A Hint of Black Women's History

Bridging Some Gaps in "Women's History Month"


They suffered and fought, and scratched and bled, and screamed, and cried, and they read, or yearned to read, and studied, and loved, and gave and received and they ran like hell so that we might do better and advocate and make demands on behalf of the people.




This will be a one page (six panel) exhibit of just a hint of the all but cloaked history of Black women - particularly during the enslavement of African people.


The dilemma with Women's History Month is of course most entities that hold the power to discuss it in fuller detail, deliberately and maliciously only relay imagery and events related with White women - and Black women who are chosen and deemed acceptable.

It is ruthless to exclude the vastness of human experiences hiding the abuses of a collective upon another.

"Women's organizations" such as "NOW," and even Black organizations and entities fail to thoroughly lay out what Black women's History entails.

Noone suggests a largely more adequate job will be provided here, but an attempt will be made to shine a different, more intense light on a history we either never knew or aren't adequately kept mindful of - your host included.

We should never think of the enslavement of Black people as a whole without remembering the specific incomprehensible experience of these recent ancestors.

As we exhibit and discuss these facts more openly, those who insist there is room at the table for Black women in "Women's Organizations" (even if it is a small crawl-space) may (or may not) at least have some talking points to help White women shed that film of fear, guilt and trepidation with engaging our total brilliance, raising up our imagery, and the history of Black women as the great thinkers and strategists we are - rather than as followers and "members."

This is doubtful.


In 1875, which was not at all that long ago, White couples who were married received greetings cards and notes, silver, china - and as was in this case, many were "given" Black people - human beings, as gifts.

This beautiful, proud faced Sistah' African woman, "Minnie," (whose African name was stripped from her, and) who was a direct descendant of our genetic, cultural "Eve" was presented to a pair of newlywed enslavers as a gift.

This means she was snatched from one dangerous, grueling, and hateful condition, and hurled to another not knowing her fate.

While she was being exploited as she were not human, who knows where Mimme's family was - i.e. whether she was separated from her children, sold away from her partner (who may have been male or female, as many Same Gender Loving couples were also cruelly separated during slavery), or from her siblings and parents.

For those who are thrown off by Mimme's dress and earrings, this is a snapshot of just one moment, which does not portray the denigration, humiliation and torture she was prone to endure the day or even the moment before(or after) she posed for this photo.

Enslavers were psychologically untrustworthy, their moods swinging from one end of the spectrum to the other - and their power and violent behaviors attached to any given feeling of the moment.

Such facts shed a light on why when we hear people talk about "the good old days" we realize they are decidedly not acknowledging that what were "good days" in the oppressive minds and experiences of most White people - were the most treacherous, degrading and dangerous times for Black people.

All of this also reminds us that White women were in fact energetic participants in chattel slavery, although White males are commonly publicized as if the only perpetrators of that murderous time.

White women who were members of anti slavery organizations were a minority.

Also, not all White's who were opposed to slavery were opposed to the blatant disrespect, whipping, starvation and killing of Black people under varying circumstances.

Some only specifically felt that the institution of slavery was wrong, while believing Black people had to be kept "in their place."

Finally, keep in mind slavery was a "Christian" institution in which the bible was widely and perpetually used to satisfy questions about its wrongfulness.

The enslavement of Africans as is the case with much contemporary racism - all either falls or was given birth within the realm of the work of "extremist, radical, fundamentalism" in the church that so happened to be prevalent and widespread.

To those who would suggest these images are meant to evoke resentment, the worse form of resentment is that which is confused and mislabeled as "racism." Openness and healthy acknowledgment is a healant for resentment when people who have been desecrated and plundered can envision proper reparations will be applied.

Every year we witness stories and images from events such as the Holocaust to Pearl Harbor to 911 in which one population has terrorized another.

Here is one in few opportunities to honor and mourn the mass rape, pillaging, and terrorism committed against Black girls to women whose story rarely gets told in their "Women's Suffrage" amid the institution of chattel slavery.

This exhibit is a critical education for boys to men to know what is generally hidden information - that girls to women suffered enormously and risked their lives during chattel slavery right alongside African men.

The devaluing of women (and other cultural lacking) as mastered by White male corporations, sometimes produced with our own dollars, adhered to and supported by many Black men - young and old alike - and all too often given the nod by Black women.

Such denigration can be greatly influenced as we become more self actualized around the sacredness of our own being through such vehicles as this presentation.

These images and events are important as we can find within them new reasons to respect ourselves and other Black women who are our Black, brave, beautiful, clear reflection.

If we envision ourselves in that light, we can disengage from anti-self anti-each-other behaviors that keep us separate, and therefore unable to engage contextualities centered in those areas where gender dilemmas (including oppression, control and violence against Black women, rape of girls to women, and the list goes on) loom large in Black communities.

Only as we begin to study and openly discuss the magnitude of the specific treatment of African women during this crime including the murder and deliberate creating of environments in which only the death of Black men and women could be the end result, can we also begin to discuss the important matter of reparations wherein we are all on a similar page.

As we think about Mimme, our first charge is to imagine the prolongued devastation of a million Mimme's.




This site will always attempt to provide imagery that is eye opening and educational while attempting as best as possible to minimize the painfulness of what happened to in this case our Great-Grandmothers, Great-Great Grandmothers and beyond.

Later, this gallery will address chattel slavery as it relates to Black men - again just faintly hinting at the horrific and traumatic events, and their impact.




Excerpts From: "Cannot Destroy My Spirit . . . "

by Harmony Turnbull

"Scarce clothing, bending over to work or lifting one's dress to keep it clean were seen by the slave holder in sexual terms."

An enslaved African, Henry Bibb reported that an enslaver made the comment that "he would rather paddle a slave womsn than eat food."

Africans who were enalved endured, the cutting off of ears, and the pulling out of teeth.

Women who resisted by raising their hands to "the master" or any White person were punished severely: if not by death, their hands were amputated."

"In some cases, enslaved women did not commit any "offense." (quotations mine). Some planters were blatantly sick and sadistic in the severity of the actions they took.

In one case in Jamaica, an African woman is described as "screaming and suspended by her wrists on a tree. She swayed back and forth. The observer saw no signs of whippings, but upon looking closer was hoorified to see that the master was "seemingly motionaless" and was holding a stick of fire in his hand to which he occasionally touched her with it as she swung.


Another form of punishment women White enslavers inflicted upon enslaved Africans was to force them to their "bare knees on pebbles and work that at the same tine in that manner."

In one case, a woman enslaver tied her own garter to a young African woman's neck and heels, and then beat her almost to death with the heels of their shoes, one of her eyes continued a long while afterward in danger of being lost."

Not only did African women lived with the constant threat of rape, but some enslavers wives' would become enraged with these events and couls "contribute to the cruelty" of enslaved women - Maulauna Karenga, Intro to Black Studies



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