(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Black Kos Tuesday: Just Deserts [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-17 Just deserts Review by Chitown Kev Brooding over Bloody Revenge: Enslaved Women's Lethal Resistance by Nikki M. Taylor Cambridge University Press, 250 pp. In my ninth grade world history class, I remember my teacher Mr. H. standing up and asking, rather flatly, a socratic question: What is justice? Most of my classmates gave rambling but ultimately illuminating replies but I have always been struck by the answer of a female classmate saying flatly, unambiguously, and very quickly: When you get what you deserve. My classmate’s answer to the what is justice question occurred to me over and over as I read Howard University professor Nikki Taylor’s Brooding over Bloody Revenge: Enslaved Women's Lethal Resistance, a casebook of seven true stories of enslaved Black women that participated in and ultimately carried out (mostly successful) attempts on their slaveowner’s life. Notably, none of these Black women’s “lethal resistance” were carried out in order to articulate a “global grievance” against the system of slavery itself. Instead, these attempted and (with one exception) successful murders were attempts to address their treatment within the slave system; murders that, in Dr. Taylor’s words, were carried out “in response to beatings, abusive language, sexual assault, heavy workloads, threats of being sold away from loved ones, and being denied food, time off, and holidays” and often as a last resort. Brooding over Bloody Revenge not only documents frequently neglected events of the antebellum era but also serves to, for example, explode the myth of the commonly accepted binary of “house slave/field slave,” serves as a primer for slave “jurisprudence” and, ultimately, charts a genealogy of what Dr. Taylor calls a “Black feminist” philosophy and practice of justice. Dr. Taylor points out that these specific murder cases were frequently plotted out over periods of months and even, in the first case of the book, the 1755 murder of John Codman of Charlestown, Massachusetts, over a period of “at least six years” of the slow and steady poisoning of Codman’s food where, it seemed, everyone enslaved by Codman knew something of the plot. In this and other cases, the slaveowner murders are carried out with “rationality and forethought”, which Dr. Taylor identifies as “one of the core features of a Black feminist practice of justice.” It is that core feature which gives many of the women a sense of peace and no regrets for their even as they awaited death sentences after their rather speedy trials. That the deaths of these slaveowners were carried out with “rationality and forethought” does not mean that these deaths were painless; that these slaveowners often suffered agonizing deaths seems to be a significant part of the retributive justice being meted out. For example, Taylor shows the cumulative effects of years of poisoning had on the body of Codman. She provides the gratuitous details of the murder of Virginia Winston and her child via a hatchet with “half a dozen cuts so deep that it chipped her skull bone down to her brain matter”. Brooding Over Bloody Revenge frequently reads like stories of a horror or mystery genre which I’ve long thought are the perfect genres for what enslaved and newly transplanted African people experienced as a result of slavery. All of this and Dr. Taylor still states that Black women were overwhelmingly the least violent people of the colonial and antebellum eras in the United States and that all matter of physical and emotional violence was inflicted upon them, even and especially by white women. At many levels, Brooding Over Bloody Revenge is horrifying and yet I found myself uncomfortably (at least at first) laughing at a couple points in a few stories, as if these were horror stories (her account of the murder of Codman reads like Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express a little bit; Dr. Taylor might have a knack for writing this stuff). And then I remembered my classmate’s answer to the what is justice question. And laughed a little more and rather comfortably. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A landmark environmental justice agreement is aimed at fixing longstanding sanitation issues in a rural, predominantly Black Alabama county. Residents say they've waited long enough. NPR: Black residents in rural Alabama demand sanitation equity, saying 'it's a right' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rudolph and most of her neighbors here on Gardenia Street have on-site septic tanks for sewage disposal. They're common in rural regions where there might not be enough customers for a municipal sewage treatment plant to be feasible. But the septic tanks here are failing – some are old and others are sinking or have completely collapsed. Rudolph says she's tried getting the tank pumped out and the pipes repaired, but nothing has worked. Sewage still backs up. "Can you imagine going in your bathroom to take a bath and your water is not going out of your sink or out of your bathtub, and it's backed up with waste out of our body? It's terrible," she says. This is Lowndes County, in the heart of what's known as the Black Belt - a rural, agricultural region in west Alabama named for its rich Black soil, and which also has a largely Black population. It was called "Bloody Lowndes" because of racial violence during Jim Crow, and the county was the center of the voting rights movement in the 1960s. Marchers between Selma and Montgomery would camp overnight in tent cities here. Now Lowndes County is at the forefront of a landmark federal environmental justice case that could establish sanitation access as a civil right. Rudolph, who's 75, says it's about time. "Sanitation should be a right no matter what," she says. "Sanitation should be the first thing." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Filmmaker Raoul Peck spoke to theGrio about his latest documentary, which tells the story of a Black North Carolina family fighting to get their land back. The Grio: The film ‘Silver Dollar Road’ highlights the theft of Black land ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The dispossession of Black land is a real and serious issue, and a new film tackles the issue head on by examining the struggles of a Black North Carolina family to reclaim their land. The film, “Silver Dollar Road” hits theaters Friday and on Amazon Prime on Oct. 20. Coming to us from award-winning Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck (“I Am Not Your Negro” and “Exterminate All the Brutes”), the movie is based on the 2019 ProPublica story of the Reels family siblings Mamie, Melvin and Licurtis. The film takes its name from the road that borders the Reels property. Only a generation from enslavement, the Reels’ great-grandfather Elijah bought 65 acres of land in Carteret, N.C. The family would make a living farming and fishing, and create the only beach for Black people in the county. In the 1970s, the Reels’ grandfather, Mitchell, died without a will, with the heirs each inheriting an interest in the property in what is known as heirs’ property. “Whatever you do,” Mitchell told his family the night he died, “don’t let the white man have the land.” Mamie, Melvin and Licurtis would learn that an estranged uncle took advantage of heirs’ property and sold the land — in secret and without consent — to a white developer. It is common among families who own communal land through heirs’ property for developers to entice relatives to sell their share, opening the door for developers to auction off all the land at a profit. Melvin and Licurtis refused to leave the land and were sent to jail for eight years for trespassing. Following the Civil War, Black people bought so much land that by 1910 they had owned 15 million acres or 23,000 square miles. Before the start of the 21st century, that number had dwindled to around 2.3 million acres due to Ku Klux Klan’s domestic terrorism and lynching, intimidation, deceptive practices and government action. Although heirs’ property is associated with land loss for Black families, it is also an issue for Latinx, Indigenous and low-income Appalachian white people. x YouTube Video . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Activists want to give communities more of a say. The Economist: Land reform in Africa is challenging the power of chief ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Many an investor has taken the road east from Freetown, the capital, into the heart of Sierra Leone seeking land for plantations or mines. Their journey invariably takes them to the door of a local chief. A system based on private land titles reaches no farther inland than the salty sea air. So it goes in many parts of Africa, where roughly three-quarters of land is under customary ownership. In theory, that means it is managed by communities in line with tradition. But there is no consensus about how that should work in practice. Which community? Whose tradition? Should decisions be made by chiefs, families or individuals? These questions are becoming more urgent as the demand for land rises. In 2007 a surge in food prices sparked a land rush. Foreign investors have since concluded large-scale deals for roughly 200,000 square kilometres of land in Africa, an area the size of mainland Britain, estimates Land Matrix, a data platform. That is one reason why many countries are rethinking customary tenure, including Sierra Leone, which rewrote its land laws last year. These do not just change property rights, but also recast political authority. Access to rural land is often mediated by chiefs, who present themselves as heirs to ancestral tradition. Yet this heritage is somewhat contrived. The British empire, in particular, often strengthened the hand of favoured chiefs over their people. That often puts them at the heart of negotiations with investors. Some have staunchly defended their people. Others have struck deals with companies that want land for crops and minerals. “We saw chiefs riding roughshod on communities, insisting on investments even when communities didn’t want it,” says Sonkita Conteh, a lawyer at Namati, a civil-society group that has worked on hundreds of land cases in Sierra Leone. Chiefs there are elected from historic ruling families by rural notables and serve for life. They often insist they are owners of the land, not mere custodians as the law implies. The new act, which Mr Conteh helped draft, subtly weakens chiefly power. It guarantees women the same land rights as men and for the first time lets descendants of freed slaves own land outside Freetown. Any investment on customary land now needs the consent of 60% of adults in the families who, in effect, own it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WELCOME TO THE TUESDAY PORCH [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/17/2199447/-Black-Kos-Tuesday-Just-Deserts?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/