(parental advisory)
The legend of Columbus was historical skullduggery
Reinforced by papal bullshit called the Doctrine of Discovery
"Convertir a los nativos para que sigan al Redentor?"
Convert those fucking pagans using slavery and war!
Nine out of ten from indigenous nations
Dead from disease or guns or simple starvation
Fifty-five million at the hands of the White man
Looking for land (That was the plan!)
Goddam, we understand how to wipe out a civilization!
Pick it up back in Virginia we’ve been laying down the statutes
Where survival as a negro slave has always been a crapshoot
There we rape the mothers, rape their daughters
Drag our children to the slaughter
It’s frugal, it’s legal - and it makes a lotta dollars
Eenie meanie minie mo
Catch a white tiger with a Negro ho
Hang her by the ankles but you let him go
Eenie meanie minie mo
And if she hollers then you make her pay
Cut her with a razor like a fish filet
Teaches her a lesson she can learn that way
Nine out of ten from indigenous nations
Dead from disease or guns or simple starvation
Fifty-five million at the hands of the White man
Looking for land (We do what we can!)
Goddam, we understand how to wipe out a civilization!
Take 'em to the market in a horse drawn truck
We get 'em buck naked and we line 'em up
Always make a killing on a nice big butt
Charge a pretty penny and you get your cut
The kids pick cotton like a damn machine
If you start 'em out early on a tight routine
But you gotta drive hard so they pick plants clean
Scare 'em with a whip and some gasoline
(Start the auction)
Who'll give me ten? Gimme ten dollars for the
Teenage nigger with a nice strong back
There's ten. C'mon friends, here's the deal
This boy's a steal and that's a fact
How 'bout twelve? (Twelve!) I hear twelve.
If you make it sixteen then I'll throw in the girl
Now hell, you can tell from the hips and the
Shiny white teeth she's a succulent peach and a pearl
(Bidder)
I'll trade you an acre for those two young kids
(Auctioneer)
I'll take that bid but you'll need to breed and they might not last
(Bidder)
Well I wanna make a profit so I guess I'll ask,
Have you got a couple more that you're hidin' out back?
(Auctioneer)
Fine sir, I do,and they're top shelf
I'll let you take ‘em both home and breed 'em yourself
Take a long ride on the middle passage
Bring as many as you can, yeah, that’s the message
Land, wealth at any price
Endorsed by the Pope and Jesus Christ
We need our slaves to work the land
(Take a long ride on the middle passage)
We know that you'll all understand
(Bring as many as you can, yeah, that’s the message)
Our plans to settle far and wide
(Land, wealth at any price)
Are good since God is on our side
(Endorsed by the Pope and Jesus Christ)
We'll spread the hope of all creation
From Western European nations
Subdue the land and vanquish evil
By bringing God to native people
The Back Story
After the American Revolution, cotton production grew rapidly, and demand for enslaved workers on the vast plantations of the Deep South intensified. This, along with the ban on importation of enslaved Africans that took effect in 1808, largely led to the rapid growth of the domestic slave trade. Auctions and the sales of enslaved people could be found near or along the major ports where enslaved Africans landed, including Richmond, Va.; New Orleans; Savannah, Ga.; and Charleston, S.C. But the enslaved were also sold in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey and at New York City’s 18th-century open-air Meal Market on Wall Street. The sales took place all over the growing nation — in taverns, town squares and train stations, on riverbanks and by the side of the road. Before being sold, the enslaved were often kept in pens or private jails, sometimes for days or weeks. Then they were sold directly from the pens or marched to a nearby auction. Thousands of sales took place each year, right in the hearts of American cities and towns, on the steps of courthouses and city halls. As the historian Steven Deyle puts it, slave auctions were “a regular part of everyday life.”1
The Whiteness Factor
From the arrival of the Spanish, the Portuguese and Columbus, through the immigration of the Scots-Irish and the tactics used by groups like Rogers Rangers – endorsed and encouraged by the U.S. government – the primary method for acquiring wealth was violence.
Thirst for wealth and power was relentless as the driving force behind the death and enslavement of millions of Indigenous Peoples and Black Africans. The concept of Whiteness developed as a way to dehumanize the victims and distance the perpetrators from the violence of their actions.
Recommended Reading
- An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (by roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, pub. Beacon Press, 2014)
- “Slave Auction, 1859“, EyeWitness to History