Introduction
Henry Louis Gates Jr. authored and produced a six-part documentary drama titled African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. As of the autumn of 2013, it was shown on PBS in its entirety, starting with episode 1. Gates and scholar Donald Yacovone collaborated on a supplementary volume to the project, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (SmileyBooks, 2013). In January 2014, a two-disc package of the show was made available (Jr & Yacovone, 2013). An account of the African-American history from slavery until Barack Obama’s election and subsequent inauguration is included in The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, as per its official website, examines how African Americans have forged their own identity in the face of insurmountable adversity through the development of a wide range of cultural organizations, political tactics, and social as well as religious viewpoints. While America is now governed by a black leader but is still severely segregated by color, the series begins with slavery’s roots in Africa and proceeds across five centuries full of extraordinary historical occurrences. This paper will examine episode two and episode one of this documentary.
Episode One
From this chapter, we get to know what slavery is and how it started. Enslaved people are often compelled to do some kind of task, and their location or place of residence is set by their enslavers. Several Africans, both freed and in slavery, helped create and sustain colonies in North America as well as the New World. Rather than relying on bonded servants, European colonists in North America relied on enslaved Africans for inexpensive labor during this Period (Jr & Yacovone, 2013). The British endeavor to profit from slavery was far from unique; other European nations had previously sent nearly half a million Africans to the colonial New World as slaves. Africans were often seen as a valuable resource because of their enormous potential as a source of cheap labor.
Individuals were abducted from Africa during the seventeenth and 18th centuries, put into enslavement within the American provinces, and exploited to labor for the growth of products like cotton and tobacco. Around the mid-19th century, America’s westward progress and the abolitionist effort had spurred a national conversation over slavery that would ultimately lead to the dreadful Civil War. Regardless of the reality that the Union win released the nation’s numerous black slaves, slavery’s effect persisted to shape American culture. European immigrants from America employed slave Africans as an economical and more plentiful labor source than indentured slaves, who were generally destitute Europeans, around this time.
The Black Atlantic delves into the genuinely global events that shaped African Americans. This episode depicts the early Africans who came on the North American coastlines, either as enslaved individuals or as free people, starting a century prior to the first recording of slaves’ arrival at Jamestown, Virginia. The Trans-Atlantic trade will soon grow into a massive empire spanning 3 continents. We follow the origins of plantations enslavement across the American South via the experiences of people trapped in its web, such as a young girl called Priscilla that was carried from Sierra Leone to S. Carolina during the slavery period. The Black Atlantic explores the impact of the late-18th-century Revolutions period on the blacks and enslavement in the United States, including the American, French, and Haitian ones (Jr & Yacovone, 2013).
From this episode, we get to understand the Trans-Atlantic trade and the ordeal that the slave individuals suffered. This was the largest long-distance involuntary movement of persons in the globe. Central and west Africa, Western Europe, and the Americas were all part of a broader trading network. Throughout the lengthy overland travels from the interior to the shore, numerous captives perished. The enslaved persons who remained were subsequently imprisoned in constructed slave castles by European traffickers.
Many enslaved Africans were transported by slave dealers from Africa to the Americas during this trade. The triangle trade route, as well as the Middle Passage, was often utilized by the slave trade. Blacks in Central Africa and West Africa that were traded by slavery traffickers, as well as slaves taken in coastal attacks, accounted for the great bulk of persons enslaved and moved during the transatlantic slave trade. Forts on the African coastline were used by Europeans to collect and hold enslaved people who were eventually transported to the Americas. Minerals, cloth, beads, guns, and gunpowder were exchanged for enslaved Africans brought to the coast by African traffickers.
Those who came to different American ports were bought by wealthy landowners, merchants, local farmers, rich businessmen, and other slave traffickers at auction houses or smaller selling forums. Slaves might then be transported thousands of miles to be sold in neighboring Caribbean locations or in the interiors of the Americas. Enslaved blacks were primarily acquired by European slaveholders to offer domestic labor and industrial work. A large percentage, on the other hand, offered farm labor and expertise to grow cash crops for global markets on plantations. In order to keep the trans-Atlantic slave trade chain going, slaveholders profited from the sale of their slaves by expanding their landholdings and purchasing additional Africans. This is among the worst sin against humanity that the world has ever witnessed.
Episode Two
The Age of Slavery depicts how black people’s lives altered radically following the American Revolution. Such times were a period of immense potential for liberated black individuals in locations like Philadelphia Slavery’s impact on the livelihoods of African-Americans altered considerably after the American Revolution. However, for numerous African Americans, it was a historical low point. Slavery’s fast expansion into new territory was supported by the cotton business, and the Second Middle Passage moved blacks from the upwards regions of the Southern States to the Deep South (Jr & Yacovone, 2013). Resistance grew in tandem with the spread of slavery. Through personal initiatives and communal rebellions, blacks demonstrated their dedication to weakening and finally abolishing slavery in each section of the nation as witnessed in this episode. Slavery was abolished in the United States thanks to the efforts of African Americans, from individual protests to huge uprisings. Each and each state in the United States saw a variety of actions taken by African Americans to weaken and eventually abolish slavery. People like Harriet Tubman, Richard Allen, and Frederick Douglass were instrumental in bringing the problem of black slaves to the spotlight of American politics, assisting in building the momentum which would ultimately lead to the Civil War.
This episode also highlights an important factor that facilitated slavery during this period, the cotton gin. With the land previously utilized to grow tobacco almost depleted during the time, the South suffered an economic catastrophe, which subsequently threatened the future of American slavery. The mechanization of England’s textile industry at the same time provided a huge marketplace for American cotton. The difficulty of manually removing seeds from untreated cotton threads limited the production of this southern staple. Due to the rising demands for cotton, numerous slaves were required in the cotton plantations. Over a million blacks were transported to the South – Female slaves were molested, and their boyfriends were forced to learn about it and unable to stop it.
This episode also brings the impacts of blacks in ending slavery. Slave revolts took place, including those led by Gabriel Prosser in Richmond, Virginia, in 1800 and Denmark Vesey in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1822, but only a handful went on to victory (Jr & Yacovone, 2013). That of Nat Turner in Virginia around 1831 frightened enslavers more than any other rebellion. Prior to being overpowered by local whites and state militia troops, Turner’s party, which finally numbered roughly more than 70 Black men, had massacred several whites. Enslaved individuals have revolted in practically every society where slavery is today or has been practiced in the recent past. The oppressed population’s longing for liberation and the fantasy of a victorious insurrection was typically the focus of music, art, and culture.
This episode also highlights the importance of civil war. Slavery underwent significant changes as a result of the American Revolution. Many slaves gained their freedom during the American Revolution by participating on opposing sides of the conflict. A remarkable percentage of the blacks were manumitted as a consequence of the Revolution, whereas many more were liberated by fleeing. The residents and leaders of Northern and Southern regions had remained at odds for more than a century regarding the problems that eventually culminated in the civil war: economic objectives, cultural norms, the national government’s jurisdiction over the territories, and, most crucially, the enslavement of the black society. The war’s conclusion protected the United States as a unified nation and ended slavery, which had divided the country from its founding. However, such wins had certain drawbacks, including the loss of numerous lives.
Conclusion
Many rivers to cross is a very nice drama play. It makes us learn the terrible ordeal that Africans underwent before they became free individuals in the U.S. However, racism is an issue that still persists in the modern-day period. It is not long since we saw the cruel death of George Burton. His cruel death brings to life the terrible sufferings of his ancestors in the American land. For those who witnessed this unfortunate period of individuals who have lost their loved ones because of racial abuse, this drama can leave a bad taste in the mouth. But there is hope; we hope that one day America will be free of racism and people can meet their American dream. They can enjoy their full freedom in the land of plenty.
Reference
Jr, H. L. G., & Yacovone, D. (2013). The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. In Google Books. Hay House, Inc. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YA9uDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&dq=The+African+Americans:+Many+Rivers+to+Cross+with+Henry+Louis+Gates
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