Volume I, Chapter 5: A Word for Freedom Colonies
An Op-Ed by Taylor Kabeary and Eduardo Ruas as Preservation Side B
A Word For Freedom Colonies
Side B is a project rooted in telling stories, honoring places, and re-centering narratives of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. B-Sides of tapes and records have their own histories, stories, motivations, and successes. Preservation Side-B aims to show the decolonized aspects of history, or the B-Sides.
We wish to speak a word for freedom, for the concept inextricable from the history of humankind, from its spatial, physical, and phenomenal expressions, to regard this concept as a critical part of American history. We wish to make an extreme statement; if so, we make an emphatic one, for there are enough champions of freedom: BIPOC people are the ones that keep America on the track of liberty.[1]
We borrow Thoreau’s rhetoric for this essay. Thoreau’s lecture "Walking" is an intangible exploration of the relationships between human and nature. We, on the other hand, wish to explore the relations between the US American people and freedom.
The United States of America has “freedom" as one of the pillars of its society. From the Revolution through today, US history has been marked by events to defend “American freedom.” Freedom is a central concept in the Constitution, in the Bill of Rights, and several Amendments. The United States’ National Anthem says that the country is “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” No idea is more fundamental to the US American people’s identity, both individually and as a nation.
However, disagreements, debates, and struggles surround the history of freedom. Because freedom is not a fixed concept, instead, it is changeable. It has been used for those in power to shape US American history, a history of dichotomies, where freedom is defined by its limits.
The “Land of the Free” was secured by cutting off Indigenous Nations’ sovereignty. Economic freedom for some was then ensured by the enslaved labor of black people. While women were subordinated to the will of men, political freedom was claimed to have been achieved by white man. Freedom was weaponized and became a tool for oppression and racism. Today’s freedom concepts are not the ones from 1787; it is safe to say that this necessary change was brought to us by Black communities, Indigenous Nations, people of color, immigrants, women, and trans and queer people. Freedom for marginalized groups means equality and empowerment of the group. Angela Davis wrote, “Freedom is a constant struggle,” because if we are not free as a group, none of us are. On the other hand, white Americans believe that freedom is a possession, like a diamond being threatened by thieves. For white America, freedom is individual; it is a commodity in a capitalist society.[2]
Often on the outskirts of white towns, Black folks created their own settlements after gaining freedom from slavery. These settlements, known as Freedom Colonies, gave Black people a chance to build their own communities in a world that would otherwise reject, neglect, or oppress them. They created their own economic opportunities, taught literacy, farmed, and made clothes. Freedom Colonies were not just places to survive, but places for communities to thrive.
Given our perception of freedom and how that differs from the historic white perception of it, Freedom Colonies mean so much more. They are spaces that are collective, equal, carved out for groups of people by themselves, and not at the expense of others. However, Freedom Colonies were also thought to be a danger to white United States. Without Black inequality, the freedom of white people was threatened since the frame of reference was lost. If no one I am not oppressing, am I free? If everyone is free, is freedom real? For marginalized communities, the true meaning of freedom flows throughout the self-sufficiency and progress of our people. For white people, freedom is a power structure, and separate but equal is never the case, as seen in the destruction and terrorization of Freedom Colonies. Freedom Colonies were a threat to inequality and white power, which made them all the more critical for Black people's empowerment and equality.
Weeksville, in Brooklyn, New York, settled in 1838 in current day Brownsville, was a safe place for freed Black Americans and those escaping from slavery filled with opportunities and hope. Its residents had their own community papers, stores and shops, agriculture, homes, technology, and they did well for themselves financially. It was a place created from white American ideals of capitalism—making a way for yourself, working hard enough—that thrived without the innate horrors of capitalism. Places like Weeskville in Brooklyn; Shankleville in Texas; and Tulsa, with its Black Wall Street, were just some of many built across the United States after slavery to be the sites of freedom, equality, and success for Black people. The extinction of these communities at the hands of white individuals, governments, and systems leave these places with predominantly Black populations and histories with a legacy of success and destruction.
Freedom Colonies today look like the Black neighborhoods across the United States that create their own way or pockets of resistance. It will be fascinating to see how modern-day Freedom Colonies change or form in a time of increased fascism and white supremacy. In a time of xenophobia, in which children are locked in cages, police brutality is dismissed, and the message Black Lives Matter is denied from governmental, political, and law enforcement forces, how will black Americans respond to this after the defeat of Donald Trump and the triumph of the neoliberal discourse of Joe Biden? The election helped to calm somethings down, but we are far from solving the issue. Are Black people, people of color and immigrants safe and free in the United Stated? How will resistance to racism and intolerance, the fight for true freedom, show up in our spaces? How educational institutions will address the issue of inequalities in the United States inside the classrooms? We believe the path for freedom is to give BIPOC people a voice. Let us speak. Let us lead. Let us change history. Let us change future.
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Works Cited
[1] Henry David. Thoreau, “Walking,” 2020, 1, /z-wcorg/, https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=6142457. [2] Eric Foner, “The Contested History of American Freedom,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 137, no. 1 (2013): 22, https://doi.org/10.5215/pennmaghistbio.137.1.0013.