Africa House Gallery

4 Responses

Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.

1. Elsiana Jones says

   Where can I purchase some of these fashions??

   May 4, 2009, 9:51 am Reply
   • Rasta Man says

     Those fashion are no longer available. You can purchase some other items on http://www.ojedi.com

     November 3, 2009, 9:47 pm Reply
2. Don Jaide says

   ^^Contact Rastalivewire or Africahouse via e-mail.

   DJ

   May 4, 2009, 10:17 am Reply
3. UCHE EBOH says

   The Fires of Jubilee- a lesson in interracial interactions in America
   “The Fires of Jubilee” is an epic in understanding the race relationship starting from the 1830s to the present day in America. Understanding the horrors of American slavery which instigated Turner and his colleagues to take up arms against their master will aid in refuting the mythology of benevolent master caring for their charges in a paternalistic society. Nat Turner was a personification of grass root activism, heroism and resistance that inspired the civil right movement of the 1960s. His exemplary activism and resistance that prompted a debate among the southern slaveholders and influenced the Northern White abolitionist view of slavery is parallel to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s- an indigenous revolted that forced the federal government into taking action to abolish segregation.
   Stephen B. Oates gave us an insight into the social-political, cultural and political setting in the eighteenth century Southampton Virginia county. He described vividly the relationships that exist between the slaveholders and the enslaved. He gave an insight on the relative peace and limited freedom that the enslaved enjoyed before the rebellion. He also revealed the impact of religion in fostering a cordial relationship that moulds the characters of the enslaved and ensures acquiescence. I also noticed the impact of black theology which Nat Turner propagated that endured him to his community and fed the fire of rebellion. He filled the void in the Negroes spiritual life with a promise of a living God that will not forsake them; it contrasts with the gospels from the white preachers that urge obedience and submission to the master.
   Oates also describes the insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia in 1831 and “the salvage reprisal that shattered the myth of contented slave and the benign master and intensified the forces of change that would plunge America into a bloodbath of the civil war”. He gave an insight of the definition of wealth in the 19 century Southampton County, Virginia. Wealth, he elegizes is associated with ownership of slaves, the number of slaves and vastness of his plantation determined a man’s social caste. This is the most important point of the story; monetary identity is the slaves’ only equivalent. Oates exposes the reader to the core of aggression of the slaves toward their “owners”. He also highlighted the cruel, brutal and inhuman treatment of slaves. He also exposed me to the courageous acts of deceit, deliberate destructions, running away and rebellion through which the slaves resisted their oppressive masters’ .According to Oates, The nineteenth century Southampton County, Virginia was predominantly more blacks than white.
   Nat Turner was a black preacher, a deeply religious man who sees visions and claim directives from God. He was respected as a boy by all and sundry, a very intelligent and smart man. He led an insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia in 1831 killing with his comrades killing white male, female and children. He was born a slave of Benjamin Turner in 1800, he learned to read and write quite early in life. He sees himself as the biblical Moses that was supposed to lead the enslaved to freedom. He was convinced by a solar eclipse in 1831 that the time was ripped for the revolt. As a child he watched as African-Americans were oppressed before and in his life time, He watched as a significant number are murdered, dismembered and brutalized- men, women and children; he watched the raping of women and was part of this vicious circle for years. He watched as Samuel Turner, the son Benjamin Turner, his master reneged on his fathers promise put him to slavery. When Nat was 12 he was separated from his peers, a mixture of white kids and colored people and match to the farm, he never became same thereafter, a forlorn and desolate youth with no future. He was shocked that though smarter than some his master could be held in slavery with all his intelligence. Even when he befriended free blacks, he noticed how the barely make a living on little plot in swamps and backwoods and from them he learnt how limited freedom devoid of political and social rights and he detests that middle road between liberty and bondage. I think from reading the bible Nat Turner was astonish by the powers of Moses and the exodus out of Egypt
   According to Stephen Oates “Nat Turner would bring on the years of Jubilee when those who had been first- the white master would become subservient to the blacks who had been last, that was Nat’s mission in this world revealed to him”
   On the judgment day, August 21, 1831 Nat Turner led an insurrection, the first of its kind in America of willing black people with intent on a reprisal killing of all the white people that he saw killed and dominated his people for so long, together with the family. Though he was intent on total decimation he spared a few white yeomen and even Giles Reese because his family lived in his farm. It only showed he would have spared most of the white people if he has no resistance and no threat from them. After killing Joseph Travis and family there seems to be no going back. It was a well planned revolution with no precise or military organization of discipline, as some of the slaves got high on brandy and was of no much use to the cause. This rebellion was as cruel and savagery in its implementation without any regards to neighborliness as the reprisal was without decency. It really exposed the barbaric and uncivilized natures of humanity as at the time. As the enslaved breaks all known decency in the quest for freedom which is poetical justified based on their reason, the reprisal in the quest to dehumanize the Negro ended up dehumanizing mankind and ushered in an era of less regard for life. The aftermath of the rebellion was brutal for the Negroes, the trial was a facade, as evidence of visible pressure on the court by the public existed, some of them were tiredly and convicted wrongly some were accused falsely and hanged. For those of them that survived their freedom was drastically reduced and militia created to keep a watch on them, while freed slaves were forced out of the county. By the time the insurrection was squashed about sixty whites and more than 200 blacks were killed.
   This failed insurrection frankly stirred a debate in the south about the slavery system and aroused a more activist abolition movement in the north. It real revealed the fear inherent in the prejudice society that was built on the exploitation of black labor. It gave us an insight on the difference and similarity in policies between the federal and state government: for while the federal wish to have slavery abolished in the south; they were not willing to push to enforce abolishment and they southerners where in the limbo of while willing to abolished slavery where not willing to loose all the benefits slave labor provides. For even among the northerners the fear abounds of the competition that will result from emancipation. The southerners were caught in the debate on whether to emancipate the black or colonized them. To many black people Nat Turner was greater in life than he was at death. He inspired many black people to resist and challenged their oppressors while highlighting the inevitable to the slaveholders that there will never be peace without emancipation and the idea of a contented slave does not exist.
   Gratefully acknowledge the used of material from the following books:
   The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B. Oates
   Aptheker, Herbert. American Negro Slave Revolts
   Blassingame, John w. The slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South New York: Oxford University Press, 1972
   Griffin, Judith Berry. Nat Turner, New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1970

   July 21, 2009, 7:52 pm Reply