In 1860, 52 years after the importation of human chattel was outlawed in the United States, the Clotilda, a two-masted schooner, sneaked into Mobile Bay near Mobile, Ala., returning from a secret mission in Benin, Africa. Captained by William Foster, the Clotilda unloaded its precious cargo: 110 kidnapped human beings.
What if we could put names and faces to the Africans who were brought over to America as slaves in 1619? Would it humanize slavery instead of making it a category in American history that people love to conveniently forget or urge black folks to “just get over it”?
When CNN broke the story several weeks ago that slavery—not wage slavery, not emotional slavery, not virtual slavery, but actual whips-and-chains-forced labor slavery—was alive and well in the North African nation of Libya, Americans finally started to take notice. Sort of.
You know, there’s a way to teach slavery to people, especially children, without involving fun, hand-drawn posters and role-playing in mock slave auctions. However, it seems as if a New Jersey school still hasn’t gotten the memo, and now it’s facing backlash from parents after a mock slave auction apparently took…
The recent opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is part of a long and slow national reckoning on race, but some chapters on race are still missing from our nation’s history.
Paul Gardullo lifted an iron ballast from a Portuguese slave ship that sank in 1794 out of a crate Wednesday morning and hefted its weight in his hands.
