congo Basin' in The Century Magazine, April 1890 article...no disrespect to Douglass' works but this is what he shared with us...
Thursday, February 2nd 2012 at 12:40PM
Siebra Muhammad
|
 |
Hello Siebra,
Well I have been told that I can never understand, but as no one else has commented may I go out on a limb and venture, "let the dead bury the dead"?
Thursday, February 2nd 2012 at 11:38PM
Steve Williams
|
|
|
I'd heard about black slave owners, and have no reason to it now, even if the white slave owners may be trying to use this as some sort of revisionist history to suggest that he was the chief-beast in that regard.
That said, I want to quickly go back to Frederick Douglass, as to what he knew or did not, about Africa, because he wasn't speaking about Africans in America. Again, how did he know what was going on in West Africa? Who went there to give him the information?
Sunday, February 5th 2012 at 4:06PM
Siebra Muhammad
|
|
|
He probably got his information the way we do now, through the media which of course back then was the old fashioned newspaper. Was the journalism back then better than it is now? I would guess he may have had other sources as someone who was connected to the government. Again, would they be reliable?
Sunday, February 5th 2012 at 4:26PM
Steve Williams
|
|
|
Maybe, if Douglass visited Haiti as the U.S. Ambassador (I just learned that he'd visited Africa with his wife (who was Caucasian) during the 1890s, he could have gotten wind of such events.
Nonetheless, based on the "savage chiefs" term, consistent with a brainwashed blackman born in America, Douglass saw anything out of Africa as "savage", particularly its clearly negative aspects. But he didn't take the same position with white brutes who brutalized, raped and killed his own people, even right before his eyes.
Yet he was consistent with us and how we as black people have been trained to sanitize what whites do, while piling on anything black people do.
Monday, February 6th 2012 at 11:37AM
Siebra Muhammad
|
 |
WE CAN ALWAYS 'ASSUME' THAT F.D. HAD PARENTS WHO HAD PARENTS , WHO HAD PARENTS...AND THEY PRACTICED SOMETHING CALLED 'ORAL HISTORY' AS THEY HAD DONE SINCE TIME , COMMUNICATION BEGAN??? ...
LOL (SMILE)
Thursday, April 10th 2014 at 6:47PM
ROBINSON IRMA
|
Blogs Home
|
|
|
