Forty acres and a mule
By Brandon Astor Jones
"The federal government chose them from thousands of applicants for the colour of their skin (white), their poverty level (the bottom) and their physical ability to clear land and farm." — Anne Rochell Konigsmark, "Dyess: Arkansas Depression colony has a reunion", July 7 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Recently I came across a few quoted titbits attributed to William Pitt (1708-78), first earl of Chatham. The famed English orator and statesman was a passionate supporter of US independence from England. In a November 18, 1777, speech he declared: "If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms — never, never, never! You cannot conquer America."
With some sadness, as I began to ponder those words, I wondered what he might have said in support of those subsequently displaced Native Americans who were in what is now the US first. I am often taken aback by the short-sighted selfishness of so many European males, past and present. I can only speculate, but it seems likely that he would have had an equally uncaring view of the Australian Aborigines or any other of the world's indigenous peoples. History tells us that when indigenous people do not have white skin, in the eyes of most would-be conquerors (white colonialists), they have very little human worth.
However, it does seem quite clear that Pitt was a supporter of just compensation for (some) mistreated people. The economic security of a people — more than any other contributing factor — will always dictate the reach and scope of their future pursuit of liberty and happiness.
Pitt, in a January 14, 1766, speech to the House of Common, said: "I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest". There are many ways to interpret statements like that, but the word slave really commands my attention in any context.
My esteemed ancestors, as slaves, were forced to pick cotton on a number of Mississippi Delta plantations — slave is not a word I take lightly. To enslave a people for hundreds of years is reprehensible. It is even worse to consign the descendants of those slaves to a social and economic second-class citizenship.
The present economic growth and domination that the US enjoys was built upon the blood and sweat of black slaves. There is more than sufficient proof of that fact, yet most leaders in the US become indignant when African-Americans speak of, let alone seek, our just reparations.
It is as if no-one is aware that more than a hundred years ago the United States government promise freed slaves "40 acres and a mule" at the end of the civil wars. In reality, what the government did was gather up large numbers of many of the same people who stole my people from Africa and give them the acres and mules that had been promised to freed slaves.
Why? Because most white men — who control politics in the US — are self-promoting bigots. From the stories handed down through generations in my family, I can tell you that there is no human experience more demeaning and depressing than slavery. Knowing that to be the case, the government routinely disregards African-Americans.
The government is selective with its acres and mules. Let me share a few more words from Anne Konigsmark: "Dyess was one of 102 towns created by President Franklin Roosevelt for people left destitute by the Depression. About 45 were farming communities. In Dyess, each farmer could buy between 20 and 40 acres of land and a five room clapboard house for no money at a very low interest rate. He also received a mule, a cow and groceries and supplies through the first year. The town worked as a cooperative; the cotton was sold communally, and the families received a share of any profits made off the crop and other Dyess industries, such as the general store and the cannery."
It is my opinion that the government not only gave them my ancestors' "40 acres and a mule, but also built them brand new houses, hospitals, general stores and industrial canneries to boot! Today, in states such as Arkansas, Georgia and the Carolinas, the average African-American farmer (who has never known the government's favour) can barely get a bank loan to cover the price of seed for next year's crops.
To get 40 acres and a mule, or the modern equivalent, in the US, you have to have white skin. Black farmers have recently had to file lawsuits against the government — not to get preferential treatment, but just to get fair treatment. The fact that I started off as a good young Midwestern farmer 50 years ago, but now find myself writing these words from a death row prison cell in Georgia, speaks volumes about the US.
I do not mean to use bigotry in the US as an excuse for being on death row. Rather, I want the reader to appreciate that, had the prospects of being a successful African-American farmer not been so bleak, and entrenched in US racism, I would probably still be in an Illinois cornfield — a place I love — instead of this prison cell.
[The writer welcomes letters commenting on his columns (include your name and full return address on the envelope, or prison authorities may refuse to deliver it). He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-63, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]