Book Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dated: 16 September 2023
Book Title: Aray’s Reprint of Negro Slavery By Zachary Macaulay
Author: Karl “Aray” Miller
Contact: aray2ltd@gmail.com
Available from: Amazon (.com, .co.uk etc)
Price: Paperback £13 (USA $16.24)
ISBN: 9798861102872
Aray’s Reprint of
Negro Slavery
By
Zachary Macaulay
Edited by
Karl “Aray” Miller
Published by
Aray2 Limited
Available from Amazon (.com, .co.uk etc). ISBN: 9798861102872
In 2024 it will be 200 years the publication of one of the seminal works of the campaign for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, “Negro Slavery” by Zachary Macaulay. It is reprinted herein to make it more accessible. In an impassioned introduction Karl Miller’s aims include: Reminding or informing the reader of the conditions of negro slaves; comparing how far the negro peoples have come since slavery; To inspire young blacks to excel; To promote peace and tolerance worldwide; To encourage meritocracy; To inspire academics to perform analysis and write a similar report of the conditions of the peoples in Sub-Saharan Africa in the present day; To provide hope for Black people.
Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Aims of this publication
1.2. The 6 September 2023 letter Karl wrote “Avoiding War in Niger” sent to the UN Security Council and African Union.
1.3. About 100 quotes from Marcus Garvey along with several references to books that document his life.
1.4. A reading list of over 70 books the author had read or has on his bookshelf or is aware of.
1.5. Some notes from the Wikipedia entry on Zachary Macaulay
1.6. Zachary Macaulay Bibliography
1.7. A quote from (Diana McCaulay’s book) Huracan, illustrating Zachary Macaulay experiences in Jamaica
1.8. A Review of Negro Slavery
2. A retyped version of the 1824 fourth edition of Negro Slavery by Zachary Macaulay.
The book includes:
A Disclaimer
“Mi throw mi corn, Mi noh call no fowl,
who the cap fits , let them wear it.”
Bob Marley and The Wailers, A Jamaican proverb.
A Warning
The past is history. Do NOT read this if you are of a weak, vengeful, or emotional disposition or suffering from Mental behavioural disorders defined by ICD10 F00-F99. Side effects of reading this could include anger, rage, hate, guilt, depression, cynicism, retribution, embitterment, soul destroying, corruption of morals.
A Pledge
We pledge to distribute 50% of any profits earned from this book to Charities and Organisations working for an improvement in the lives and conditions of the African Peoples (where ever they are), and to reduce or end Modern Slavery.
About the Author
Karl Miller is a quirky left wing radical. He spent many years in the peace movement, being a member of groups such as Friends of the Dream, The Arms Reduction Coalition, Action For UN Renewal and United Nations Association. His passion is the help to impact improvements in the lives of the African Peoples (wherever they are).
He came with his brother to England in the 1960’s to join his mother. He attended one year in primary school where he was (like many children from the Caribbean) placed in the class for the Educationally Sub-Normal. … He studied … Computer Systems at Essex University. He is proud that his 3rd year project was to design, solder and wire wrap, build and get working a computer using the first ever micro-processor (the Intel 4004). He read and attended classes on Caribbean Literature at university.
(In August 2023 his daughter informed him he was part of the Windrush Generation, despite his protestations that he came to the UK on a BOAC aeroplane).
He was radicalised at University by the events such as the Miners Strike, the Portuguese colonies struggles for independence, Reggae music, being lectured by Bob Marley and the Wailers, articles such as “The Wild Side of Paradise” (by Michel Thomas, in Rolling Stone, July 19, 1973), films such as The Harder They Come, and books such as “The Children of Sisyphus” by H. Orlando Patterson. He was imprisoned (as part of the operation that imprisoned the Stockwell Six).
Below are some quotes from the Aims of this publication in the Introduction.
My niece travelled the world after graduating from university. One day she asked me something akin to “Why are Black people always in the bottom strata of societies in the African Diaspora, especially in the Americas and the Caribbean”. She described the poverty and deprivation she experienced amongst black peoples in several countries she had visited. Although post slavery effects are partly to blame, some of the current factors such as instutionalised racism, inequality, skin colour prejudice, need to be and are possible to overcome.
To give Black people courage. I postulate that many professional black people (especially those who achieve high office) are at some times cajoled into denying their heritage or denigrating their race. When visiting New York many moons ago, I attended a march and demonstration to protest at the killing of two young black boys who took a short cut walk through an Italian neighbourhood. Instead of joining one of the two streams of demonstrators coming into Brooklyn I decided to wait for them where they merged. The Police and authorities had banned the marches and were determined to ensure that they did not merge. While looking at the massed police officers, with their shields and guns, I noticed an elderly Black Man in high ranking uniform. I Shouted “Chief, How many Niggers are you going to kill today!”. I proceeded to cuss them. I think in my ranting I made the point that they could make the demonstrations merge peacefully or have a field day killing Niggers often repeating “Chief, How many Niggers are you going to kill today!”. Despite having guns pointed at me, I only became scared when I noticed a TV camera pointing right into my face. I bolted and ran. I am pleased to say the police did not stop the marches, which went peacefully through Brooklyn city centre.
With examples such as the abolition of Slavery, the Second World War fight against the Nazi racial purity doctrines, and election of President Obama, I have hope that there are enough good people in the world to achieve a better future for all poor people. Respect goes out to my Lecturer at university who despite being a ginger haired white Canadian was on the Selma to Montgomery with Martin Luther King Junior in 1965.
Since the election of “Republican Shame - Trump” and advocating his policies, My past hopes of a positive future for poor and African peoples have greatly diminished. My disillusionment is comforted by the great social and other progresses humanity had achieved amidst such dominant ideas. History is replete of examples where sufficient good people peacefully act to overcome nefarious systems. I’m thinking of the ending of slavery, the granting of civil rights, the increase in living standards for the vast majority of people (especially between 1945 and the 1970s), the global increase in life expectancy and (the greatest revolution during my lifetime) the empowerment of women. I have been alarmed by the worldwide rise in overt Racism, cynical policies such as “the tail wagging the dog” and trickle down economics (which over 80% of Economists agree does not work) and other policies to the detriment of the poor (and the environment). I have reduced the amount of USA TV shows and films I watch because I have come to the conclusion that a large percentage of them are about 1001 ways to kill or justify killing people. With the amount of TV I watch I must have seen more people killed than all my ancestors summed together saw. I am embarrassed and angry at how in my youth I used to support the Cowboys who were party to genocide committed against the Native American Indians.
Don’t get me wrong I respect and admire many of the great writers, actors, technicians and makers of the media in the USA. I am however anxious that I will be programmed to become a supporter of “Republican Shame - Trump” philosophies. I am dispirited by their culture of fear and violence that is exported globally, particularly in the supplying of arms to other countries (e.g. illicit weapons to gangs in the Caribbean and Latin America). Yet most of the American people I have met are decent human beings. I cannot tell if some of the ideas coming out of America are right wing propaganda (masquerading as a black thing) or CIA malfeasance.
Like slaves of haughty kings, who heedless of their own liberty, seek to overthrow the liberty of others. The plethora of news and videos of killings of innocent black people (especially in Africa the USA) has made me despair. Even some deeply religious people are against improving the lives and conditions of the poor. Some think they are smarter than their God. Some use their religious scriptures to justify hate and violence against those they consider others. They have taken Pascal’s wager, yet still do not live as good a life as those who have taken the Atheist’s wager.
To quote Negro Slavery
“Perhaps it is in its depraving influence on the moral sense of both
slave and master, that slavery is most deplorable. Brutal cruelly, we may hope,
is a rare and transient mischief; but the degradation of soul is universal.(P26)
“All America is now suffering in morals, through the baneful influence of
Negro-slavery, partially tolerated, corrupting justice at the very source.”(P26)
“The existence of slavery in the United States has a most visible effect
upon the national character. It necessarily brutalizes the minds of the southern
and western inhabitants” (P22)
The latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery revealed that in 2021 some 50 million people were living in modern slavery.
In the 2010 Erskine Childers Lecture “Inequality and the MDGs”, Sir Richard Jolly says of redistributive growth “many confuse it with “taking from the rich and giving to the poor … under redistributive growth the better off and the poor gain. The key point is that incomes of the poor increase at a faster rate than those of the better off”.
To inspire academics to perform analysis and write a similar report of the conditions of the peoples in Sub-Saharan Africa in the present day. I wonder if the powerful elites that run the world will allow Africa to develop, like countries such as Saudi Arabia, South Korea and China, or at all. Whilst recognising the poverty of many people in the African Diaspora, I believe the sustainable development and improvement in the lives of the African Peoples (wherever they are) should be a top priority today.
My perception is that the resources of Africa are being plundered and the people are not benefiting from them. The conflicts, violence, sufferings and untimely deaths of Africans fills me with sadness. It grieves me to see the common news stories of the deaths of those desperate Africans who try to escape from Africa. The contempt that the wealthy elites have for the poor populace is abhorrent.
I remember the high hopes and positivity I felt when on the eve of the Millennium in 1999 a white African Correspondent on the BBC world service said one of his main hopes for the 21st century is that an African life will (matter) be reported and mourned as much as European lives.
Some twenty years ago, while in my fifties, I was appalled to learn that the average life expectancy of people in Sierra Leone was 48 years old. …. So over 40 of the countries with the least (worst) average life expectancy are in Africa.
During the anti apartheid struggle I wrote “As a black
man living in the UK, I wish to express my feelings about South Africa.
There is no hope or future for Black people in Britain, or anywhere in the
world, while the slavery of apartheid prospers in South Africa. How can Blacks
expect fairness or equality anywhere when apartheid is shown to be profitable
and supported by the USA and UK governments? South Africa is a reminder of the
past slavery and a constant warning to say that is how Blacks can be
ill-treated. Black is a natural fact. South Africa is a racist pact. I dislike
racist name calling; but just thinking of South Africa makes my blood boil with
anger.”
As an aside, one of my most cherished memories of my mother is of us meeting up
(independently, without any prior planning) in Trafalgar Square outside the
South African Embassy celebrating and dancing at the news of the release of
Nelson Mandela.
it seems that Zimbabwe is been punished and made an example of, for taking back their lands, like Haiti for their revolution in 1804.
I was glad I was not a party the document because my summary impression was that all they were saying seemed to be ‘Give us money. We want more money”. It contained few of the issues discussed in the forum or in the Forum declaration. Come on guys, there are more important things than money. Sometime ago I came up with a thought. If life on earth was all about money and having wealth (as some would have us believe) then the lives of over 90% of the people who have ever lived would have been in vain. OK, In my old age, I have come to regret following this dictum and not had more financial prudence so I would not have ended up as presently, almost “Bruk like a church mouse”
I think Reparations for Slavery is a moral categorical imperative. … It should be used for the betterment and sustainable development of the poor (especially youth and women) of slave descendents.
To challenge you to work towards and support the ending the pernicious modern financial slavery that exist in the ex French colonies in Africa within nine years….In recent years I had become familiar with the fact that the “independent” countries of Francophone Africa have to deposit their foreign reserves in France and borrow some of it back at exorbitant interest rates. … If there be any truth in this regard I ask “France where is your morality, honesty, humanity and integrity “ (Let me Google translate “La France où est ta moralité, ton honnêteté, ton humanité et ton intégrité”).
… Now I see the military coups in those countries as the slave owners changing their overseers. Indeed many operate as Autocracy, acting as the overseers described in Negro Slavery, doing what they want, when they want, stealing, ignoring laws and orders. … As my Cousin Baba says “Money Talks, all else walks”. …
So the poor in those countries not only suffer and die by being robbed, but also because some of the kind souls that would come to their aid have been deterred by the sickening flouting of wealth by the thieves.
I hope that despite the harrowing contents of this book you find hope, courage and inspiration to increase your Positive Future Footprint.
Negro Slavery is a reasoned impassioned appeal to influential West Indians, Parliament and the public for the Abolition of Slavery.
The book is in two parts.
1. “The Negro Slavery of the United States illustrated by a review of the Travels of Hall and Fearon”
2. “The Negro Slavery of the West Indies, especially in Jamaica“.
His declare aims in part one are:
“Our main purpose, in the present review, has been, by exhibiting a series of facts, to fix the value of certain general principles which apply to the state of Negro slavery in all parts of the civilized world, and to demonstrate that, in its leading characteristics, and more prominent tendencies and effects, it is, when uncontrolled by some external influence which shall make the emancipation of the slave the ultimate end of its regulations, the same revolting institution, whether administered by Spaniards or Portuguese, Frenchmen or Dutchmen, Englishmen or Americans.” (P30)
He summarizes the Second part thus:
Pages 80 to 89 details “some particulars, of vital importance to the well-being of the Negro race, in which there is manifestly no real improvement.” (P80) These include:
1. The Negroes in Jamaica are still driven at their work by the impulse of the cart-whip, as cattle or horses are driven in this country.
2. They are still liable to severe punishments, inflicted in the most revolting and disgusting manner, at the mere will, uncontrolled by law, of the master, or of the overseer who acts for him.
3. In Jamaica and the other islands the evidence of slaves is still wholly inadmissible, not merely-in cases implicating their owner, but in all cases whatsoever, whether civil or criminal, affecting persons of free condition.
4. The slaves in Jamaica and other colonies are still regarded by the law, and treated, in point of fact, not as human beings, but as chattels; and, as such, are liable to be seized and sold for the delis of their master, with as little ceremony as a horse or a cart, or a piece of furniture, would be seized and sold in execution in this country.
5. It is a further proof of the hitherto unmitigated degradation of the African race in Jamaica and our other colonies, that, as we have already shown, a black skin, or even the visible tinge of African blood in the countenance, furnishes a legal presumption of slavery, and exposes the unhappy individual, who cannot repel that presumption by legal evidence, to all the pains and penalties of a cruel and interminable bondage.
6. Besides this, nothing has been done during the last thirty years to promote the gradual manumission of the slave-population, or to remove the obstructions which impeded it; but, on the contrary, those obstructions have in some instances been materially increased†.—While in the colonies of Spain and Portugal, and particularly of the former, the manumission of slaves has been liberally encouraged; in our own colonies, it has every where met with discouragement, and in some of them the infatuated policy of the local authorities has even imposed heavy fines on manumissions. The happy effects of the more liberal policy of Spain are visible even in Cuba, notwithstanding the immense importations of new Negroes which have taken place of late years into that island. But in all the other colonies of Spain, where these importations had ceased, it has issued at length in the almost entire extinction of Negra slavery, and that without any conversion, way, without loss to the master or injury to the slave *.
7. But let us further look at the moral condition of our slave-colonies, and we shall be better able to judge of the real progress of improvement as contrasted with the boasts to which we have alluded, The marriage of slaves has not yet been legalized in Jamaica or in: any one of our slave colonies, The most unrestrained licentiousness prevails, almost universally, on estates, among all classes, whether White or Black, The face of society presents, with few exceptions, one unvarying scene of open concubinage and prostitution, The Christian Sabbath, instead of being a day of rest’ and religious observance, continues to be the universally authorized market-day, and in almost all the colonies, and especially in: Jamaica, a day of compulsory labour for the slaves;—we say compulsory labour
He ends with hopeful appeals and pleas to Parliament, supporters and the public.
“We shall abstain from any further observations on the present occasion, although the subject is very far indeed from being exhausted. But we are anxious, before we conclude, to take this opportunity of calling upon influential West Indians in this country, and especially upon such of them as sit in either House of Parliament, to consider dispassionately the facts we have brought before them, and to ask themselves whether they have done their duty in permitting a state of things, so repugnant to every principle of humanity and justice, to continue so long unredressed”. (p90)
We would also remind those distinguished friends of justice and humanity in both Houses of Parliament, (our Gloucesters, Grenvilles, Greys, Lansdownes, and Harrowbys; our Wilberforces, Smiths, Cannings, Broughams, and Mackintoshes,) who have toiled so ardently in the cause of the wretched African, that a great duty devolves upon them ; and that to them will the public, when their eyes are fully opened to the enormity of the system which prevails in our slave colonies, naturally look for the zealous and consistent prosecution of the principles which animated them in their struggles to suppress the Slave-trade.
But let the public also do their duty. Let them strengthen the hands of their leaders by a general, distinct, and concurrent appeal to the Legislature on this momentous subject. If, through their supineness in making their wishes known, the dreadful evils of colonial bondage “should be indefinitely prolonged, will not the guilt become theirs? They cannot plead ignorance of the existence of these evils. Proof has been produced, sufficient to satisfy every reasonable man, that at least a parliamentary investigation is indispensable . (p91)
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