Racial Oppression & the Rise
of Black Leadership
 |
The
picture [above] would have appeared shocking to a viewer in the Civil War
era, when it was taken, because it shows a little black boy with a
little white girl on his arm. This is a posture suggestive of
"traditional courtship roles," and it violates taboos
concerning what we would today call, "interracial dating." |
But look closely at the caption! They are both
"emancipated slave children!" They are both legally black.
So it is okay for her to take his arm. Whoever
distributed this photo was certainly aware that he/she was
making several points, not the least of which was that "white"
girls could be designated "black" slaves under American law.
—Wilson J. Moses
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Abbe Raynal on
Oppression & the Rise of Black Leadership
Your slaves stand in no need either of your
generosity or your counsels, in order to break the sacrilegious
yoke of their oppression. Nature speaks a more powerful language
than philosophy or interest . . . There are so many indications
of the impending storm, and the Negroes want only a chief,
sufficiently courageous, to lead them on to vengeance and
slaughter. Who is this great man, whom nature owes to her
afflicted, oppressed, and tormented children? Where is he? He
will undoubtedly appear, he will show himself, he will lift up
the sacred standard of liberty.
This venerable signal will collect around him
the companions of his misfortunes. They will rush on with more
impetuosity than torrents; they will leave behind them, in all
parts, indelible traces of their just resentment. Spaniards,
Portuguese, English, French, Dutch, all their tyrants will
become the victims of fire and sword. The planes of America will
suck up with transport the blood which they have so long
expected, and the bones of so many wretches, heaped upon one
another, during the course of so many centuries, will bound for
joy. The Old World will join its plaudits to those of the New.
In all parts the name of the hero, who shall
have restored the rights of the human species, will be blest; in
all parts trophies erected to his glory. Then will the black
code be no more; and the white code will be a dreadful one, if
the conqueror only regards the right of reprisals. Till this
revolution shall take place, the Negroes groan under the
oppression of labours, the description of which cannot but
interest us more and more in their destiny.
—Abbe Raynal,
A Philosophical and Political
History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the
East and West Indies, Vol. 6 (1798), pp. 128-129
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Raynal quote contributed by Scot
French: I
checked out the Raynal book while working on my manuscript and had
to return it to the library this afternoon. I transcribed the
excerpt for future use and thought you might have use for it on your
website. [A quick search on Google tells me it's not readily
available on the internet, though -- as you mentioned -- it's often
cited in reference to Toussaint.] Thanks for sharing with me
your reading of Raynal's quote; it's inspired me to think about how
to incorporate such material within a future lecture on slavery and
abolition in the Age of Enlightenment. All
the best, Scot
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Guillaume-Thomas-Francois
Raynal (1713-1796). The
"Abbe Raynal," French writer, was born at Saint-Geniez in
Rouergue on the 12th of April 1713. He was educated at the Jesuit
school of Pzenas, and received priests orders, but he was dismissed
for unexplained reasons from the parish of 5 int-Sulpice, Paris, to
which he was attached, and thenceforward he devoted himself to
society and literature. Among the objects of his fiercest attacks
were the Inquisition and European methods of colonization.
Raynal's
Histoire
philosophique et politique des etablissements et du commerce des
Europeens dans les deux Indes (1770), quoted above, went
through many editions, revised and augmented from time to time by
Raynal. The Histoire was translated into the principal
European languages, and appeared in various abridgments. Its
introduction into France was forbidden in 1779. The book was burned
by the public executioner, and an order was given for the arrest of
the author, whose name had not appeared in the first edition, but
was printed on the title page of the Geneva
Exiled
from France, Raynal took refuge successively at the Courts of Berlin
and St. Petersburg, but returned to his native district during the
Revolution.
Other
works by Raynal:
Histoire du divorce de Henri VIII. roi d'Angleterre, et de
Catharine d'Aragon (1763); , and Tableau et Revolution des
colonies Anglaises de l'Amerique Septentrionale.
Source:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/CREV/notes.html
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update 7 July 2008 |
