By Any Means Necessary

In the justification of slavery, slave masters and holders went to great lengths to deny the humanity of slaves. The Bible’s story of Ham surfaces regularly to ration mean dark skin and slavery and mistakenly or purposely that the Curse of Ham had anything to do with either. Further exegesis about the meaning about the curse of Ham is another discussion. However, the use of the Bible as reason and justification of slavery in the United States is considerable.

The dehumanization of blacks in the United States is nothing new. In fact, it has historic roots from so-called respected sources, such as the disease in the heading. Even without the Bible, white Americans found numerous ways to dehumanize slaves. Two of those ways resorted to pseudoscience by a respected MD and a signer of the Declaration of Independence who was also considered as the “Father of Psychiatry” in the United States. Prominent among theories surrounding slave mental disorders was Samuel A. Cartwright.

Cartwright diagnosed a disorder known as drapetomania. Drapetomania was a supposed mental illness described by Cartwright in 1851 that caused black slaves to flee captivity.[1] Today, it is considered as an example of pseudoscience^[2]and part of the edifice of scientific racism.^[3]The term derives from the Greek δραπετης (drapetes, "a runaway [slave]") + μανια (mania, "madness, frenzy").[4]

Cartwright described the disorder—which, he said, was "unknown to our medical authorities, although its diagnostic symptom, the absconding from service, is well known to our planters and overseers"[5]—in a paper delivered before the Medical Association of Louisiana[6] that was widely reprinted. He stated that the malady was a consequence of masters who "made themselves too familiar with [slaves], treating them as equals."[7] In Diseases and “Pecularities of the Negro Race,” Cartwright writes that the Bible calls for a slave to be submissive to his master, and by doing so, the slave will have no desire to run away.[8]

“If the white man attempts to oppose the Deity's will, by trying to make the negro anything else than "the submissive knee-bender" (which the Almighty declared he should be), by trying to raise him to a level with himself, or by putting himself on an equality with the negro; or if he abuses the power which God has given him over his fellow-man, by being cruel to him, or punishing him in anger, or by neglecting to protect him from the wanton abuses of his fellow-servants and all others, or by denying him the usual comforts and necessaries of life, the negro will run away; but if he keeps him in the position that we learn from the Scriptures he was intended to occupy, that is, the position of submission; and if his master or overseer be kind and gracious in his hearing towards him, without condescension, and at the same time ministers to his physical wants, and protects him from abuses, the negro is spell-bound, and cannot run away.”[9]

In his overriding concerns about slavery and diagnosis, Cartwright also invented another disease called, dysaesthesia aethiopica. The disease, also known as “rascality” among Southern slave owners exhibited itself in “slow or lethargic” behaviors among slaves, which be cured by a applying a good beating. In Cartwright’s idiotic pseudoscience the “disease” was most observable in free slaves living by themselves, a diagnosis that is hardly surprising.

Curiously, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Dean of the Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania and the "Father of American Psychiatry, Benjamin Rush, MD (1746­1813), "described Negroes as “suffering from an affliction called Negritude,” which was thought to be a mild form of leprosy. The only cure for the disorder was to become white! However, Dr Rush's observation, observation might be more accurate, but hardly a disease. Instead, at that time nowhere was it ever considered that the transition of living free to be cast into slavery was a transition that did not sit well upon the shoulders of former free men..[10]

Cartwright, provides just one of many excuses of how slave masters used the Bible to deny the obvious humanity of slaves. It has always been a particular point of confusion that African Americans are by far the most religious group in the United States. Even though Christian beliefs sinking to a record low of 74 percent, African American belief and church attendance has hovered at or close to 91% since ratings started. A strange dichotomy considering how the Bible was used to keep black ancestors in captivity.

In addition to identifying drapetomania, Cartwright prescribed a remedy. His feeling was that with "proper medical advice, strictly followed, this troublesome practice that many Negroes have of running away can be almost entirely prevented."[11] In the case of slaves, ". . .sulky and dissatisfied without cause," was an indicator or “. . .  a warning sign of imminent flight.´ To prevent incidence of drapetomania, Cartwright prescribed "whipping the devil out of them" as a "preventative measure."[12], [13] ^,[14]

Although many Bible verses came about in relation to surviving the oppression of the crumbling Roman Empire, the tenets provided ample room for interpretation justifying slavery. The particular verses, come from a number of verses in the Bible. For instance, this particular verse coming from Colossians 3:22 is just one of many slaveholders used to rationalize ownership of human beings. “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. “

That is just one of many reasons used by American slave owners as justification to enslave Africans. The entire premise operated on two levels. First, the Bible presents more than ample room for interpretation of ancient texts allowing slave owners justify taking slaves, including a manual outlining treatment of slaves. Secondly, not only was the Bible used for physically owning slaves, it provided blue print for making slaves dependent upon religion for a means of escape into the supernatural freedom of the hereafter where they would receive their reward.

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[1] Kevin White (2002). An Introduction to the Sociology of Health and Illness. Sage Publications. p. 41. ISBN 0761964002. http://books.google.com/books?id=5bHxQBNWGHMC&pg=PA41&sig=inUJXRr5_kxRNnvEQ7rrz67wKmg

[2] Arthur L. Caplan, James J. McCartney, and Dominic A. Sisti (2004). Health, Disease, and Illness: Concepts in Medicine. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. p. 2. ISBN 1589010140.

[3] Pilgrim, David (November 2005). "Question of the Month: Drapetomania". Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/nov05.htm. Retrieved on 2007-10-04

[4] Cartwright, Samuel A. (1851). "Report on the Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race". DeBow's Review XI. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3106t.html. Retrieved on 4 October 2007.

[5] Ibid

[6]Caplan et al, p. 291. 

[7] Baynton, Douglas C. "Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History". The New Disability History: American Perspectives, 2001.

[8] Cartwright, Samuel A. Diseases and Pecularities of the Negro Race. 1851.

[9]  Cartwright, Samuel A. (1851). "Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race".DeBow's Review XI. Retrieved 16 November 2011.

[10] Vanessa Jackson, An Early History - African American Mental Health

[11] Cartwright, Samuel A. (1851). "Report on the Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race". DeBow's Review XI. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3106t.html. Retrieved on 4 October 2007.

[12] Caplan et al, p. 35.

[13] Paul Finkelman (1997). Slavery & the Law. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 305. ISBN 0742521192. http://books.google.com/books?id=1YI0DvuukxkC&pg=PA305&sig=U1-5etwEyyiR5t4-HcLsM2gGWIE

[14]Rick Halpern, Enrico Dal Lago (2002). Slavery and Emancipation. Blackwell Publishing. p. 273. ISBN 0631217355. http://books.google.combooks?id=svaQthjrcf0C&pg=RA1-PA273&sig=BuyUaEXNumrkqdvdpvtSh0P4CyU.

A Biblical Defense of Slavery

A few days ago I completed a particularly distasteful task of reading a book that defended American slavery based on "biblical" evidence and opinion considered to be factual. Trying to read the interminable 590 page tract from a point of neutrality never was a consideration. I expected to read a long list of apologetics, justifications and excuses for the enslavement of other human beings and I was not disappointed.

Although the book attempts to establish a certain degree of scholarly acumen, it is mired in biblical biology, superstition and interpretation that makes the ownership of entire families of slaves not only acceptable, but judicial by designating it as an imperial command from the judge, jury and executioner. From today's vantage point, the book is one long and absurd justification of slave trafficking, but in 1850 it probably helped slave owner hold even more tightly to what they considered their "rightly possessions."

The books title, "Bible Defence of Slavery Or the Origins, History, and Fortunes of the Negro Race As Deduced from History, both Sacred and Profane, Their Natural Relations--Moral, Mental, and Physical—to the Other Races of Mankind, Compared and Illustrated—Their Future Destiny Predicted, Etc." written by Josiah Priest in 1851, is a mixture clouded logic, superstition and delusion. For me, it was little more than a profane and slanderous recitation of ignorance of science, superstition and racial arrogance.

For instance, in the Bible Adam and Eve are parents to all mankind, but not in the author's interpretation. According to the author, there was only one race and Negroes were the offspring of Ham, Noah's black son. The claims that until then all of the children of Adam and Eve were "red" or the "hue" of copper. Somehow and for some reason God decides that one of Noah's would be white and one black. So, Noah and his wife were the mother and father of mankind as the rest of all living things would die in the great flood. This more than once, according to the author who also claims that Jesus, although born of a Hebrew or "red" mother, was white.

There many opportunities for laughter in the book, but I couldn't bring even a smile to my face despite the utter silliness and crackpot nature of its writer. Priest gained some notoriety as a writer during the first half of the 19th century. Although he possessed no formal education, Priest passed himself off as an authority on a variety of subjects, including biblical exegesis and biology. In fact, he earned dubious distinction as one of the creators of pseudoscientific literature.

As part of my ongoing course of Religious Justifications, reading Priest's interminable tract was distasteful, but at times humorous with its illogical thought, which is still in use today on a variety of subjects that have nothing to do with this review. Nevertheless, Priest's depiction of slavery as God's will and judicial covenant runs throughout the book as recurrent themes. Prieist is not alone in using holy writ to justify some of the most heinous acts in the name of religion , he is just one who wasted more than 500 pages on stupidity and pure idiocy to do it.

As I read each page of overt racism and Godly justification of the human holocaust known as slavery, I couldn't help thinking of distant ancestors and relatives that I never knew who suffered because of avarice and execrations. The few, I knew were old and shared what they could with a young boy during the end of Jim Crow. As repugnant as I found the book, as an African American, it brought a subject that met my consideration numerous times and that is, the apparent affinity the black community has with a religion used to enslave.

I guess that is another topic altogether, but the use of the Bible to enslave African men and women is readily apparent in Priest's racist bilge. Nevertheless, for those unfamiliar with one of the most despicable and horrific acts ever envisioned and acted out, Priest's book provides a glimpse of the mentality used to justify the bondage of other human beings.

Yes, Black Scientist

When it comes to studying the reaches of the galaxies, NASA takes the lead. Using some of the most powerful tools available, NASA scientist gain insights into the formation of stars in space. Now, they’re sharing a rare opportunity for teachers from across the country to be a part of their learning mission. Recently, Ira Harden was one of 26 U.S. educators selected for research flights aboard SOFIA, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. As participants in the Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program, the educators collaborated with professional astronomers using SOFIA for scientific observations in 2012 and 2013.

SOFIA, NASA’s flying observatory is a very specialized Boeing 747 plane houses a high-powered infrared telescope and flies above the moisture barrier to gather data from space. Using SOFIA, NASA scientist collect infrared images of our solar system and stars.

The observatory enables the analysis of infrared light to study the formation of stars and planets; chemistry of interstellar gases; composition of comets, asteroids and planets; and supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies“Infrared telescope is able to concentrate on things cooler than stars like stars that are forming planets that are forming and so on,"said Dana Backman,  manager of SOFIA’s education and public outreach program.

Onboard an eight-hour mission flight above the Pacific,Harden and other teachers gathered data to use in personalized experiments for their students.

“The students will be extremely excited about it to know more about what goes on in the universe,” said Ira Harden, who is a chemistry and physics teacher from City Honors College Preparatory in Inglewood, CA. Harden is famous among his students for his science rap videos, Harden’s not new to experimental learning methods.

“The students will be extremely excited about it to know more about what goes on in the universe,” said Harden. Before his selection, Harden was in an article on TakePart.com titled, Clip of the Day: Teacher Raps His Way Through Chemistry Lessons. The article said that Ira makes stoichiometry cool for his high school chemistry class at City Honors College Preparatory Charter School by rapping about it.

Everyone Needs a Club House

We had the clubhouse of clubhouses. It had two floors, multiple rooms and closets. Our parents warned us about going in there, but what did parents know other than how to ruin some fun. Just because the ceiling sagged, broken glass littered the floor and the hard wood floors had lost their hardness years long ago, it still had all the requirements of a great secret clubhouse.

Even though our parents repeatedly told us to stay away from the house, we went any way. A clubhouse worth its salt required certain items like maps, secret codes, secret pledges, secret entrances, escape routes and rituals only club members could know. Of course, we had the traditional secret handshakes, eye winks and passwords even though every kid on the block was a member.

In the summer, we held meetings everyday to discuss what shenanigans we would pull like throwing dirt clods over the rooftops to hit Old Man Jones' house. Sometimes, we'd do the same thing to Paul Everette. He had only one leg and we like to make him get up or cuss.

When the dirt hit his roof he'd let out long strings of invective. "You goddam kids. I'm going to get out of this chair and come whip all your narrow asses." It'd be dark. but we'd take off through the weeds laughing as only stupid kids can.

Our club only had a few rules, but one specific rule was no candles without a water bucket. We learned through visual experience. My older brother, Paul Bradley and Fred Brown used a rickety tool shed behind the Bradley's garage. Of course, we were not allowed access. Not being permitted to enter their clubhouse probably saved me from a serious ass-whipping.

To this day I remember Paul, Poone and Fuzzy tumbling out of their clubhouse with a trail of smoke behind them. We knew what happened almost immediately because peeped through the cracks and watched as they whispered over a lit candle. In addition to tools, the shed was stacked from ceiling to floor with old dried out newspapers.

The smoke quickly turned fire when they came tumbling out. Someone brought a water hose but the stream was so weak it didn't clear shoe leather. Long story short, the fire department came and extinguished the fire, but not the flames that jumped from backyard ass-whippings.

That never happened to us. We were hit by a parental raid. Only four days after we commandeered our compound, the parent police swooped down on us like birds of prey. Our cover was blown. Someone sold us out. I was sure it was one of the girls we didn't allow to join.

When the parents showed up, they called for us by name. Now, the scurry began. Some of us went out the downstairs windows only to be scooped up by a waiting parent. Some hid in the houses many rooms only to give after considering the consequences. However, our evacuation wasn't without humor.

Freddy Anderson was one that decided hiding was a better way to go rather than coming out. I was standing next to my mother and father when we saw Freddy hide behind a closet door. Unfortunately for him, while his attention focused on the door, his mother looked at his back directly through the closet window.

Troy Wilson provided entertainment for even the parents as he used our secret escape route to vanish into the weeds unseen. Troy chose to use our upstairs escape route, which consisted of several sheets tied together like a rope and nailed to the window ledge.

We all watched in awe as Troy flew out the window, grabbed the escape rope and plummeted to the ground still holding the unattached sheets in his hands. It was a sight to see. For a moment we thought Troy might fly, but ultimately he lacked the tools.

Needless to say, ass-whippings were the order of the day, plus, all of us were on restriction. They tore the house down the following year and the one thing that still stands out in my mind is Troy flying through the air clasping that unattached sheet rope.

Homophones and Homophobes

Homophones and homonyms are the not the same when it comes to spelling  and even though "they're" similar in sound, in most cases they have different meanings. I usually bite my tongue and keep on reading to capture the gist of whatever I might be reading. However, a few days ago an egregious spelling/grammar error had me grinding my teeth. It was simple a declarative sentence, that said, "Prices may very." Quickly, what is the problem?

First, “very” is the wrong word. Even though it sounds like the correct word “vary” its use is incorrect.“ “Very” can be an adverb or adjective meaning it is a modifier while “vary” is a verb. Who cares? You should. If you are involved with any written communications, the proper use of words is important to your career as spellcheckers don't always capture words used incorrectly. For instance, three of the most abused words are "there," "their" and "they're." They sound the same in speech but are written different. Again, "There" is an adverb indicating place or position. "Their" is an adjective indicating possession or abstract ownership. "They're" is a contraction made up of a pronoun and a verb. The contraction pronounced the same as the other two represents "They are."

The following is a list of some of the most commonly abused homonyms in business communications.

Meat, meet, mete

Your, you're

Waist, waste

Wave, waive

Vein. Vain

Threw, through

Whine, wine

Weak, week

Raze, raise, rays

Write, rite, right

Chilli, chilly

Malapropisms are the opposite of the written in that in speaking they are words that sound similar, but in reality are incorrect. Most Americans are unaware of their existence though many use them in everyday conversation. A malapropism is the misuse of a word that creates a “ridiculous sentence," usually as a result of confusing similar sounding words. This can create embarrassing moments for people, especially during public speeches. To get a better idea of how malapropisms work, check out some of the examples below.

Sixteenth Chapel=Cistine Chapel

Please Precede=Please Procede

Private Instigator=Private Investigator

For All intensive Purposes=For all intents and purposes

Supposively/Supposably=Supposedly

Sciences=Sinuses

Delusions=Allusions

Monotony=Monogamy

So, as you can sea, proofing what you right is important. Check and recheck and bee sure that what goes out under your name is the best it can bee.