Class Summary - 1/12/17

We started class, of course, with the syllabus or rather the half, odd-numbered syllabus that was handed out, but soon after we immediately began to delve into the context surrounding the beginnings and roots of activism in the North American slave world and mind. In essence, our preliminary goal was to form an understanding around the realities of life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for African slaves. Thus starting in 1619 with the first twenty, African slaves that were sold and transported by Dutch sailors to continental North America, the seeds of activism began to grow; however, identity, which was intimately connected to our definition of activism and our conversation, was not yet an overpowering issue, since slavery (indentured servitude in design and reality), African-ness, and citizenship were for the most part automatic and unquestioned such that slaves and ex-slaves were African, while the lives of ex-slaves were for the most part livable and convenient: they enjoyed the rights of citizenship, marriage, land, and for the most part, the pursuit of happiness.

Moving forward however, slavery started to become wide-spread and inherent by the mid to late 1600s due to a confluence of factors such as the dramatic loss of indentured servants, the seemingly endless supply of labor coming out of Africa, the opening up of “gatekeeper” states on the African continent, and the new attitudes that were being formed for and around the exploitation of African bodies. In light of this, we begin to see a dramatic change in the ways slavery was interpreted by “leader-colonies” (Virginia), which consequently affected a much wider audience's opinions. For instance, throughout the 1660s, Virginia, as the forerunner, followed by other colonies deigned upon themselves the power to define humanity, the power to reconceptualize lineage, and the power to commodify humans. Consequently, the assimilation-like attitude that was held in 1619 was not going to survive for very much longer. Slowly but purposefully, the land that was owned by free African-Americans was taken away along with any other kind of possession that white leaders deemed dangerous to the status quo, which allowed them to gain massive amounts of money and power. Furthermore, in the 1700s, this malignant kind of dehumanization continued, forcing the idea of change into the minds of millions of slaves and individuals. Even more, during the time period between the 1730s and the 1780s, we see the largest increase in African slaves to the North American continent as well as these injustices against life and body, insisting upon the emergence of activism and moral justice.

Finally, our class began to deconstruct the word and the realities of activism as a consequence of slavery and oppression. We analyzed Walker and his appeal: his passion, his violence, his religious dichotomies, and his attacks on white as well as other ways of living – crushing some slaves’ and freemen’s perceived realities. Moreover, in analyzing Walker and his work, we came to one of the most worthwhile observations throughout the class: such that activism comes out of finding and challenging the self: that if you are told over and over again that you are inferior, you must find the truth about yourself, and that if you live in a reality which feels bizarre, oppressive, and foreign, you must fight against it in some way to make room for your own ideal reality. In this respect, David Walker denies his degradation founded in the name of capitalism and white supremacy, while simultaneously declaring his freedom and citizenship. David Walker along with the great line of activists that followed him did not accept their supposed inferiority, spouted at them and engrained in them since birth. Thus in his appeal, Walker is fighting and scrounging against the reality that surrounds and envelops him. Ultimately though, we are left questioning whether or not we can ever escape using the master’s tools or “our” reality; though Walker sees his own place in society and wills to change it: are his tools outside of the master’s grasp; are his thoughts actually challenging the ideology that is upholding them; or even more importantly, can Walker and his contemporary revolutionaries find tools that can bring an end to not only dehumanization and commodification of humanity but also realize a totally different ideology to live within? Finally, I am left questioning whether it is ever possible to leave or destroy the ideology that is founded in your deepest self - or rather, if that fight is even morally justifiable since in the wake of that destruction lays the destruction and shedding of millions upon millions of consciousnesses, ways of living, lives, humans, and beliefs.