By Jermaine Broadnax
Black August is a month of education, resistance and is of great significance for the Black peoples of the Diaspora. August has all always been a month of divine meaning, of repression and radical resistance, of injustice and divine justice; of repression and righteous rebellion; of individual and collective efforts to free blacks and break the chains that bind us”. Black August is a time to engage in self-action to advance our struggle for self-determination and national liberation.
The first English attack on Africans happen (August 20) 1619. When 20 Africans arrived in Hampton, Virginia. These Africans were forced onto a Portuguese slave ship in Angola, Africa. They were Kimbundu-speaking people. While aboard the São João Bautista slave ship headed for Mexico. They were stolen by the British White Lion and another British ship, the Treasurer. They were sold to pilgrim terrorist in Virginia, & were dispersed throughout the colony, partaking in indentured servitude.
Over the next 120 years, the month of august was used to either plan for slave revolts or to stage them. Fast forward to August 1739, this is the month a slave name Jemmy would plan for a revolt that would happen on September 9, 1739, Jemmy gathered 22 enslaved Africans near the Stono River, that would result in the stono rebellion.
52 years after the August planning of the stono rebellion. A Jamaican Muslim named Dutty Boukman waged a revolt with slaves in Haiti, On the night of August 14, 1791, in a the forest of Bois-Caiman. During this voodoo ceremony, A Jamaican Muslim named Dutty Boukman waged a revolt of the slaves with a speech in Creole. He denounced the God of the whites, who asked for crime, whereas the God of the Slaves wanted only good. “But this God who is so good, orders you to seek revenge,” he pounded. “He will direct our arms, he will assist us. Throw away the image of the God of the whites who is thirsty for our tears and listen to freedom which talks to our hearts.”
On August 21 1791, two hundred sugar estates and eighteen hundred coffee plantations were destroyed by the slaves, who cut the throats of a thousand slaveholders.
On August 18, 1823. Jack Gladstone, an African slave, led the Demerara Slave rebellion of 1823, one of the few slave revolts that overthrew the British government. They seized all firearms on the plantation, locked up the whites during the night, so that they could present them to the governor of the colony, with the demand for the colonial government to issue new laws regarding the treatment of the enslaved. Whites were killed during the Demerara rebellion. The former slaves would lock up owners, managers, and overseers on thirty-seven plantations. Large numbers of Christian slaves refused to rebel and helped suppress those who rose up. The rebellion ended on August 19. Hundreds of blacks were hunted down like prey and killed, including two hundred who were beheaded as a warning to other enslaved people. The Governor had Jack Gladstone deported to St. Lucia. His father, Quamina, who had argued against the revolt, was tracked down by dogs and Taino’s and killed in September 1823.
20 years later, On August 22, 1843, Henry Highland Garnet, who was a militant abolitionist and early proponent of Black Nationalism, made his monumental “Call to Rebellion” speech at the National Negro Convention. His speech called upon enslaved people of African descent to violently overthrow the system of enslavement by advocating, “Brethren, arise, arise! Strike for your lives and liberties. Now is the day and the hour. Let every slave throughout the land do this and the days of slavery are numbered.”
20 years later, On August 1863, African American soldiers within the Union Army had proven themselves in battles such as Port Hudson, Milliken’s Bend and Fort Wagner. On August 9, 1863, Frederick Douglass met with President Abraham Lincoln to discuss his concerns in regard to the fair treatment and equal pay of African American soldiers within the Union Army. On the same day as Frederick Douglass’ visit to the White House, President Lincoln wrote to Union General Ulysses S. Grant to express his favor in using black troops in the war. It took the month of August for Lincoln to realize he needs a black revolution otherwise the north will lose to the south.
Black August has roots in the “Black Liberation Movement” in the late 1960s, led by George Jackson, W. L. Nolen, James Carr, Hugo Pinell, Kumasi, Howard Tole, Warren Wells. They created a movement behind the California prison cells.
Tupac Shakur was shot Sept 6, but he was waging a musical revolution against his opponents and the terrorist of America. Everything tupac was doing in August 1996 has to be studied. Like him firing the his lawyer (deathrow records CEO) him trading in his deathrow chain for his Euphanasia chain, which is a remake of the same chain the original Tupac Amaru from Peru, was wearing when he was staging his revolution against the spanish conquistadors.
Aaliyah, Dr Sebi, and Dick Gregory passed during Black August. A spiritual month. Most recently Chadwick Boseman, who brought to life the Black Panther, passed away during the month of black August.
