Rodney's Rambling's

Skills of Enslaved Africans  The state of Florida ignited a controversy when it released a   set of 2023 academic standards   that requires students to be taught that enslaved Black people in the U.S. “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” As a  researcher  who specializes in the  history of race and racism in the U.S. , I – like a  growing chorus of critics  – see that education standard as flawed and misleading. Whereas Florida would have students believe that enslaved Black people “benefited” by developing skills during slavery, the reality is that enslaved Africans contributed to the nation’s social, cultural and economic well-being by plying skills that they had already developed prior to captivity. What follows are examples of the skills that the Africans brought with them as they entered the Americas as enslaved. These skills were evident in the first group of enslaved that came into what w...