Murder Incorporated by Mumia Abu-Jamal

Author:Mumia Abu-Jamal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prison Radio
Published: 2018-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

“Hell itself, could not have vomited anything more black than his design of emancipating our slaves…”

While the American Revolution was boiling between the colonies and the Mother Country, there was a vast and growing population in cities and rural districts throughout the colonial territories that were initially on the periphery. That’s because their deeply felt causes—for freedom—did not concern the two European powers engaged in international battle. In a struggle for freedom and independence, those most in need of freedom were not on the agenda. Indeed, quite the reverse.

For, on the eve of the Revolution, those white men of the 13 colonies in America who owned substantial property, who filled the air with yells for “liberty” from the British tyrant, held in thrall tens of thousands of shackled others, and denied even the peace of personhood. Historian Herbert Aptheker, a groundbreaking scholar of the 20th century, noted the glaring contradiction:

A letter written July 31, 1776, by Henry Wynkoop, a resident of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to the local Committee of Safety requested the dispatching of ammunition in order to quiet “the people in my neighborhood (who) have been somewhat alarmed with fears about negroes and disaffected people injuring their families when they are in the service.”17

What do you think they were more concerned about—fighting the British, or keeping their “negroes” in line? When the newly established government began trying to recruit soldiers for the upcoming war, a lot of people simply weren’t interested. Howard Zinn continues:

Many working people and farmers enlisted, but many others did not. In the South they were very disgruntled, not patriotic, and unenthusiastic about the rebellion. General Washington had to send General Greene to coerce and threaten people in order to get them into the military.18

Why do you think it was so hard, especially for Southerners with perhaps the deepest military tradition of any sector in the nation? Because they had to choose between keeping their slaves or getting “Independence” from England. Which cause do you think was more important to them?

In truth and fact, there was another reason why the white, armed South was reluctant to rumble against the British. And it had everything to do with self-interest, and little to do with independence. Consider this: Do you know how many Blacks fought for the Revolution (against the inclinations of General Washington, we might add)?

Five thousand men.

How many fought on behalf of the Crown?

An estimated sixty-five thousand. 65,000.

Those tens of thousands of Black soldiers didn’t serve in British regiments because of love of “Queen and country.” They too, pursued their own self-interest. For they heard, through the ever-present grapevine, that the British would grant freedom to any Black man who joined their side. The numbers tell that story with eloquence greater than poetry. The British even equipped them with uniforms emblazoned with the motto, “Liberty to Slaves” on their tunics.

Lord John Murray Dunmore, Virginia’s colonial Governor, organized what he termed the “Ethiopian Regiment” for Black soldiers. The very idea sent Virginians into conniption fits. This Black regiment helped the British capture and put to the torch Norfolk, VA, on New Year’s Day, 1776.

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