As a black man born in America I found myself wrestling with the newly instated federal holiday called Juneteenth. Juneteenth commemorates Texas being the last state to acknowledge the abolishment of slavery on June 19, 1865. Texas's acknowledgement on the ending of slavery came three months after the end of the Civil War. The question I have for Africans is are we truly free?
WHY SLAVERY IN THE FIRST PLACE
European kings and lords and sent explorers out on voyages to bring wealth back to the kingdom. The explorers stumbled on the vast land of America and wrote back to their European kings and lords. There was one problem, American soil was preoccupied by Native Americans. Explorers told the narrative that Native Americans needed to be colonized because they were uncivilized savages. Explorers who turned colonizers tried to enslave the Natives Americans but the problem was Native Americans knew the terrain better than their would be oppressors, not to mention the colonizers struggle with diseases. Native Americans were not durable nor easy to enslave. Colonizers' next steps were to confine Native Americans to specific areas or to slaughter them altogether.
THE IMPORTATION OF AFRICANS
With the harvesting of tobacco, cotton, and unsettled land colonizers needed a vast amount of cheap labor. Colonizers learned from their failures with trying to enslave the Native Americans. Colonizers in Africa used religion to strip Africans of their identity, and rendered Africans as inferior in order to help with the oppression of Africans. Colonizers imported Africans from Africa with parameters in place to minimize the possibility of escape plus Africans did not know the lay of the land so they were less inclined to run away. The purpose of imported African slaves was to supply colonizers with an endless supply of free labor. Slaves became ill and died at sea, pirates raided merchant ships, or Africans revolted and took over ships. With time, it became costly to ship slaves from Africa to America. Around 1787 the push to end the Transatlantic Slave Trade became louder and louder. Colonizers adopted the idea of slave chattel and the breeding and selling of African slaves became a viable commodity.
INVISIBLE SHACKLES
April 12, 1961 was the initial start of the Civil War between Free States and Pro Slave States. On May 9, 1865 marked the end of the Civil War. The free states won the war and brought slavery to an end. However, the abolishment of slavery wasn't officially over until June 19, 1865. Slave owned states were destroyed from the war and needed laborers to rebuild the infrastructure. Slave owners pivoted into owning jails. Inmates became the new labor force to rebuild the destroyed states. Newly emancipated Africans found themselves being jailed on bogus charges. Government would pay the prison owners for the use of inmates. The prison owners pocketed the money and the inmates who were mostly Africans found themselves working for free again. Many Africans who were once free now found themselves stripped of personal freedoms and this tactic gave birth to mass incarceration which continues to be on the incline.
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