Despite describing slavery in America as unethical, abhorrent and barbaric, America's third president, Thomas Jefferson, was still wedded to holding human beings as his property.
This stands to reason why Clint Smith, the writer of this informative book felt impelled to pay a visit to Monticello, the non-profit organization which aims to take care of everything related to the primary plantation of Jefferson, as well as to peregrinate different parts of the United States to tell the truth.
"Slavery's an institution. In Jefferson's lifetime it becomes a system. So what is this slave system? It is a system of exploitation, a system of inequality and exclusion, a system where people are owned as property and held down by physical and psychological force." Said David Thorson, Smith's tour guide at the plantation.
Jefferson indeed did things that constitute tergiversation as, on the one hand, he acknowledged how depraved slave owners were and did not espouse support for slavery, but on the other hand he had indeed separated generations of families, from some children's progenitors to the children's sons and daughters, in bondage. He really thumbed his nose at those whom he owned as slaves.
"The whole commerce between a slave owner and slaves is a kind of despotism." And slave owners were literally too insouciant to fathom this.
Smith also touched upon the noteworthy point - humans are an imitative animal. When children see their parents fight, they are apt to imitate, which once again stands to reason why slavery and violence had been perpetuated since time immemorial.
"Slavery necessitated the subjugation of another human being."
As the title asks, how the word is passed? Monticello, according to Niya Bates, the director of African American history at Monticello, plays a preponderant role in laying bare the fact that if any of a person's progenitors were held captive as slaves, as evidenced by public history and as people are grappling with this particular question. This is especially invaluable for Niya, who's inquisitive as Jefferson's legacy somehow falls outside of her purview.
In this book, Niya was quoted as saying, America's public education on the antebellum history of slavery clearly failed, as a lot of things were misconstrued, such as the writer of the U.S. Constitution, the main contributor to the outbreak of the American Civil War, etc.
Smith stressed people should deal with history. Heading straight to Jefferson's background is a serpentine approach, as distinct from an eclectic one. This, as America's third President was a person who contributed both positive and created problems for the American society.
As evidenced in the book, Jefferson seemed to have benefited the most from the repugnant act of keeping people in bondage, because it in part made for the opulent and sumptuous architecture and the time to read and write, things Jefferson valued throughout his lifetime. Indeed, Jefferson's vacillation from moral repugnance to hollow justification in that abyss is the prime example of how wedded he was to the notion that holding people in bondage can make for an elegant life.
What's more, all rebellions against slavery were met with swift responses, with those partaking in the marches slaughtered then and there.
Smith also pointed out that while many slaves were illiterate because they were born incarcerated, staff at the Whitney plantation gleaned more than 2,300 firsthand account of formerly enslaved people. Figurines which serve as simulacra of some slavers were placed in an old, white church with a flaking facade, with narratives that moved many to tears. Visitors are given a lanyard with a slave narrative, with tragedies embedded.
On the whole, as Smith stressed, it was hard-pressed at first for staff members to glean information as most writings belonging to slaves who were able to escape and tell their own stories were lost.
In addition, Smith reiterated that sexual violence was ubiquitous in slavery, in which white sailors were reported to have raped black enslaved women during journeys across the Atlantic Oceans. Time and again, slave owners who lacked sentience and were sadistic were discovered to have been carrying out a dehumanisation process in which slaves were bludgeoned, raped, humiliated and derogated, other than having been peeping Toms.
Be that as it may, a lot of medical schools like Harvard and the Universities of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia in the bygone era of American slavery depended upon cadavers of enslaved people. Slaves somehow became the essential propellers for the medical field's success in coming to grips with gynaecology, and post-mortem in Black slaves.
Then, Smith raised a million-dollar question, a caveat: Although slavery was abysmal and unethical, were there any good slave owners? Indeed, it's preposterous to believe that although someone kidnapped a person, he/she fed him/her well, and so he/she is a good person. Kidnapping already constitute an unadulterated story of brutality and horror.
The owner of the plantation, who's a businessman, only purchased the place with a view to earning more. However, after he learned of the history of the place, he was also moved and decided to make it a museum. But, it was the unusual act by a businessman that intrigued others, and triggered questions about any ulterior reasons. His museum in its first year welcomed hundreds of visitors who were fascinated by the history of slavery, according to custodians.
Another major contemporaneous issue: Racism. Black pickpockets were charged with larceny and sometimes recidivism right out of the gate. And Black defendants were more likely to be convicted, so as to obviate the need to incarcerate White Americans.
Smith dropped another bomb in the book as he mentioned that as hideous Europeans had to justify and rationalise the plunder of Africans, they took to considering Africans a simple merchandise, not human beings, so as not to "dehumanise" them. Many Africans were treated like plebs as they were bought and sold like goods.
It's not only Senegal who's trying to grapple with what reckoning is. The same holds true for America, especially after the spate of gun violence involving racism earlier in 2020.
In his eclectic approach to fathoming this heinous industry, Smith found that his grandfather's grandfather, with whom he definitely shares a linage, was actually held in bondage.
Suffice it to say, the history of slavery is an intrinsic part of the United States' history, and used to be the fabric of every stratum of the American society, as slavery once created a macabre and ghastly environment in many parts of the United States.
There is no denying that we all understand we shouldn't let history cruelly repeat itself. But the rub is, although we are repenting, have we learned enough to move forward in concert and learn from that mistake?
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