From The 1619 Project, EPISODE TWO: “Rape was so prevalent during slavery that today 1/4 of the genetic makeup of Black Americans can be traced back to Europe through the paternal line.”
Colonial governments made descent of children of enslaved women matrilineal in order to ensure that any children they bore were slaves (even the mixed race children, say, of their owner).
The episode goes on to examine the lopsided health care that contemporary Black women receive, tying the shameful conditions directly back to slavery.
FACT: Black women die in childbirth at THREE TIMES the rate of white women.
FACT: Black infants die at TWICE the rate of whites babies, a discrepancy that disappears when the OB is Black.
FACTS: Black patients are under-treated for pain, as if there were biological differences between Black and white people. Furthermore, their life expectancies are shorter and they’re often blamed for their health issues.
Slave owners always had an economic interest in the reproduction of their slaves, but after Congress banned the importation of Africans in 1808, it became an even more important way to preserve and build wealth.
In the amazing novel WASH, by Margaret Wrinkle, the white slave owning protagonist hires out the enslaved character named Wash for the purpose of procreation. Keeps meticulous records. Is paid for the “exchange.” One of many poignant moments occurs towards the end when Wash burns that ledger and lets those flames then take a barn down.
I know from my research that in South Carolina in the mid-eighteenth century, slave owners believed that breeding Africans with Native Americans would produce stock better adapted to winters.
Breeding. Stock.
And BTW, another source of wealth for early colonizers as to round up, kidnap, and sell Native Americans to slave markets in the West Indies. Native Americans were not favored as slaves in South Carolina because they had family in the area and knew the landscape better than anyone, heightening the chances of their escape.
The difference between “White folks” and “White people… Some of you are going to learn today! 👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/zgA8CduEtf
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Eliza Lucas – PhD Thesis
Fiction
Yonder, by Jabari Asim
Washington Black, Esi Edugyan
Yellow Wife: A Novel, Sadeqa Johnson
The Book of Night Women, Marlon James
The Confessions of Frannie Langton, Sara Collins
Cloudsplitter, Russell Banks
Kindred, Octavia Butler
Sapphira and The Slave Girl, Willa Cather
Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
The Good Lord Bird and Song Yet Sung, by James McBride
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Water to My Soul, Pamela Mueller
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Someone Knows My Name, Lawrence Hill
Underground Airlines, Ben White
Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd
Nostalgia, Dennis MacFarland
Plantation Patriot, Francis Leigh Williams
The Indigo Girl, Natasha Boyd
The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehesi Coates
Movies / TV
The Civil War (Ken Burns)
The Duchess
Amistad
John Adams – HBO series
Vanity Fair
Daughters of the Dust
Amazing Grace
Harriet
Twelve Years a Slave
Tours / Historic Sites
South Carolina:
Boone Hall Plantation
The Charleston Museum Drayton Hall Magnolia Plantation — both the enslaved cabin tour and the big house tour Magnolia Cemetery McLeod Plantation Middleton Place Aiken-Rhett House Old Charleston Jail Rebellion Farm : for a weekend of indigo dyeing in a pole barn with Sea Island Indigo Stono Slave Rebellion Marker Sullivan Island Wappoo Plantation Marker
Massachusetts:
Faneuil Hall Middle Passage Ceremony, August 13, 2015 The Granary Burial Grounds (where John Hancock’s ‘servant’ Frank is buried, as well as Crispus Attucks) Mt. Auburn Cemetery (burial sites of Harriet Jacobs and Mary Walker) The Jackson Homestead The Royall House and Slave Quarters (spent a night in the quarters with The Slave Dwelling Project)
The thing I really loved about the second full day of the Sea Island Indigo Workshop* was how dyeing united us. Sounds philosophical, and maybe it is, but I simply mean this: the love of blue made us kin.
Leigh and Sarah — coated, flexible copper was to keep yarn skeins from tangling
On Thursday– we were parents or not, retired or not, local or not, from the North or the South, staying in the city or elsewhere, but by Saturday — IT WAS ALL ABOUT INDIGO. What are you dipping? How did you do that? Let me see! Batman?! Honestly, that’s pure genius! Ooooh!
Meghan’s son lucked out — look at that Batman!! Sarah successfully dyed wooden buttons
If on Friday, we were felters, weavers, quiltmakers, spinners, storytellers, or fashion designers, by Saturday — we were all JUST INTO INDIGO. The enthusiastic focus that three large vats created was wonderful. It was binding. And the results were nothing short of spectacular.
It was hard to take pictures. What?!! Pause and lose out on another dunk? How could you? Gloves on/off, hands dried — when you could be twisting a cloth, eagerly dreaming of ghostly stripes or submerging that thrift store shirt?! And, it was one thing to get faces, sleeves, and shoes blue, but cameras and phones? Not so good. There were beautiful kimono scraps, woven shawls, and skeins of wool for sale, and even though I ran out of material at some point, I resisted. Do I get extra points for that? Speaking of getting blue on everything, take a look at Heather, above, and Julie, below. Margo dyed her hair.And, I was told I looked like I’d been ‘kissed by a Smurf’! PICTURE TO COME. Kathy Hattori sent me 1/2 dozen yesterday and you all should see at least one, but I want to post this today and though I could easily download pix to ‘dropbox’ I haven’t figure out how to get one to show up here. You will have to wait!
Batman creator, Meghan I almost fell in a vat when Sage told me she was an Applied Physics major at Stanford – I guess SOME differences still popped! Kathy & Ximena conversed in Spanish all w’end. Ximena grows mangoes in Columbia. my fave, as you know. it faded A LOT at home (boo!). Donna Hardy on left. Using strips of muslin, linen, and vintage table cloth for ties means you have those at the end, too how did she stay so tidy?!!
We learned Michele Garcia’s 1-2-3 method on Saturday as well — which Glennis Dolce had gone over back in 2012 during her online Indigo Dyeing class, but I didn’t get around to it then. Maybe soon? I didn’t envy Kathy trying to get our attention on Saturday! The food was so unbelievable that night that it deserves its own post. Suffice it to say, that the aromas of roasting pig and Carolina Hash were mouth watering by mid-day Saturday!
hash in progress
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Sea Island Indigo Workshop took place September 18-21, 2014 in Charleston, SC. A field of indigo was grown for us by Donna Hardy, on Rebellion Farm, in Ravenel, SC. Fiber artist Kathy Hattori, of Botanical Workshops, flew in from Seattle to co-lead the two days of hands-on indigo dyeing. My participation in the workshop was funded by a kickstarter campaign.
For days Two and Three of the Sea Island Indigo workshop*, we convened at Rebellion Farm, about 20 minutes west of my airbnb host in West Ashley. Donna Hardy was not kidding that she had grown us a field of indigo, and we began by harvesting. The straight-leafed crop in the three pictures above is Golden Rice, for which Carolina is famous. Indigo, below. Right about the time I was taking this shot, fire ants were swarming all over my feet. They sting!! After a comic amount of swatting, I managed to get rid of them. Thankfully, only one managed to crawl above my knee. We selectively harvested because some leaves were more ready than others. Donna is also growing Sea Island cotton (above and below). This variety has a longer staple and when woven, has the sheen and drape of silk. I was lucky to be partnered for the day with fiber artist, Leigh aka Madame Magar (Charlestonmag.com article). After spending twenty years making hats, Leigh (below) is now designing funky, barely-constructed clothes and creating cloth-related installations. I encourage you to follow the link and see what she’s up to.
Leigh tending the pot
Our gas flame was exposed to a little draft and kept going out. For that reason, and perhaps others, our batch was fussy, non-compliant. This turned out to be OK because it meant we got to see how the experts make adjustments.
Aeration method: pour liquid from bucket to bucket 100 times. Some in the group went to 500! After Leigh and I reached 200, we stood in line for the blender.
finally made myself an etui
Notes: Shelley flings ‘garden snake’ off into the shrubs… black snake / smallish.
We got a pounding rain the first afternoon, which sounded incredible on the pole barn’s roof!Tomorrow’s post will continue at the pole barn. You can read a nice narrative about the weekend here (Heather Powers’s blog).
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Sea Island Indigo Workshop took place September 18-21, 2014 in Charleston, SC. A field of indigo was grown for us by Donna Hardy, on Rebellion Farm, in Ravenel, SC. Fiber artist Kathy Hattori, of Botanical Workshops, flew in from Seattle to co-lead the two days of hands-on indigo dyeing. My participation in the workshop was funded by a kickstarter campaign.
