ARE WE STILL PROFITING FROM THE SLAVE
TRADE?
This was a
question posed to me (albeit with his tongue placed firmly in his cheek) by one
of my very good friends when I proudly announced the release of my first novel;
SLAVE: Escaping the Chains of Freedom. At first I laughed heartily but as the
mirth passed and died away I actually started to think; could this be true?
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From its
inception, and I’m not just referring to the introduction of the transatlantic
slave trade some 400 years ago, but at the very start of civilization, slavery
has not only been common but always seems to be set up as a necessary part of
the world infrastructure making it big business. All the ancient empires and
early ‘super powers’ dating back some 11,000 years; Greece, Rome, Egypt, China,
India, just to name a few, make reference to the use of slaves within their
social systems.
But now, even
after slavery has been officially outlawed the world over (though we all know
it is still in practice – just ask any one of your local interns!!) it appears
that it’s not just the actual business of the trade that produces profit but
the story behind the man or woman enslaved that so captures the imaginations of
another human that we’re all willing to put our hands in our pockets and pay
heartily to hear their story told. The Life of William Grimes, published
1825, was reportedly the
first book-length autobiography written by a fugitive American slave but this
by far does not over shadow the literally thousands of biographies or
autobiographies, books and pamphlets that were to follow; in fact it seems that
throughout the nineteenth century some 6,000 stories of the plight of the freed
or escaped slave were published and sold through this growing medium.
Following in the wake of the hugely successful, mega
bestseller, Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
(Harriet Beecher Stowe), Twelve Years a
Slave; the oh so true story of kidnapped slave, Solomon Northup, was first
written in 1853 and was an immediate hit selling some 30,000 copies. And now,
years on, several editions later, following a made-for-television film from
1984 (Solomon Northup’s Odyssey),
this ex-slaves story is about to be immortalized by the mega bucks of Hollywood
with none other than A-lister Brad Pitt purportedly playing one of the leading
roles.
Not counting the recently released Django Unchained (which,
according to the HollywoodReporter, came in #1 at the Box
Office on its opening night raking in a fantastic $4.6 Million in one day with
much much higher monetary expectations to come), there are reportedly another 7 slave themed movies expected
in just 2013 alone with stars from Morgan Freeman to Chiwetel Ejiofor to Cuba
Gooding Jr and a myriad of others, all gracing our screens with what will
undoubtedly be superb heart rendering moments of shear brilliance as they each
portray the lives of the lowly slave. And all of them are expected to be box
office gold – and we all know ‘gold’ in Hollywood means just that – GOLD!!
So what am I saying? Am I advocating that all stories of
human captivation and degradation be banned from the sales market? Absolutely
not. But I would urge us all to tread carefully when we speak about this
trading of slaves and remember that over thousands of years literally millions
of innocent beautiful lives have been lost, thrown away and buried alive. It is
these people who we are remembering and I would personally hate to think that,
just as with the slave Gladiators that fought in the Roman coliseums of old,
their lives were lost and their stories told purely for the entertainment of
the masses.
Excerpt
from SLAVE: Escaping the Chains of Freedom
It’s 18th
Century New York and the Declaration of Independence has just been read. Albert
Shelton, black slave trader speaks to Hezekiah Thomas, freed slave;
“There
they stand declaring all men are equal, whilst their own homes are filled with
slaves and some of them bought from my very own stock. If they really mean what
they say and we are now suddenly expected to assume equality then what of this
trade? Don’t they realize the damage they pose with that one sentence? It has
the potential to totally destroy the entire industry. I have made my fortune
off the trade. Without it I am undone.”
Jacqueline
Malcolm: SLAVE: The Trilogy published courtesy of Seaburn
Publishing Group.
~Thank you
for taking the time to read this article and receive insight into Malcolm’s
view on the history of Slavery. If you like this, you will definitely want to
return Friday for an in-depth interview with the author herself.
