Black History Month – Cudjo Lewis: The Last Survivor of The Last Slave Ship

Article 1 Section 9 of the United States Constitution (1787) stipulated that the slave trade could not be interfered with for the next twenty years. Only beginning in January 1, 1808, could laws become effective to end it. It did not, however, require Congress to ban it.

Nevertheless in 1807 the United States took steps to end the international slave trade officially with the U.S. Slave Trade Act, specifying that, as of January 1, 1808 it would be illegal to import into the United States “negroes, mulattos, or persons of color” as slaves. However, if it turned out that Africans did reach the United States illegally, they could still be sold and enslaved. Moreover, the Act did nothing to prohibit slavery already in place.

[Even worse, the effort to end the slave trade - seemingly so progressive on its surface, created even more of a horror story for enslaved women. Now the only legal [sic] way owners had to increase their number of slaves was either by enforced “mating” of their slaves, or by enforced mating with their slaves. Not only were women of child-bearing age raped repeatedly, but infertile women were punished by being sold away from their families and friends. (Usually, buyers were unsuspecting, because they too would have wanted to use female slaves for forced reproduction. That this occurred frequently is attested to by the number of judicial cases brought by new owners for fraud in such circumstances.) (If you have the stomach, you can read more about the egregious practice of the rape of women slaves here. The link to download this scholarly study from the Washington & Lee University (Law School) Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice is on the right-hand side.)]

So the slave trade and the increase of slaves already within the borders of the U.S. [read: rape of enslaved women helpless to resist] continued. Tougher laws against importation were enacted, but with small penalties and without much enforcement. In 1850, the South even tried to get international slave trading re-opened! They did not succeed, but illegal importation did increase between 1850 and 1860.

Location of Benin

In 1860, the schooner Clotilda, carrying between 110 and 116 captives from Benin and Nigeria landed in Mobile, Alabama. The Clotilda is believed to have been the last slave ship to bring slaves to the United States. (Timothy Meaher, a Mobile businessman, sent the Clotilda to Africa on a bet that he could “bring a shipful of niggers right into Mobile Bay under the officers’ noses.” He of course won the bet.)

Arriving as a slave on that vessel was Cudjo Lewis from Benin. Lewis was one of 32 slaves who ended up on Meaher’s estate. Freed in 1865, he became a leader of a group of Clotilda veterans in Mobile. They started their own community they named African Town with the goal of preserving African traditions. Lewis outlived his fellow Clotilda companions, dying on July 26, 1935 at the estimated age of 94.

Cudjo Lewis, also known by his African name of Kazoola

Up until World War II, African Town remained a rather distinct community in Mobile County. Now called AfricaTown, it is still home to the descendants of the men and women from the Clotilda. It was incorporated into the city of Mobile in 1948. As of December 2012, it was officially placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Parks Service.

Sunday Treat for Black History Month – Lift Every Voice and Sing!

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is sometimes referred to “The African-American (or “Black” or “Negro”) National Anthem.” It was written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson in 1899 and set to music by his brother (a composer) the next year.

James Weldon Johnson, around age 30

Johnson (1871-1938), was – among other things – a lawyer, politician, diplomat, author, an early activist for Civil Rights, and a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University. He and his brother were both considered to be significant figures in the Harlem Renaissance Movement (the flowering of Black cultural and intellectual life during the 1920’s and 1930’s that began in Harlem, New York).

Besides this poem, Johnson’s other best-know work is the book The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, which was published anonymously (at first) in 1912.

You can read the lyrics to “Life Every Voice and Sing” here, and you can hear a fabulous jazzy rendition of it performed by Ray Charles in the 1972 video below.

Black History Month Kid Konnection – Review of “Brick by Brick” by Charles R. Smith, Jr.

The original White House in Washington, D.C. was built in the 1790s with the help of slaves rented from nearby plantations. The irony of the Founding Fathers who, in search of liberty and justice for all, utilized slaves to achieve it, is a subtle undercurrent in this poetic history of the construction of the new symbol of Free America.

Smith uses rhythmic repetition that focuses on the hard tasks of mixing mortar and spreading it; chiseling, carving, and transporting stone; and bleeding and blistering under a hot son.

Up, down, push, pull
two men per pit saw,
spraying sawdust
until slave hands are raw.”

Perhaps the best part of this book is the way the author’s fierce passion for justice is evinced by his recitation of the names of some of these slaves, names which he uncovered in his research for the book. By giving them identities, he turns them from faceless slaves into real people, whose descendants would go on not only to gain their freedom, but even to see Michelle Obama, a descendant of slaves like them, occupy the White House with her husband.

Illustrator Floyd Cooper (like the author, a Coretta Scott King Award winner) captures the mood of the book perfectly in oil-wash paintings that emphasize the brown tone of the work site, and almost bring to mind the story of the Exodus, with slaves working in the desert to build the pyramids.

In an afterward, Smith shares some of what he learned in his research about the building of the first White House, and includes a list of selected resources.

Evaluation: This book is meant for children 5-8, but I think children will appreciate having a parent co-reader answer the questions they may have about this very different era in our history. After a first “explanatory” reading though, I imagine children will want to return to this book repeatedly. It offers mesmerizing pictures and a compelling story about a symbol of America children will undoubtedly recognize.

Rating: 4/5

Published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins, 2013

For more multicultural picture books, check out all the resources at The Birthday Party Pledge, a new website dedicated to promoting gifts of multicultural books to the children in our lives.

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For more reviews of books for children and teens, go to Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.

Black History Month Kid Konnection – Review of “Nelson Mandela” by Kadir Nelson

Kadir Nelson is such a masterly artist that he almost doesn’t need words to go along with his books. In fact, with this book in particular, you can learn the story of the great South African leader Nelson Mandela without reading a thing. …which is probably helpful, because a glossary is not included at the back of the book. I’m betting I’m not the only one not knowing words from Xhosa. For example, while readers can get an idea of what “Amandia!” and “Ngawethu!” mean from the context, it would have been nice to have a guide in the back. I didn’t even know what “mealies” meant and had to look it up. [For others who share my ignorance, "mealies" is the name for corn on the cob in South Africa. It comes from the Afrikaans word “mielie” which in turn comes from early Dutch settlers who called corn “milies”.]

Still, most of the prose is forthright and simple, and reflects the beauty of the culture the author is documenting:

Nelson was nine when his father
joined the ancestors in the sky.
To continue his schooling,
Nelson was sent miles away
to live with a powerful chief.
‘Brace yourself, my boy.’
His mother held her tears
And said good-bye.”

The pictures are absolutely stunning. Nelson uses rich, powerful oil paintings that show Mandela’s power and charisma in vivid and striking action pictures. You can see Mandela’s dedication as he strives to learn what he needs to in order to help his people; feel the passion of his supporters; and taste their hunger for freedom.

Evaluation: Mandela’s story is inspirational, and the pictures will knock you out!

Rating: 4/5

Published by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2013

Note: My husband, who tries never even to notice children’s books because they are “children’s books” can never stay away from Kadir Nelson. This time, when he saw – from across the room, the pictures of Nelson Mandela as I was turning the pages, he stopped what he was doing, walked over saying “wow” and sat down and read with me! I highly recommend this book for all ages!

For more multicultural picture books, check out all the resources at The Birthday Party Pledge, a new website dedicated to promoting gifts of multicultural books to the children in our lives.

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For more reviews of books for children and teens, go to Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.

Sunday Treat for Black History Month – Marilyn and Ella

Marilyn Monroe is only rarely credited for her considerable intellect, or her compassion and courage. But during Black History Month, we would be remiss not to take a look underneath her exterior at the beauty that was also within her, and how she helped play a role in opening up musical venues to black performers. One incident involved a singer whose recordings Marilyn studied over and over for inspiration and emulation.

This singer was none other than the fantastic Ella Fitzgerald, who, like other black performers of her time in the 1950’s, was denied admission to a number of hotels, restaurants, and clubs. Her white manager, Norman Granz, insisted that all his musicians be treated equally, but there were many owners that refused to accede to his demands.

The Mocombo was a popular Hollywood club frequented by many movie stars, and it was Marilyn’s favorite. And Marilyn had been listening to Ella for years. But Ella was not welcome at the Mocambo. In Ella’s own words in a later recollection:

I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt … she personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him – and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status – that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman – a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.”

[The Mocambo closed in 1958 a year after the death of the club operator and co-owner, Charlie Morrison, with whom Marilyn bargained a couple of years before.]

If you have any question why everyone was so entranced with the talent of Ella Fitzgerald, check out this video of “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess. You won’t wonder anymore! (And the way she holds that last note, OMG!)

Black History Month Kid Konnection – Books about Dave the Potter

“Dave the Potter” was a slave in South Carolina, born around 1800. His identity is known because he signed his pots, which can still be found in the area . Not only did he sign them, but he often inscribed poetry and pithy observations on them.

Historians have been able to figure out more about Dave from an examination of the records of the families that ran the principal pottery works in the region and owned Dave. It is believed that Dave had five owners before Emancipation, after which he assumed the last name of his first owner, Harvey Drake.

Today, Dave is considered to have been a master craftsman, and his surviving pots sell for between forty and fifty thousand dollars apiece!

Two books for young readers tell the story of Dave, as imagined by the authors. 
 


Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill is a picture book that combines onomatopoeia with earth-toned watercolors by Bryan Collier to tell Dave’s story in a simple, rhythmic and evocative way. With a focus on the pottery-making process, what comes across most to me from the pages of this book are the notions of Dave’s dignity and pride in his work.

Etched in Clay: The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet by Andrea Cheng is for older readers (Publisher Lee & Low suggests grade 5 and up). In this book, the author imagines Dave’s personal history in verse form, occasionally illustrated by handmade woodcuts also by the author.

I found the story as told by this author absolutely devastating, although I don’t know if younger readers would feel, as strongly as I did, the pain of the injustice and loss suffered by Dave. There is this etching, for example, from one of Dave’s pots:

I wonder where is all my relation
friendship to all – and, every nation”
August 16, 1857

In fact, however, I imagine that most readers will take away an appreciation of Dave’s triumph over adversity through his courageous insistence on showing the world that, although a slave, he could create, and he could write, and he could be so good at it that he could get away with it.

Evaluation: Both of these books are excellent and both include a lot of historical information appended at the conclusion of the books. I highly recommend each of them!

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave is written by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier, and the publisher is Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2010. It received the 2011 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and was a 2011 Caldecott Honor Book.

Rating: 4/5

Etched in Clay: The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet is written and illustrated by Andrea Cheng, and the publisher is Lee and Low Books, 2013.

Rating: 4/5

For more multicultural picture books, check out all the resources at The Birthday Party Pledge, a new website dedicated to promoting gifts of multicultural books to the children in our lives.

***

For more reviews of books for children and teens, go to Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.

Black History Month Review – “The House Girl” by Tara Conklin

The House Girl is yet another novel that juxtaposes a contemporary story with a linked plotline from the past. It is a tricky balancing act for the author to ensure that both stories are of equal interest.

Lina Sparrow is a first year litigation associate in a high-powered New York City law firm. Although 24 and attractive, she doesn’t have much of a personal life, since her law firm career demands so much of her time. She still lives with her father, Oscar, who is a well-known artist.

Josephine Bell, seventeen in 1852 and serving as a house slave in Lynnhurst, Virginia, is also an artist. Her master, Missus Lu, sometimes allows her to paint with her in her studio. Now that Missus is feeling poorly, she even asks Josephine to help complete her own paintings, because her hand has become too unsteady.

As the story opens, Lina’s “mentor partner” at Clifton & Harp, Daniel Oliphant III, pulls her into a big new case brought by a wealthy African American client, Ron Dresser. Dresser wants to sue for reparations on behalf of the ancestors of slaves, claiming that trillions of dollars in unpaid wages resulted in unjust enrichment for private companies benefiting from slave labor before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Lina’s assignment is, per Dan, to “get ourselves a great lead plaintiff:

I want something stirring, a new angle, something compelling. And don’t forget photogenic – these people will be on TV, they’ll be in the papers, they’ll be giving interviews. We need some great people, Lina, some great stories.”

The lawsuit provides an excuse for Lina to read about (and share with us) the history of slave exploitation of labor.

Thanks to her artist dad, Lina discovers the slave Josephine as a potential source for a “colorful” angle, if only she can find a descendant. A series of very unlikely and improbable developments enable her to learn many details that not only advance her case, but also allow her to locate the perfect plaintiff. Everything gets wrapped up in the end, but not neatly, and even somewhat bizarrely.

Discussion: In many ways Josephine’s story is infinitely more interesting than Lina’s, but I don’t have a sense of how historically realistic Josephine’s story may have been, nor how authentic her voice seems. On the other hand, Lina’s account of life in a top-ranked, competitive law firm rings very true. I laughed out loud at Lina’s comparison of law firm time to casino time, and at the way she thought of everything she did in six-minute intervals.

But some of the coincidences and dei ex machina in the story strained credulity. And some of Lina’s actions seemed markedly inconsistent with her character portrayal. Most perplexing to me, however, was the lawsuit that formed the backbone of the story.

I was surprised, maybe astounded even, that the lawsuit for reparations for unjust enrichment was defined as having an end point of 1865. In fact, prior to 1865, slavery was legal. After 1865, on the other hand, slavery continued in the South by surreptitious means, and it is then that companies truly could be culpable for unjust enrichment.

[See, for example, the Pulitzer Prize winning book Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon who analyzes why blacks did not rise in American society after emancipation until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Using extensive documentation, he demonstrates that long past the time of the Civil War, slavery was actually still alive and well in the South in all but name, with active support of the state and federal governments.

Here’s how it worked:

"By 1900," Blackmon writes, "the South's judicial system had been wholly reconfigured to make one of its primary purposes the coercion of African Americans to comply with the social customs and labor demands of whites." Thousands of random indigent black men were arrested for anything from unemployment, to not being able to prove employment at any given moment, to changing employers without “permission”, or even loud talk. In other words, they were arrested for being young black men. They were sentenced to hard labor, and bought and sold by sheriffs and judges among other opportunists to corporations such as U.S. Steel, Tennessee Coal, railroads, lumber camps, and factories. The prisoners who were sent to mines were chained to their barracks at night, and required to work all day – “subject to the whip for failure to dig the requisite amount, at risk of physical torture for disobedience, and vulnerable to the sexual predations of other miners – many of whom already had passed years or decades in their own chthonian confinement.” Hundreds died of disease, accidents, or homicide, and in fact, mass burial fields near these old mines can still be located.

Blackmon charges that the desire to industrialize the South quickly was central to the restrictions put in place to suppress blacks, since these laws allowed for easy arrest and enslavement of workers. He avers:

Repeatedly, the timing and scale of surges in arrests appeared more attuned to rises and dips in the need for cheap labor than any demonstrable acts of crime.”

But also, and quite importantly, “these bulging slave centers became a primary weapon of suppression of black aspirations.” Millions of blacks lived in a shadow of fear that they or their family members would be taken into this system. It had a profound effect on their behavior and self-esteem.

Blackmon insists that any consideration of the progress of blacks in the United States after the Civil War must acknowledge that "slavery, real slavery, didn't end until 1945." (See the author’s website here for more information and documentation.)]

Thus the parents of today are the children of those who suffered under this egregious system, and so it can be expected that the repercussions continue to inform the expectations and attitudes of those who grew up with the stories and experiences derived from this very recent chapter in their family histories. And, one might argue, it could be expected that a serious reparations case would focus on this phenomenon (never mentioned in the book), for which plaintiffs would have a much better case than when slavery was not prohibited by the Constitution.

Evaluation: The intertwined stories of this book are definitely compelling, even if there are some plausibility issues, especially in the Lina sections of the book.

Rating: 3.5/5

Published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2013

Sunday Treat for Black History Month – Birthday of Leontyne Price February 10, 1927

Mary Violet Leontyne Price born on this day in 1927 is an American soprano, winner of 18 Grammy awards (including a special Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989), trail-blazer, and winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Leontyne Price as Bess in Porgy in Bess, from 1953

Her talent was recognized early on. In fact, the great that Paul Robeson was among those who sang at a benefit to pay for her further musical education. In the late 1940’s, Julliard awarded her a full scholarship, and from her appearances in a production there, she was invited to Broadway.

In 1952 she debuted as Bess in a revival of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”, and toured with the production all over the world for the next two years. This video shows only stills from the show, but features the very first recording of her voice, on September 21, 1952, in a beautiful duet with co-star William Warfield, who later became her husband. (In his memoir, My Music and My Life, Warfield wrote that their careers drove them apart. They were legally separated in 1967, and divorced in 1973. They had no children.)

In 1961, Ms. Price debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore. This performance resulted in a 42-minute ovation, one of the longest in the Met’s history. Critics went crazy over her performance as well. In 1964, she was awarded the Presidential Freedom Award, and the following year, she won the Italian Award of Merit. In 2007, she was named one of the “20 All-time Best Supranos” in BBC Music magazine’s poll.

Leontyne Price in a live Met broadcast of Puccini’s Tosca, from 1962

Although Ms. Price officially retired in the mid-1980′s, she came out of retirement for special occasions, such as Carnegie Hall’s free concert of remembrance in October 2011 to honor the victims of September 11th. The New York Times reported that, at age 74, Ms. Price’s voice took time to get “settled.” But by the time she sang a solo rendition of “America the Beautiful,” “her voice resounded throughout the hall. As she capped the anthem with a lustrous top note, decades suddenly disappeared.”

During her active years before retirement, she served as a role model for an entire generation of African American youth. But she eschewed the designation of African American, preferring to call herself an American. She said, moreover:

If you are going to think black, think positive about it. Don’t think down on it, or think it is something in your way. And this way, when you really do want to stretch out, and express how beautiful black is, everybody will hear you.”

And finally, can you not cry through this? This video shows the very end of Leontyne Price’s last performance at The Met (as Aida), as she tries to maintain her role and her composure in spite of the crazy outpouring of love from the audience:

Black History Month Kid Konnection – Review of “The Great Migration: Journey to the North” by Eloise Greenfield

Both the author, Eloise Greenfield, and the illustrator, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, came from families that participated in the Great Migration. This movement of American blacks from the South to the North and West took place from 1915 to 1970 and involved approximately six million people. The mass movement profoundly changed the cultural and political landscape of the United States.

Many Americans today only know about this phenomenal internal migration thanks to The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, the highly praised 2010 book by Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson. (The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, among other prizes.)

Wilkerson tells the true story of three people who made the decision to participate in the Great Migration, a watershed in American history. Greenfield takes an analogous approach for children, personalizing the story with impressions spoken by migrators of different ages and from different walks of life. Beautiful collage artwork by Gilchrist accompanies each segment.

Some of those who are leaving are unhappy:

Saying good bye to the land
Puts a pain in my heart.
I stand here looking at the green
growing all around me,
and I am sad.”

But others have no regrets, like this woman:

I can’t wait to get away.
I never want to see this town
Again. Goodbye, town. Goodbye,
Work all day for almost no pay,
Enemy cotton fields, trying
To break my back, my spirit.”

And the children don’t know what to think!

I wonder what it’s like. Anyway,
As long as Mama and Daddy
Are there, I know I’m going
To be happy.”

In a forward, Eloise Greenfield writes about why the South had become unsafe for African Americans and why they felt they had to leave. She notes:

…when they reached the North, they found that it was far from perfect. They had not escaped racial discrimination. Even so, things were better, and most people stayed in their new cities and worked hard to earn a living and take care of their children.”

Both Greenfield and Gilchrist have won many awards. This lovely book will show you why.

Rating: 4/5

Published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2011

Product Details
Reading level: Ages 4 and up
Hardcover: 32 pages
ISBN-10: 0061259217
ISBN-13: 978-0061259210

For more multicultural picture books, check out all the resources at The Birthday Party Pledge, a new website dedicated to promoting gifts of multicultural books to the children in our lives.

***

For more reviews of books for children and teens, go to Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.

Black History Month Review – “Come August, Come Freedom” by Gigi Amateau

This beautiful but tragic story is based on actual events relating to the slave Gabriel, who had the temerity, in 18th Century Virginia, to dream of freedom.

The author imagines Gabriel’s interior life, based on what is known about his actual circumstances. Born into slavery on a tobacco plantation in 1776, Gabriel was taught to read and write. As he grew up and acquired the skills of a blacksmith, he was also hired out to Richmond to bring in more money for his master. There he interacted with free blacks and white laborers and heard not only the ideas of freedom and equality touted by the American Revolution, but of the successful uprising in Saint Domingue led by black slaves that culminated in the end of slavery there. Why, he asked, couldn’t that happen in America?

He recruited others, and worked on obtaining weapons. Their rebellion was scheduled to start August 30, 1800. Not only did a torrential rain intervene, but two slaves confessed the plan to their masters. Many of the conspirators were caught, some were executed, and some were exiled to other states. A rare few were pardoned. Gabriel of course was not among them, and was hanged on October 10.

Ms. Amateau tries to recreate not only Gabriel’s thoughts during his life, but the reactions of his mother and later his wife, Nanny, to the exceptional man that Gabriel grew up to be. Nanny, as courageous as her husband, also participated in the planning for the rebellion. The author includes reproductions, interspersed throughout the text, of documents from the time relating to Gabriel’s rebellion, capture, sentencing, and execution.

Evaluation: The plotline of this book and of Gabriel’s true story were only bearable for me because, unlike a movie or television production, there are no visuals of violence, and no actual faces I could attach to those who would perpetuate slavery (with the notable exception of James Monroe, then Governor of Virginia). It is meant to be a book you can bear, and yet – it is hard. The prose is lovely, and explicit evils of slavery are kept to a minimum, but the pain and awfulness of slavery cannot be hidden. Nor should it be! It is a real enough story, and should be told; should be borne. Research notes are appended to the text.

While this book is being marketed as Middle Grade, I didn’t see any reason why it could not also or alternatively be labeled Young Adult or Adult.

Highly recommended!

Rating: 4/5

Published by Candlewick Press, 2012

Note: On August 30, 2007 Governor Tim Kane informally pardoned Gabriel, saying that his motivation had been “his devotion to the ideals of the American revolution — it was worth risking death to secure liberty.”

Historical Marker E102 in Henrico County, VA