|
Douglas B.
Chambers.
Murder at Montpelier: Igbo Africans in
Virginia. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi,
2005.
Enslaved Igbo and the Foundation of Afro-Virginia Slave
Culture and Society
By Gloria Chuku
Department
of History, Millersville University of Pennsylvania.
Based largely on court and county
documents as well as the recently published
transatlantic slave database, Douglas Chambers uses the
circumstances surrounding the 1732 death of Ambrose
Madison, the paternal grandfather of President James
Madison, to reconstruct the history of the Igbo slaves
in Virginia. Thus, the book is primarily about the
dominant role of enslaved Igbo in the formation of early
Afro-Virginia slave culture and society. In the words of
the author, it discusses "the process of historical
creolization in eighteenth-century Virginia .. .
.[which] effectively mean[s] the Igboization of slave
community and culture" in the region (p. 18). The book
breaks into two parts: part 1 consists of chapters 1-4,
and part 2 consists of chapters 5-10.
Three slaves, two men and a woman,
were accused of causing Madison's death by poisoning.
They were tried and found guilty. While one of the
accused, a male slave owned by a neighboring planter,
was executed for his alleged lead role, the other two,
owned by Madison, were punished by whipping and returned
to his estate.
As a foundation for his thesis,
Chambers attempts to trace the history of the enslaved
Africans from their points of embarkation in the Bight
of Biafra and, more specifically, Calabar to their
disembarkation in Virginia. Thus, while part 1 of the
study focuses on the Igbo and their culture and society
during the era of the transatlantic slave trade, part 2
centers on the experiences of the enslaved in Virginia.
The author argues that the emergence and expansion of
Aro influence in Igbo region, as the foremost slave
merchants, and the demise of Nri hegemony in the
north-central Igbo region in the mid-eighteenth century
resulted in increased exportation of Igbo people out of
the Calabar and the Niger Delta ports.
According to the author's
calculations, the Igbo accounted for about 1.3 million
of the 1.7 million people exported from the Bight of
Biafra during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Out
of a total of 37,000 Africans that arrived in Virginia
from Calabar in the 1700s, 30,000 were Igbo (p. 23). The
significance of this pattern of slave trade between
Calabar and Virginia, Chamber argues, is that the
increased exportation of enslaved Igbo from their
homeland to the Chesapeake region coincided with the
expansion of colonial settlement from the Upper
Tidewater to the fertile Central Piedmont, an era when
the transatlantic trade transformed the region into a
slave society that was dominated by the Igbo and their
culture.
In 1721, Ambrose Madison inherited an
estate at Mt. Pleasant from his father-in-law. To secure
title to this estate, he purchased newly imported
African slaves and sent them there to clear and
cultivate crops. In early 1732, he moved to the new
estate with his family. Six months later, while still in
his mid-thirties, he died, allegedly as a result of
poison. As the author states, while Madison's
biographers and hagiographers helped to create a general
impression that he died a strange death at a very young
age, his family members attributed his death to a
poisoning conspiracy involving two of his slaves and an
outside male slave. To buttress his claim that Igbo
slaves were responsible for their master's death,
Chambers, in a chapter of only five pages, attempts to
link the use of poison as a weapon of slave resistance
to the enslaved Igbo in Virginia and the Caribbean
colonies.
This is very subjective, since the
knowledge and use of plant medicines to heal the sick,
placate the spirits and punish enemies and deviants was
not the exclusive prerogative of the enslaved Igbo.
In part 2 of the book, which focuses
on Virginia, the author delineates five phases of the
creolization of Mt. Pleasant (later Montpelier), namely,
the Charter generation (1720s-1730s), the Creolizing
generation (1740s-1760s), the Creolized generation
(1770s-1790s), the "Worriment" generation (1800s-1820s),
and the Ruination generation (1830s-1850s). The charter
generation of Atlantic Africans marked the development
of Mt.
Pleasant as a regional slave
community of the Madison family with twenty-nine slaves.
It was an era when enslaved Africans employed their
cultural heritage to adapt to their new environment.
They not only employed their expertise in tropical
agriculture to cultivate tobacco and corn, but also put
into use their knowledge of herbs and plants to make
preventive, curative, and poisonous medicines. Upon
Madison's death, his family shared his slaves between
his two quarters: the Home House and Black Level, an
action which signifies a new settlement pattern.
The Creolizing generation of the
Montpelier slave community saw a steady growth in the
slave population, resulting largely from inheritance and
births. Under the leadership of James Madison Sr., the
family embarked on major construction projects that made
each of their quarters resemble a small village. They
also established large tobacco barns, corncrib, and a
mill. Wealth generated through slave labor enabled
Madison to enhance his economic and political status.
For closer supervision and increased productivity, he
broke his slaves into small workforces and deployed them
annually to live in different quarters in a rotating
order. However, following the building of the Home House
and the slave quarter, the Walnut Grove, Madison brought
many of his slaves to stay at the core Montpelier
community in the late 1760s.
The Creolized generation
(1770s-1790s) marked the high point of Montpelier as a
slave community that was centered on the Walnut Grove,
with over hundred slaves in the mid-1770s (p. 129).
While tobacco remained the main export crop, Madison was
able to diversify his business operations to include
blacksmithing, carpentry, and brandy distilling. He also
added wheat and hay to his list of crops. Before he died
in 1801, Madison also invested in plows, scythes, and
other grain-cultivating tools which facilitated
increased production and specialization by the slaves.
The "Worriment" (1800s-1820s) and
"Ruination" (1830s-1850s) generations marked the death
of James Madison Sr., the disputes over the division of
his estates, the first substantial separations of slaves
from the home community, the death of President Madison,
and the final divestment of what was left of the
Montpelier community. By 1860, under a new owner, the
Montpelier slave population had been so drastically
reduced, either through intra- and inter-state slave
trade or the manumission process, that only twenty
slaves were left on the estate.
As the author aptly observes, in
spite of the predominant role of enslaved Africans in
the development of Mt. Pleasant and their contribution
to the rise of the Madison family to regional
prominence, historians have tended to overlook them,
focusing on Montpelier only as the family home of
President Madison. A few of the blacks mentioned in the
historiography of the Madisons were Sawney, Billy
Gardner, Granny Milly, Paul Jennings, and Surkey. Paul
Jennings, who published a small pamphlet in 1865, was a
sixteen-year-old house slave at the White House in 1814,
attending to the president until his death, and Sawney
accompanied the young James to his college in New Jersey
and served as his manservant. He also served as an
overseer, cultivated yams and cabbages, and raised
chickens before his death in the 1830s.
In the last chapter, the author tries
to reinforce his claims that Igbo slaves killed Ambrose
Madison and that their predominance in Virginia gave
them the opportunity to lay the foundation of the
Afro-Virginian culture and community. For this purpose,
he uses the personal names of the enslaved to mark their
individuality and to connect them to the Montpelier
slave community and the broader history of the region.
The author mentions names such as Calabar (male), Eboe
Sarah (female), Juba (male,) and Breechy (male). He also
uses yams (a staple food) and okra (a vegetable) as
evidence of the foodways of
Igbo origins, as well as "mojo" for
charms, and the slave "Jonkonnu" (a Christmastime slave
masquerade), all in the attempt to make a case for what
he calls "creolized Igboism" in Virginia. Chambers also
associates the eighteenth-century low-fired ceramic
cooking pots and eating bowls (generally called
colonoware) with the enslaved Igbo. According to the
author, the "description of precolonial Igbo potting
technology fits quite well with what is known of
eighteenth-century Virginia colonoware . . . [and]
gourds (calabashes) were another important Igbo material
cultural item that continued in Virginia" (pp.172-173).
Other material culture the author
lists in the book, as signifying Igbo connection, are
dugout canoes, styles of fences, blue glass beads, and
an iron sculpture which he claims evokes the kinds of
figures made from wood or clay that littered southern
Igbo "mbari" art or even "ikenga" (p.174). The author
identifies musical instruments such as box drums and the
"banjo" stringed instrument as uniquely Igbo. He also
points to slave patterns of settlement, Igbo belief in
reincarnation, the practice of not celebrating
birthdays, and the nudity of enslaved children and
youths as practices which resonated in Afro-Virginian
culture and suggest the dominance of Igbo influence.
The author draws on the extreme
lactose intolerance among Virginia's black adults of the
nineteenth century and the related notion that the Igbo
and Yoruba were the only major African ethnic groups
with a known lactose intolerance (p.186). In addition,
he says that the high proportion of Igbo women in the
colony might have given them disproportionate influence
in the socialization of Creole children.
As a counter-thesis to that of the
author, it should be noted that yam-growing was and is
not peculiar to the Igbo; more importantly, North
American yams are actually sweet potatoes, not the
"genus Dioscorea" associated with West Africa.
Similarly, the paraphernalia associated with the
Christmastime slave masquerades that the author links
with the Igbo were actually more related to
mid-twentieth-century Kalabari masks.
As for calabashes, as the author
notes, these were used as gourds in Virginia; by
contrast, calabashes were used as cups, bowls, and
drinking ladles in Igbo society. Regarding musical
instruments, while many central African peoples called
their version of stringed gourd "mbanza", there is no
Igbo name for the musical instrument the author
identifies as "banjo." The author believes that most of
the enslaved Igbo who came from Calabar were from the
north-central Igbo region, the home to the famous
Umudioka woodcarvers.
I would argue that the absence of
carved doors and panels in Virginia undermines the idea
of a north-central Igbo provenance of Calabar slaves and
a pervasive Igbo presence and culture there. While there
may be some credibility in the above claims, it is
apparent that some of the cultural practices attributed
to the Igbo in this study were neither unique nor
exclusive to them. To start with, the Igbo were not the
only enslaved Africans who originated from the Niger
Delta and Calabar ports, and ended up in Virginia. There
were also the Ibibio, the Efik, the Andoni, the Ubani,
the Okrika, the Kalabari, and, later, the Ejagham, the
Ekoi, the Idoma, the Igala, and even the Hausa and Nupe--captives
from the nineteenth-century Muslim-engineered wars.
Besides, Virginia had slaves from the
Yoruba, the Akan area, Mande, Fulani, Angola, the Congo
basin, and Madagascar. The period covered by the book
also coincided with the Islamic militancy of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the Senegambia,
an upheaval that resulted in the enslavement of the
natives.
Virginia was, in other words, a very
multi-ethnic slave society. The lack of attention to
other Africans in Virginia and the related neglect of
their obvious contributions to the development of the
region is a major weakness of this study.
It is clear that the author's
interpretation and analysis was handicapped by his
limited knowledge of Igbo history, culture, and
language. For instance, he erroneously regards the Nri
as the "first Igbo" (pp. 36-38) and treats them as
founders and leaders of the entire Igbo nation. This
explains why he spends considerable time in discussing
the Nri kinglist and genealogical history, which is less
important for purposes of his study; the book would have
benefited more if he had instead focused on the Aro,
Nike, Abam, Aboh, Ngwa, Ndoki, Nkwerre, and others who
participated in the transatlantic slave trade. It is
also erroneous to claim that the Nri were the only
people in Igbo society with the power to cleanse
abominations. The author asserts that the "expansion of
Aro merchant warlord settlements" (p. 35) in the
mid-eighteenth century led to the growing power of
client village groups within Nri area. However, no
examples of such Aro-client villages in north-central
Igbo region are provided.
It is misleading to suggest that
there was no cassava in the region until the twentieth
century and that "fufu in Igboland was invariably made
of yams, not cassava" (p. 40). Cassava was introduced in
different parts of Igbo region at different points in
time. While some areas started cultivating and
processing the crop in the third quarter of the
nineteenth century, others adopted it in the twentieth
century.
Moreover, fufu was also made from
cocoyam, unripe plantain, and banana and, later,
cassava. The incident attributed to the "Nkwerre," who
supposedly plundered Onitsha women traders when they
brought European goods to the Nkwerre markets, and the
author's interpretation and suggestion that the women
were molested for usurping males' trading prerogative
that violated Nkwerre taboo, are examples of his limited
knowledge of Igbo society and history. The town in
question was Nkwelle, which is twenty miles from Onitsha,
not Nkwerre, which is much farther away. Moreover,
Onitsha women were famed traders who not only bought and
sold local and European goods, but also had direct
commercial relations with European merchants from the
moment the latter arrived in Onitsha.
As studies on the development of
trade and commerce in the Onitsha region show, it was
not until the twentieth century that Onitsha men, who
regarded trade as women's work, began to take part in
trade with the European firms.
The author's claim that "Igbo people
brought the term ['buckra'] into English" (p. 110), as
in "buckra ," a term used by slaves to refer to their
white masters, is doubtful. While "buckra" might be a
corruption of Ibibio "mbakara" ("mb" equals plural; "kara"
equals to encircle, rule, or abuse), one cannot see the
connection of this word with the Igbo. Similarly, he
suggests that the slave name "Juba" was Igbo (meaning: "ji"
for yam and "uba" for canoe, literally translated to
mean "yam barn"), "and that Juba" could actually be
translated into Igbo words for "ask /enquire," or
"refuse," or "possession of wealth" (ji-uba), or
"plentiful yam." It is more likely that "Juba" was an
Akan name (as in the case of Akan female name in South
Carolina and Jamaica) than Igbo name.
In spite of the drawbacks I have
pointed out, and occasional typographical errors, the
author has assiduously provided an African-centered
perspective that helps in our understanding of the
circumstances surrounding the death of Ambrose Madison
in 1732 and the development of his family into a
prominent regional, and indeed, national economic and
political power, as well as the contributions of his
slaves in achieving these feats and to the foundation
and growth of slave culture and society in Virginia. The
book represents a limited but significant contribution
to the history and historiography of slavery and,
therefore, a valuable resource to students and scholars
in the study of Africa and the diaspora.
Source:
H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online /
H-Atlantic@h-net.msu.edu
*
* * * *
Released April 15, 2005
Southern Missippi History Professor Made Chief in
Nigerian Royal
Hattiesburg- University of Southern
Mississippi assistant professor of history Dr. Douglas
Chambers says he doesn't expect his colleagues to treat
him differently since he was made royalty by descendants
of the king of an ancient African civilization.
But he admits he would have no qualms
with fellow faculty referring to him as 'Chief
Chambers.'
After years of conducting extensive
research on the still living ancient civilization of the
Igbo peoples of Nri (Ènrí) in eastern Nigeria, a
traditional chieftainship was bestowed on Chambers in
March by the descendants of the first unified king of
the Nri civilization, the Umu Nri Bùífe, or Umunri of
Obeagu.
The Igbo (Ibo) are one of the three
principal ethnic groups of the most populous country in
sub-Saharan Africa, and Nri is the 'Jerusalem' of the
Igbo, founded about one thousand years ago.
"This is quite an honor, and came
about because of the relationships I formed through my
research in Nigeria," Chambers said. "I was originally
inspired to study this ancient civilization because of
the historical connection between Nigeria and the
slave-trade to North America. The Nri civilization was
based on pacificism and village-democracy, and today the
Igbo have a useful story to tell the world."
Chambers' official title is Chief
ÒkwulúNri Òka'ómèe, Ifé Umùnná of Umunrí ('Speaks for
Nri' 'Said/done', Light of the Kindred of Umunri). As a
titled chief of Umunri, Obeagu, Chambers is the first
white person adopted by the royal lineage in its history
and the first lineage-titled white person in Nri. . . .
His new book, Murder at Montpelier:
Igbo Africans in Virginia (University Press of
Mississippi, 2005), explores the importance of Igbo
peoples in the historical development of early slave
culture and society in Virginia through the prism of the
poisoning of the grandfather of President James Madison,
the patriarch of 'Montpelier', by his African slaves in
1732.
"In the past 15 years or so, students
of American history have begun to pay much more
attention to the African past of American slaves, though
their efforts are often hampered by their inability to
understand Africa," said John Thornton, professor of
History and African American Studies at Boston
University, in his review of Chambers' Murder at
Montpelier.
"Africanists have not made their task
easier by generally writing little about the topics that
interest their colleagues in the Americas. Douglas
Chambers has triumphantly overcome that barrier by
immersing himself in the study of the Igbo to the point
that he is accepted as an Africanist without
reservation; yet at the same time, he is equally a
master of the American side and its sources," Thornton
said. "His study of Igbos in Virginia, that underlies
the murder mystery that makes the plot of his book, is
provocative, well-informed, and convincing."
Chambers, who is a graduate of the
University of Virginia, said he hopes his honor by the
Igbo will encourage African Americans to find out more
about their own family histories. "My research suggests
that perhaps 60 percent of black Americans have at least
one Igbo ancestor," he said.
Source:
Chief Chambers.htm
*
* * * *
African Ideograms in African American
Cemeteries
By Rachel
Malcolm-Woods
Marks and objects in cemeteries that
look merely decorative to the uninformed eye may be
African signs and symbols. This iconography in
cemeteries can be divided into three categories: 1) sign
systems of African origins, 2) secular objects as
surrogates for ideograms and 3) revival of African
traditions, interpreted in new ways. Examples of such
African retentions (subconscious transmissions from
prior generations) exist in burial grounds and
established cemeteries, particularly in the Southern
United States.
A cemetery in George Washington
National Forest in Amherst County, Va., is a good
example. For decades, observers have commented that the
gravestones had “strange marks.” Recently, these marks
have been identified by this writer as African ideograms
originating in Nigeria. The gravestones are inscribed
with what appears to be Nsibidi, an Igbo writing system,
confirming the survival of Igbo traditions during the
trans-Atlantic slave trade. Made of high-quality blue
slate indigenous to the area and mined from a local
quarry, the stones show little damage from weather or
time. Subsequently, the place was named the “Seventeen
Stones Cemetery.”
The stones were probably engraved
between 1770 to 1830, when the Igbo Diaspora was at its
height in Virginia. At that time, the Igbo people
comprised approximately 70 percent of the blacks in
Virginia, a larger percentage than in any other Southern
state.
A star symbol at the top of one
stone, signifying “congress” or “unity” has similarities
to the Kongo cosmogram that depicts the life cycle of
birth, life, death and the afterlife. The cosmogram
symbol has equal perpendicular crossbars or lines,
sometimes contained in a diamond shape or a circle.
Here, the linear symbol in the lower register appears to
be a combination of the sign for “individual” and “this
land is mine.” Together the signs mean the deceased has
joined the realm of the ancestors. Both symbols are
enclosed in a rectangle, denoting their association. A
line separating the symbols emphasizes they are separate
but one.
Igbo ideograms were important
elements of religious practice and served as mnemonic
devices associated with religion and with moral and
historical narratives. In Igbo death and burial
traditions, Nsibidi symbols honoring the ancestors were
thought to protect the deceased. The most appropriate
place to honor one’s forefathers was the cemetery. At
times, the deceased were consulted for help with
day-to-day problems. Items such as chickens, rum and
schnapps were offered as gifts for the deceased during a
grave-side ceremony.
Source:
http://www.folkart.org/mag/cemetery/cemetery.html
* *
* * * * *
* * *
* *
* * * posted 16 November 2006 |
