Discussions about slavery not irrelevant

“I am quite tired of talking about slavery.”

This is one of many quotations from Mike Jenista’s Sept. 14 letter “Slavery unrelated to current racial tensions,” responding to Dayo Oshilaja’s Sept. 10 article, “Race Matters.” Does Jenista feel the same about European history? Enlightening us Chronicle readers on the global history of slavery, Jenista writes: “America did not invent slavery[;] we weren’t the worst slavers in history.” While “America” should be the “United States” and he should define “we,” I have limited space. We know that slavery predates the Atlantic slave trade. However, the latter involved the transnational enslavement of a people based on their pigmentation, “scientifically and theologically justified.”

Also, when did we start evaluating slavery on a scale of 1 to 10? This is insulting to all human beings and impossible to calculate. Jenista argues that the founding fathers intended to abolish slavery and of course mentions the Civil War. While intentions are well and good, actions have more resonance, i.e. the inclusion of the infamous 3/5 clause. Regarding the Civil War, Jenista should research not-so-current debates about president Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. Slavery had served its purpose, the idea of one race being superior to another still remained.

Speaking of racial hierarchy, Jenista attributes the abolition of slavery “primarily to the white leaders of the formerly dominant British empire.” (1) France abolished slavery before the British. (2) Are the British and others to be commended for using their imperial power, gained in large part from slavery and colonization, to finally contribute to the greater good? What about Haiti? In 1804, Haitians gained independence from France and freedom from slavery through slave revolts. Slave revolts were not just confined to Haiti, facts that Jenista conveniently forgets to mention. Slavery is not “long gone in this country.” Jenista’s letter is one example in support of this.

My great-grandmother—still alive to this day, who heard stories of slavery from the mouths of former slaves—is another.

Danielle Johns,

Trinity ’10