THE HALF HAS NEVER BEEN TOLD

Most of us whites think of slavery as history with no significant consequences today.  But slavery shaped America in ways most citizens are unconscious of with very definite impacts today.  Edward E Baptist has done a scholarly job of uncovering the real story.

Eight Presidents were slave owners helped by a Constitution that counted slaves as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of electing members to the House of Representatives which in turn gave slave states more leverage in the Electoral College. This is the same electoral college that has enabled Donald Trump to win the recent election, even though he trailed Hillary Clinton by well over 2 million votes.  Southerners forced the capital to move to newly created District of Columbia to be closer to them.

The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 is treated as a clever manoeuver by Thomas Jefferson, but it was more complicated.  In 1793 in the colony of St-Domingue the most successful of all slave revolts started.  Until 1799, under the leadership of Toussaint L'ouverture they fought off British infantry units. By 1800 Napoleon was in control of France and he wanted to restore monarchy.  He sent 50,000 soldiers to St-Dominque, better known as Haiti, but they too were defeated.  He had planned to send another army of 20,000 soldiers to take back New Orleans, but ended up diverting them to Haiti where they too were defeated.  To cut his losses he offered a bargain price for Louisiana.

Further to that, many French landowners, including sugar specialists migrated to New Orleans.  They brought some slaves with them, but wanted more.  Northerners had a delicate balance.  They did not want southern slave states to gain more political leverage, but some were invested in the slave trade.  The Mississippi Valley was now open to slavery.  Louisiana became a (slave) state in 1812.

The industrial Revolution really gained traction in northern England and the first significant product was cotton textiles. After the invention of a cotton gin in 1790 it unclogged a bottleneck in the process. They could sell as much as they could make and so they wanted more raw material.  America was expanding and had lots of land and cheap labour.  America by 1819 controlled the world's export market for cotton.

It is thought that machines are more efficient than manual labour, but in fact for quite a while human labour increased its efficiency faster than machines.  The secret was whips and violent calculated intimidation.  Just before the Civil War records were set for picking cotton and this became critical for economic growth.

Separation of families was seen as an economic decision.  Men were bought for particular needs, usually a wife not needed.  Women without children can work without their distraction.  Brothers and sisters were split as new buyers wanted one or the other, but not  both.  Men were called "boys" and whipped to humiliate them.  Men and women would form relationships and have them broken up and then form new relationships.  Thomas Jefferson once declared that separation from loved ones mattered little to the Africans.

Sex was a lure for many men buying female slaves.   Many women were bought for sex often being stripped at auctions.  Mulattos were one result.

Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans was also an Indian fighter and slave owner.  He pushed Indian tribes (about 50,000 individuals) off lands that allowed expansion of cotton and slave labour.  Texas belonged to Mexico, but American settlers moved in bringing slaves and after celebrated military actions were able to claim a large amount of land, in fact the third largest annexation in American history.  Slave owners saw this as a new opportunity.

Cuba, despite laws supposed to stop slave trade across the Atlantic imported 700,000.  Cuba became the biggest sugar producer in the world.  Southern slave owners were interested in Cuba as a source, but more to expand their leverage politically

Finance developed through the cotton trade.  English manufacturers needed material and farmers needed money to produce cotton.  Slaves were useful as collateral.  Bonds were sold to northern states and Europeans with in effect slaves being securitized.

The northern states developed manufacturing, stepping in with tariff protected cotton (England still did higher end textiles) and that led to supplying the south with such things as shovels, hoes, shoes, axes (using for clearing forests for farming).  They developed symbiotic relations with the southern slave owners and this led to sympathetic political arrangements.  Southerners were concerned about their property rights and demanded the right to have escaped slaves returned to their owners.

There was northern resentment of slavery and political forces to restrict its development.  Demographics changed over time with most European immigrants settling in the north and fearing competition from cheap labour.  The northern states could count the new immigrants as 5/5 of a person and gained control of Congress.  Southern slave owners were fearful of losing control and convinced the poorer whites that they needed to protect state rights, claiming if the north could impose equality of races, the whites would lose their status.  The author is quick to point out that the war was not for state rights, but to maintain slavery. It seems one political party still uses similar tactics to convince large numbers to vote against their economic self interest.

After the Civil War blacks gained some freedom, but it wasn't long before the whites reasserted their dominance.  Blacks had no accumulated wealth and soon had to contend with segregated schools and a range of Jim Crow laws.  In truth the situation was not much better in the north

A consolation and a form of communication for African slaves was music.  Their music was borrowed by whites and now is an integral part of American culture and spread around the globe.

There are many details that prove that slavery was critical to the development of American capitalism and created a culture of distrust, fear and continuing damage.  There is still much room for improvement.

The author, Edward E Baptist had a thought provoking response to a review of the book by the Economist magazine that puts the situation in a relevant context.  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/07/economist-review-my-book-slavery

As a Canadian it is easy to be self-righteous, but we shouldn't be.  As one example it turns out that George Tuckett  a former mayor of my home city, Hamilton made a fortune by cornering the tobacco market in Virginia during the American Civil War.  He had a warehouse in Lynchberg, Virginia and was allowed to go back and forth because he was a Canadian.  I learned that his home originally known as the Tuckett Mansion is in my opinion the most interesting building in town, now known as the Scottish Rite building.  Thanks to Robin McKee.

PONDERING WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MY OLD RECORD COLLECTION

Maybe you are like me, but you would have to be over 50 to really understand.  Technologically I am still trying to catch up with the younger masses.  At the moment I have rediscovered iTunes and already understand there are improved alternatives.  I am once again comfortable with listening to and sorting out my favourite music, but hope not too many more adjustments will be necessary.

As a pre teenager,  there was the hit parade and rock n roll and when money was available I would buy a few popular 45's and even a few that were off the beaten track (always been a bit contrarian).  The next move was to buy albums and soon learned there were two types with hi-fidelity giving way to stereo but you had to have a different type of needle on your record player.  Fortunately my father did, so when he wasn't around I could play my stereo albums.

At one stage a few of us would bus or hitch-hike from Oshawa to Toronto to check out Sam the Record Man as well as A and A Records to get the best selection.  Felt pretty sophisticated with our purchases and learning our way around the big stores.

By university I discovered reel to reel tapes which seemed more mature and did what I could to transfer some of my favourite music to this new format where you could select and mix up different combinations to fit some sort of theme or to set a variety to relieve boredom or create a mood.

In between were 8 track tapes, but somehow this stage was skipped as I was too committed to other modes of listening.  In any case not practical to transfer existing music.  Some of you may have been caught here, like my truck driving father.

The next move was to get into cassettes and that allowed me to transfer old music, but at first I needed to persuade friends to help me out.  Then it became commonplace and you could mix up favourites without difficulty.

Then we shifted to compact disks or CDs and again it was possible to transfer some music, although at first they made it difficult.  I had two cars that had both cassette players and CD, but newer cars only CD players.  Both formats were more compact than records and more portable than the almost forgotten reel to reel tape player.

Some millennials  apparently feel that the old fashioned phonographs with the right speakers had a better quality sound.  My ear probably would not fully appreciate the difference.  I actually have a cheap record player and occasionally use it for some really old records, (some of which were inherited) but not too often.

Nostalgia is very natural.  We all have fond memories of music associated with our youth that make us smile and maybe want to dance.  On some occasions the old music induces feelings similar to when looking at old photos--did I really look that immature?  At the same time I keep discovering new music.

Now my second crack at iTunes.  I am gradually appreciating some of the finer points.  My new Mac Air does not have a disc drive, but with a little effort I learned about optical drivers and have been able to transfer many of my CD bits of music.  My budget doesn't allow great expenditures with iTunes so I am wrestling with buying albums that sometimes are a cheaper way of getting a bunch of old favourites cost effectively or finding lost gems to buy individually.  I love the shuffle system and breaking down to genres, artists, ratings etc  This time although I have lost even the memory of some music that I once loved dearly I am also finding too much of a good thing gathered over a lifetime can be tiring.

There is a new therapy that is based on the idea that people can stir up old memories and become more mentally functional by listening to music that had once been important to them.  One of my fears is forgetting the good things (not so worried about the other stuff).  Music is one of the great pleasures in life, but is unique for everyone.

My tastes would be described as weird by many, but what sounds like screeching cats in mating season can sound like a pleasant  purr to others.  As a youngster I watched a lot of Hollywood and Broadway musicals on tv and became fascinated.  Later through flukey circumstances I came to appreciate opera (see http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2011/06/why-i-love-opera-wayne-gretzky.html and then through another set of incomprehensible events I grew to love Bollywood movies (and music). http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2012/12/bollywood-music-can-grow-on-you.html  What ties those interests together is the theatrical nature of them--they are all part of telling a story--sometimes very happy, other times very sad and still others stir different emotions.

At another time in my life I wanted to understand Italian for a family tree project and thought musical entertainment would make it easier.  Never did master the language, but loved a lot of the music (including pop, traditional and opera).  My sales career took me through Quebec and I developed a love of Quebecois and French music.  A little further down the road I also enjoyed music from the Maritimes such as Natalie McMaster.  Listened to Shania Twain traveling through northern Ontario.  From those experiences I realized music is music and although the words are important it doesn't really matter where it comes from.  I listen to Latin American music and am especially fond of Brazilian.

My father would not be considered very sophisticated, but he played the Hammond organ and listened to big band music which is reflected in my tastes.  I lived through various waves of popular music and some hit me the right way.  Fiddling around on an old radio dial I stumbled on a Rochester (NY) radio station and they were boosting a local boy, Chuck Mangione who had very little national recognition, but I was fascinated, felt like I had discovered something nobody else had.  Some years later he performed with the Hamilton Philharmonic and that really cemented my attraction.  Big band, a sort of jazzy original.

Other stuff I like includes Andean pan pipe music heard at a variety of local festivals and some bagpipe music (heritage identity).  Gregorian chants got my interest after listening to a diverse group of singers on Peter Gzowski who all said they loved them.  My interest in cello (from classical to 2 Cellos), comes from my son taking violin lessons and I came to love the cello music at their concerts

A conversation I once had with an old friend (and current insurance agent) Shawn Hagerman explained that some music is enjoyed most when you are drunk.  Freddy Fender was one we both independently discovered and agreed best enjoyed after a few drinks.  Another might be Stompin Tom Connors or Don Ho.

For a short time in high school I played the bassoon by choice.  I only lasted one year as I broke it and decided to take typing instead.  I can spot a bassoon in lots of orchestra arrangements and like to include the sound in my collection.  Mozart did it best so far.

By no means have I exhausted my musical likes, but what I have listed tends to crowd out the more traditional popular North American mix which is still of interest and get my feet hopping..

With every step there has been a gain in convenience or satisfaction, but there has also been a loss.  It seems natural to want to have a library of music so it can all be handy, but sometimes your library can really get clogged up.  Although I have a lifetime of collecting music some discrimination helps me enjoy it more.  What you choose to leave behind, gives you more time for what is left.

The future could be one of more leisure, and music will play a big role--diverse interests make life better.  How about you?  Have you had to repackage your musical preferences with new technologies?  Have your tastes expanded?

Photos:  Connie Francis, one of my first record purchases--but in truth it was some sort of product tie in--buy the product and get a discounted album--enjoyed it, but no idea where it disappeared
Shankar Ehsaan Loy, my favorites--too bad if you have not heard of them--they combine modern Westernized music with Indian elements
Carlos Antonio Jobim--love the music, but also the lyrics as translated
Freddy Fender who sounds better as you drink more

My Resolutions for 2014

Janus, the god who looked both backward and forward inspires us to do better in the future, reflecting both on what we liked about the past and thinking how we could enjoy life more in the future.  Two key factors are to keep it simple and make it public.

First the measurable goals.

1.  Get the elliptical reading up 2000 km (to 3165) {+1000 for a new reading of  4165} along with doing 50 pushups and 50 situps each day.

2.  Read 70 books (20,000 pages) and watch 250 movies.


3.  For blogging I would like to average over 2 page views per hour ie.  get total views up to 39,600.

For the important goals that are hard to measure

1.  Get more into mindfulness which can also include meditation, yoga, Tai Chi.

2.  More music in my life.  More enjoyment--giving and taking.

3.  Arrange my affairs to make another trip to New Zealand and to help Heather also make a trip.

These are all habits and are mostly to replace habits that haven't been so helpful.  As a guide for myself and anyone else who might be interested I recommend you read "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg and you can read my review at http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2012/06/power-of-habit.html