Jarvis Harris and Joe Foss are telling local audiences about their five-week, 4,600-mile tour of Black historical sites across the United States last fall. For additional insights into their journey and anti-racist work, please visit their website, AcceptingOthers.com.
After visiting several Black History museums, we thought it would be educational to share a bit more detail about the transatlantic slave trade and lynchings in America.
None of this is good news, but we learned some things about these issues that expanded our previous understanding, and we wanted to share some of this with you.
Joe: Not surprising, especially in our current divisive political environment, there are folks who buy into some really crazy myths about slavery and many of the issues surrounding it.
Hopefully, what we share with you here will prompt you to educate yourself even further about America’s racial issues and all the things that are still affecting Black citizens in our communities.
Joe: I had assumed that the U.S. was the primary destination for enslaved Africans, but in reality, only about 4% of those captured, an estimated total of 12 million, were brought directly to what would become the United States.
The vast majority — millions — were sent to Brazil and the Caribbean, where brutal conditions and high mortality rates led to a constant need for more enslaved laborers. We have heard that the estimate of 12 million captured and shipped was how many arrived at destinations alive.
Another estimate of at least a million or more died at sea or during their journey to the shipping points in Africa. Some deaths were due to being thrown overboard due to rebelling, others from disease and brutal treatment along this horrible journey.
By contrast, in the American colonies and later the U.S., the enslaved population grew significantly through natural reproduction. That’s one of the reasons why, despite the lower initial numbers, there were nearly four million enslaved people in the U.S. by the time of the Civil War.
Jarvis: When I stop and slow down my thoughts about the transatlantic journey that my ancestors endured, my heart is truly full and overflowing with emotions. They were ripped from the comforts of the only place they’d known as home. Taken away and separated from families that they would more than likely never see again.
They were chained, shackled, abused and horribly treated. Many did not even make it; we have no way of actually knowing how many are lost at the bottom of vast oceans. We explore and learn of the atrocities experienced by those who actually survived the journey.
Their survival stories are almost overshadowed by the decades of inequality, mistreatment, abuse and lies! And apparently, some of this happened in the other places that were importing and involved in slavery.
However, it was extremely horrible here in America. “Land of The Free.” “Home of the Brave.” Blacks who’d served this country and wore their uniforms were killed for that right here in the country they fought for. We’ve got to do better.
While being on this rail trip and in visiting The Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Sites (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, I realize the horrors of being chased, hunted, lynched, raped and abused has been a evolving sequence of events, many of which could be a failure of our justice systems.
I realize what the EJI project has done is like creating a ginormous evidence locker of the crimes that have been committed against Blacks. I realize these sites were discovered trying to gather information and document events that tell of the injustices done to Black people all over our country.
Joe: The EJI lynching exhibit was a very moving place to experience as they had displayed the enormity of the horrors of lynchings in such a powerful way.
Starting with the shackled slaves and continuing with huge steel and rusted columns, representing each county, were hanging from chains and contained the names and lynching dates of each victim. The pictures included here give you a small representation of what we saw.
As an older white man, I used to think that racial issues in America were someone else’s problem. Have you ever thought that? In 2012, when Trayvon Martin was murdered, God grabbed me and said, “Pay more specific attention to what is happening in America.” So, thus began my journey of deep learning about racism.
A few years later I met Jarvis, and we became good friends, which gave me some great insight from a Black perspective that I did not previously have. This journey continues and this Rail Tour is just the latest chapter for me.
To say it straight: my big discovery has been that most all Black Americans don’t need to be schooled about racism as they are living it, where most white Americans are simply unaware of what is going on and don’t see what is still happening with systemic racism.
Jarvis: This rail trip with Joe has been interesting in that I knew it would be fun and we’d see and discover tons of things, but I didn't realize how much we’d learn and share with each other about our own different races, experiences, cultures and perspectives.
These experiences have made us more aware of what others might be going through with their neighbors or friends, and don't realize it. At the same time, it’s made us want to be better by sharing our differences and learning from them.
Joe: "Just Mercy" is a film that shows the true story about the beginnings of the Equal Justice Initiative and founder Bryan Stevenson's work. EJI has gone on to create all three amazing Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama, while continuing their equal justice work. I discovered that they work with 2,000 clients each year seeking justice. This story deserves further attention as EJI is not just a museum, but an ongoing fight for justice for folks who have not been fairly represented in our legal system. We hope you will watch this great movie and possibly support EJI.
Jarvis Harris, of Lacey, is a retired U.S. Army veteran and former Pierce County corrections officer who now dedicates his time to personal passions and volunteering. Born and raised in Philadelphia, he settled in Lacey during his Army service.
Joe Foss, of Tacoma, is a Navy veteran and retired business owner who has been actively engaged in projects addressing racism in America since 2012.
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Snevets
Thank you once again for sharing each of your experiences. You're right as human beings we MUST do better. I look forward to watching Just Mercy and sharing it.
Wednesday, February 19 Report this
jwiley
Thank you for this write up! I plan to share it with many others. Acceptingothers.com is also brilliant, and full of insights so needed for this country.
Wednesday, February 19 Report this
KellyOReilly
Hi Jarvis and Joe: Thank you for sharing your Black History travel journal with us through the JOLT. I've enjoyed reading each installment and also appreciate the links you've shared within the articles. I've book-marked your website, will share it and will listen to your podcasts.
Wednesday, February 19 Report this
Honestyandrealityguy
What we seem to have forgotten is that the original slave owners here were black. Yes, that is true.
It all began with indentured servants, not slaves. Whites primarily from the Barbary Coast and blacks primarily from Africa. The whites were predominantly in the north and the blacks in the south. The north was primarily Republican and the south Democrats.
Generally, an indentured servant would work off its servitude, then get a plot of land from the sponsor and be on his/her way. This continued until an indentured servant, Anthony Johnson, a black man, worked off his servitude and was given a plot of land. He in turn had indentured servants. One wanted to leave him and go to another. Johnson went to court and the court ruled that Johnson owned the man. Hence, slavery was born, a black man owning a black man.
Johnson began buying and selling slaves to his friends and family, then expanded and included anyone and everyone he could make money off of. When a white Republican freed the slaves, THOUSANDS of black families owned slaves. The natives (Indians) owned tens of thousands of slaves. And so did others.
Slavery was only allowed in the north for about 10 years.
About 300,000 whites and 20,000 blacks from the north, gave their lives to help end slavery.
Slavery is wrong, regardless of who the owner or slave is. Would just like to get history back to normal. Lots of marketing has gone on to discuss slavery.
Wednesday, February 19 Report this
HappyOlympian
I do not typically reply directly to other posts on JOLT, but........
"What we seem to have forgotten is that the original slave owners here were black. Yes, that is true.
It all began with indentured servants, not slaves. Whites primarily from the Barbary Coast and blacks primarily from Africa. The whites were predominantly in the north and the blacks in the south. The north was primarily Republican and the south Democrats." -------- This and what followed from "realityguy" is so distorted and incorrect that it really does not justify a response, but had to point out the Republican Party was not founded until the 1850s; Black people from Africa were not brought to America as indentured servants; the suggestion that indentured servants were given land by their "sponsor" completely implausible; comparing the forms of slavery practiced by Indians to that practiced in the American South pure bunk; "slavery allowed in the North for only about ten years" a pure falsehood. Lastly, no idea what the statement "would like to get history back to normal" might possibly mean.
Thursday, February 20 Report this
HappyOlympian
First African slaves sold in Lisbon in 1400s. Basic reason for enslaving Africans in the Americas was the native populations decimated and unable to provide the labor wanted by Spanish and Portuguese to exploit American resources, and that set the example followed by French, Dutch and British. Industrial farming (sugar, tobacco, cotton, etc.) required vast amounts of labor, and few people were willing to leave Europe to live in the miserable conditions in the expanding colonies. This made enslaving Africans extremely profitable and resulted in vast accumulations of wealth in Europe, paying for more colonial expansion and while also creating some of the banking conglomerates still active and influencing world affairs to this day.
The idea of States Rights being an issue for the Confederacy a fraud, that is propaganda created long after the war and supported in by those attempting to rewrite history. An examination of the documents and reasons given by Southern states as to why they succeeded all mention the want to protect slavery, and the Confederate Constitution specifically stated all states must be slave and could not leave the CSA once a member.
Thursday, February 20 Report this