By Starasia Foster

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Discovering some truths about history that are not in our history books.

Imagine being captive, everything you knew was ripped away from you. Everything is stolen, you, your family, your name, your culture… EVERYTHING.

Imagine being shipped on a boat, like animals being treated like nothing. Imagine having to smell dead flesh because you’re packed under a boat like a can of sardines and of course they didn’t care to remove deceased  people. Imagine being forced to have incest with your sister and brother, cousins and more. Imagine hearing your loved ones scream, in fear, in pain, for help but you can’t do anything because you may get the treatment worse — or even Death. 

Imagine being on a boat naked, chained up, around yours and other people’s feces, urine, vomit. Imagine the mental state of these people. Imagine working day in and day out only to make nothing. Imagine giving birth to your child, and instead of resting and healing you have to go back to the field and work. Imagine the boat you’re on stops, and some of your friends, family get sold miles away from you. Imagine feeling like your only escape is jumping in the water and drowning yourself. 

Just imagine. Inhumane, right?

Well it’s true. This is the history of African American people. I wasn’t taught any of this in school. And I want people to know this, to be educated about this because it shouldn’t be pushed under the rug. There is so much information that’s hidden from us. There is so much stuff we don’t know. And every single day, little parts come out about what happened and each new thing learned is more shocking than the last thing learned. It’s more hurtful. If I can teach somebody something new, it will make my heart smile. It will set our  history free.

Do you know who Sarah Baartman is? It’s ok if you don’t. I’ll tell you. Sarah was a woman from Camdeboo of South Africa. Wait, of course, her real name is not Sarah. Unfortunately that is unknown. Sarah was a Khoikhoi woman born in 1789. She lost both of her parents at a young age. When her husband was killed, Sarah was sold into slavery to a trader named Pieter Willem Caesar. She was exhibited as a freak show in 19th century Europe because of her large buttocks. Sarah became the object of sexual intrigue and desire by many men in Europe at this time. Allegedly it had been said that Sarah signed a contract to participate in these shows. But she didn’t know English or how to read or write. So did she really give consent to all that happened to her? She died on December 29, 1815. 

Fun fact—Sarah’s deceased body was used as a display in Paris for over 100 years and was finally returned to her home country in South Africa in 2002. “Fun” fact. People would bring their children to see her in this freak show. Just disgusting.

Did you know for enslaved slaves on New Years, for them it was called Heartbreak Day. This is because for them it was a time for separation. Due to winter months enslavers needed more money, so it was really common for them to rent or even sell a slave. Because of that, many slave families will wait scared and anxious on New Year’s Eve in fear that they or their family members were going to be sold and taken from them. Many times they wouldn’t see them for years or a lifetime. 

Do you know who Mary Turner is? Mary Turner was a Black woman in her early 20s that had two kids, was 8 months pregnant and was married to her husband named Hayes. Sadly her husband was hung by a lynch mob in the south. They let his body rot and hang off the trees for days for everyone to see. Mary wanted to know who did that to her husband and said if she knew who did that she would have warned everyone about who was involved. When the  mob found out about what she said, they were furious.The mob ended up putting a bounty on her head. Unfortunately they were able to catch Mary and drag her to a tree. Strippers tied her ankles together and put her upside down. Then the men ran to their cars to get gasoline and roasted her alive. When they saw her naked 8 month pregnant stomach a man took a knife and sliced open her stomach until the baby fell out of her womb which gave two cries. Someone out of the mob continued to step forward and smashed the child’s head into the red Georgia dirt with the heel of his boot. 

You’ve seen braids at least once, but do you know their history? Many enslaved women or girls would do braid patterns on slave heads to help them escape. These braids were really detailed and done neat. They would also put rice grains into the braid so that the slave would have something to eat on their escape. 

Speaking of hair, for some odd reason, slave owners would use slave hair as cotton for their things. Something ironic because they had the luxury of real cotton. Slaveowners would cut off these women and girls’ beautiful hair and stuff it into their chairs.

Their lives, their identity, their husband, their children —even their hair— everything from the root, taken away from them. Everything was taken away from them and nothing has been returned. When I think of Sarah and Mary and I think of the origin and hair stuffed in chairs,  I feel anger that no one was taught about this. I am angry because our ancestors didn’t have a voice. They couldn’t share their story themselves. The only way we can find out is by their master telling us a version of what happened. It’s frustrating because we know certain things were hidden, and we know the way it was told was switched, made better, when in reality it was so much worse. How many stories are untold? How many more Harriet Tubmans? How many more Frederick Douglass’s?  

Did You Find Out Something New Today?

Process

My inspiration was Black history and I wanted to write about it. I wanted to speak about things that were not taught in school, that I had to find out on my own. It meant digging deep into my ancestors, their lives, their past, and how they lived and how they were treated. This matters to me because it is hidden, and unless we do the research and find out the history might be lost.