The Black Researcher

 Everyone was a child under American slavery, but not all were "childish." The Things That Children Saw in Slavery "Black Angels" Charleston, South Carolina (Credit: Rob a.k.a. Okinawa Soba on Flickr ) Many of the things that happened during the time of institutionalized chattel slavery in the United States were not spoken of or written down. But from what was recorded about this history, we can learn a great deal about the lives of enslaved African people. The same holds true when researching the lives of children, who represented 25% of the enslaved population at the time of the Civil War. Some of their stories survived with them into adulthood and were preserved in interviews with government workers and in books published on their behalf.  As the celebrated historian of the African diaspora, Sylviane Diouf , writes: No person alive today can really know what it was like growing up as an enslaved child in the United States, but all these testimonies help form a ...

One man was such a threat to British rule that they cooked him for 10 hours straight.   The Brutal Punishments of Black Slaves 'Barbarities in the West Indias [Indies]' April 23, 1791 Artist: Hannah Humphrey (Source: UK National Portrait Gallery ) The picture above is a caricature depicting a scene in a British island colony, described in shocking detail during a debate before the British parliament on the abolition of the slave trade. The motion before the floor was presented by the abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833). An excerpt  of a speech from the debate is written at the bottom of the print. Mr Frances [sic] relates 'Among numberless other acts of cruelty daily practised, an English Negro driver, because a young Negro through sickness was unable to work, threw him into a copper of boiling sugar juice, and after keeping him steeped over head and ears for above three quarters of an hour in the boiling liquid whipt him with such severity, that it was near six m...

 A slave-owner was only as savage as society knew them to be. The Secret Savage William Byrd II (1674-1704) ca. 1700-1704 Artist: Sir Godfrey Kneller (Source: Encyclopedia Virginia ) I am currently reading the secret diaries of William Byrd II (1674-1744).   In my own estimation, Byrd was Thomas Jefferson before there was a Thomas Jefferson - the model of the American intelligentsia.  There were many striking similarities between the two. Both were born in Virginia. Both were raised into slave-owning families, inheriting both land and human "property" from their fathers. Both were "men of letters" and enjoyed reading Greek, Latin, and Hebrew literature. Both became fairly successful politicians. Perhaps, the great difference between them was the contributions that Jefferson made to the establishment of the new government. Louis B. Wright as a member of the research staff at Huntington Library (Source: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens ) Bryd...