MIXED RACE SLAVE OWNERS IN BARBADOS and THE REPARATIONS CONTROVERSY : BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH FAMILY HERITAGE

I feel, based on what I learned over the years through genealogy that the question of Reparations for the bad deeds of ancestors is at best complicated and unworkable.  To be fair I believe that DNA tests as well as genealogies of all would be necessary and math would have to be applied. That's because you cannot know by looking at a person if they are Black or have Black ancestry, and even when this seems quite apparent, you cannot know other details such as how long the family line has lived in, say, the United States, or had citizensip.

I currently have a friend who was born in Britain, whose mother took the family to New York but who still has a grandmother in England, who comes from this Island - sugar plantation - heritage of slavery. However, she now has American citizenship as do her children. So I ask you, how would we figure out just how much money, if any, she is owed?  Would she, because she is visibly Black, also get California money? The fact is it would probably cost as much to do this type of program fairly as the payout, and to me that is unworkable.

In this article, by Sue Reid for Daily Mail, discusses the slave owning heritage and mixed race ancestors of the family of actor Benedict Cumberbatch, not only is there a reveal about race but also that historically there have been payouts that benefited the family.

DAILY MAIL : REPARATIONS DEBATE by Sue Reid

I first encountered the historical reality that went against assumptions - and even classroom learning - when in a genealogy search for a client I found that his ancestors were both those who were marched during the Trail of Tears as well as those who forced the marching. His early ancestors had mixed race families with Native Americans and on census some children in some families were listed as B - Black - but they were actually part Cherokee. Also, a few of his cousins a few times removed married Cherokee and moved from the settlers to the tribe so very likely today those relatives are members of the tribe. There were also Native American slave holders in the area. Though most people who owned slaves had one or two and those slaves lived in with the family (yes, believe it or not) this particular Native American had a couple dozen slaves farming for him. 

There are no absolutes when it comes to history and as a genealogist I'm concerned that the documents lead to history, not a reworking of it.

Like the author of this article, I too believe that at least in some of the mixed race unions, in which marriage was not legally possible, there was love or at least the possibility of love. That said, the role of women in general was so not equal to that of the men, and genealogy has reinforced my feminism. (As an example as President, Thomas Jefferson had to obey the law, and the law forbid him to marry Sally Hemings.)

This article, especially considering that it was published by Daily Mail, which is a a tabloid rather than a hard news venue, does an excellent job of showing why there is controversy.

***

All that said, being against Reparations does not mean that I'm against giving a hand up to those who need it. This is best done in a quiet and personal way.  One should not assume, however, that a person needs help simply because they are a certain race, or that they do not need it because they are a certain race.

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THE LAST SLAVE SHIP (CLOTILDA) by BEN RAINES : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BOOK REVIEW

Subtitled, The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning.

Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, a ship full of slaves did indeed arrive in Mobile, Alabama. These Africans had faces decorated by scarification in Africa which would set them apart from other Black people already in the slave states. The voyage to Africa - Dohomey - and back was the work of businessmen who were also enjoying the prospect of flaunting the law and winning a bet as well hoping to enjoy wealth from the sell of humans. The descendants of these slaves founded their own town, Africatown, and as communities go, are close, bound by the history of their ancestors. The discovery of the ship was also an adventure, and takes up a good portion of the book.

The sailship Clotilda was built in 1855, and the voyage occurred in 1860, so while slavery was not yet outlawed, bringing more slaves in was.  It was captained by it's previous owner.  The eight-six foot two-masted schooner was not at all the type of ship best used for transporting slaves.  Usually a slave ship held between 500 to 1000 humans.  However - and I know this sounds ironic - but British and American authorities were on the seas looking for illegal slavers - and so this ship was not likely to catch their attention yet there were risks involved of arrest and the loss of their investments.

Page 29 "By the 1850's. thirty-six ships that Britain had assigned to its West African Squadron had captured sixteen hundred slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans en route to the United States. ... in May of 1860, just as he (Foster) was outfitting the Clotilda for its slaving run, U.S. revenue cutters around Key West intercepted three ships headed to port with 1,432 enslaved Africans on board." Page 30 "The outlay of $35,000 often brings $500,000." Page 32 ..."March 3, 1860, Foster kissed his wife goodbye and made the short walk from the boardinghouse (where they lived)...A heavy bag slung over his shoulder hid twenty-seven pounds of gold...

False papers ready, the ship was cleared for a run to St. Thomas...

Page 40 The Kingdom of Dahomey (West Africa) was "well known as one of the most violent and ruthless societies in human history... built on war."

Basically, this tribe of West African people waged war on others just to collect humans they could sell into slavery as a central part of their economy.  Page 40 "Historians estimate the Kingdom of Dahomey may have been responsible for capturing and deporting about 30 % of all the Africans sold in bondage worldwide between 1660 and the 1880's." The British had tried to negotiate with their King that this slave trade be stopped but was not successful.

Once the deals had been made, the ship did not depart immediately. The slaves were taken to Ouidah, and locked up in the barracoon*** for three weeks. This sea port had been build to accommodate the slave trades with forts that had been built by the French, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, and English, and the newly captured were treated as good as cattle.  The slaves were young adults for the most part. 125 were selected but in the last moments, they Clotilda sailed away with fifteen left on shore, the abandonment costly, because it appeared they might be caught.  Most of these people had never seen the ocean or been on a ship. When they arrived in Alabama they also came into a foreign environment of swamps full of cane plants that grew 30 to 40 feet high, spiders, flies, and mosquitoes, and reptiles. They were held for eleven days, being kept a secret.  The secret could not be kept for long for the departure had been in the national newspapers and the return too. The men faced legal ramifications, which were not severe.

The slaves were sold, and the friendships formed in the months in which they had been held together were maintained.  Some of these people were interviewed and the content of those interviews still exists.

During the Civil war Page 117 "The last battle of the war was fought around the abandoned city of Blakeley, just on the other side of the swamp from the Meaher's sawmill and shipyard at Magazine Point.  You could hear the booming of cannons, which thundered for several days, from Meaher's front poerch, softening up the Confederate lines before the inevitable Union assault....  Sixteen thousand Union troops, including five thousand men in all African- American United States Colored Troops infantry regiments, fought four thousand Confederates for seven days.  In the final battle, the African-American infantry companies joined together, forming the entire right flank of the Union forces.  The African-American troops, comprised of the formerly enslaved and free men alike, suffered the highest casualties at Blakeley, but also won the final, decisive battle."

This book is about adventure and survival.  There is a lot to learn about this time and place in American history from it. 

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*** A Spanish word that means barracks

JEWISH MUSEUM in ISRAEL HAS DATABASES

JEWISH MUSEUM DATABASES  in Hebrew and English

Many family trees stored, lots of photos, search by PLACE to learn more about it and see what genealogy information is associated with people who lived there.  A list of surnames all the way back to Egypt. ANU Jewish Museum... 

JAPANESE AMERICAN MUSEUM IREICHO SACRED BOOK - COLLECTED NAMES OF THOSE INTERRED : TIME TO STAMP THE BOOK OF NAMES

 JAPANESE AMERICAN MUSEUM - SACRED BOOK OF NAMES of INTERRED

EXCERPT: Visitors will be invited to view the names and use a special Japanese HANKO (a stamp or seal) to leave a mark for each person in the Ireicho as a way to honor those incarcerated during World War II.  Community participation will "activate" it and rectify the historical record by correcting misspelled names or revealing names THAT MAY HAVE BEEN OMITTED for the record.  Time-entry reservations to view the Ireicho can be made online.  The Ireicho will be on display during museum hours starting Sunday, September 24, 2022, for one year.

***

President  Franklin Delano Roosevelt is my favorite U.S. President, though I realize not everything he did during his FOUR TERMS IN OFFICE, as elected through the vote, is without controversy. He entered the Presidency during the Great Depression, the dire conditions of which we in the United States luckily have not entered into again and created many program opportunities to. The forced internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans in camps is one of the least popular of his legacies. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, this act of war with the United States provoked Roosevelt to respond by officially entering into World War II. Though not so long ago, intelligence gathering and information collections depended upon human contact, not IT or database systems, and there was no way to know who among the Japanese-American community might be a spy for Japan. The United States had held back from military involvement in Europe. There was also a concern that some Americans might take to harming the Japanese (or Asians) living in the United States so, though the camps were rugged, this was thought also to protect them from possible attacks or even mob rule. Roosevelt though Executive Order 9066, in 1942, ordered that Japanese-Americans be taken to camps which were located in-land from the coastal areas where most of them lived.

***

As the veterans of this war are in their late 90's, the opportunities to provide oral histories for future generations also ends with their passing.

I had the honor of meeting a man and befriending him some years ago, a Jewish man, who was involved in training the Japanese-Americans who fought in Italy for the United States.  (Italy and Germany were allied with Japan and thus against the United States and its allies.)

The United States' combat unit of Japanese-Americans was called the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.  They were highly decorated which means they faced savage fighting and had severe losses as well.

I urged Sam to contact the Japanese-American Museum and also offered to take him there to see the displays. I felt they might want to have his testimony on record.  It never happened. Sam passed away a few years ago, just a couple days after I visited him in his assisted living apartment, where we had a short visit during which he had all his wits. He had recently been hospitalized for some time and told me he was ready to pass. He told me how it was that he had been selected for this opportunity in the military. An engraved plaque honoring him for his service was on his wall, along with the photo of his departed wife and son. Originally from the Philadelphia area, Sam had been a patriotic American. Sam had been tested by the military psychologically as NOT BIGOTED or PREJUDICED.  They wanted people to work with Japanese-Americans who would be honorable and fair in working with them.

To put this into context, here was the son of Jewish immigrants who faced bigotry and prejudice themselves, who lived in an ethnic enclave (some call that a ghetto), who was somewhat religious but not so much, and who had fallen in love with his teenage sweetheart, who he would eventually marry and spend his life with. He put military service first. 

To me this testing means that the United States military certainly was open to these Japanese - American men fighting for the United States, knew that Japanese-Americans were patriotic, but had concerns that they be treated fairly. The military also thought it would be unwise to send them into the Pacific theater or war where they could be confused visually with the enemy.

One article I read said the United States considered all Japanese Americans to be enemies of the state.  That is not correct.

The book was compiled by a University of Southern California professor, Duncan Ryuken Williams, and lists all of those who were interred in camps, over 125,000 names.  A new book, but considered sacred, weighing in at 25 pounds or so, it is available for viewing and for placing a stamp or seal.

YOUTUBE - TODAY SHOW - NBC's Emilie Ikeda  Not embedded on this blog due to the commercials, but an good video of Emilie Ikeda's visit to the museum to stamp the book.  Note that you may stamp the book though not a relative to a person named in the book.

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MY HEARTS BEST LOVE

 

IS OUR LIFE ACTUALLY A DREAM? EXCERPTS FROM JIM TUCKER'S RETURN TO LIFE

EXCERPTS:  'Being open to the possibility of life after death naturally makes me curious about what it might involve.  With the idea that the world exists as a shared dream, my thinking about it has changed.  I no longer imagine that we go to another place when we die.  Instead, we have another dream...(page 195)

...With the past life memories they reveal, the children in our case studies seem to be returning to the world in which they lived a previous life.  A better way of describing this is to say that regardless of whether the children have an intermission experience, they fall back into the same dream they were in before ---- meaning this world. (page 200)

It's unclear how time would work across mind created worlds.  It's easiest to conceptualize lifetimes as being sequential -- first I have one life, then another, then another -- but I don't know if that makes compete sense when the lives involve different dream worlds.... (page 207)

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LOVES MESSAGE TO MY VALENTINE

 

RETURN TO LIFE by JIM B. TUCKER M.D. : ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK REVIEW

 

Jim B. Tucker was an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehaviorial Sciences at the University of Virginia, continuing the work of the renown Ian Stevenson at the UVA Division of Perceptual Studies when he wrote this book which was published in 2013. He has continued on with his research since then.  The focus here is on finding cases of children who remember being someone else in a previous life who are American (or from Western Christian cultures) His predecessor found cases in India where a belief in reincarnation is strong. He prefers that the memories be spontaneous rather than achieved through hypnotic regression.  If it is not the memory of an individual's past life, then how does a child access information about someone else's life that can be checked out?

Remaining the scientist, Tucker asks this question:  Is MIND different than the organic BRAIN and how does that work?  Can understanding the potential of the mind explain why some children are psychic?

Does remembering a talent or skill or obsession from a past life explain the child protégée in sports, music, art?  Two of the children whose cases are revealed in this book claimed to have lived Hollywood lives. 

Does having nightmares or repetitive dreams have its basis in events that occurred in a past life?

Does everyone have one life?  Two?  Many?  Does a soul have a choice?

And of great interest to me is how these children explain how they died and where they were between lives. One child says the air all went out of her.  Another says that when she died she did not exist but turned into bits of dust which floated allover but other people who were dust there made friends with her.

Something else of interest in this book is Tucker's explanation that while more boys seem to remember past lives than girls, this may be because boys have a greater chance of dying accidently or prematurely.

In this book you will discover that some people think tumors and birthmarks may be coo related with accidents and injuries or illnesses in another life.

However, Tucker does ask if perhaps a person has disassociation or a multiple personality disorder or even possession.  And as he says, there are things that even hit into his "boggle threshold."

Worth a read!  (I'll excerpt in a future post.)

Link to the author's academic site here JIM B TUCKER - RETURN TO LIFE

NEVER MY LOVE: THE ASSOCIATION

Don't often post music videos here at Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot but I felt like it... This is one of my favorite old love songs.

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