'COMPLICITY' by Anne Farrow - New England's Historical Contribution To Black Slavery In America - RI10 Repub

'COMPLICITY' by 

Anne Farrow - New

England's Historical

Contribution To Black

Slavery In America -

RI10 Repub

Originally Published January 28, 2006

 

    Category: History - United States
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Pub Date: September 2005
Price: $35.95
ISBN: 0-345-46782-5
Also available as a trade paperback.


ABOUT THIS BOOK

Slavery in the South has been documented in volumes ranging from exhaustive histories to bestselling novels. But the North’s profit from–indeed, dependence on–slavery has mostly been a shameful and well-kept secret . . . until now. In this startling and superbly researched new book, three veteran New England journalists demythologize the region of America known for tolerance and liberation, revealing a place where thousands of people were held in bondage and slavery was both an economic dynamo and a necessary way of life.

Complicity reveals the cruel truth about the Triangle Trade of molasses, rum, and slaves that lucratively linked the North to the West Indies and Africa; discloses the reality of Northern empires built on profits from rum, cotton, and ivory–and run, in some cases, by abolitionists; and exposes the thousand-acre plantations that existed in towns such as Salem, Connecticut. Here, too, are eye-opening accounts of the individuals who profited directly from slavery far from the Mason-Dixon line–including Nathaniel Gordon of Maine, the only slave trader sentenced to die in the United States, who even as an inmate of New York’s infamous Tombs prison was supported by a shockingly large percentage of the city; Patty Cannon, whose brutal gang kidnapped free blacks from Northern states and sold them into slavery; and the Philadelphia doctor Samuel Morton, eminent in the nineteenth-century field of “race science,” which purported to prove the inferiority of African-born black people.

Culled from long-ignored documents and reports–and bolstered by rarely seen photos, publications, maps, and period drawings–Complicity is a fascinating and sobering work that actually does what so many books pretend to do: shed light on America’s past. Expanded from the celebrated Hartford Courant special report that the Connecticut Department of Education sent to every middle school and high school in the state (the original work is required readings in many college classrooms,) this new book is sure to become a must-read reference everywhere.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Anne Farrow, Joel Lang, and Jenifer Frank are veteran journalists for The Hartford Courant, the country’s oldest newspaper in continuous publication. Farrow and Lang were the lead writers and Frank was the editor of the special slavery issue published by Northeast, the newspaper’s Sunday magazine.

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She is co-editor with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of African American Lives.
http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345467829




Barnes & Noble $26… published 2005..Paperback August, 2006





January 2006 Programs

Kennewick Man       Exploring a Dark History

Contact Information

Kennewick Man, A Lecture by James Chatters, Ph.D.

On Saturday, January 28, 2006 at 2 pm, the public is invited to a lecture on "Kennewick Man," by Dr. James C. Chatters, forensic archaeologist and paleoecologist. Kennewick Man, estimated to have lived 9,400 years ago, is one of the oldest and most important human skeletons ever unearthed in North America. The talk is cosponsored by the Friends of the Office of State Archaeology (FOSA) and the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Connecticut Archaeology Center at UConn. The talk will be at Smith Middle School, 216 Addison Road, Glastonbury, CT. Admission is $10 per person; student admission is $5 per person. (Snow date is January 29.) For information, call (860) 486-4460.

The discovery of the Kennewick Man, along with other recent finds, may significantly alter The Kennewick Man head statue conventional views of how, when and by whom the Americas were peopled. Dr. Chatters has written about the discovery and a decade-long effort to gain access to the remains for scientific study in his book Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans.



In July 1996 two young men encountered a human skull in the Columbia River at Kennewick, Washington. Dr. Chatters was invited by the local police and coroner to help recover the skeletal remains from the mud. Over the next month, under a permit issued by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, Dr. Chatters recovered nearly the complete skeleton that has come to be known as "Kennewick Man."

The completeness and unusually good condition of the skeleton, lack of definitive Native American characteristics, presence of apparently Caucasian features and the association of the site with an early 19th century homestead led Dr. Chatters to suspect that the bones were those of an early European settler. However, radiocarbon dating showed an astonishing age of 9,400 B.P. (Before Present). Almost from the time of the original discovery, controversy arose over the ownership of the remains. The area where the skeleton was discovered is maintained by the Corps and is considered by the Umatilla Indian tribe to be part of their traditional home. Four days after radiocarbon dating was complete, the Corps took possession of the skeleton and published their intent to repatriate the remains to an alliance of five tribes.


Dr. Chatters with Kennewick Man skull

Scientists, including Dr. Chatters, protested that a person who lived 9,400 years ago could not be identified with any current-day tribe, and that scientific study should be allowed because ancient skeletons provide information from the past, including health, diet, activities, and genetic relationships, that is unobtainable from any other source.

In July 2005, a federal court ruled that scientists could examine Kennewick Man. They were allowed to study the skeleton for 15 days, after which it was returned to the Burke Museum.

Dr. Chatters will describe actions by the Corps that closed the archaeological site, the loss (and recent rediscovery) of some skeletal parts, efforts to secure and study the skeleton, the decade-long legal battle about who should possess the skeleton and current issues and actions, including a proposal to amend the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

Dr. Chatters is the founder of Applied Paleoscience, a firm specializing in forensic and archaeological consulting. He is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of Research at Central Washington University and deputy coroner for Benton County, Washington. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1982.


Exploring a Dark History

On Sunday, January 15, 2006, at 3 pm, the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Connecticut Archaeology Center at UConn will offer a lecture entitled “Exploring a Dark History: Courant Authors Find the North Complicit in Slavery,” by Anne Farrow, Jenifer Frank, and Joel Lang of The Hartford Courant. There will be a book signing after the lecture. The talk will take place in Room 130 of UConn’s Biological Sciences and Physics Building, 91 North Eagleville Road, Storrs. Park in North Parking Garage (fee). Admission is free. For information, call (860) 486-4460.

Join us for a very special lecture about the Northern complicity in slavery on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday by Anne Farrow, Jenifer Frank, and Joel Lang of the Hartford Courant.  "We have traditionally been Black and white picture of slaves wading in water taught to think, 'North good, South bad' when it comes to slavery, but it's much more complicated than that," said Hartford Courant Publisher Jack Davis. The North's deep involvement in the slave trade and dependency on slave labor to fuel its economy makes sense, according to the authors of Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited from Slavery, if you "follow the money."

Written by Hartford Courant journalists Anne Farrow, Joel Lang and Jenifer Frank, Complicity exposes the startling extent to which individuals and businesses in the North depended on and profited from the labor of millions of enslaved people. It debunks the commonly held belief that slavery was solely a southern institution. For example,

    *

      two Connecticut towns were international centers for ivory production, milling hundreds of thousands of tons of elephant tusks procured through the enslavement or death of as many as 2 million people in Africa.
      
    *

      New York City’s seaport was the hub of an enormously lucrative illegal slave trade.
      
    *

      Two slave revolts occurred in New York City in the first half of the 18th century. After the 1741 uprising, 31 blacks, all slaves, and four whites, were either hanged or burned alive at the stake.  At that time, slaves made up one-fifth the population of New York City.
      
    *

      Rhode Island was America’s leader in the slave trade, launching nearly 1,000 voyages to Africa, and carrying at least 100,000 captives back across the Atlantic.
      
    *

      Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York all had plantations that used slave labor.
      
    *

      Free blacks living in the North were regularly kidnapped by whites and sold back into slavery in the South.

This important book began as a special issue of the paper’s Northeast Magazine in September 2002. The 80-page tab focused on Connecticut’s ties to slavery and was so enthusiastically received by readers, educators, Slavery ship's log historians and others that a reprinting of 30,000 additional copies was ordered. The issue won several prestigious awards and was distributed to high schools and middle schools throughout Connecticut and to college classrooms and libraries throughout the United States.

"The authors of Complicity have rendered a story full of new and interesting facts about an earlier time in this nation’s history, and by so doing, they speak powerfully to present-day America and the continuing quest for freedom and justice for all," said Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.


Ship’s Cargo Log

CONTACT:  Carol Davidge, Public Information Coordinator
Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Connecticut Archaeology Center
University of Connecticut
(860) 486-5690
E-mail: Carol.Davidge@uconn.edu
http://www.kids.state.ct.us/museum.htm



How The North Promoted, Prolonged & Profited From Slavery
Anne Farrow, writer
Joel Lang, writer
Jenifer Frank, writer

Conventional wisdom is challenged as the authors of Complicity: How The North Promoted, Prolonged, And Profited From Slavery discuss their findings in a public talk. A century and a half after the end of the Civil War, most Americans still think of slavery as a purely Southern institution. The enduring image of American bondage is that of lines of black men and women picking cotton on a plantation in a Southern state. In fact, the North was equally responsible for American slavery, as shown by the authors of Complicity. Before the Civil War, Northern industries such as textiles and shipbuilding flourished as a result of the free labor of millions of black people. The only difference was that Northerners could profit from slavery at a distance and were in a better position to deny their complicity.

The Boston Public Library and the Museum of Afro-American History are offering the Words of Thunder Lowell Lecture Series to honor the bicentennial of the birth of William Lloyd Garrison, Boston abolitionist and editor of The Liberator. The lecture series is designed to continue Garrison's efforts to expand the public's knowledge of slavery and of collaborative efforts of abolitionists.
http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=2086

Tabacco: There is an 80 minute video interview of the three authors at the above-listed website.  It requires RealOne Player to audit.




Tony Brown's Journal


TONY BROWN'S JOURNAL presents programs featuring guest discussions, commentaries and documentaries pertaining to issues of importance to diverse racial groups in America.

#2902 Slavery's Biggest Secret
Was the first colony to give legal recognition to the institution of slavery a northern or southern state?  The answer to that question is one of many surprising facts about the history of slavery in America.  Journalist Anne Farrow, co-author of “Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery”, exposes the role of the North in the growth of slavery in America.

Tabacco TiVo’d and viewed this program today, January 28, 2006.  If you receive ‘Tony Brown’s Journal’ where you live, it is scheduled again on January 29, 2006.

UPDATE: 'Tony Brown's Journal' ran the Anne

Farrow interview on PBS, Channel 13 in New

York, today, May 17, 2008. Check your local

listings for rebroadcasts.

#2903 Southern Slavery, Northern Lie?
This episode focuses on the North’s hidden history as a slave region, addressing king cotton and the legal and illegal slave trade, among other historic events.  Journalist Jenifer Frank, co-author of “Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery”, examines the impact of slavery in the development of the nation.
http://www.kcts.org/seriesdetail.asp?N1=TBJL

This episode is scheduled to air on February 5, 2006. (Presumably it will also air on February 4, 2006.)

UPDATE: 'Tony Brown's Journal' ran the Anne

Farrow interview on PBS, Channel 13 in New

York, today, May 17, 2008. Check your local

listings for rebroadcasts.

Tabacco: I consider myself both a funnel and a filter. I funnel information, not readily available on the Mass Media, which is ignored and/or suppressed. I filter out the irrelevancies and trivialities to save both the time and effort of my Readers and bring consternation to the enemies of Truth & Fairness! When you read Tabacco, if you don’t learn something NEW, I’ve wasted your time.


In 1981's 'Body Heat', Kathleen Turner said, "Knowledge is power".

 

T.A.B.A.C.C.O.  (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization) – Think Tank For Other 95% Of World

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