Five Thousand Years Of Slavery Book Pdf
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Debt: The First 5,000 Years is a book by anthropologist David Graeber published in 2011. It explores the historical relationship of debt with social institutions such as barter, marriage, friendship, slavery, law, religion, war and government. It draws on the history and anthropology of a number of civilizations, large and small, from the first known records of debt from Sumer in 3500 BCE until the present.
Two thousand years ago, some of the largest culture groups in North America were the Puebloan groups, centered in the current-day Greater Southwest (the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico), the Mississippian groups located along the Great River and its tributaries, and the Mesoamerican groups of the areas now known as central Mexico and the Yucatán. Previous developments in agricultural technology enabled the explosive growth of the large early societies, such as that at Tenochtitlán in the Valley of Mexico, Cahokia along the Mississippi River, and in the desert oasis areas of the Greater Southwest.
Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico was home to ancestral Puebloan peoples between 900 and 1300 CE. As many as fifteen thousand individuals lived in the Chaco Canyon complex in present-day New Mexico.13 Sophisticated agricultural practices, extensive trading networks, and even the domestication of animals like turkeys allowed the population to swell. Massive residential structures, built from sandstone blocks and lumber carried across great distances, housed hundreds of Puebloan people. One building, Pueblo Bonito, stretched over two acres and rose five stories. Its six hundred rooms were decorated with copper bells, turquoise decorations, and bright macaws.14 Homes like those at Pueblo Bonito included a small dugout room, or kiva, which played an important role in a variety of ceremonies and served as an important center for Puebloan life and culture. Puebloan spirituality was tied both to the earth and the heavens, as generations carefully charted the stars and designed homes in line with the path of the sun and moon.15
At any rate, they immediately entered into conversation on thatsubject, making numerous inquiries touching my proficiency in thatrespect. My responses being to all appearances satisfactory, theyproposed to engage my services for a short period, stating, at thesame time, I was just such a person as their business required. Theirnames, as they afterwards gave them to me, were Merrill Brown andAbram Hamilton, though whether these were their true appellations,I have strong reasons to doubt. The former was a man apparentlyforty years of age, somewhat short and thick-set, with a countenanceindicating shrewdness and intelligence. He wore a black frock coat andblack hat, and said he resided either at Rochester or at Syracuse.The latter was a young man of fair complexion and light eyes, and, Ishould judge, had not passed the age of twenty-five. He was tall andslender, dressed in a snuff-colored coat, with glossy hat, and vest ofelegant pattern. His whole apparel was in the extreme of fashion. Hisappearance was somewhat effeminate, but prepossessing, and there wasabout him an easy air, that showed he had mingled with the world. Theywere connected, as they informed me, with a circus company, then inthe city of Washington; that they were on their[Pg 30] way thither to rejoinit, having left it for a short time to make an excursion northward,for the purpose of seeing the country, and were paying their expensesby an occasional exhibition. They also remarked that they had foundmuch difficulty in procuring music for their entertainments, and thatif I would accompany them as far as New-York, they would give me onedollar for each day's services, and three dollars in addition forevery night I played at their performances, besides sufficient to paythe expenses of my return from New-York to Saratoga.
After some further inspection, and conversation[Pg 85] touching prices, hefinally offered Freeman one thousand dollars for me, nine hundredfor Harry, and seven hundred for Eliza. Whether the small-pox haddepreciated our value, or from what cause Freeman had concludedto fall five hundred dollars from the price I was before held at,I cannot say. At any rate, after a little shrewd reflection, heannounced his acceptance of the offer.
I was awakened early in the morning by the voice of Master Ford,calling Rose. She hastened into the house to dress the children, Sallyto the field to milk the cows, while John was busy in the kitchenpreparing breakfast. In the meantime Harry and I were strolling aboutthe yard, looking at our new quarters. Just after breakfast a coloredman, driving three yoke of oxen, attached to a wagon load of lumber,drove into the opening. He was a slave of Ford's, named Walton, thehusband of Rose. By the way, Rose was a native of Washington, and hadbeen brought from thence five years before. She had never seen Eliza,but she had heard of Berry, and they knew the same streets, and thesame people, either personally, or by reputation. They became fastfriends immediately,[Pg 96] and talked a great deal together of old times,and of friends they had left behind.
He had been a driver and overseer in his younger years, but at thistime was in possession of a plantation on Bayou Huff Power, two anda half miles from Holmesville, eighteen from Marksville, and twelvefrom Cheneyville. It belonged to Joseph B. Roberts, his wife's uncle,and was leased by Epps. His principal business was raising cotton,and inasmuch as some may read this book who have never seen a cottonfield, a description of the manner of its culture may not be out ofplace.
My great object always was to invent means of getting a lettersecretly into the post-office, directed to some of my friends orfamily at the North. The difficulty of such an achievement cannot becomprehended by one unacquainted with the severe restrictions imposedupon me. In the first place, I was deprived of pen, ink, and paper.In the second place, a slave cannot leave his plantation without apass, nor will a post-master mail a letter for one without writteninstructions from his owner. I was in slavery nine years, and alwayswatchful and on the alert, before I met with the good fortune ofobtaining a sheet of paper. While Epps was in New-Orleans, one winter,disposing of his cotton, the mistress sent me to Holmesville, with anorder for several articles, and among the rest a quantity of foolscap.I appropriated a sheet, concealing it in the cabin, under the board onwhich I slept.
"This is to certify that Henry B. Northup, Esquire, of the countyof Washington, New-York, has produced before me due evidenceof the freedom of Solomon, a mulatto man, aged about forty-twoyears, five feet, seven inches and six lines, woolly hair, andchestnut eyes, who is a native born of the State of New-York. Thatthe said Northup, being about bringing the said Solomon to hisnative place, through the southern routes, the civil authoritiesare requested to let the aforesaid colored man Solomon passunmolested, he demeaning well and properly.
We ascertained that both Burch and Radburn were still residing in thatcity. Immediately a complaint was entered with a police magistrateof Washington, against James H. Burch, for kidnapping and sellingme into slavery. He was arrested upon a warrant issued by JusticeGoddard, and returned before Justice Mansel, and held to bail in thesum of three thousand dollars. When first arrested, Burch was muchexcited, exhibiting the utmost fear and alarm, and before reaching thejustice's office on Louisiana Avenue, and before knowing the precisenature of the complaint, begged the police to permit him to consultBenjamin O. Shekels, a slave trader of seventeen years' standing, andhis former partner. The latter became his bail.
My narrative is at an end. I have no comments to make upon the subjectof Slavery. Those who read this book may form their own opinions ofthe "peculiar institution." What it may be in other States, I do notprofess to know; what it is in the region of Red River, is trulyand faithfully delineated in these pages. This is no fiction, noexaggeration. If I have failed in anything, it has been in presentingto the reader too prominently the bright side of the picture. I doubtnot hundreds have been as unfortunate as myself; that hundreds of freecitizens have been kidnapped and sold into slavery, and are at thismoment wearing out their lives on plantations in Texas and Louisiana.But I forbear. Chastened and subdued in spirit by the sufferings Ihave borne, and thankful to that good Being through whose mercy I havebeen restored to happiness and liberty, I hope henceforward to lead anupright though lowly life, and rest at last in the church yard wheremy father sleeps.
That the said Solomon is about forty-five years of age, and neverresided out of the State of New-York, in which State he was born,until the time he went to Washington city, as before stated. Thatthe said Solomon Northup is a free citizen of the State of New-York,and is now wrongfully held in slavery, in or near Marksville, in theparish of Avoyelles, in the State of Louisiana, one of the UnitedStates of America, on the allegation or pretence that the said Solomonis a slave.
And your memorialist further states that Mintus Northup was thereputed father of said Solomon, and was a negro, and died at FortEdward, on the 22d day of November, 1829; that the mother of saidSolomon was a mulatto, or three quarters white, and died in the countyof Oswego, New-York, some five or six years ago, as your memorialistwas informed and believes, and never was a slave.
Henry B. Northup, of the village of Sandy Hill, in said county, beingduly sworn, says, that he is forty-seven years old, and has alwayslived in said county; that he knew Mintus Northup, named in theannexed memorial, from deponent's earliest recollection until thetime of his death, which occurred at Fort Edward, in said county, in1829; that deponent knew the children of said Mintus, viz, Solomonand Joseph; that they were both born in the county of Washingtonaforesaid, as deponent believes; that deponent was well acquaintedwith said Solomon, who is the same person named in the annexedmemorial of Anne Northup, from his childhood; and that said[Pg 330] Solomonalways resided in said county of Washington and the adjoining countiesuntil about the year 1841; that said Solomon could read and write;that said Solomon and his mother and father were free citizens of theState of New-York; that sometime about the year 1841 this deponentreceived a letter from said Solomon, post-marked New-Orleans, statingthat while on business at Washington city, he had been kidnapped, andhis free papers taken from him, and he was then on board a vessel,in irons, and was claimed as a slave, and that he did not know hisdestination, which the deponent believes to be true, and he urgedthis deponent to assist in procuring his restoration to freedom; thatdeponent has lost or mislaid said letter, and cannot find it; thatdeponent has since endeavored to find where said Solomon was, butcould get no farther trace of him until Sept. last, when this deponentascertained by a letter purporting to have been written by thedirection of said Solomon, that said Solomon was held and claimed asa slave in or near Marksville, in the parish of Avoyelles, Louisiana,and that this deponent verily believes that such information is true,and that said Solomon is now wrongfully held in slavery at Marksvilleaforesaid. 2b1af7f3a8