In part 1 of our discussion, we talked about the horrific three-part strategy the Babylonians used to slave, torment, and oppress Yahshar’el, Daniel, and three Hebrew men, ChananYAH, Mish’el, and AzarYAH. If you haven’t read and studied last week’s Food For Thought titled “Does Your Name Matter or Should Someone Rename You? Pt 1“, I highly recommend you take some time to do so. It will provide valuable insight into this week’s topic and help you better understand this lesson’s portion.
Three-Part Strategy Found in Scripture
- Reeducate them in the ways of the Chaldeans as well as writing and speech (Daniel 1:4)
- Change their diets to foods that would defile them (Daniel 1:5)
- Change their names (Daniel 1:6-7)
4. …teach them the writing and the language of the Chaldeans.
5. And the king set to them the portion of a day in its day, from the king’s food, and the wine of his drinking, even to rear them three years, so that at their end they may stand before the king.
6. And there were among them of the sons of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
7. to whomΒ the chief of the eunuchs gave names. ForΒ he called Daniel, Belteshazzar; andΒ ChananYAH, Shadrach; andΒ Mish’el, Meshach; andΒ AzarYAH, Abednego.
Daniel 1:4-7 (HRB)
In this and all Food for Thoughts I recommend you read the Scripture(s) provided and the entire chapter they are from to obtain more insight.
Definition of Oppressive:
- Cruel, harsh, or tyrannical, unreasonably burdensome or severe, overwhelming or depressing to the spirit or senses
Definition of Oppression:
Through the Lens of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
The historical event of the Hebrew captivity recorded in the book of Daniel serves as a crucial reference for understanding the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the perpetual oppression and trials that it brought and continues to bring. The Transatlantic Slave Trade brought many Hebrew and African people to America to become slaves. These enslaved people are now commonly referred to as Blacks, Negros, African Americans, People of Color, and other Negative Bywords in the United States and around the world. The Transatlantic slavers operated similarly to the Hebrew captors as they employed the same three-part strategy but with a more ruthless and savage approach. The horrors inflicted in this dark period in human history cannot be overstated, and it is important for us to remember and learn from them to ensure that such atrocities never happen again.
Reeducated
Reeducation or reprogramming began immediately by eradicating the native languages of the enslaved. Upon being placed on the slave ships, the enslaved were deliberately split from their ethnic language groups and mixed with others who spoke different languages so as not to communicate with each other. Once the mixed groups arrived in America, the slavers sold the blacks to plantation owners. The plantation enslavers continued the language reeducation by forbidding native languages from being spoken and enforcing a cruel English-only law. If caught speaking a native language, severe punishment followed.
Cut off from their native languages, their linguistic heritage was essentially stolen and never returned. Consequently, the legacy of their languages swiftly became a distant memory, profoundly impacting the subsequent generations. By the third and fourth generations, there was nothing to hand down; the languages had been lost. The loss of these languages was a loss of identity, connection, and heritage.
Although learning to speak English was essential, their oppressors forbade them from learning to read and write the language. This oppressive law led to significant struggles with literacy that persist even now. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report in 2019 and 2022, black 4th graders had the lowest reading levels of all groups in America, as depicted in the graph below. Why? Because through continuedΒ systemic oppression, black schools often receive insufficient funding and lack the resources necessary to provide their students with the education they deserve. Simply do a google search on “blacks can’t read” or “black reading levels in Chicago,” and the findings are disheartening, especially being that taxpayers fund a universal public school system in America.Β
They were also taught
- Eurocentric ChristianityΒ as a religion with edited Bibles today known as theΒ Slave Bible. A whited-out version of the religion filled with lies of a white Creator, white Jesus, white historical biblical people, and White angels. The whiting out process continues today with little to no thought about the actual truth.
- Mistrust and hatred of one another, as well as self-hatred. The Willie Lynch letter was never confirmed; still, it speaks to the character and philosophies of the times and the detriment of the enslaved black person.
- Black men could not protect their families, and Black women were sex objects. This was accomplished in many ways; however, buck-breaking and Rape were high on the list.
- A large majority and possibly all of the DNA results of so-called black people have European blood, which tells the story of the amount of RAPE that took place.
- There are many more self-destructive behaviors that were learned during slavery, but too many to mention. If interested, you can continue by researching the destructive psychological oppression placed on the black race through slavery.
- Jim Crow laws, Cointelpro, and other government-inflicted oppression played a significant role in the continuation of reeducation after slavery.
Diet
Plantation slavers forced the enslaved to eat scraps and biblically filthy unclean animals like pigs, raccoons, and possums, of which none were a part of their diet. None of these animals were indigenous to the areas of Africa where the people originated. In fact, pigs weren’t even native to North America; earlier European settlers brought them over as their food source. If an enslaved person refused to eat, they were tortured to encourage eating or force-fed. The change in diet, coupled with other horrible eating habits, has wreaked havoc on so-called black people and continues to devastate them to this date. The increase in salts, saturated fats, and refined sugars has devastated the black community with record-high numbers of high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, colon cancer, sugar diabetes, and obesity.
Renamed
As we learned last week, the final and most life-altering of the three-part strategy was the forced name change of the Hebrews and Africans. So that we don’t repeat last week’s info, please go back to “part one” and read the renamed section. The enslaver and their wives brutally and viciously changed the enslaved people’s names, forcefully closing the casket on their previous lives and ending their connection to family ties, heritage, culture, and religion(s). They essentially committed mass genocide of multiple groups of people and turned them into something else, “Niggers“, which, unfortunately, some enslaved descendants still refer to themselves and others as today. The ones that resisted were subjected to buck breaking and/or flogging. The name change was also a constant reminder that they belonged to the enslaver who named them, and they were no different from livestock.
The Plantation owners saw the Hebrew and African names as a threat to their ownership and domination over them and, therefore, made it a point to strip them of their names. The act of renaming was a brutal practice that caused immense pain and trauma. Enslaved people abandon their generational family names and adopt foreign names that were associated with their oppressors. Names like Jack, Charles, Harry, Joe, Will, and Frank were for men, while women were given names like Mary, Jane, Betty, Sarah, Phillis, and Peg against their will. They were also given surnames like Williams, Jones, Johnson, Smith, Jackson, Thomas, Brown, Walker, Davis, Green, Robinson, Scott, Harris, Turner, and Anderson. Surnames could also change if a person was sold or given to another enslaver.
Lost Roots
As stated last week, the act of renaming was a brutal and heartless practice that caused immense pain and trauma. For this very reason, many, if not all, so-called black people of America can’t trace their families without hitting a roadblock at some point. I know that this is a hard pill to swallow for many, but this history is only a brief glimpse into some of the atrocities committed, there is much much more.
Conclusion
Next week π€π€π€ π€ willing, we will continue with part three and go further into this study with a focus on the Christian religion. I know Deuteronomy 28 is a lot to read; however, I have attached it here. Please read it through the Lens of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and allow the Ruach HaKodesh (π€π€π€ π€ set-apart spirit) to guide you.
Curses for Disobedience Caused this Slavery
Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (HRB)
15. And it shall be, if you will not heed the voice of your Elohim, to take heed to do all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, even all these curses shall come on you and overtake you:
16. You shall be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field.
17. Your basket and your kneading-trough shall be cursed.
18. The fruit of your body shall be cursed, and the fruit of your land, the offspring of your oxen, and the young ones of your sheep.
19. You shall be cursed when you come in, and you shall be cursed when you go out.
20. YAHWEH shall send cursing on you, trouble and rebuke in all that you set your hand, all which you will do, until you are destroyed, or until you quickly perish, because of the badness of your doings by which you have forsaken Me.
21. YAHWEH shall make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from off the land where you are going, to possess it.
22. YAHWEH shall strike you with lung disease and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting and mildew. And they shall pursue you until you perish.
23. And your heavens over your head shall become bronze, and the earth under you iron.
24. YAHWEH shall make the rain of your land be dust and ashes. It shall come down on you from the heavens until you are destroyed.
25. YAHWEH shall cause you to be stricken before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them, and shall flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a trembling to all the kingdoms of the earth.
26. And your body shall be food to all the birds of the heavens, and to the beasts of the earth; and there shall be none to cause them to tremble.
27. YAHWEH shall strike you with the ulcer of Egypt, and with hemorrhoids, and with the scab, and with itch, of which you cannot be healed.
28. YAHWEH shall strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart.
29. And you shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness. And you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be always oppressed and plundered all the days; and there will be no one to save.
30. You shall betroth a wife, and another shall lie with her. You shall build a house, and you shall not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard, and shall not use its fruit.
31. our ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and it will not be given back. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no deliverer.
32. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people; and your eyes shall look and fail for them all the day. And no power shall be in your hand.
33. The fruit of your ground, and all your labor, shall be eaten up by a nation which you do not know. And you shall always be oppressed and crushed. Β°
34. And you shall be maddened because of that which you shall see with the sight of your eyes.
35. YAHWEH shall strike you with an evil boil on the knees, and on the legs, of which you cannot be healed from the sole of your foot even to your crown.
36. YAHWEH shall cause you and your king whom you shall raise up over you, to go to a nation which you have not known, you and your fathers. And you shall serve other gods there, wood and stone.
37. And you shall be an astonishment, a proverb and a byword among all the peoples where YAHWEH shall lead you.
38. You shall carry much seed out to the field, and you shall gather in little; for the locusts will devour it.
39. You shall plant vineyards, and shall labor, and you shall not gather, nor drink wine; for the worm will devour it.
40. You shall have olive trees in all your border, and you shall not anoint with oil; for your olive shall fall off.
41. You shall father sons and daughters, and they shall not be with you; for they shall go into captivity.
42. The locust shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground.
43. The alien in your midst shall go above you, higher and higher; and you shall come down, lower and lower.
44. He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45. And all these curses shall come on you and shall pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed; for you did not heed the voice of YAHWEH your Elohim, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.46. And they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever,
47. because you did not serve YAHWEH your Elohim with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things,
48. and you shall serve your enemies whom YAHWEH shall send on you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in lack of all things. And He shall put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.49 YAHWEH shall raise a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose tongue you will not understand,
50. a nation fierce of face, who will not regard the person of the aged, nor show favor to the young.51. And he shall eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your land, until you are destroyed. He shall not leave to you grain, new wine, and oil, offspring of your oxen, or young ones of your flock, until he has destroyed you.
52. And he shall lay siege to you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls in which you are trusting come down, in all your land; yea, he shall distress you in all your gates, in all your land which YAHWEH your Elohim has given to you.
53. And you shall eat the fruit of your body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom YAHWEH your Elohim has given to you, in the siege, and in the anguish with which your enemies shall distress you.
54. The man who is tender and very delicate among you, his eye shall be evil against his brother, and against the wife of his bosom, and against the remnant of his sons which he leaves,
55. so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his sons that he shall eat, because he has nothing left to him in the siege, and in the anguish with which your enemies shall distress you in all your gates.
56. The soft and delicate woman among you, who would not have ventured to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil against the husband of her bosom, and against her son, and against her daughter;
57. and against her fetus which comes out from between her feet, even against her sons whom she shall bear. For she shall eat them in secret, for the lack of everything in the siege and in the anguish with which the enemy shall distress you within your gates.
58. If you will not take heed to do all the Words of this Torah, written in this book, to fear this glorious and fearful Name, YAHWEH your Elohim,
59. then YAHWEH will make your plagues remarkable, and the plagues of your children shall be great and persistent plagues with evil and long lasting sicknesses.
60. He shall also bring on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid; and they shall cling to you.
61. Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this Torah, YAHWEH shall cause them to come on you until you are destroyed.
62. And you shall be left with few adult men, whereas you were as the stars of the heavens for multitude, because you would not obey the voice of YAHWEH your Elohim. Β°
63. And it shall be, as YAHWEH rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so YAHWEH shall rejoice over you to destroy you, and to lay you waste. And you shall be plucked from the land you are going to possess.
64. And YAHWEH shall scatter you among all people, from one end of the earth even to the other, and you shall serve other gods there, wood and stone, which you have not known, nor your fathers.
65. And among these nations you shall find no ease, nor shall the sole of your foot have rest. But YAHWEH shall give you there a trembling heart and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind.
66. And your life shall be in doubt before you, and you shall fear day and night, and shall have no assurance of your life.
67. In the morning you shall say, Oh that it were evening! And in the evening you shall say, Oh that it were morning! For the fear of your heart with which you fear, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.
68. And YAHWEH shall bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I said to you, You shall never see it again. And you shall be sold to your enemies there, for male slaves and slave-girls; and there shall be no buyer (REDEEMER or RECOVER).
Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (HRB)
In this and all Food for Thoughts I recommend you read the Scripture(s) provided and the entire chapter they are from to obtain more insight.
By: David Edwards β HalleluYAH β Praise YAH β Praise π€π€π€ π€
