The African Americans of Britain

Though there certainly are some Africans Americans in Britain, most of Britain’s African diaspora population often come from the Caribbean. Predictably, countries like Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, Saint Lucia and the like are its former colonies and one of them became a republic just recently, though Jamaica’s planning on becoming a republic one day. These were the places where Britain held its slaves there, just like the rest of the Americas. But it seemed over time not only did white people become something of a minority, but also gradually lost power. So eventually black people came to be in positions of power and were already the majority by then.

This isn’t just the case with Jamaica but also the rest of the Anglophone Caribbean, even if they’re far from near-perfect in other regards. Considering that black people often constitutes the majority of the Anglophone Caribbean for most of the part, though I could be wrong about it, inevitably they may’ve retained whatever African traditions they brought over and clung onto that part of the Anglophone Caribbean has African influence in addition to the western and neighbouring Latin American influences. Both the Caribbean and contiguous Latin America celebrate Carnival, not to mention African Caribbeans are seen as rather westernised by Africans.

I kind of recall this YouTube video by a white Jamaican man, yes a Jamaican citizen of white British citizen. With a real Jamaican accent. While Jamaica stands by its motto ‘out of many, one people’, the white population was larger there. Most of them either left or more likely assimilated into the wider black population over time, so unsurprisingly most of the Jamaicans and their scions who make it to Britain tend to be black. It’s also just as unsurprising in a way that a good chunk of African Caribbean DNA contains a degree of European DNA, so there’s a chance that a good chunk of what’s already a white minority have assimilated into the larger Jamaican population.

This is also true for the wider Anglophone Caribbean population really, they might not be visibly mixed race but they do have significant traces of white DNA in them. Admittedly, many (if not most) of these white people were their ancestors’ enslavers, but it does explain some things really. Aside from that, although there is an Anglophone Caribbean diaspora in America, given there’s not much of a large homegrown black population in Britain for years that inevitably African Caribbeans would be the British equivalent to African Americans in most regards. Similar stereotypes, circumstances and problems that British West Indians face on some level.

The only real difference between African Americans and British West Indians is that the latter know where they come from in a way, regarding national origins at that. Of all the Anglophone Caribbean countries, Jamaica’s the one whose culture can be clearly traced back to the Akan Empire, if because both the former Akan Empire (Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire together) and Jamaica share the same folk hero: Anansie, basically Spider-Man before Spider-Man. Even Jamaican and Ghanaian accents sound rather similar, though this could be my opinion being not too exposed to Jamaican accents myself.

Whereas African Americans’ interactions with white people are far more extensive, so it’s going to be hard sounding actually West African for long. Though similar things can be said of British African Caribbeans too, especially when it comes to those who’ve grown up in Britain for long. But at other times, they’re no different. In the sense of being both westernised black people, more westernised than their African counterparts are, which is saying. Both of them are the descendants of Africans forcibly uprooted from their homelands and brought over to the Americas due to slavery, both of them were made to sire children by their European captors.

Both of them contributed to the music stage with things like hip hop, rock, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, disco, house and techno, if African American and reggae, calypso, soca, dub and dancehall, if African Caribbean. Because of the Anglophone Caribbean’s ties to Britain (same with Anglophone Africa), that British Black culture owes more to these two and with the average British Black experience being also an immigrant experience at that. Voluntary black immigration to America happened more recently, given much of historical black immigration that took place was involuntary. That’s not to say involuntary black migration to Britain didn’t happen at all.

But it historically didn’t happen in huge numbers for long, so this wouldn’t rise significantly until towards the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. It took more than two centuries for Britain to develop a sizable black community, most of them having arrived fairly recently. Whatever preexisting black community it had was negligible for a long time, so it’s only now that Britain has a larger black community than it did before. As opposed to America where it hosted a larger black community earlier and longer, even if they often bore the brunt of oppression especially when they were enslaved. Though both countries were involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade, it seemed for Britain slavery often took place offshore.

Mostly in the Caribbean where it happened there but in America, slavery directly occurred on American soil. That’s not to say cultural appropriation is a nonissue for British African Caribbeans, but that African Americans have the displeasure of having to put up with their oppressors for so long that it was bound to happen (per Lipstick Alley, oddly enough). The fact that African Americans aren’t separated from white people for so long and often on American soil, not helped by that they’re outnumbered by them (even if it may not always be the case), means it’s going to be hard escaping one’s oppressors at all. It wouldn’t be any better for British African Caribbeans. But for the latter, there’s a sense of where they came from.

In a way because African Caribbeans know their parents’ and relatives’ homelands, since they have relatives over there they can always go there at any point in life. This is also the same for their African counterparts, whereas with African Americans unless if one of them’s married to either an African or a Caribbean, there’s really no way of knowing where their actual non-American relatives are or were. As to why African Caribbeans are the African Americans of Britain, whilst they’re not necessarily so identical to them, they’re similar enough in the sense of being westernised black people facing oppression at any point in Britain and the like. Though it’s not identical as I said before, it’s generally comparable.

African Caribbeans often tend to have westernised names, clearly inherited from their slaveholders, whereas Africans still have very African surnames like Gyamfi, Boateng and the like (admittedly, those are Ghanaian Akan surnames at that). Maybe not all Ghanaians even but it’s telling that both African Caribbeans and African Americans are westernised, especially in comparison to black Africans in many regards. It’s even fair to say that both African Caribbean and African American cookeries have diverged from their African counterparts, owing more to the available resources in the lands enslaved Africans ended up in.

So this is kind of inevitable since they’re so detached from their African compatriots for such a long time that they ended up creating their own cultures from scratch. They did their best to retain their African traditions as much as possible, but given the nature of geographical logistics, it’s only as much as they could. So they inevitably went their own ways, developing cultures separate from their estranged compatriots.. So we get different African diasporic cultures instead taking place in the Americas, the most influential one being the African American culture. Then comes African Caribbeans to an extent, though this is more strongly felt in the United Kingdom due to colonial ties.

No surprise why African Caribbeans were the ones who brought over things like reggae, calypso and dub to Britain, whereas African Americans originated things like blues, jazz and rock music (oddly enough) in America.

Washing Of The Water

Celestial said many times that America will disappear into the sea forever, even if it were possible to salvage parts of it but most of it will submerge into the waters anyways. For a nation that prides in its founding as a Christian colony and country, it does a lot that’s wrong and never repents in any way. The fact that some like Dumitru Duduman have been saying that America is Mystery Babylon makes you wonder why it’s going to deserve a fate like this, it gets what it deserves and it reaps what it sows. So it’s not worth emulating and following, especially for other Christian majority countries.

I even think this would have horrifying implications for us Filipinos because we like America a lot, but it’s everything we shouldn’t be following and emulating. For every good American, there are many more bad Americans. God can spare some people and institutions, but there’s only so much he can spare. The fact that upheavals, civil wars and any other catastrophe are underway in America suggests that we should really let go of this country, it’s going away for good and there’s no way we can get it back. It might be possible to spare things like wildlife, since I don’t want them to go extinct and being more innocent than humanity is, they could be spared a lot.

But even then America would eventually be denuded of humans, many of them will be enslaved and sent to work elsewhere as what Celestial said. It’s surprising that it’s going to be white Americans who’ll find themselves enslaved by the Slavs, the very people that inspired the word ‘slave’. It’s going to be white Americans who’ll be enslaved and get sent to work in places like Russia, Ukraine or oddly enough countries like Ireland and Britain (America’s would-be parents). It’s white Americans who’ll find themselves trafficked into degrading work, sex work even while many black Africans live (and die) freely.

It’s white Americans who’ll toil away in the fields, factories, private homes and brothels, whereas black Africans and Caribbeans go anywhere at their own volition. A grim role reversal of sorts where white Americans find themselves enslaved and made to work against their will, whereas black Africans are the ones who live normally like everybody else. While white people did get enslaved before, but the enslavement of black Africans happened more recently.

It seems any historical enslavement of white people either occurred in the distant past or somewhere else within Eurasia like Turkey for instance as Roxelana was a white woman, whereas the enslavement of black people happened not only more recently but also on a much larger scale. One that encompasses both Eurasia and the Americas, where Africans find themselves sent to work in what’s now known as modern Jamaica, Brazil, Mexico and of course, the United States. Kind of ironic to think that in the future, white Americans will be enslaved and sent to work in Russia and China, well anywhere else in Eurasia.

But because America is Mystery Babylon that inevitably what it has done to other countries are what they’ll do to it by tomorrow.

Chains

Celestial had a series of prophecies relating to how many Americans will find themselves enslaved by their enemies, particularly as a comeuppance for flaunting their bodies a lot that they will be made to do these things against their will. It’s the dictum of people like Christina Aguilera given logical consequences in that the tendency to flaunt their bodies as to empower themselves sexually is something that one would ever do in spiritual bondage, somebody who’s actually free wouldn’t do those things anymore though they may struggle and stumble from time to time. Celestial said that America was like a bride or wife to the Lord, but over the years it turned out to be a massive cheater.

Being the mother of all abominations, God will get rid of the nation when he sees fit. Some of the things that are truly abominable to the Lord do have their origins in America, words like polyamory originated in America and polyamory is this practise where somebody can be in more than one sexual/romantic relationship despite being married, especially when there’s another romantic partner in the house. People could easily do that without doing polyamory, but that would mean it’s adultery. David learnt his lesson the hard way when he did this, no wonder he had to own up his actions and ask for repentance. In all honesty, I prayed to God to help a writer stop their character from committing adultery.

It’s not always easy being honest to God at times but at least when you talk to him with a sincere heart, he could give you the desires of the heart or something greater than you imagined. Said character would end up married with a husband, having learnt her lesson on cheating before. But for every author who has the audacity to stop their characters from living in sin, even if it’s not the word that usually comes to their minds, there are those that kind of glorify sin (including sexual sin) in that the actions the characters do leave no negative consequences. The characters don’t learn from it, so they don’t grow and mature. It could be almost any book that’s like this.

But if America is Mystery Babylon, mother of all abominations, then it exports a lot of its filth to the world and even to countries that should know better like the Philippines, then it’s on us for following America’s dark path a lot. Even if Saudi Arabia isn’t any better in some regards, it’s not as immensely influential as America is. Which is the bad part about America because as a superpower, this only magnifies its ability to corrupt everything and everybody else. It is utterly and irredeemably corrupt, the way God would see it as it really is. It’s home to almost anything that’s abominable to him, whether if it’s ‘flaunting’ oneself sexually in order to be empowering, erotica books, so on and so forth.

Even if countries like Britain and Canada may have their own whorish celebrities every now and then, but America is far more influential in this day and age with more well-known whorish celebrities. These women think they’re empowering themselves by whoring themselves a lot, not knowing that one day they’ll end up as actual prostitutes who’ll be made to do sex acts that they will never enjoy nor consent to. Which is the gist of her prophecy because many Americans believe in a form of female empowerment that involves being female chauvinist pigs (which is the name of a real book), instead of being godly and holy women for the Lord. Pardon if I’m slut-shaming, but it really has to be said.

It’s not wrong to be into female empowerment, however in theory and practise, but the way Americans do it is the wrong way. This involves feeling the need to sexually express themselves in whatever way is possible, not just dressing sexily but also indulging in sex acts outside of marriage. One day these same Americans will be put into a situation where they’ll do sex acts against their volition, I even imagine this would also be true for men who resort to sexting and the like that they will become gigolos who don’t even enjoy the sex they’re made to do. I guess if God’s not fine with immodesty, especially if done for the sake of sexually attracting somebody, then he’s not fine with sexting.

I don’t think skintight clothing is necessarily bad in and of itself, especially if it’s something some people wear to do things like diving, swimming, sprinting or ice skating and I even think these are the things God would be fine with since they’re not done to seduce people with. Though at times one would still have to draw the line between this and doing it to be sexually attractive, the latter is where God’s not okay with in any way. People like Christina Aguilera and her ilk would not like this advice, if because it points out how whorish they really are even in the name of ’empowerment’. While it’s not wrong to dress skimpily, sometimes it might be condoned in things like sprinting, it’s another to deliberately seduce somebody.

Especially when outside of marriage that at any point, even celebrities who when they do these things they’ll be in a position where they’ll be prostituted to people they don’t even like. If there’s a line between athletic justification and sexual attention, then one would really know what the latter’s like to the Lord.

Go Down Moses

Celestial has a prophecy about many Americans and especially nonblack Americans being taken as slaves to countries like China and Russia, both for indentured labour and sex trafficking because of what they’ve done to African Americans before. This will really happen in the End Times as a comeuppance for America’s many sins, that God gave it opportunities to do good but it ended up squandering it a lot. She said that even rich Americans will be enslaved and imprisoned, but I also think this would happen to celebrities when I consider this.

It would be horrifying if any surviving American celebrity and influencer were to get enslaved and sent abroad to do dirty work, whatever that means, Celestial said that any woman who acts like a prostitute will become actual prostitutes when they do get enslaved by America’s enemies. Also they will be made to do grunt work, where countries like Russia and China will either ship them there or find ways to entice them to do work there. Building buildings like hotels, highways and so on, which sounds like what white Americans did to African Americans before. Again this is the very gist of her message, regarding what America did to them before.

America will become nearly devoid of people, feral and wild animals like will cohabit the ghost towns. She said that the American population will decrease before, both by war, disease and if you believe her this time, slavery. Even children will be enslaved to do work elsewhere, so ends her vision but this will really happen to America in the future.

Row The Boat Ashore

Celestial said that not only will America decline as a nation but also many of its inhabitants will be enslaved, evidently as a comeuppance for what it did to other people before especially when the nation first started. I think if it ever does come to pass at all, it would be frightening to think this would happen again in the historical sense. Especially the part where you have ships sending people to work aboard against their will, but it’s been suspected that slavery never really ended in America at this point and time.

Whether if it’s making people work long hours to make merchandise for its customers whilst paying them poorly and treating them like dirt, sexual trafficking for marriage and porn (including the snuff variety) and forcing people to work on farms. If you have Americans being made to work in places against their will, then this is tit for tat for what they’ve done to other people before. Something they essentially and practically never stopped doing in any way.

Another is that a number of Americans have delighted in flaunting their bodies that eventually they’ll be in a situation where they’ll be stripped against their will, if this is the immodesty that the Bible warns against especially in situations where it’s not really needed then this is why. When it comes to things like football and sprinting, it’s not immodest to wear shorts if it’s what aids you in playing such a sport. But if you wear a sheer dress that shows off every contour of your body, especially in public then it’s not a good sign.

Then we get to things like thirst traps where people flaunt their bodies with the aim of seducing somebody else with, or something like that where they’ll put in a situation where they’ll be made to show their bodies against their volition. This kind of stuff’s prevalent in social media, the very places where you should never be doing as it’s public in a way. Someone else could end up stumbling upon it by chance or mistake, that’s why it’s sometimes known as not safe for work if it gets really explicit.

So you’re going to have things like whether if they’ll even consent to doing things for others like sex, construction and cooking but I think there are other things they’ll end up doing against their will as well. I can imagine countries outside of America finding ways of enticing Americans to work on their shores, only to be badly paid and made to work long, thankless hours in factories where they’ll be manufacturing goods for people who want toys, clothing, gadgets and so on.

Sort of like what Americans have done to Asians, Caribbeans and Africans for some time, I suppose if this comes to pass Americans will reap what they sow especially if it involves forcing others to do the work for them and never paying them well for it. Never letting them take breaks just so they can relax and if they want to worship God or something, things like those have been brought up before when it comes to America making other countries manufacture goods for them. Including China when it comes to toys and clothing, which is now one of its biggest rivals.

Admittedly other countries aren’t any better at this, whether if it’s Sweden, Spain, Britain or China at this point though I do think factory workers need to be paid well and take breaks for things like hanging out with family members, doing hobbies and worshipping God when they need to. The last part should be encouraged, since work ought not to become an idol or something. It’s about time that factory owners and the like should encourage and allow factory workers to worship God, listen to sermons (radio or not) and read devotionals in whatever format.

I’m admittedly getting off-topic here but the thing is that America has set the standard for how people treat factory workers, especially the more it became a superpower and eventually a hyperpower for a score or more. Remember the fires that engulfed and killed garment workers in New York? Even if America is not the first nation to subject people to this grueling work, it kind of standardised it the more it pioneered or refined the technology needed to get more things done on the go and efficiently so but at the expense of taking breaks to do something.

Other countries, including China, are pretty much following America’s bad example. There are reports of Disney using countries like Haiti and China to manufacture toys and other merchandise for them, so if China makes Americans to work on their toys, devices, gadgets and merchandise then this is God’s comeuppance for what America has done to other countries which is the gist of what Celestial’s been saying. Whether or not slavery really ended is up to anybody’s guess, but when it comes to indentured labour and underpaid labour in developing countries whenever they work for bigger powers it kind of comes off this way.

If God can make the first the last and the last the first, it would be a kind of comeuppance for what America has been doing and the example it set to other countries. America isn’t always the first to do any one of these things, but it popularises and refines them to the point where it gets applied to any aspiring power like China for instance. So much so that America still sets bad examples for countries to follow, that American influence will be ultimately undone and Americans will work against their will this time.

Roll, Jordan, Roll

Celestial had a prophecy where Americans and especially white Americans will find themselves enslaved and sent to work elsewhere where they’ll be made to do degrading work, especially in the Far East as a comeuppance for enslaving both African Americans and indigenous people. I also think this is also a comeuppance for America since it had a habit of using Asian countries to do the grunt work for, especially things like manufacturing products like toys and clothing that it will find its own people working in other countries against their will.

A comeuppance for sex trafficking, especially when it comes to mail order brides from East Asia and Eastern Europe, that it will be American women who will be at the receiving end this time. Perhaps it’s a good thing that some Christians will have to leave America for greener pastures, given I don’t want them to end up in the same mess as others. Abraham felt the same thing about the righteous citizens residing in Sodom and Gomorrah that he begged to God to have them be delivered for similar concerns.

Perhaps the Christians who will leave America with their ministries to Canada and Mexico will be the lucky ones, they won’t be enslaved by the Russians and Chinese. They will leave freely as naturalised Canadian and Mexican citizens, continue their ministries there and revivals will happen in those two countries. The Americans who leave America to live in Europe, Africa and Asia to avoid the civil war will also be lucky as well, so lucky that they are practically spared from being enslaved and sent against their volition to work in China.

The Americans who will be enslaved are the most rebellious and sinful, they will reap the whirlwind and cause a storm onto themselves. I feel it would be frightening to think some of the Americans who will be enslaved are going to be celebrities, especially the sexy ones who will find themselves working as prostitutes for Chinese pimps and clients. The fact that they sexualised themselves when turning themselves into idols will be turned against them, when they find themselves doing certain acts they themselves will not enjoy.

These wouldn’t just include influencers and actresses, but also musicians who often sexualise themselves. The fact that they draw so much sexual attention to themselves that they will finally it get it in ways they never expected nor admired, it would be really controversial to think that some of these celebrities will work as prostitutes in China when this happens. It wouldn’t just end here but that many Americans, particularly some American celebrities and millionaires, will find themselves doing a lot of manual labour for Chinese firms and companies.

Let’s not forget that America did this to China and other Asian countries before, that’s to get their clothes manufactured and sold to them. I have a nagging feeling somebody in the Backstreet Boys will be outed for sex trafficking, sending women to appear in snuff videos where they’ll get killed and raped. If God could use anybody in Russia, China and their allies to enslave Americans, this will be their comeuppance for what they’ve done to others. Sex trafficking, manufacturing, the list goes on. This would be one of God’s punishments to America, but it’s neither the first nor the last.

Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, Volume 2 (Google Books)

SOUTHERN SCENES,

SHOOTING WILD HOGS–A NEGRO CABIN ON THE EDISTO RIVER,

WHILE the “peculiar institution ” was yet a feature of Southern life, and the great plantations were still unvexed by rumors of war or edicts of emancipation, the plantation darkeys were much given to hunting, in season and out of season, and the freedmen of to-day are no less ardent votaries of sport. It is true that for lack of proper weapons the slave-huntsmen were unable to attack large game, but they were untiring in their pursuit of “de ‘possum and de coon,” and, aided by packs of mongrel curs, succeeded in bagging great numbers of these “varmints.” Since the war they are no longer restricted from possessing firearms, and to find a Southern darkey without a shooting-iron of some sort is rare indeed. Consequently they are no longer confined to coon and ‘possum hunting, although they have by no means abandoned those sports. In many parts of the South the necessity, during the civil war, of permitting live stock to run at large, resulted in the formation of large herds of wild hogs, who became as savage and unapproachable as the fiercest boars of Europe or India. In some cases it becomes absolutely necessary to thin them out, as these animals are extremely destructive to growing crops, and the negroes are not slow to avail themselves of the opportunity. Armed with guns of every conceivable pattern, a part of their number carrying long poles, and accompanied by a score or two of yelping curs, the negro hunters proceed to beat up the game, shouting, whooping, and laughing, until one might suppose that all the game in the country would be frightened away by the hullabaloo. They soon start the pigs, however, and then ensues a scene of great excitement, noise, and confusion, generally resulting, after the expenditure of a vast amount of powder, and no end of powerful language, in the capture of one or two porkers. Then the game is borne home in triumph to a rude, lowroofed log-cabin, like that seen in our picture, where a grand feast “upon hog and hominy” is quickly organized. Both pictures are from sketches made on the Upper Edisto River, in South Carolina, a region noted in former times for its fine plantations, but now almost deserted by the whites and left to the occupancy of negro squatters, who eke out their scanty store of food-crops by hunting and fishing. Scenes such as these we have depicted are of everyday occurrence, and the traveler whose pleasure or business brings him among these people will find their peculiarities a study at once amusing and interesting.

Not that it’s any better

Whilst I think Asians aren’t necessarily any less racist, they’re less likely to have black/dark skin fetishes on average and if they do show any interest in black people, it’s almost always by surprise in one way or another. Again Asians aren’t necessarily any less racist or exploitive though I think the lack of a dark skin fetish on average would be enough to spare most of them (I say most since from personal experience, Asians aren’t really that into dark skin to begin with) from having certain racial fetishes.

Well I could be half wrong about it and whilst there are Chinese men who do sire bastard children in Africa and some who actually bother to raise families with their African wives/girlfriends, it’s not always that Asian people necessarily fetishise blacks (it’s bound to be way rarer than in Europe and America). Exploitive Asians do exist but from my personal experience, Asians aren’t that likely to fetishise black people a lot. Let alone for long (though I could be projecting).

There’s one Korean woman who dated and married a black man admitted she wasn’t into black people for a long time until she met him. Which’s arguably not always any better but then again Asians don’t fetishise dark skin much to begin with, let alone for long (it could probably be shorter than with white people that’s if/when pale skin*’s generally considered a beauty standard and may inevitably default to it).

It’s not that Asian-black relationships as well Asian interests in blacks are arguably rare though what should be noted’s that Asians in generally don’t fetishise dark skin as much as Europeans do, let alone for long. It could also be that East and Southeast Asia at least don’t have much of a history of enslaving black people as much as the West does so in addition to seeing dark skin as trashy, if they haven’t much of a history of enslaving black people it wouldn’t necessarily spare them of racism.

But given they don’t fetishise dark skin much, it may not be any better other than that it’s way rarer for Asians to have a dark skin fetish, let alone fetishise black people (from personal experience) than for white people. I guess both the slavery thing and obsession with tanning might explain why it’s likelier for white people to fetishise dark skin and especially blacks than it is for Asians. Which’s just as bad but with the added dimension of dehumanised objectification.

And a painfully persistent one at that. It’s not any better for Asians to fetishise blacks but it’s much rarer than with whites due to a lack of history in slavery and little to no preference for dark skin to begin with.

*Albinism’s another where that’s bound to illicit bullying. Like what redheads get in Europe.

The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade, Ancient and Modern: The Forms of … (Google Books)

./Esop, the oldest Greek fabulist, was a native of Phrygia, and a slave, until he was set free by his last owner. He lived about the middle of the sixth century B. C. He inculcated rules of practical morality, drawn from the habits of the inferior creation, and thus spread his fame through Greece and all the neighboring countries. Croesus, king of Lydia, invited JSsop to his court, and kept him always about his person. Indeed, he was never absent, except during his journeys to Greece, Persia and Egypt. Croesus once sent him to Delphi to offer sacrifice to Apollo; while engaged in this embassy, he wrote his fable of the Floating Log, which appeared terrible at a distance, but lost its terrors when approached. The priests of Delphi, applying the fable to themselves, resolved to take vengeance on the author, and plunged him from a precipice. Planudes, who wrote a miserable romance, of which he makes JDsop the hero, describes him as excessively deformed and disagreeable in his appearance, and given to stuttering; but this account does not agree with what his contemporaries say of him. The stories related of JSsop, even by the ancients, are not entitled to credit. A collection of fables made by Planudes, which are still extant under the name of the Grecian fabulist, are ascribed to him with little foundation; their origin is lost in the darkness of antiquity. A very significant and pleasant custom prevailed when a slave newly purchased was first brought into the house. They placed him before the hearth, where his future master, mistress and fellows ervants poured baskets of ripe fruit, dates, figs, filberts, walnuts, &c., upon his head, to intimate that he was come into the abode of plenty. The occasion was converted by his fellow slaves into a holiday and feast; for custom appropriated to them whatever was cast upon the new comer. Their food was commonly, as might be expected, inferior to that of their masters. Thus the dates grown in Greece, which ripened but imperfectly, were appropriated to their use; and for their drink they had a thin wine, made of the husks of grapes, laid, after they had been pressed, to soak in water, and then squeezed again. A drink precisely similar is now made in the wine districts of France. They generally ate barley bread; the citizens themselves frequently did the same. To give a relish to their plain meal of bread, plain broth and salted fish, they were indulged with pickles. In the early ages of the commonwealth, they imitated the frugal manner of their lords, so that no slave, who valued his reputation, would be seen to enter a tavern; but in latei times they naturally shared largely in the general depravity of morals, and placed their greatest good in eating and drinking. Their whole creed, on this point, has been summed up in a few words by the poet Socian. “Wherefore,” exclaims a slave, “dole forth these absurdities; these ravings of sophists, prating up and down the Lyceum, the Academy, and the gates of the Odeion? In all these there is nothing of value. Let us drink—let us drink deeply Let us rejoice, whilst it is yet permitted us to delight our souls. Enjoy thyself, O Manes! Nothing is sweeter than eating and drinking. Virtues, embassies, generalships, are vain pomps, resembling the plaudits of a dream. Heaven at the fated hour will deliver thee to the cold grasp of death, and thou wilt bear with thee nothing but what thou hast drunk and eaten! All else is dust, like Pericles, Codros and Cimon.” The employment of household slaves necessarily varied according to the rank and condition of their lords. In the dwellings of the wealthy and luxurious, they were accustomed to fan their masters and mistresses, and drive away the flies with branches of myrtle. Among the Roman ladies, it was customary to retain a female slave, for the sole purpose of looking after the Melitensian lap-dogs of their mistresses, in which they were less ambitious than that dame in Lucian, who kept a philosopher for this purpose. Female cup-bearers and ladies’ maids were likewise slaves; the latter were initiated in all the arts of the toilet.

There seems to have been a set of men who earned their subsistence by initiating slaves in household labors. In the bakers’ business, Anaxarchos, a philosopher, introduced an improvement, by which modern times may profit,— to preserve his bread pure from the touch, and even from the breath of the slaves who made it, he caused them to knead the dough with gloves on their hands, and to wear a respirator of some gauze-like substance over their mouths. Other individuals, who grudged their domestics a taste of their delicacies, obliged them to wear a broad collar like a wheel around their necks, which prevented them from bringing their hands to their months. This odious practice, however, could not have been general. Besides working at the mill and fetching water, both somewhat laborious employments, we find that female slaves were sometimes engaged in wood cutting upon the mountains. Towards the decline of the commonwealth, it became a mark of wealth and consequence to be served by black domestics; as was also the fashion among the Romans and the Egyptian Greeks. Cleopatra had negro boys for torch-bearers; and the Athenian ladies, as a foil, perhaps, liked to be attended by black waiting maids.

The Slave Trade Gothic

I suspect it’s parsimonious to think that both Bristol and the American South seem to incubate music and literature that incorporate darkness. Mostly owing to a shady history of slaveholding and slave trade. So much so it does heavily inform musicians and writers to varying degrees. Maybe not always nor exactly nor consistently the case.

But it does make sense that when it comes to shady pasts, it’s going to show up in some way or another. Something like Anne Rice having characters who were plantation owners. Whilst not always overt, it does explain an undercurrent of darkness in franchises and works like The Vampire Chronicles and Vampire: The Masquerade on one hand.

And Bristol rappers rapping about dark topics on the other hand.