Race Relations: The American Nightmare PDF

Topic 6. Race Relations: the American Nightmare The two great revolutions of the eighteenth century, the American and French, both proclaimed at the outset the equality of man. The preamble to the Declaration of the outset : Independence of 1776, drafted by...

Topic 6. Race Relations: the American Nightmare The two great revolutions of the eighteenth century, the American and French, both proclaimed at the outset the equality of man. The preamble to the Declaration of the outset : Independence of 1776, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, holds as a self-evident truth “that all upkeep : the beginning men are created equal”. Article One of the Declaration of the Rights of Man adopted by the the cost or French National Assembly in 1789 proclaims, “Men are born and remain free and equal in process of rights”. There was no proclamation of equality in the English Bill of Rights in 1689. This keeping levy : document confines itself to matters like the levying of money and the upkeep of a standing something, impose : such as a army on which Parliament was meant to secure its hold. This absence of an explicit reference building, in an amount to equality does not mean, however, that the idea of equality was not a foremost concern at good of money, this time. In his Second Treatise of Government (1690), John Locke (1632-1704) considered condition: such as a that the “State of Perfect Freedom” was “a State also of Equality, wherein all the Power and tax, that Jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another” (II, 4). What “Reason … teaches you have to all Mankind” is “that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his pay to a Life, Health, Liberty or Possession (II, 6). Equality is founded in freedom – “Man being born government or … with a Title to perfect Freedom, and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the Rights and organization privileges of the Law of Nature, equally with any other Man, or Number of men in the World … “ (VII, 87). Eventually, Locke’s ideas would lay the philosophical foundations for the American Revolution. For the most part, the United States was conceived as the antithesis of the patrimonial societies of Europe. Alexis de Tocqueville saw the country as the place where land was so plentiful that everybody could afford property and a democracy of equal citizens would flourish. Until the First World War, the concentration of wealth was far less extreme in par la suite the U.S. than in Europe. Subsequently, the tide would reverse the other way around. In its pursuit of the welfare state, Europe would levy a swathe of taxes and establish institutions that would be far more egalitarian than those of the United States. Inequality would continue to be inflicted for centuries to come, most notably in terms of race relations. While “race” is a concept with no scientific or anthropological validity , race is 350 nonetheless a powerful social fact, culturally acquired and forged by varying circumstances (historical, economic, political, legal...). Despite the proclamations of equality and the colonists’ overthrow of Great Britain’s shackles, the plight of African Americans in particular would long cast a tragic shadow on the English-speaking world. If we briefly focus on three moments of American history, we can note that: (i) Thomas Jefferson himself was the benevolent owner of some two hundred slaves; (ii) the American Civil War (1861-65) resulted in the greatest loss of lives ever suffered in the United States; and (iii) the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s would highlight these problems without bringing a definite resolution and peaceful settlement to race relations. These issues continue to harrow much of the English-speaking world today. §1. Race Relations in the U.K. Behind the issue of race discrimination in the English-speaking world lurks the initial sin of slavery. The establishment of this enterprise began before the very discovery of the Americas, 350 James Watson, the American biologist who won the Nobel prize in 1962 for discovering the double helix structure of DNA (with Francis Creek and Maurice Wilkins) sparked huge controversy in 2007 when he suggested that people of African descent were inherently less intelligent than white people. The French 350 historian, Léon Poliakov (1910-1997), wrote extensively on racism, most notably in The Aryan Myth: A History of Racist and Nationalist Ideas in Europe. 128 As of the early 15 century, Henry the Navigator of Portugal (Dom Enrique o Navegador: th 1394-1460) organized naval expeditions to the islands of the central Atlantic Ocean and Africa in search of slaves. Previously, slaves were “imported” from eastern Europe. The fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 led to the end of the supply of slaves from the “slave ports” of the Black Sea. In so ordering these new expeditions, Henry the Navigator, began the importation of slaves from sub-Saharan Africa into Portugal, relying on the services of explorers such as Nuno Tristão, Dinis Dias and Álvaro Fernandes. These men alone investigated and chartered over 3,500 kilometers of the west coast of Africa from the Western Sahara to the Gulf of Guinea. Initially, these seafarers seized Africans in a “smash and grab” approach. Subsequent to retaliation by the indigenous peoples, the Portuguese Early on, the trans-Atlantic slave trade took the guise of what is called the “Middle Passage”, or triangular trade route between Europe, Africa and the Americas. Vessels originating from 351 Europe (Bristol and Liverpool, Amsterdam and Antwerp, Bordeaux and Nantes , Lisbon and 352 Lagos) would sail to the shores of western African (Gorée Island in Sénégal, ) loaded with manufactured goods offered in exchange for African captives. There, these vessels would take off for the Americas where the captives were sold or exchanged for raw materials such as molasses, tobacco, cotton or coffee. The vessels would then return back to their home bases in Europe. In statistical terms, from the mid-1700s on, roughly half the captive Africans taken to the Americas were transported onboard British ships based in Bristol, Liverpool, and London (approximately 80,000 Africans a year). Conditions were appalling. In addition to the horrors of capture and beatings, slaves were packed and chained in the stow in appalling conditions. They often had less room than a man in a coffin. “The usual space in which the ‘middle passage’ was made was from two and a half to three feet in height”. In addition to having 353 very scant breathing space, the captives would soon become numb by their cramped living conditions. Occasionally, the captain might order some of the cargo brought on deck so that they might stretch their legs and regain use of their limbs. With all this, there were the perils of the sea to confront. Ensuing disease and malnutrition would lead to vast numbers of slaves dying before reaching port. 351 The term “Middle Passage” refers to the transatlantic route, or alternatively, the middle leg of the journey between Europe, Africa and the Americas. 352 Located on the Loire River, the city of Nantes was an important hub for the French slave trade, representing approximately 40 per cent of the total. Jean-Marc Ayrault, mayor of the city, inaugurated a Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in March 2012. See Stefan Simons, “French City Confronts Its Brutal Past”, Spiegel Online, April 24, 2012, Internet available at http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/nantes-opens-memorial-to-slave-trade-a-829447.html (visited December 27, 2018). 353 Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon, The Story of the Last Slave, op. cit., p. 12. 129 Most slaves were transported in what is known as the “triangular trade route”. The reasons behind the ownership of slaves in the British colonies were not exclusively economic. Ownership of slaves was also considered a status symbol as well as a fashion statement. The well-to-do preferred small, plump faced boys whom they dressed in exotic costume, with silver padlocks or collars. They were also teased as pets. The end of slavery was a progressive intellectual and political undertaking in Britain. It should be noted that “abolition” in the eighteenth-century British context referred primarily to abolition of trade in slaves from Africa to the remaining British colonies in the West Indies. It did not entail the abolition of the institution of slavery itself (which does not mean to say that the slave-trade abolitionists did not see slavery as their ultimate target). This distinction is most notably brought out by the Reverend James Ramsay (1733-1789), who served as an Anglican priest working amongst slaves in the Caribbean. As a personal witness of the slaves’ suffering, Ramsay published An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the Sugar Colonies (London, 1784). In this essay (credited as the opening salvo in the war over the slave trade), he clearly stated his goals: “Though I sincerely hope, that some plan will be devised for the future gradual abolition of slavery; and though I am convinced that this may, without any prejudice to the planter, or injury to commerce, be brought about by some such progressive method as is pointed out in the Essay; yet this was not the first, or immediate object of that book”. For many years, great credit for the ending of the slave trade in Great 130 Britain was given to a member of the House of Commons, William Wilberforce (1759-1833). Today still, Wilberforce is viewed with quasi-religious respect amongst Christian fundamentalists who admire the thrust of his convictions into his politics ). Wilberforce 354 promoted the cause of abolition in Parliament for more than three decades, combining philanthropy, eloquence, and strongly tainted religious ideals (he was a convert to the new evangelical strain of Anglicanism). When the Slave Trade Act banning on the slave trade was enacted in 1807, the House of Commons gave Wilberforce a rare standing ovation. A quarter 355 of a century later – 1833 – Parliament would free the Empire’s slaves with the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act. For all his remarkable efforts, Wilberforce was far from alone in the abolition of slavery. Assistance came from many other courageous, hard-working activists. Quakers, such as Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) or Elizabeth Heyrick (1769-1831) who inspired the formation of some seventy antislavery societies, played an immense role. These people bolstered popular support for the abolition of slavery and pioneered tactics that are still used by human rights groups today). Such was the admiration for Clarkson’s achievements 356 that William Wordsworth (1770-1850), the father of the English Romantic movement, dedicated a sonnet to him entitled, On the final passing of the Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. refusing to change your actions or opinions, despite what anyone else says Clarkson! it was an obstinate Hill to climb: How toilsome, nay how dire it was, by Thee Is known, – by none, perhaps, so feelingly; But Thou, who, starting in thy fervent prime, Didst first lead forth this pilgrimage sublime, Hast heard the constant Voice its charge repeat, Which, out of thy young heart’s oracular seat, First roused thee. – O true yoke-fellow of Time With unabating effort, see, the palm Is won, and by all Nations shall be worn! The bloody Writing is for ever torn, And Thou henceforth wilt have a good Man’s calm, A great Man’s happiness; thy zeal shall find 354 The film, Amazing Grace (2007), directed by Michael Apted, celebrated William Wilberforce’s memory and commemorated the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade. The film’s principal financier, Philip Anschutz, is a major backer of the American Christian right and a number of American politicians are known as “Wilberforce Republicans”: Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas… See Adam Hochschild, “English Abolition: The Movie”, The New York Review of Books, June 14, 2007, pp. 73-75, at 75. Hochschild points out the message the film conveys is “that God’s work is best done by a wealthy, virtuous man like Wilberforce, who is against slavery but still comfortable with a world of haves and have-nots. But just what is the work of God? Is it a matter of opposing slavery? Or of opposing gambling, abortion, and women’s rights as well as slavery? Or is it a matter of fighting to narrow the gap between rich and poor? President Bush, who recently had a special screening of Amazing Grace at the White House, has several times suggested that God told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. A century ago, President William McKinley said that ‘God Almighty’ told him to annex the Philippines. The problem is that people hear God say very different things, and many of them have to do with advancing strategic and economic interests on earth. All of which speaks for great wariness when politicians claim to be doing God’s work” (at 75). 355 On Parliament and the slave trade in Britain between 1600 and 1807, see http://slavetrade.parliament.uk/slavetrade/index.html. 356 A website is devoted to British abolitionists: see http://www.brycchancarey.com/abolition/index.htm (visited July 25, 2020). 131  Repose at length, firm Friend of human kind! 357 ressortir/sortir du lot Among British abolitionists, Granville Sharp (1735-1813) also stands out. His life came to 358 an abrupt change after a chance meeting that took place at his brother’s workplace in 1765. Granville’s brother, Dr. William Sharp, was a surgeon who gave free treatment to the poor at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. Granville noticed a young black man waiting in the queue, by the name of Jonathan Strong. The man was horribly mutilated, beaten – as it turned out – by his master, David Lisle, a Barbados sugar planter. Granville Sharp and his brother undertook to take care for the young man and, after two years, Strong seemed fully recovered. Eventually, the Sharps found him a place as an errand boy at a chemist’s. At this point, the “owner”, Lisle, caught a glimpse of Strong and realized that the slave, that he had left for dead, could still make him a profit. Strong was seized and held in the Poultry Compter, a City prison, pending shipment to Barbados, Lisle having meanwhile sold the young man to a Jamaica planter called James Kerr for £30. In legal terms, Lisle relied on a similar case of 1729, Yorke and Talbot, that slaves remain the property of their owners in England as well as in the colonies. Meanwhile Strong appealed to his previous benefactors, and Sharp brought 359 his case up before the Lord Mayor of London. The mayor agreed that Strong had committed no crime and should thus be set free for want of evidence. Kerr immediately tried to sue Sharp, while Lisle demanded a duel. Granville Sharp ignored both. In the end no one had the stomach (or cash) for a legal battle. One would think that the decision in favor of freeing Strong would have pleased Granville Sharp. He was infuriated. The decision eluded the issue of human property in the trafficking and owning of slaves by merely stating that there was not enough evidence to maintain Strong in custody. Granville Sharp wanted to obtain a legal precedent to state that “as soon as a slave set foot on England, he was free”. Bitterly upset at the turn of events, Granville Sharp devoted the rest of his time to forcing a definitive legal ruling on the question of whether a slave could be compelled to leave Great Britain. His subsequent activism against slavery in the country resulted in a famous judgment delivered by Lord Chief Justice Mansfield in 1772. The case 360 involved James Somerset, a black slave and “ownership” of Charles Stewart. 357 Wordsworth also wrote a sonnet to commemorate the Haitian Revolutionary Toussaint-L’Ouverture. The sonnet, entitled, To Toussaint L’Ouverture, is web available at http://www.online- literature.com/wordsworth/541/ (visited October 25, 2020). 358 Granville Sharp was the twelfth of the fourteen children of an Archdeacon of Durham and the grandson of the Archbishop of Canterbury. 359 According to the judgment, We are of the opinion, that a slave coming from the West Indies into Great Britain or Ireland, either with or without his master, does not become free and that his master’s right and property in him is not thereby determined or varied”. 360 Lord Mansfield (1705-1793) was – and remains – a towering figure in the Common law. His decisions continue to influence the legal systems of Britain, the United States and Canada to an extent unmatched by any judge of the past. Mansfield was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he read, among other things, the work of the college’s famous philosopher, John Locke, vehemently opposed to slavery. After graduating, Mansfield entered Lincoln’s Inn. On the bench, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield accomplished a considerable amount of work, most notably reorganizing the courts. One of his protégés, William Blackstone, was elected to a new professorship of law at Oxford University, the Vinerian, and in 1765 published his Commentaries on the Laws of England, based on his lectures. Besides ruling in a number of slavery cases, Mansfield had a personal interest in these issues. In the 1750s, the Mansfield had taken into their household an infant girl, Dido (named after the deserted African queen in Virgil Aeneid). Dido was the daughter of Mansfield’s nephew, a sea captain, and his African slave mistress, who had died. She was the constant companion of a cousin, Elisabeth, and both posed for their portrait together in the garden of Kenwood, painted side by side as apparent co-equals (although Dido was denied a place at the table on grand occasions). On Lord Mansfield, see Norman S. Poser, Lord Mansfield : Justice in the Time of Reason (Montreal : McGill Queens University Press, 2013). 132 Charles Stewart was a customs officer from Boston, Massachusetts, then a British colony in North America. He had brought Somerset to England in 1769. Two years later, Somerset escaped. The runaway slave was recaptured and imprisoned on a ship bound for Jamaica, also a British colony. At this point in time, Granville Sharp intervened and the captain of the ship was ordered to produce Somerset before the King’s Bench in London, on a writ of habeas corpus. The case attracted a considerable degree of public attention with teams of lawyers intervening on both sides, largely funded on generous private donations. It was hoped this would be a test case in which property in slaves would be clearly determined by the law of England. On Somerset’s side, the principal argument was that, while colonial law might permit slavery, those laws did not apply in England, nor could such an important law exist in England unless it had been specifically enacted by Parliament. This had not taken place. In addition, Somerset’s lawyers contended that English contract law did not allow for any person to enslave himself, nor could any contract be binding without the person’s consent. Somerset’s lawyers thus concentrated on legal details rather than humanitarian principles. On the other side, Stewart’s lawyers argued that property was of paramount importance (language reminiscent of the later – American case – Dred Scott) and that it would be dangerous to free all the black people in England. Having heard arguments on both sides, Lord Mansfield came down with his judgment, delivered in Westminster Hall, on June 22, 1772 (after several weeks of nail-biting prevarication). In Somerset v. Knowles, Mansfield declared, “no master was ever allowed here to take a slave by force to be sold abroad because he deserted from his service, or for any other reason whatever”. Mansfield added: “The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasions, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from the decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged”. Somerset was indeed discharged, and his supporters immediately celebrated a great victory. News of the judgment swept through England and the colonies with electrifying speed. Doubtless, it would precipitate all that followed. The Somerset ruling was nevertheless a Pyrrhic victory. In the first place, Mansfield had not ruled that slavery was illegal in England (despite his assertion that the air of England was “too pure for slaves to breathe”). He merely stated that no one had a right “to take a slave by force to be sold abroad”. Slavery still very much existed in England. There ware, Mansfield said, some 14,000 slaves in Britain and a cost of £150 a head they were worth £700,000. The setting of them free all at one time would be “very disagreeable”. Victory was also bittersweet inasmuch as little provision was made for enforcing the judgment. Slaves were still forcibly taken from England to the plantations in the years to come. Indeed, with the outbreak of the war in America, it had even become a pressing issue. The abolitionist case was further strengthened by news of further dreadful happenings aboard the British-owned slave ship, the Zong, in 1781. The ship’s unscrupulous captain had thrown 361 some 140 sickening slaves overboard in the hope of exploiting a clause in the insurance 361 A reconstruction of the Zong is visible today in the port of Greenwich : for a video of its inauguration, see the Youtube site at : http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=3cUQi6RSiZQ (visited October 25, 2020). 133  policy that allowed reimbursement for cargo that had been jettisoned to save the whole shipment. Eventually, the insurance company found out about the owners’ lying and refused to pay them for their claims. The discrepancy about the claims for the slaves became a court discrepancy case – again presided by Lord Mansfield – that was first heard in London in 1783 : Gregson v. : Gilbert. Mansfield’s ruling helped bring the issue of the slavery to the fore, bringing a number of people to support the abolition of the slave trade. a difference between Meanwhile, a former slave-ship captain, John Newton (1725-1807), also took a stand against two things slavery in a forceful pamphlet and in testimony given before the House of Commons. 362 that should Newton had previously converted to Evangelical Christianity and became a clergyman and be the author of English hymns, among which Amazing Grace. same Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That sav’d a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see. ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears reliev’d; How precious did that grace appear, The hour I first believ’d! Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home. The Lord has promis’d good to me, His word my hope secures; He will my shield and portion be, As long as life endures. Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail, And mortal life shall cease; I shall possess, within the veil, A life of joy and peace. The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, The sun forbear to shine; But God, who call’d me here below, Will be forever mine As mentioned earlier, the move towards the abolition of slavery stirred immense popular support in Britain (and Ireland ). In 1792, more Britons signed petitions to Parliament against 363 the slave trade than were eligible to vote. In the same year, some 300,000 people refused to buy – or boycott – West Indian sugar. Two further factors come into consideration. 1). In large part, interest to the cause of abolition may be attributed to the enlightened milieu spreading of human rights ideas in the midst of the American and French Revolutions at the end of the eighteenth century. In this respect, the contributions of William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp and scores of other abolitionists were of paramount 362 On John Newton, see http://www.johnnewton.org/ as well as http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/cnm/htmlpages/newton1.html. 363 As to the Irish, interest was perhaps aroused by their own first-hand experience of oppression at the hands of the British. 134 importance. It is important to add, however, that the stereotype of the slave as a passive victim is mistaken. Many slaves petitioned and fought for their own freedom. Popular outrage at slavery was enhanced by first-hand accounts of the horrors of slavery. Noteworthy were the accounts of former slaves living in Britain. In 1787, Ottobah Cugoano published his Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Humbly Submitted to the People of Great Britain. Another prominent native of Africa who wrote an influential autobiography was Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745-1797). Born 364 in Nigeria, and kidnapped at the age of ten, Equiano was taken to the West Indies and soon brought to Virginia, where he was sold to a local planter. Soon after, he was sold again, this time to a British officer (Captain Pascal), and taken to London where he adopted British cultural, political, religious, and social values. He served in the Royal Navy and most notably took a part in the Seven Years War. Eventually, Equiano became a free man, working on commercial vessels sailing to the Mediterranean and the West Indies. Witness to countless acts of immorality, he increasingly became involved with efforts to help his fellow Blacks and abolish the African slave trade. Equiano published an abolitionist autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah or Gustavus Vassa the African, in 1789. It 365 proved an immense success. In addition to providing a strong indictment of the slave trade, the narrative itself fell in line with the Protestant spiritual autobiographies of the day, typically recounting a life that follows a pattern of sin, repentance, spiritual backsliding, and a new birth through true faith. 366 The following extract is taken from Chapter Two of The Interesting Narrative. The extract describes his experiences on board a slave ship in the “Middle Passage” : the journey between Africa and the New World. “At last, when the ship we were in had got in all her cargo, they made ready with many fearful noises, and we were all put under deck, so that we could not see how they managed the vessel. But this disappointment was the least of my sorrow. The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable. Happily 364 On Olaudah Equiano, see http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/ (visited October 25, 2020). 365 Cf. Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah or Gustavus Vassa the African and Other Stories (London: Penguin Books, 1995). The name “Gustavus Vassa” first appeared on the muster book of the ship Roebuck on which Equiano served in the Royal Navy in 1756 (when Equiano was just 11 years old). Equiano’s decision to use this name has been interpreted as an attempt to give himself a heroic cast : Gustavus Vassa was a Swedish patriot king who overthrew a tyrannical usurper : for this interpretation, cf. Vincent Carretta, Introduction to The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah or Gustavus Vassa the African and Other Stories (London: Penguin Books, 1995), at p. ix and p. xx. 366 Two such Protestant spiritual “autobiographies” include John Bunyan’s nonfiction Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666) and Daniel Defoe’s fictional Robinson Crusoe (1719). 135  perhaps for myself I was soon reduced so low here that it was thought necessary to keep me almost always on deck; and from my extreme youth I was not put in fetters. In this situation I expected every hour to share the fate of my companions, some of whom were almost daily brought upon deck at the point of death, which I began to hope would soon put an end to my miseries. Often did I think many of the inhabitants of the deep much more happy than myself; I envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and as often wished I could change my condition for theirs. Every circumstance I met with served only to render my state more painful, and heighten my apprehensions, and my opinion of the cruelty of the whites. One day they had taken a number of fishes; and when they had killed and satisfied themselves with as many as they thought fit, to our astonishment who were on the deck, rather than give any of them to us to eat, as we expected, they tossed the remaining fish into the sea again, although we begged and prayed for some as well we cold, but in vain; and some of my countrymen, being pressed by hunger, took an opportunity, when they thought no one saw them, of trying to get a little privately; but they were discovered, and the attempt procured them some very severe floggings. One day, when we had a smooth sea, and a moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen, who were chained together (I was near them at the time), preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings, and jumped into the sea: immediately another quite dejected fellow, who, on account of his illness, was suffered to be out of irons, also followed their example; and I believe many more would soon have done the same, if they had not been prevented by the ship’s crew, who were instantly alarmed. Those of us that were the most active were, in a moment, put down under the deck; and there was such a noise and confusion amongst the people of the ship as I never heard before, to stop her, and get the boat to go out after the slaves. However, two of the wretches were drowned, but they got the other, and afterwards flogged him unmercifully, for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery. In this manner we continued to undergo more hardships than I can now relate; hardships which are inseparable from this accursed trade. - Many a time we were near suffocation, from the want of fresh air, which we were often without for whole days together. This, and the stench of the necessary tubs, carried off many. During our passage I first saw flying fishes, which surprised me very much: they used frequently to fly across the ship, and many of them fell on the deck. I also now first saw the use of the quadrant. I had often with astonishment seen the mariners make observations with it, and I could not think what it meant. They at last took notice of my surprise; and one of them, willing to increase it, as well as to gratify my curiosity, made me one day look through it. The clouds appeared to me to be land, which disappeared as they passed along. This heightened my wonder: and I was now more persuaded than ever that I was in another world, and that every thing about me was magic. At last we came in sight of the island of Barbados, at which the whites on board gave a great shout, and made many signs of joy to us”. 367 As mentioned above, Equiano’s autobiography proved an immense success. It sold by the thousands and had been subscribed to by an important contingent of the English establishment 367 Cf. Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah or Gustavus Vassa the African and Other Stories, op. cit., pp. 58-60. 136 (including members of the royal family) , receiving widespread international attention. 368 369 From 1789 to 1792, the House of Commons heard evidence for and against the slave trade. In 1792, an abolition bill passed in the Commons only to be defeated in the House of Lords. Different bills were subsequently defeated by narrow margins. All the while, Parliament felt shy of pursuing any major social reforms in the fear of happenings in Revolutionary France and their possible contagion across the Channel. Equiano died in 1797, with Granville Sharp at his bedside. Ten years later, both houses of Parliament would finally pass legislation putting an end to the African slave trade. 2). Finally, mention should be made of revolts by West Indian slaves themselves. The Haitian Revolution of 1791-1803, led by Toussaint Louverture, was the largest slave uprising in history. By winning their freedom, the rebel slaves of Haiti undermined a major argument 370 made by the British slave-ship owners, which was that if Britain abandoned the slave trade, France would get all the business. Westminster addressed racial discrimination in a significant manner with the Race Relations Act 1976 Establishment in 1976 of a Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), which became the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on October 1, 2007. See also the transposition of Council Directive 2000/43 of June 6, 2000, implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin. §2. Race Relations in the USA very twisted How could a slaveholder write “All men are created equal”? The convoluted – and often tragic – evolution of race relations make up a characteristic feature of American culture. In varying degrees, discrimination was present at the founding of the American Republic and continues to the day. Despite their quasi-religious moral stature, the founders of the United States left a shameful legacy with respect to race relations. The first American President, George Washington (1732-1799) owned more than one hundred slaves. In addition to land (of which Washington owned some 58,000 acres), slave ownership constituted “another measure of great wealth, whose labors made possible his whole way of life”. In the Declaration of Independence 371 itself, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) famously proclaimed as “self-evident” that “all men are created equal”, and were endowed with the “unalienable” rights of “life, liberty, and the 368 Publication by subscription meant that buyers committed themselves to purchasing copies of a book prior to its publication, usually requiring partial payment in advance to cover living and production costs. It is equivalent to the French “avance sur recettes”. 369 Equiano’s autobiography was discussed most notably in France where the first historian of Black literature, Henri Grégoire, drew a comparison with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. 370 The Haitian Revolution began on August 22, 1791 when two thousand slaves launched an attack on the plantations of white slave owners. After years of fighting and mass slaughter, Napoleon’s army withdrew from Haiti in December 1803. Haiti became Latin America’s first independent state and the world’s first nation created by slaves. 371 David McCullough, 1776 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), at 47. 137