The Robbery of the Black Body and Its Legacy

Key Insight

The destruction of the black body is a profound and enduring American heritage, far from being an 'antiseptic borrowing of labor.' Enslavement was characterized by 'casual wrath and random manglings,' including 'gashing of heads and brains blown out over the river,' and 'rape so regular as to be industrial.' The author asserts that the 'spirit and soul are the body and brain,' which are destructible and therefore precious, and did not escape this physical torment; instead, they were the 'body that fed the tobacco' and the 'blood that watered the cotton,' forming the nation's 'first fruits.'

Historically, black bodies represented immense wealth, valued at 4000000000 dollars at the Civil War's onset, surpassing the combined worth of 'all of American industry, all of American railroads, workshops, and factories.' The primary product of these stolen bodies, cotton, was America’s main export. Black bodies were held in bondage by early presidents, traded from the White House by James K. Polk, and literally built the Capitol and the National Mall. The Civil War's true motive, as declared by Mississippi upon leaving the Union, was slavery, identified as 'the greatest material interest of the world,' fundamentally rooted in the right to 'beat, rape, rob, and pillage the black body.'

This legacy of plunder continues into the present through police violence and mass incarceration. The deaths of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Mike Brown, Jordan Davis, and Kajieme Powell illustrate the continuous destruction of black bodies, often justified by victim-blaming narratives of 'error.' The sprawling prison system has transformed the 'warehousing of black bodies' into a lucrative 'jobs program' and 'investment' for 'Dreamers,' with 8 percent of the world's prisoners being black men. Black life is cheap, but in America, black bodies remain a 'natural resource of incomparable value,' continually 'refinancing the Dream of being white.'