OPINION: Looking at the ‘Middle’ and ‘Inward’ passages

Frank Gillispie

OPINION: Looking at the ‘Middle’ and ‘Inward’ passages

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Wednesday, September 12. 2012

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When Vice President Joe Biden told a mostly black audience that the Republicans were going to “put y’all back in chains,” it left me wondering if he had any idea who put the slaves in chains in the first place.

It may come as a surprise that the people who seized these unfortunate souls and sold them into slavery were other Africans. The many African tribes were constantly at war with each other, and the chiefs and kings of the various tribes regularly kidnapped their opponents and sold them to the slave merchants along the African coast.

I have found no record of any Southerner going to Africa and capturing his own slaves. It did not happen.

The VP may not have been aware that all the American slave ships sailed from northeastern ports. They came from places like Boston, Providence, Hartford and New York City. I have looked many places and I have never found a Southern-owned slave ship!

The VP may have believed, as do many so-called historians, that the term “middle passage” referring to the voyage across the Atlantic to deliver slaves to the sugar plantations referred to the area dividing the north and south Atlantic. The slave ships sailed a triangular path. The “Outward Passage” was from the ship’s home port to Africa frequently carrying a cargo of barrels of rum. The rum would be bartered for slaves.

The “Middle Passage” was from Africa to the West Indies where the slaves were sold to the sugar plantations. Life there was brutal. Slaves were literally worked to death, then new ones were purchased to replace them.

The “Inward Passage” was from the West Indies back to their home port. Usually that trip carried barrels of Black Strap Molasses which was distilled into more rum for the next trip. Black Strap Molasses is the byproduct of the refining of raw sugar into those little white crystals preferred by British Lords and Ladies for their afternoon tea.

The ships seldom came directly to the Southern plantations. The slave traders selected their slaves from the ships arriving from Africa and then transporting them to the Southern slave markets. The number of slaves imported into the South was actually quite small. Most of the slaves in the South were born here.

There are many books available about the slave trade. I would recommend three: “The Slave Trade” the story of the Atlantis Slave Trade 1440 - 1870 by Hugh Thomas. Next, “Sons of Providence,” The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade and the American Revolution by Charles Rappleye, and “Complicity,” How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery, written by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang and Jenifer Frank, all writers for the Hartford Courant.

Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County Journal. His e-mail address is frank@frankgillispie.com. His website can be accessed at http://www.frankgillispie.com/gillispieonline.

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#1 Ben Had on 09/12/12 at 05:34 AM [Reply]

Another installment from the pages of Frank's book of rose-colored,Black Strap Molasses coated southern history.
Something tells me that slaves and their descendants aren't as concerned about the logistics of how they got here, as they are about what happened for the next 400 years.

The war is over Frank. We lost,get over it.

#1.1 SardonicVeracity on 09/15/12 at 10:49 AM [Reply]

Actually, from the growth in academia in Atlantic World and Latin American studies, especially given the inclusion of a large contigent of scholars of color, I would posit that slaves and the descendents of slaves are very concerned with many aspects of the institution. Whether they are more concerend about how the slaves got "here," how the institution evolved or whatever aspect, maybe you shouldn't let your disdain for Frank's work cloud your vision.

Although, over the next few centuries, the black captives were returned to chains again and again both literally and figuratively, his explaination does have the ring of truth although he does ignore the larger picture.

#2 Resident Redneck on 09/12/12 at 08:32 PM [Reply]

Frank at this point they will say anything that they think will help their side? Like you think that most people who owned slaves were white families. Because most history books tell us those who owned the black slaves were whites SO common sense would make you think that the whites put them in chains and forced them into slavery?
Obama is so desperate to seek re-election he has even started mentioning God in his speaches? All he wants is his high paying job back that way WE the citizens of the United states can pay for his money hungry wife to travel all over the world.

#2.1 Virginia Moss on 09/14/12 at 02:52 PM [Reply]

"Obama is so desperate to seek re-election he has even started mentioning God in his speaches? All he wants is his high paying job back that way WE the citizens of the United states can pay for his money hungry wife to travel all over the world."

From: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/governmentjobs/a/Annual-Salaries-Of-Top-Us-Government-Officials.htm

"The president's salary was increased from $200,000 to $400,000 in 2001. The president's current salary of $400,000 includes a $50,000 expense allowance."

Now which president benefitted from this doubling of salary in 2001 and I wonder whose idea it was? Which party was in power in 2001? For most presidents, this salary is pocket change; they don't really need it and is hardly the attraction of the presidency.

#2.1.1 SardonicVeracity on 09/15/12 at 10:53 AM [Reply]

Perhaps our redneck friend mistook the currency that these people who vie for the control of our contry's exectutive covet. Power is the specie of trade in Washington.

#3 Dville man on 09/13/12 at 12:47 AM [Reply]

Do you not count Virgina as the south or only GA. The first true black slaves ( not indentured servents)were shiped to Virgina. The first Indentured servents were white Irish men and women, and were not total free until the 1840s. What you also forget the founding fathers wanted to abolish slavery but George Washington and others would not stand for it almost all southern slave owners. When people talk about slaves they always forget about my familys history and it upsets me. During the 1650s, over 100,000 Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England. In this decade, 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia. Another 30,000 Irish men and women were also transported and sold to the highest bidder. In 1656, Cromwell ordered that 2000 Irish children be taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers.

Many people today will avoid calling the Irish slaves what they truly were: Slaves. They’ll come up with terms like “Indentured Servants” to describe what occurred to the Irish. However, in most cases from the 17th and 18th centuries, Irish slaves were nothing more than human cattle.

#4 Dville Man on 09/13/12 at 12:52 AM [Reply]

Irish slavery is a subject worth remembering, not erasing from our memories. But, where are our public (and PRIVATE) schools???? Where are the history books? Why is it so seldom discussed?

Do the memories of hundreds of thousands of Irish victims merit more than a mention from an unknown writer? Or is their story to be one that their English pirates intended: To (unlike the African book) have the Irish story utterly and completely disappear as if it never happened.

#4.1 Resident Redneck on 09/14/12 at 01:20 PM [Reply]

Dville Man- I agree but it's not as important as African Americans MAINLY BECAUSE the Irish ARE NOT as bent out of shape about it as African Americans are? African Americans know that is the fastest way to start an arguement? Most want to use something that happen 200 years ago to justify the way they act today? They try to say when they get caught doing something wrong that their people were slaves? I say if you were never a slave then you have no arguement. I have NEVER owned slaves.

#4.1.1 Ben Had on 09/15/12 at 08:45 AM [Reply]

You sir, are aptly named.
I picture Junior Samples (Hee-Haw) in my mind as I read your comments. (Sorry Junior)

#4.2 Virginia Moss on 09/14/12 at 03:10 PM [Reply]

"Where are the history books?"

The history books were all written and/or selected by the self-justified dominating groups. I am amazed at the audacity of my public education every time I read more about our history. It makes me ask why I was not told of this or that? Then I ask why it was kept from me and everybody else in school, generation after generation. By the time I was thirty, I no longer trusted government or authority; I feared what has come to pass, ignorant voters going along and totally buying whatever "truth" suits them and being distracted by the most unimportant of issues, like a "money-hungry" first lady, to name just one of many.

I am of Irish descent and have always wondered why they were singled out for hatred and denigration. I suppose it's the same psychology that pushes people to pick a "team" and adhere to it against all others. Human nature is more of a detriment in the twenty-first centrury than it was in primitive times.

#4.3 SardonicVeracity on 09/15/12 at 10:40 AM [Reply]

The reason why it is seldom discussed is probably due to the difference in conditions and servitude that confronted the Irish indentured servants from the plantation and racial slavery system that confronted the majority of black slaves.

Slavery, as a system of labor had been in existence for centuries, even millennia. A recognition of differences between peoples of different regions had also been in existence. Not until the "scientific explanation" of race combined with industrial agriculture did this system of forced labor take such a dramatic turn.

To compare the bondage of the poor Irish to that inherited racial slavery of the Africans is like comparing a straw hut to a modern glass and steel skyscraper. Both are worthy of notice and study and have some similarities but the differences are glaringly evident.

#5 Joe Christmas on 09/13/12 at 02:46 PM [Reply]

Frank I think you're an interesting writer and like me, you are a historian. Although many times I don't agree with you I always enjoy reading your column. I must say however, your constant defense of the south during the civil war period grows tiresome. It was a long time ago and we were wrong and the civil war was a disaster that had Americans killing each other over the grips of politicians. There was nothing romantic about plantations or slave trading. Try reading about the what happened to the great French poet Arthur Rimbaud when he started dealing with slave ships or the guy who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace" as he reflected on his slave ship days.

#6 Skypilot on 09/14/12 at 04:46 PM [Reply]

I had two great grandfathers in the civil war, one was killed at second Mannassas and another wounded. Neither owned slaves and were probably drafted into the confederate army. I once heard for a monetary price you didn't have to serve. They fought for a group of very wealthy plantation owners and as usual the rich will explot the poorest and weakest. There was no glory for the south, as it was all about the greed of the wealthy and powerfull that controled the political situation. I have no love for Lincoln or his henchmen that marched through Georgia committing war crimes. The south is still being exploited by the rich and powerfull with their propaganda machines full of lies. They laugh at the ignorance of the voting block they have created that votes for their agenda.

#6.1 Ben Had on 09/15/12 at 08:36 AM [Reply]

Well said. The ignorant voting block they have created is well represented right here in these comments.
Blatantly so.

#6.2 SardonicVeracity on 09/15/12 at 10:22 AM [Reply]

Although the majority of Georgians, including most nationallyprominent GA politicians, would not have voted for secession the CSA did not need to institute a draft 'til 1862. Before then, the thirst for adventure, impetus to defend the Southern Homeland and a variety of other factors compelled enlistment. It was not as simple as a defense of slavery and white supremacy.

Your ancestor could have enlisted for reasons such as this. The draft was never very successful in Georgia due to the efforts of Joe Brown as well as the growing resistance to deprivations. There were also other alternatives to heeding the draft order. There was an active group of draft resistance in the North Ga mountains. With the lack of primary documents, our speculations concerning the reasons our grandfathers and grand uncles fought and died so far from their Ga homes is merely that, speculation.

Men could buy their way out of service. However, many rich Georgians lost many sons to the effort. The cries of a "poor man's fight and a rich man's war" have a grain of truth but ring somewhat hollow. There was glory for the South and for her sons who gave their lives to defend their homes and their country. There was also deprivation, hardship, sorrow, manipulation and defeat.

When one claims that an event in history was "all about" one thing or another, he is discrediting his whole argument and, in this issue, devaluing his ancestors and ther strength of person and ability to effect free will choices.

#6.3 Virginia Moss on 09/15/12 at 02:26 PM [Reply]

Well said! Now, what do we who realize that do about it? With our system, we can't fight the larger numbers and win. Maybe it is time to accept that our systm only works for the rich and powerful, which is ironic since it is touted as so very egalitarian. Trouble is, what do we replace it with to level the playing field?

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OPINION: Looking at the ‘Middle’ and ‘Inward’ passages

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