R A I D E R L E G E N D
“The Greatest Show”
WOAH!
Don't fight it, it's comin' for you, runnin' at ya
It's only this moment, don't care what comes after
Your fever dream, can't you see it gettin' closer?
Just surrender 'cause you feel the feelin' takin' over (Oh)
It's fire, it's freedom, it's floodin' open (Oh)
It's a preacher in the pulpit and your blind devotion (Oh)
There's somethin' breakin' at the brick of every wall that's holdin' (Oh)
All that you know, so tell me, do you wanna go?
Since coming across the book "Dear Master: Letters of a Slave Family" back in the early 1990's, I've been interested in the history of the country Liberia. Liberia is a country on the west coast of Africa founded as a "Back to Africa" type settlement for free and emancipated American negroes in the early part of the nineteenth century.
The first half of the book consists of letters from the emancipated Skipwith slave family in Liberia, who in 1833 were selected for emigration to the colony by their Virginia master. The letters span almost thirty years of correspondence between the Skipwith family and their former master. I believe the letters were found in the attic of the old plantation house "Prestwould" during renovation. The letters now reside at the University of Virginia library as part of the "Cocke Family Papers" special collection.
Letters from Peyton Skipwith. Born enslaved in Virginia in 1800, Peyton Skipwith was emancipated at age 33 by his owner, John Hartwell Cocke, who espoused the migration of freed slaves to Liberia, the west African colony founded in 1821 by the American Colonization Society. In 1833 Cocke sent Skipwith with his wife and six children to Liberia. For over thirty years they wrote letters to him; five letters from Peyton Skipwith are presented here. Cocke's letters to the Skipwith family, however, have been lost. (Peyton's brother, George, was an overseer at Cocke's Alabama plantation. His letters to Cocke are included in Theme II: ENSLAVEMENT: #4, Driver).
In another book pulled off the shelf to peruse tonight, I came across this historical tidbit of information about the beginnings of the early negro settlement that in 1847 would become the country of Liberia:
excerpt from "The Great Commodore: The Exploits of Matthew Calbraith Perry" (pages 85-86)
A New Bedford negro, Paul Cuffee, started the train of events that recalled Lieutenant Perry from the merchant service and sent him out on his first naval mission of peace. Cuffee had risen to the command of his own trading schooner - a rare achievement in those slave-burdened days. After a voyage on the African west coast, he conceived the idea of forming a settlement of American free negroes in the land of their ancestors. The settlement would afford a trading post for American goods, manned by the only race that has ever been able to endure the fever-haunted shores of west central Africa. He took out forty freedmen who were willing to try the experiment, but the settlement failed, apparently for lack of proper organizing and financing.
However, one aspect of his scheme appealed to two groups of American idealists who curiously found in it a common meeting ground for exactly opposite aims. One, a northern group, saw in it a possible way of redemption of the black man from slavery, by offering an asylum to free negroes in America who could introduce civilization to their primordial brothers in the Dark Continent, and thus furnish a backfire against enslavement. The other group, mostly of southerners, saw in Cuffee's experiment an opportunity to rid this country of what they considered one of slavery's dreaded firebrands - the free negro. If the African colony were a success, they argued, it would be possible to deport all freedmen to it and thus rid the slaves of their influence.
Under these warring auspices, the American Colonization Society was founded at Washington in 1816, with objectives so widely apart that the society was rent by factions before it was fairly started. The different factions appealed to the American public, which lent an interested ear to the rumpus though it was more reserved about its pocketbook. The leaders of the movement, however, forged bravely ahead, adroitly interesting the clergy of both races in the possibilities of evangelizing the west coast through the influence of an American negro colony.
Next Congress became interested. Slave-trading was already prohibited by law and the proposed colony would supply a dumping ground for the cargoes of American slavers captured on the African coast. State colonization societies next sprang up, under the auspices of local philanthropists who wished to see the new negro Elysium conducted on lines best suited to their own purposes. The abolitionist was unknown then except as a hated and very scarce fanatic - about like the anarchists in the 'nineties. The idea was not to encourage runaway slaves but to furnish a haven for the large number who were legitimately free.
"Home as Found: Ex-Slaves in Liberia" (authored by Randall M. Miller 1975)
Through their letters written to former masters, officers of the American Colonization Society, friends, and family back in America, the ex-slave colonists bore witness to their level of acculturation to the imposed Euro-American values of the American South. Far from sloughing off their acquired American heritage, the first generation of ex-slave settlers clung tenaciously to comfortable, familiar modes of work; family and religion. The letters from Liberia also offer vivid, if somewhat narrow descriptions of the wretched colonial settlements that crudely imitated America, and of the ex-slave colonists who reluctantly but inexorably, accepted expatriation from home and family and committed energies and hearts to building a black republic in Africa. Finally, the freedmen's transmutation from outcasts of one world to community builders in another, offers an interesting case study of the frontier as social organizing agent, as it also serves as a barometer to measure the skills and values the ex - slaves retained after servitude. Notes.
The Lone Star: The Story of Liberia
A Brief History of Liberia (Video)
The Freeport of Monrovia (Video)
The Liberian Exodus (onboard the Azor 1878)
Sierra Leone Creole people - Wikipedia
House Speaker Vote, In Pictures
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Today's 31-13 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs should be no surprise to Raiders fans. They started the season 0-3 and ended it 0-3. They had 3-three game losing streaks and 1-three game winning streak. That adds up to a 3-9 streak record. Tack on the 3 wins and 2 losses between streaks and we're looking at a 6-11 overall record. Another losing season. It Sucks!
There were some good highlights this Raiders season, but the disappointment of a losing season after so much promise coming off last season's playoff appearance negates any positives.
Throughout this season I kept trying to put my finger on who or what to blame; is it the head coach, play calling, quarterback, injuries, defense or offense. What the heck was it with the Raiders that put them just a step behind opponents in nine of their eleven losses this season. They could have easily won nine close games but for a play or two.
Last season saw the return of that Raiders mystique in winning close games. This season saw them with a new coaching staff and offensive philosophy. So maybe that old mystique left the building with the old staff. Something definitely changed in how the Raiders approached closing out games. Something I hope will not be back in the mix come next season.
Win, Lose or Tie!
A Speaker Has NOT Been Elected!
