Page 125 - 1619 Project Curriculum

12 SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2019

No. 3 / A Slave Nation Fights for Freedom

1809 - 1865

A

By Black

People, for Black
People

ON MARCH 16, 1827, the same year
that slavery was abolished in
New York, Peter Williams Jr.
co-founded Freedom’s Journal,
the first newspaper owned and
operated by African-Americans.
A weekly New York paper, it was
edited by John Russwurm and
Samuel Cornish, who wrote in their
first editorial, ‘‘We wish to plead
our own cause. Too long have
s demand for cotton grew and the nation expanded, others spoken for us. Too long
slavery became more systemic, codified and regulated — as did the lives of all enslaved has the publick been deceived by
people. The sale of enslaved people and the products of their labor secured the nation’s misrepresentations.’’ Russwurm
position as a global economic and political powerhouse, but they faced increasingly inhumane conditions. They and Cornish wanted the paper to
strengthen relations among newly
were hired out to increase their worth, sold to pay off debts and bequeathed to the next generation. Slavery freed black people living in the
affected everyone, from textile workers, bankers and ship builders in the North; to the elite planter class, North and counter racist and
working-class slave catchers and slave dealers in the South; to the yeoman farmers and poor white people who hostile representations of African- Right: Daguerreotype of Rhoda Phillips,
could not compete against free labor. Additionally, in the 1830s, President Andrew Jackson implemented his plan Americans in other papers. circa 1850.
for Indian removal, ripping another group of people from their ancestral lands in the name of wealth. As slavery At its peak, the paper circulated
spread across the country, opposition — both moral and economic — gained momentum. Interracial abolition in 11 states and internationally.
efforts grew in force as enslaved people, free black people and some white citizens fought for the end of slavery Although it folded in 1829, A Woman
and a more inclusive definition of freedom. The nation was in transition, and it came to a head after Abraham Freedom’s Journal served as
Lincoln was elected president; a month later, in December 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union, citing inspiration for other black Bequeathed
‘‘an increasing hostility on the part of the nonslaveholding states to the institution of slavery’’ as a cause. Five newspapers, and by the start
of the Civil War, there were
years later, the Civil War had ended, and 246 years after the ‘‘20 and odd Negroes’’ were sold in Virginia, the 13th at least two dozen black-owned RHODA PHILLIPS’S name was
Amendment ensured that the country would never again be defined as a slave nation. papers in the country. The officially written down for the first
renowned abolitionist and time in 1832, in the record of her
sale. She was purchased when she
scholar Frederick Douglass used was around 1 year old, along with
his newspapers to call for and her mother, Milley, and her sister
to secure social justice. Martha, for $550. The enslaver
‘Brethren, arise, her to his family in his will, where
Thomas Gleaves eventually
acquired Rhoda. He bequeathed

she is listed as valued at $200. She
remained enslaved by them until
the Emancipation Proclamation
in 1863. Afterward, Rhoda is
believed to have married a man
and had eight children with him.
arise! Strike for Banner that showed the family
When she died, the Gleaves family
ran an obituary in The Nashville
still could not see the inhumanity
of slavery. ‘‘Aunt Rhody,’’ the
obituary said, ‘‘was raised by
Mr. Gleaves and has lived with
the family all her life. She was
one of the old-time darkies
that are responsible for the
your lives and masters.’’ In this daguerreotype
making of so many of their young
of Rhoda, she is about 19, and
in contrast to the practice at the
time, Rhoda appears alone in the
frame. Typically, enslaved people
were shown holding white children
or in the background of a family
photo, the emphasis placed on their
liberties.Now one of the perversities of slavery:
servitude. Rhoda’s story highlights
To the Gleaves, Rhoda was a family
member even as they owned her.

is the day and the

hour. . . .Let Generations

Of Enslavement

ON MARCH 7, 1854, Sally and her
three daughters, Sylvia, Charlotte
your motto be children, at least for a short time,
and Elizabeth, were sold for $1,200.
Sally was able to remain with her
but most enslaved women had to
endure their children being forcibly
taken from them. Their ability to
bear children — their ‘‘increase’’ —
was one of the reasons they were
so highly valued. Laws throughout
resistance!’ also the property of the enslaver
the country ensured that a child
born to an enslaved woman was
to do with as he saw fit, whether
to make the child work or to sell
the child for profit. Many enslaved
women were also regularly raped,
and there were no laws to protect
them; white men could do what
they wanted without reproach,
including selling the offspring —
their offspring — that resulted
—Henry Highland Garnet, 1843 women also served as enslavers;
from these assaults. Many white
there was no alliance of sisterhood
among slave mistresses and the
black mothers and daughters they
claimed as property.

Photograph by Erica Deeman for The New York Times. From the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.