When deciding to write a book about Don't Dread Dreads The People Speak: How to live life loving locs, I wanted to add a chapter about how the first slaves who arrived in the United States cared for their hair.
After over 3 years of research I have come to the conclusion that there is a big chunk of African American history missing. Sure there are many articles discussing the hairstyles, meaning, and pride of the African person, but, merely a patchwork of assumption about the first slaves who lived and worked in the United states.
Authors Ayanna D. Byrd & Lori L. Tharps has done a fine job in detailing the story of black hair in their book HAIR STORY, Untangling The Roots Of Black Hair In America.
In the book they note that a Dutch explorer said he saw over 16 different hairstyles in the country of Benin; each hairstyle indicating a combination of gender and status within the community. then their heads were shaved after arriving on the shores of America, turning Mandingos, Fulinis, Ibos, and Ashantis people into anonymous chattle. Thus, no written history of black hair care practices for years. When we do come to dicussions about black hair care, the practices were about transforming the wooly hair into straight European style hair.
There is a gap from the first shaving of the African hair to the wearing of head rags and homemade hair care products that came after two centuries of bnondage.
The chapter I intended to write has now become somewhat of an obituary or homage to the first slaves of America. Some where from the slave ships to enslavement the soul of black hair was lost to be rewritten at a later date. And as an author, I will just report what history wrote in those early years; which was nothing about a human listed as property without a name.
Richmond, Virginia (CNN) -- A historical society in Virginia, where slavery began in the American colonies in 1619, has discovered the identities of 3,200 slaves from unpublished private documents, providing new information for today's descendants in a first-of-its-kind online database, society officials say.
Many of the slaves had been forgotten to the world until the Virginia Historical Society received a $100,000 grant to pore over some of its 8 million unpublished manuscripts -- letters, diaries, ledgers, books and farm documents from Virginians dating to the 1600s -- and began discovering the long-lost identities of the slaves, said society president and CEO Paul Levengood.
Documents citing slaves go back to the 1690s: "That's when slavery starts to grow fast in Virginia and other English colonies," Levengood said.
When the United States banned the importation of slaves after 1807, Virginia became the largest provider in the nation's internal slave trade, Levengood said. Slavery was eventually abolished at the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865. That means many American families with slave ancestors could have roots in Virginia, Levengood said.
****Read the complete article:
Long-lost identities of slaves uncovered in old Virginia papers By Michael Martinez and Athena Jones, CNN updated 3:10 PM EST, Mon February 6, 2012
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/05/us/virginia-slaves/index.html
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