History Of Slavery

Mekhi Lewis
Jul 24, 2017 · 2 min read

From slavery first being instituted in the North American colony Jamestown in 1619 to current society black people have been segregated by skin-tone. Willie lynch and other slave masters took advantage of different pigments of black slaves to keep the black slaves against each other. This week in class we revealed how minority discrimination between different shades of brown is a result of a system of slavery and a lack of knowledge for the past into the present.

The American educational system does not comprehensively cover the history of African Americans. Due to the lack of knowledge about how African Americans retained their skin tones, the current African American community not awakened to the divisions among minority society. One example is the educational system is trying to get rid of derogatory language like the N-word. This reflects how America is trying to cover up its dark past relating to slavery.

A subject that is commonly brought up is the Willie Lynch letters. These letters were written by Willie Lynch, who was a Native American who taught slave masters how to maintain the institution of slavery in 1712. In his letters he taught slave masters to sleep with as many different slaves as possible to create different pigments. These letters emphasize how to maintain division among slaves through skin tone. He created a sense of hierarchy by saying lighter skin slaves should be in the house, while darker skin slaves in the field.

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