Cambridge makes history
Racial strife in the past, city picks first African-American mayor
By Chris Guy | Sun reporter
July 10, 2008


CAMBRIDGE - This Eastern Shore city has elected its first African-American mayor, four decades after images of an angry clash here between black protesters and white police played across the nation's television screens.

Victoria Jackson-Stanley, deputy director of the Dorchester County Department of Social Services, said her victory over two-term incumbent Cleveland Rippons left her humbled at breaking racial and gender barriers.

"As a woman and an African-American, I'm overwhelmed," said Jackson-Stanley, 54. "I think it shows just how much things have changed in Cambridge since the 1960s."

Jackson-Stanley's victory in Tuesday's election was confirmed yesterday after officials counted hundreds of absentee ballots.

The city of roughly 11,000 people, known for its seafood, historic buildings and views of the Choptank River, is just slightly more than 50 percent black.

"From what I understand it, many of her voters crossed racial lines," said Carl Snowden, director of Maryland's Office of Civil Rights.

"This election is an important signal that the Eastern Shore has changed," he said. "Cambridge is at a crossroads."

It was a tumultuous time nationally when, in 1967, H. Rap Brown, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, gave a speech here that led to an outburst of protest that white authorities characterized as a riot.

The clash between black residents and white police officers was for years the main thing many outsiders knew about Cambridge.

"I was a very young teenager then, and no one who was there will forget," Jackson-Stanley said.

In recent years, town leaders have been working to revitalize the downtown, which like many small Shore towns has been struggling.

Cambridge officials have approved nearly a dozen projects aimed at revitalizing the once-vibrant manufacturing and canning center. The town has many new residents who have moved here from the Baltimore and Washington areas to restore Victorian-era homes in the city's West End.

Developers have begun restoring a mix of residential buildings, along with commercial ventures that have revamped signature department stores.

The effort suffered a setback when two turn-of-the-century brick storefronts were destroyed by fire in January, but town leaders have said they will go forward with the help of state aid.

Yesterday's final tally showed that Jackson-Stanley won the nonpartisan election 1,383 to 1,231.

A social worker for more than 30 years, the wife, mother and grandmother said she will remain in her state job and run the city as a part-time mayor, collecting $12,000 a year for a post that is designed to be part-time.

She said during the campaign that the city should hire "competent department heads" to run the day to day affairs of the city.

Rippons, a two-time mayor who clashed frequently with city employees and slow-growth advocates, said race became an issue in the mayoral campaign.

"This city is split almost evenly - of course race was a part of it," said Rippons, also 54. "Either consciously or unconsciously, race is an issue every day."

But town Councilman Gibert Cephas, who lost his bid for a second term, said race was of little interest to many voters who supported Jackson-Stanley. "Rippons has led with an iron fist for eight years, and that attitude was what voters have rejected," Cephas said.

Rippons upset many downtown preservationists when he pushed for Cambridge to annex farmland outside town to allow the development of a huge resort community near the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.

The project was eventually scaled back significantly in the wake of protests statewide from environmentalists.

chris.guy@baltsun.com

Prep stars take field for a history lesson

By Matt Lynch | Chicago Tribune reporter


Seventy-five years after the old Comiskey Park played host to the first Negro League East-West All-Star Game, the home of the White Sox will house the debut for another event celebrating African-Americans in baseball.

The first Double Duty Classic will take place Monday at U.S. Cellular Field and feature inner-city high school players from Chicago and other Midwestern cities. The event is named for famous Negro leagues player Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe, who died in 2005.

"It's an honor because it's the first time they're doing something like this, and it's to honor people like Ted Radcliffe, who played the game for so long and gave us opportunities," said Frank Gowder of Young, who will be part of the White Sox Amateur City Elite team.



The players will also attend a forum about the history of the Negro leagues and African-Americans in baseball. The forum will include Sharon Robinson, daughter of Jackie Robinson, as well as White Sox general manager Ken Williams, outfielder Jermaine Dye, first-base coach Harold Baines and several Negro leagues historians.

Jonathan Dorsey of Simeon said he hoped to retain as much as possible from the forum.

"I'm really interested in learning more about my race and more about the sport that I love," he said. "I hope I can just be a sponge and absorb everything."

Several players noted that some of their peers view baseball as too slow and prefer the instant gratification and higher scoring in sports like basketball and football.

"Guys who say baseball is boring just don't know what they're missing," Dorsey said. "It's such a rewarding sport once you put everything into it."

mlynch@tribune.com

The first African American Louisiana justice died Sunday in Baton Rouge, at the age of 84. Revius Ortique Jr. was a civil rights attorney who became the first black justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court.

According to The Associated Press, current Justice Kitty Kimbal said that Ortique suffered a stroke on June 14 and he died because of some complications related to the stroke. Ortique’s home from New Orleans was destroyed in the Katrina Hurricane and he and his wife moved to Louisiana’s capital.

Kimbal also said that he admired Ortique and was very lucky she managed to work with him. She came in Ortique’s place in 1992, when the judge retired, as he turned 70.

“I never knew anyone who did not like him. He exemplified the word gentleman,” Kimbal told The Associated Press.

When he was a civil rights attorney in the 1950s and 1960s he worked hard to integrate labor unions and also represented black workers, helping them to get paid equally, as the rest of the workers. In 1959 Ortique was elected president of the National Bar Association. He served three terms as president of the Community Relations Council, in New Orleans.

He lobbied President Lyndon Johnson to name black judges in the Supreme Court. Later, Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall, who was the first black judge on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Criminal Court Judge Arthur Hunter said that Ortique has inspired many lawyers and judges. “Not just African-American lawyers and judges, but all lawyers and judges,” added Huner.

He was survived by Miriam Marie Victorianne Ortique, his wife, Rhesa Marie McDonald, his daughter and three grandchildren.

The most sacred icons of the Catholic Church are the Black Madonna and Christ child, which are found in Europe's most venerated shrines and cathedrals. Each year, hundreds of thousands of European pilgrims ritually humble themselves before the image of Black Mary and her child Jesus at Black Madonna sites throughout France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and other Catholic countries. Many Black Madonna statues have the black paint literally kissed off of their hands and feet. In Poland, the Church encourages believers to pray to the Black Madonna of Czestochowka every morning before rising. It is reported that Pope John Paul follows this ritual. Time Magazine (June 11, 1979) reported on Popelaul II's visit to Czestochowka's holiest shrine, which prominently displays "The Lady" known for centuries as the Black Madonna. At Our Lady of Koden (Poland), there are statues of white saints carrying pictures of Black Madonnas. Pilgrims throughout the ages have visited Black Madonna sites and left inspired, confident, relieved, or healed of their afflictions. Today, there are over 300 documented Black Madonna sites in France alone! 1 Sometimes they are hidden awaken vaults, while the public is shown Madonnas with European features.
In the hard-to-find classic, Anacalypsis, historian Godfrey Higgens writes, "...in all the Romish countries of Europe, in France, Italy, Germany, etc., the God Christ, as well as his mother, are described in their old pictures and statues to be black. The infant God in the arms of his black mother, his eyes and drapery white, is himself perfectly black. If the reader doubt my word, he may go to the cathedral at Moulins -to the famous chapel of the Virgin at Loretto ...the whiteness of the eyes and teeth, and the studied redness of the lips, are very observable... There is scarcely an old church in Italy where some remains of the worship of the BLACK VIRGIN and BLACK CHID are not to be met with. Very often the black figures have given way to white ones, and in these cases the black ones, as being held sacred, were put into retired places in the churches, but were not destroyed... 2

The Black Madonnas originally all had Africoid features before most of them were destroyed by iconoclasts. When they were replaced, the artists retained the dark skin color but, not being familiar with real Afrikans, gave European features to the paintings. In cases where originals have survived, you may witness Africoid features on Mary and her child Jesus, such as the Black Madonna of Nuria, Spain - called "the Queen of the Pyrenees." Russia's remarkable legacy of Black Madonnas and other Christian icons of dark skin is evidenced in the book, Russian Icons by Vladimir Ivanov, including the feature story of the Spring 1994 issue of Russian Life magazine, graced with a Black Madonna on its cover.

1) Watts, 22.
2) Higgens, v! 138



Actually the worship of the virgin, Black "Mother of God" with her God-begotten child, far predates Christianity and prevailed throughout the ancient world.

Historians recognize that the statue of the Egyptian Goddess Isis with her child Horus in her arms was the first Madonna and Child. They were renamed Mary and Jesus when Europe was forcibly Christianized. The worship of Isis and Horus was especially popular in ancient Rome. "Roman legions carried this figure of Black Isis holding the Black infant Horus all over Europe where shrines were established to her. So holy and venerate were these shrines that when Christianity invaded Europe, these figures of the Black Isis holding the Black Horus were not destroyed but turned into figures of the Black Madonna and Child. Today these are still the holiest shrines in Catholic Europe." 1 Titles such as Our Lady, The Great Mother, are the same titles attributed to Isis! The word "Madonna" itself is from mater domina, a title used for Isis! The month of May, which was dedicated to the heathen Virgin Mothers, is also the month Mary, the Christian Virgin. 2

Incredulously, many contemporary white authors seem not to link or acknowledge the Black Madonna's color with her Afrikan origin,
although their ancestors did without hesitation. Some flatly deny any
racial connection. Instead, they come up with various reasons and sophisticated explanations (the "dark" phase of the moon, fertility of the earth, etc.) -any excuse except Melanin - to explain why the Lady is portrayed black.

This is evident in a number of books by white authors discussing Black Madonnas. Perhaps whites have become so enmeshed in the webs of false history woven by their predecessors that many are blind to the truth, unable to see or discern even glaring evidence of Afrikan historical presence. If white writers of today are indeed this ignorant - or pretending ignorance - of the Black Madonna's Afrikan origin, let them read the works of a few rare honest white scholars which preceded them, such as Gerald Massey, T.W. Doane, Godfrey Higgins and Kersey Graves. These writers knew and wrote the truth. This is amazing given the exceedingly overtly racist times in which they lived. Yet today, official white establishment does not and will not acknowledge the Afrikan genesis of their whitewashed religions.

In Bible Myths, T.W. Doane devotes a chapter to The Worship of the Virgin Mother, where he candidly states, "The whole secret of the fact of these early representations of the Virgin Mary and Jesus - so called-being black, crowned, and covered with jewels, is that they are of pre-Christian origin; they are Isis and Horus... baptized anew." 3

1) Saskana, 53-54.
2) Doane, 335.
3) Ibid., 337.



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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Madonna

Filipinos, Malaysians, Polynesian, Fiji, all from Africans

The Pacific Islanders originally lived in Africa and southern China. These blacks were called East Yi, Nan Yi, Man Yi, Kunlun and Li. Shun-Sheng Ling, observed that: "During ancient times the majority of the inhabitants of the Pacific coast of China belonged to the East Yi. The East Yi people in accordance with the results of our research consisted chiefly of peoples from Polynesia and Micronesia". The East Yi, were a maritime people who inhabited the east coast of Africa, the Asian mainland and the Pacific Islands in ancient times. They built large Lou Chan (tower boats) that could carry many people. The commercial expertise of the Yi was well known because they were such great seamen the term “Yi” was soon identified with the word "Sea" in Chinese. On the Nan Yi, Shi Zhing, wrote in the Mi Kung, that "Following the Huai Yi, all the maritime tribes came to offer their allegiance. For this the credit should be given the Marquis of Lu....As for the maritime tribes, the Huai Yi, Man Mai and Nan Yi had all vowed their fealty and would obey whatever the Marquis of Lu said".

The Oceanic proto-type is believed to have been found at Dzuyang in China. Other skeletal examples of this type come from the Dawenkou culture. At Dawenkou there was skull deformation and extraction of teeth--customs which are similar to the Polynesian group. Chinese archaeologists believe that the Dawenkou people were the Proto-Pacific islanders. The south Chinese share religious customs and blood type with the Pacific islanders. The bird egg motif is found along the eastern coastal region of China. This motif is also established among the Polynesians, whose creator god Tangaroa maui had an identical birth as the founders of the Shang dynasty from a bird's egg. Moreover, the Oceanic people and South Chinese share the same blood type HLA antigen. The languages spoken in the Pacific are called Austronesian. Austronesian refers to the language family of the modern Pacific islanders including those of Polynesia, Micronesia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

This land mass of China was named Sundaland "phontically similar to Sudan." Until very recently, in geological time, the Southeast Asian area extended to the Indonesian islands, the Philippines and across New Guinea to Australia and Tasmania. As the ice melted after the end of the last Ice Age, the sea levels began to rise and the inhabitants of the Sunda(land) shelf retreated to the coast of south China and northern Vietnam. Other groups such as the Negritos or “Anu”, were stranded on many islands as the Pacific ocean covered up Sundaland. Pottery from the lowest levels of sites in southeast Asia is founds in the Philippines. As early as 9000 B.C. the Austronesian speakers had developed elaborate drainage techniques. These people were the Negroids and who developed a similar drainage technique in ancient Egypt for the Nile River. They were a sedentary people practicing horticulture. As early as 5000 B.C. metallurgy was known, and iron was being exploited by the Negroids 3000 years ago. The early Austronesians expanded across Southeast Asia, the Philippines and eastern Indonesia by 5000 B.C. By 4000 B.C. The Negroid people began to leave the mainland and settled islands as far away as Madagascar and Easter Island.

After 2500 B.C., Oceanic-Africoid people began to invade Micronesia. Many of these people came directly from Africa and Kumarinadu. It was this group that spread a megalithic culture from Africa and India all the way to Southeast Asia and the Pacific. These Melanesian people are very closely related to the Negroid group in modern Africa in culture and language. Southern China was a center of civilization for the black Austronesian and Oceanic peoples. These Blacks were called Yi and Yueh in the Chinese records. They made beautiful bronze drums which were decorated with examples of their sailing craft. The classical Mongoloids formed the Shang-Yin Dynasty, as opposed to the Li min "Black heads", who founded both the Xia, and first Shang dynasty. The Yin drove the Li Min and Yueh people into western China, especially Gansu and Yunnan. From here the blacks moved into Indo-China which was already settled by the Naga and other Afro-Indo groups. The Austronesian Negroids of southern China settled Polynesia after they were forced southward by first classical Mongoloids and later the Zhou and Qin armies. This is supported by the similarity of the Lapita pottery, and the Dapenkeng and Longshan pottery from southern China.

The earliest Austronesian language speakers appeared on the mainland around 6000 years ago. Except for Formosa and Taiwan, there are no Austronesian speakers on the mainland today. It would appear that the Polynesians learned agriculture from the African Manding. The reference to the Manding (African) in the Pacific should not be surprising because Africans founded the Xia dynasty in China, and would have been among the ethnic groups pushed into south China and thence the Pacific islands by the mongoloid peoples after 500 B.C Other Manding may have settled the islands before then as explorers given the persistence of Manding terms agreeing with Pacific island place names. The Austronesian speakers built the earliest sea going canoes and were great fishermen. During their spread from the mainland to the islands, they took along tubers and fruits. Cereal plant cultivation was not taken with these sea-voyagers as they occupied the islands in Micronesia and Polynesia. These ancient people made their homes atop mounds and used irrigation to grow the crops. They used stone and wooden tools. Black Austronesians are credited with inventing outrigger canoes and even the Chinese Junk and Sampan. Most of the inhabitants of Oceania are Negroids. They made their way eastward from Africa through India, to Southeast Asia, southern China, Indonesia and the islands in the Pacific. Polynesians or Oceanic-Negroids practiced artificial irrigation, megalithic architecture, well developed religion and divine kingship. Matrilineal descent was part of many Pacific societies. The people in this area practiced the Lapita culture. These people were long distance merchants. They were mobile colonists who communicated by sea. The names for the Pacific islands relate to the people who lived on the islands. For example, Melanesia “Maylasia”, means "Black Islands"; Micronesia, means "Small Islands"; and Polynesian, means "Many Islands". The earliest culture of the Pacific was the Lapita culture. It spread in the Pacific area between 1600-1200 B.C. The Lapita culture is characterized by ceramic cooking pots, bowls and dishes. The ceramics are laced with intricate horizontal bands and geometric designs. (Craib 1983) The motifs on the ceramics agree with Polynesian tattoo signs.

Some of the Lapita people may have been part of the megalithic culture element which invaded the Pacific area directly from Africa. The Oceanic Africoids or Melanesians were expert seamen. Lapita culture was early established in the area of the Bismarck Archipelago. From here bearers of Lapita culture colonized Tonga and Samoa. The Lapita proplr used the stars to navigate the Pacific. There was an extensive network of trade routes extending over 2700 Kilometers. Yueh ethnic groups from southern China began to settle in the Pacific after 500 B.C.. These people spoke Dravidian and African languages. Between A.D. 200 to 700, classical Mongoloids began to dominate Eastern Polynesian. These Mongoloids are called Yin , in the Chinese literature, but they should not be confused with the black Yi ethnic groups who formerly dominated coastal China. Genghis Khan (Temujin) who was the most successful leader of the Mongolian Empire and united the Mongolian tribes was a descendant of the Yi and was a Black Chinese.


As the Mongoloid people began to occupy the Southeast Asian mainland, the Indo-African populations set out by boat to settle the Polynesian islands. J. Fraser felt that Polynesia had first been settled by Black races from India. E.S. Handy had a theory that the first settlers of the Polynesian islands were Africans. The Dravidian (African) languages are closely related to languages spoken in the Pacific. For example in 1919, Schmidt in Die Gleederung der Australischen Sprachen, presented evidence which pointed to a connection between Dravidian languages and the Australian languages. This theme was also discussed by N.M. Holmes in On the History and Structure of the Australian Languages, he illustrated that the grammar and phonetics of Australian and African languages coincide. Susumu Ohno , and Clyde Ahmad Winters have indicated that the Tamil language was one of the root languages of Japanese. C.A.Winters has shown that the Japanese language and culture also has affinity to the Manding culture and their language. H.B. Hubber in A comparative grammar of the Korean languages and the Dravidian Family, claimed that the Dravidian languages influenced the Korean languages. This view can best be supported by the presence of Negroid people in Korea, before the colonization of the country by the Korean people.

The relationship between the Manding and Tamil, and the Austronesian, Korean and Japanese languages results from the spread of the Yueh and East Yi people, from Yunnan, Indo-China and southern China out into the Pacific. The Japanese and Korean languages are classified within the Altaic Superset of languages. The Manding and Dravidian substratum in Japanese, Korean and Hungarian which all belong to the Altaic group highlight the former presence of the Negroid people across Central Asia and the Pacific. Many Polynesians are classified as Mongoloid people, however they show clear genetic characteristics inherited from the African peoples. By A.D. 1000, the Classical Mongoloid people began to mix with the Austroloid and Oceanic (i.e., Indo-African people) peoples. By this time the Mongoloids were hunting Oceanic people to sell as slaves. The peoples of the continental Pacific islands grew many crops. The chief food for these people were sweet potatoes and taro. Their diet was supplemented by fish and pigs. The low-island people lived almost entirely on coconut palm. Wood for houses came from the trunks. The meat of the coconut was used for food. The husks of coconuts were made into ropes and nets.

In conclusion, it is obvious that the Yueh people of the Lapita culture who settled the Pacific islands before the Austronesian expansion after 500 B.C., spoke Indo-African languages related to the Dravidian and Manding African groups. The linguistic evidence makes it clear that West Africans were settled in the Pacific islands long before Lakato culture bearers would have arrived on the East African scene. A comparison of Melanesian, Dravidian, Manding and Polynesian languages show considerable cognation in the area of kinship terms. A review of this material indicates that speakers of these languages lived in dwellings established in sedentary villages, led by chiefs and /or holy men. They hunted with bow and arrow, made pottery and possessed writing. In addition, they share the terms for fish, domesticated animals and root and grain crops, the deity, and major topographical features. The historical and archaeological evidence supports a two wave Indo-African migration to the Pacific. The first wave of Indo-Africans to settle the Pacific were the Yueh people who were forced out of southern China by the Shang Yin and later Zhou warriors after 1500 B.C.. The Yueh probably introduced the Lapita culture, since many of the Longshan people used incised red pottery.

How exactly did the Africans and the Chinese mix to produce the Red Indian and were there Blacks in China as well?

Yes there were indeed Blacks in ancient China. The skeletal remains from southern China are predominately Negroid. The people practiced single burials which is an African ritual. In northern China the blacks founded many civilizations. The three major empires of China were the Xia Dynasty (c.2205-1766 B.C), Shang/ Yin Dynasty (c.1700-1050 B.C) and the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou dynasty was the first dynasty founded by the Mongoloid people in China called Hua (Who-aa). The founders of Xia and Shang came from the Fertile African Crescent by way of Iran. Chinese civilization began along the Yellow river . Here the soil was fertile and black Chinese farmers grew millet 4000 years ago, and later soybeans. They also raised pigs and cattle. By 3500 B.C., the blacks in China were raising silkworms and making silk. The culture hero Huang Di is a direct link of Africa. His name was pronounced in old Chinese Yuhai Huandi or "Hu Nak Kunte." He was supposed to have arrived in China from the west in 2282 B.C., and settled along the banks of the Loh River in Shanxi. This transliteration of Huandgi, to Hu Nak Kunte is interesting because Kunte is a common clan name among the Manding speakers. The Africans or blacks that founded civilization in China were often called Li Min "black headed people" by the Zhou dynasts. This term has affinity to the Sumero-Akkadian term Sag- Gig-Ga "Black Headed People". These Li Min are associated with the Chinese cultural hero Yao.


We know very little about the sounds of ancient Chinese because Ancient Chinese was different from Old Chinese and Middle Chinese and the modern Chinese dialects. This results from the fact that the Chinese dynasties were founded by diverse ethnic groups e.g., Xia and Shang Li (i.e., Black Shang) were founded by Dravidian and Manding speakers. Shang-Yin was founded by classical Mongoloids, and the Zhou by the contemporary Chinese. ) This explains the difference in pronunciation for Ancient Chinese spoken by the Xia and Shang peoples and Old and Middle Chinese or a variant there of, which was spoken by the Zhou people. The Shang characters compare favorably to the ancient Proto- Saharan script used by the Harappans in the Indus Valley and the Manding script used in the ancient Sahara and Crete . Clyde Winters outlined the spread of the Proto-Saharan script to Harappa, and throughout Saharan Africa and Asia by the Dravidians and Manding. Evidence of Chinese writing first appears around 2000 B.C. as pottery marks. The shell-and-bone characters represented writing they were not pictures but wedges similar to African Cuneiform. The Shang symbols compare favorably with ancient Manding symbols as well. Although their are different contemporary pronunciations for these symbols they have the same meaning and shape. This suggest a genetic relationship between these scripts because we know that the present pronunciation of the Chinese symbols probably has little relationship to the ancient pronunciation of Chinese spoken in Xia and Shang times when these characters were first used. This cognation of scripts supports the proposed Dravidian and Manding migration and settlement of ancient China during Xia times. The identification of the first hero of China, Hu Nak Kunte as a member of the Kunte clan of the Manding speakers of Africa is supported by the close relationship between the Manding languages and Chinese. Even though we do not know the ancient pronunciation of many Chinese signs many Chinese and Manding words share analogy and suggest a Manding substratum for Chinese.


You mentioned the Black Shang, can you explain that further?

There were two Shang empires. The first Shang Dynasty was the Shang-Li (Black Shang) it was ruled by the Li-Qiang "Black Qiang". For the last 273 years of the Shang empire the capital was situated at Anyang. The Shang empire based at Anyang was founded by the Yin nationality. We call this empire Shang-Yin. Thus we have the Shang-Li empire and the Shang-Yin empire. The Yin were classical Mongoloid people related to the Thai and other small Mongoloid Austronesian speaking peoples situated in Southeast Asia. The use of the "black bird", as the father of Xieh, relates to the "black bird" as a popular totem of black ethnic groups in China. This passage indicates that the founders of Shang were of mixed origin. The fact that the bird myths such as the one above are mainly centered on the east coast of China also suggest a black origin for the Shang since this area was the heartland of ancient China. Both the ancient Chinese and Africans had similar naming practices. As in Africa the Shang child had both a day name and regular name. The Shang child was named according to the days of the sun, on which he was born. There were ten days in each sun. These days are called the ten celestial signs. In the Mulberry Tree tradition one day ten suns rose from a mulberry and the Archer Yi, shot down nine of them. These suns in reality were birds. This bird myth refers to the "black birds" that founded the Shang Dynasty. The fact that only one of the ten birds survived the arrows of the Archer Yi, may relate to the unification of the ten clans into the Shang dynasty. The references to "black birds" in the Chinese literature relate to the African origin of the Shang rulers. The use of the term "Black Bird" relates to the fact that these blacks had a bird as their totem. There is a similar account in Native American history where the black bird rescues the red bird from the white bird which retreats back into the caves. This analogy is reference to the Negroid releasing the Red Indian from the clutches of the European colonialism. We know that birds do not live in caves. The cave is in reference to the mountains of Europe "Caucas Mountains."

You mentioned that the Shangs spoke Dravidian?

The Dravidian speakers originally came from Nubia. They were related to the C-Group people. The Shang culture was founded by the Kushites thus the name Yi "Great Bowmen", thus corresponding to Steu, the name for the founders of Ta-Seti the first monarchy in history. The Yi seem to have lived in both north and south China. Fu Ssu-nien, in Yi Hsis Tunghsi Shuo, makes it clear that the Shang culture bearers remained allied to the rest of the Yi people who lived in southern China. The founders of Xia are usually referred to as Yueh, as opposed to Yi. It would appear that most of Yi were Dravidian speakers while the Yueh were Manding speakers. The first Shang king was Xuan Wang, 'Black King' (Xuan means black). He was also called the Xuan Di ,"Black Emperor". The founder of the Shang Dynasty was called Xuan Niao "Black Bird"; another Shang king was called Xuan Mu "Black Oxen".


Are there Black Chinese in Asia today?

Yes, many Africans and Chinese mixed and moved far north into Tibet where they became known as "Nomads," and lived a life very similar to the Africans of Kenya.

5 to 2.5 million BCE
Fossils, rocks, ancient skeletal remains have been uncovered in the Rift Valley and surrounding areas
Photo of an African rift (Univ. of Pennsylvania), 1 Apr. 2005:
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Misc_GIFS/African_rift.gif

Evidence points to a common human ancestry originating in Africa from the emergence of a humanlike species in eastern Africa some 5 million years ago. From Hadar, Ethiopia, the 3.18 million year-old remains of "Lucy" were unearthed in 1974.
Resources for African Archeology (ArchNet-WWW Archeology), 1 Apr. 2005:
http://archnet.asu.edu/regions/africa.php3

Human Origins and Evolution in Africa (Jeanne Sept, Indiana Univ.-Bloomington), 1 Apr. 2005: http://www.indiana.edu/~origins/index.html

Early History, The Story of Africa, British Broadcasting Company [BBC] News: World Service, 1 Apr. 2005:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section2.shtml

African American artist to specifically address the savagery of lynch-law. It also commemorates Wells-Barnett and other Black Americans’ organized campaigns to resist this long established institution and contextualizes their struggles. The subject and title of Fuller’s sculpture refer to the 1916 lynching of Hayes Turner and his pregnant wife Mary in Valdosta, Georgia. An account of the horrors inflicted upon the Turners appears in Walter White’s shocking study of lynching and mob violence, titled Rope and Faggot: A Biography of Judge Lynch.[48] White graphically narrates the events leading up to, during, and in the aftermath of white mob executions of Black men, women and children throughout the South.

The ethnographic details expose and stress the ritualistic savagery that was characteristic of frenzied white mob actions. Walter White’s passage on the Turners is particularly unnerving:

Not finding the Negro suspected of the murder, mobs began to kill every Negro who could even be connected with the victim and the alleged slayer. One of these was a man named Hayes Turner, whose offense was that he knew the alleged slayer, a not altogether remarkable circumstance, since both men worked for the dead farmer. To Turner’s wife, within one month of accouchment, was brought the news of her husband’s death. She cried out in her sorrow, pouring maledictions upon the heads of those who had thrust widowhood upon her so abruptly and cruelly.
Word of her threat to swear out warrants for the arrest of her husband’s murderers came to her. “We’ll teach the damn’ nigger wench some sense.,” was their answer, as they began to seek her. Fearful, her friends secreted the sorrowing woman on an obscure farm, miles away. Sunday morning, with a hot May sun beating down, they found her. Securely they bound her ankles together and by them, hanged her to a tree. Gasoline and motor oil were thrown upon her dangling clothes; a match wrapped her in sudden flames. Mocking, ribald laughter from her tormentors answered the helpless woman’s screams of pain and terror. “Mister, you ought to’ve heard the nigger wench howl!” a member of the mob boasted to me a few days later as we stood at the place of Mary Turner’s death.
The clothes burned from her crisply toasted body, in which unfortunately, life still lingered, a man stepped towards the woman and, with his knife, ripped open the abdomen in a crude Cesarean operation. Out tumbled the prematurely born child. Two feeble cries it gave--and received for answer the heel of a stalwart man, as life was ground out of the tiny form. Under the tree of death was scooped a shallow hole. The rope about Mary Turner’s charred ankles was cut, and swiftly her body tumbled into its grave. Not without a sense of humor or of appropriateness was some member of the mob. An empty whisky-bottle, quart size, was given for headstone. Into its neck was stuck a half-smoked cigar which had saved the delicate nostrils of one member of the mob from the stench of burning human flesh.[49]
The lynch/murders of the Turner family were representative of the pattern of aggressive mob outrages that increased dramatically during and after World War I. The NAACP organized and led the most successful and extended campaign against lynching. The organization’s goal was to educate the public to the evils of lynching and to garner widespread public support to designate lynching as a federal crime.

On July 28, 1917, a predominately Black crowd of 10,000 people, turned out for a “Silent Protest Against the Mob” in New York City. W.E.B. Du Bois led the hushed and orderly crowd in a march down 5th Street to the “tap, tap, tap of a drum corps.”[50] Fuller’s sculpture, Mary Turner (A Silent Protest Against the Mob), commemorates the Turners’ tragic deaths, and the organized social protest intended to prevent the reoccurrence of such crimes. Thematically, the subject of lynching invokes and relates itself to a whole history in Western art of images which “raise unheralded victims of war and religious persecutions to the celebrated status of “martyrs” and saints.

Stylistically, Warrick Fuller retreats from the idealized naturalism characteristic of turn-of-the-century public and private sculpture. The sculpture’s roughly modeled surface reveals the influence of Fuller’s three years of study in Paris where she encountered and was influenced by the modernist aesthetics of artists such as Auguste Rodin--whose sculptures retain and celebrate the sculptor’s process of creation. Moreover, Rodin reportedly advised and inspired Fuller by telling her “Mademoiselle, you are a sculptor; you have sense of form.”[51] While in Paris, Fuller also met the scholar-activist, W.E.B. Du Bois, who later became one of the co-founders of the NAACP. Du Bois and Fuller formed a friendship and political alliance that was to last for many years. In a letter home, Fuller noted that Du Bois admired her work and had suggested “that I should make a specialty of Negro types--I told him I did not believe I could so specialize but I considered the advice well meant”[52] Despite this early disclaimer, Black people are the subject of all of Fuller’s extant works.[53] With Mary Turner (A Silent Protest Against the Mob), we see that Fuller manipulates her sculptural materials as well as the new formal language of modernism to make a statement about the modern social condition.

Pleqase see links below for additional info on this women and other women who endured the same.

http://malalatete.typepad.com/mal_a_la_tete/race/index.html
http://www.africaresource.com/ijele/issue5/jackson.html

THE BLACK PRESENCE IN EARLY JAPAN

Although the island nation of Japan, occupying the extreme eastern extensions of Asia, is assumed by many to have been historically composed of an essentially homogeneous population and culture, the accumulated evidence (much of which has been quietly ignored) places the matter in a vastly different light, and though far more study needs to be done on the subject, it seems indisputable that Black people in Japan played an important role from the most remote phases of antiquity into at least the ninth century.

Meaningful indications of an African presence in ancient Japan have been unearthed from the most remote ages of the Japanese past. To begin with, and as a significant example, a February 15, 1986 report carried by the Associated Press, chronicled that:

"The oldest Stone Age hut in Japan has been unearthed near Osaka....Archeologists date the hut to about 22,000 years ago and say it resembles the dugouts of African bushmen, according to Wazuo Hirose of Osaka Prefectural of Education's cultural division. `Other homes, almost as old, have been found before, but this discovery is significant because the shape is cleaner, better preserved' and is similar to the Africans' dugouts."

In 1923, anthropologist Roland B. Dixon wrote that "this earliest population of Japan were in the main a blend of Proto-Australoid and Proto-Negroid types, and thus similar in the ancient underlying stratum of the population, southward along the whole coast and throughout Indo-China, and beyond to India itself." Dixon pointed out that, "In Japan, the ancient Negrito element may still be discerned by characteristics which are at the same time exterior and osteologic."

In his last major text, Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology (published posthumously in English in 1991), the brilliant Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986) pointed out that:

"In the first edition of the Nations negres et culture (1954), I posited the hypothesis that the Yellow race must be the result of an interbreeding of Black and White in a cold climate, perhaps around the end of he Upper Paleolithic period. This idea is widely shared today by Japanese scholars and researchers. One Japanese scientist, Nobuo Takano, M.D., chief of dermatology at the Hammatsu Red Cross Hospital, has just developed this idea in Japanese that appeared in 1977, of which he was kind enough to give me a copy in 1979, when, passing through Dakar, he visited my laboratory with a group of Japanese scientists.

Takano maintains, in substance, that the first human being was Black; then Blacks gave birth to Whites, and the interbreeding of these two gave rise to the Yellow race; these three stages are in fact the title of his book in Japanese, as he explained it to me."

As to linguistics, in 1987 former Senegalese president Leopold Sedar Senghor noted that, "The people who populate the island of Japan today are descendants from Blacks....Let us not forget that the first population of Japan was Black...and gave to Japan their first language."

SAKANOUYE NO TAMURAMARO: SEI-I TAI-SHOGUN OF EARLY JAPAN

Of the Black people of early Japan, the most picturesque single figure was Sakanouye no Tamuramaro, a warrior symbolized in Japanese history as a "paragon of military virtues," and a man who has captured the attention of some of the most distinguished scholars of twentieth century America. Perhaps the first such scholar to make note of Tamuramaro was Alexander Francis Chamberlain (1865-1914). An anthropologist, Chamberlain was born in Kenninghall, Norfolk, England, and was brought to America as a child. In April 1911 the Journal of Race Development published an essay by Chamberlain entitled "The Contribution of the Negro to Human Civilization." While discussing the African presence in early Asia, Chamberlain stated in an exceptionally frank and matter of fact manner:

"And we can cross the whole of Asia and find the Negro again, for when, in far-off Japan, the ancestors of the modern Japanese were making their way northward against the Ainu, the aborigines of that country, the leader of their armies was Sakanouye Tamuramaro, a famous general and a Negro."

Dr. W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963), perhaps the greatest scholar in American history, in his book, The Negro (first published in 1915), placed Sakanouye Tamuramaro within a list of some of the most distinguished Black rulers and warriors in antiquity. In 1922, Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) and Charles Harris Wesley (1891-?) in a chapter called "Africans in History with Others," in their book The Negro in Our History, quoted Chamberlain on Tamuramaro verbatim. In the November 1940 issue of the Negro History Bulletin (founded by Dr. Woodson), artist and illustrator Lois Maillou Jones (1905-1998) contributed a brief article entitled "Sakanouye Tamura Maro." In the article Jones pointed out that:

"The probable number of Negroes who reached the shores of Asia my be estimated somewhat by the wide area over which they were found on that continent. Historians tell us that at one time Negroes were found in all of the countries of southern Asia bordering the Indian Ocean and along the east coast as far as Japan. There are many interesting stories told by those who reached that distant land which at that time they called `Cipango.'

One of the most prominent characters in Japanese history was a Negro warrior called Sakanouye Tamura Maro."

Very similar themes were expressed in 1946 "In the Orient," the first section in Distinguished Negroes Abroad, a book by Beatrice J. Fleming and Marion J. Pryde in which was contained a small chapter dedicated to "The Negro General of Japan--Sakanouye Tamurarmaro."

In 1940 the great Joel Augustus Rogers (1883-1966), who probably did more to popularize African history than any scholar of the twentieth century, devoted several pages of the first volume of his Sex and Race to the Black presence in early Japan. He cites the studies of a number of accomplished scholars and anthropologists, and even goes as far as to raise the question of "were the first Japanese Negroes?" In the words of Rogers:

"There is a very evident Negro strain in a certain element of the Japanese population, particularly those in the south. Imbert says, "The Negro element in Japan is recognizable by the Negroid aspect of certain inhabitants with dark and often blackish skin, frizzly or curly hair....The Negritos are the oldest race of the Far East. It has been proved that they once lived in Eastern and Southern China as well as in Japan where the Negrito element is recognizable still in the population."

Rogers mentioned Tamuramaro briefly in the first volume of World's Great Men of Color, also published in 1946. Regrettably, Rogers was forced to confess that "I have come across certain names in China and Japan such as Sakonouye Tamuramaro, the first shogun of Japan but I did not follow them up."

Sakanouye Tamuramaro was a warrior symbolized in early Japanese history as a "paragon of military virtues." Could it be that this was what Dr. Diop was alluding to in his first major book, Nations negres et culture, when he directed our attention to the tantalizing and yet profound Japanese proverb: "For a Samurai to be brave he must have a bit of Black blood."

Adwoa Asantewaa B. Munroe referenced Tamuramaro in the 1981 publication What We Should Know About African Religion, History and Culture, and wrote that "He was an African warrior. He was prominent during the rule of the Japanese Emperor Kwammu, who reigned from 782- 806 A.D." In 1989 Dr. Mark Hyman authored a booklet entitled Black Shogun of Japan in which he stated that "The fact remains that Sakanouye Tamuramaro was an African. He was Japanese. He was a great fighting general. He was a Japanese Shogun."

However the most comprehensive assessment to date of the Black presence in early Japan and the life of Sakanouye no Tamuramaro is the work of art historian and long-time friend and colleague Dr. James E. Brunson. Brunson is the author of Black Jade: The African Presence in the Ancient East and several other important texts. In a 1991 publication entitled The World of Sakanouye No Tamuramaro Brunson accurately noted that "In order to fully understand the world of Sakanouye Tamuramaro we must focus on all aspects of the African presence in the Far East."

Sakanouye no Tamuramaro is regarded as an outstanding military commander of the early Heian royal court. The Heian Period (794-1185 C.E.) derives its name from Heian-Kyo, which means "the Capital of Peace and Tranquility," and was the original name for Japan's early capital city--Kyoto. It was during the Heian Period that the term Samurai was first used. According to Papinot, the "word comes from the very word samuaru, or better saburau, which signifies: to be on one's guard, to guard; it applied especially to the soldiers who were on guard at the Imperial palace."

The samurai have been called the knights or warrior class of Medieval Japan and the history of the samurai is very much the history of Japan itself. For hundreds of years, to the restoration of the Meiji emperor in 1868, the samurai were the flower of Japan and are still idolized by many Japanese. The samurai received a pension from their feudal lord, and had the privilege of wearing two swords. They intermarried in their own caste and the privilege of samurai was transmitted to all the children, although the heir alone received a pension.

The "paragon of military virtues," Sakanouye no Tamuramaro (758-811) was, in the words of James Murdoch:

"In as sense the originator of what was subsequently to develop into the renowned samurai class, he provided in his own person a worthy model for the professional warrior on which to fashion himself and his character. In battle, a veritable war-god; in peace the gentlest of manly gentlemen, and the simplest and unassuming of men."

Throughout his career, Tamuramaro was rewarded for his services with high civil as well as military positions. In 797 he was named "barbarian-subduing generalissimo" (Sei-i Tai-Shogun), and in 801-802 he again campaigned in northern Japan, establishing fortresses at Izawa and Shiwa and effectively subjugating the Ainu.

In 810 he helped to suppress an attempt to restore the retired emperor Heizei to the throne. In 811, the year of his death, he was appointed great counselor (dainagon) and minister of war (hyobukyo).

Sakanouye no Tamuramaro "was buried in the village of Kurisu, near Kyoto and it is believed that it is his tomb which is known under the name of Shogun-zuka. Tamuramaro is the founder of the famous temple Kiyomizu-dera. He is the ancestor of the Tamura daimyo of Mutsu." Tamuramaro "was not only the first to bear the title of Sei-i-tai-Shogun, but he was also the first of the warrior statesmen of Japan."

In later ages he was revered by military men as a model commander and as the first recipient of the title shogun--the highest rank to which a warrior could aspire."

Source: African Presence in Early Asia, edited by Runoko Rashidi and Ivan Van Sertim

Sugar T. George a.k.a. George Sugar was born in approximately 1827, as a slave in the Muskogee Nation. This former slave from the Muskogee Nation went from poverty to prominence in his lifetime, serving in the House of Warriors, House of Kings, having been an African Town King, coming first from the town of North Fork, he emerged as a tribal leader in the nation of his birth. By the time of his death in 1900, Sugar T. George was also said to have been the "wealthiest Negro in the Territory." (1)

His father was Sorrow Pigeon, and his mother was Nancy Lovett. Sorry was a slave of David Pigeon, and George himself had been a slave of Mariah McIntosh. When the Dunn Roll was created, he was enrolled at that time as Sugar T. Hared. He was enrolled in the town of North Fork at the time.

He escaped form bondage when Opthole Yahola took a band of people into Kansas to avoid the war. He did not hesitate to join the Union Army serving in company "H" of the 1st Indian Home Guards. Because he could read and write and because of his natural skills as a leader he quickly became a 1st Sgt. in his unit. Historian Gary Zellar of the University of Arkansas, notes that while a soldier, Sugar George acted as the unofficial leader taking charge after the white officer and Indian officer had been dismissed for improper behavior. For some time the unit actually was run under his direction, although black soldiers were not to be elevated to any rank of authority as an officer. Thus this man remained as a 1st Sgt, though clearly could have been an officer.

In 1867 after the War, Sugar T. George was one of the first soldiers to file a claim as part of the Loyal Creeks. His claim for compensation can be found at the National Archives, as part of Record Group 75 (1) Among these documents his claim would be one of over 300 Freedmen, and of 60 black soldiers who served with the Indian Home Guards.

The next several years, Sugar T. George, rose to prominence, amassing money, and influence in the nation, and he subsequently rose to prominence. For some time he lived in North Fork, Colored Town, in the Creek Nation. He became a Town King, and served on the Muskogee Creek Nation Tribal Council.

He married twice in his lifetime, first to Mariah McIntosh and lived with her until she died in 1867. In 1876, he then married Betty Rentie. They were married by another prominent Freedman, Monday Durant. Sugar George and his wife, Betty had no children, but they adopted and raised James Sugar as their own son. (Also living with Sugar T. George at the time of the Dawes Enrollment were his step grandchildren, Rena, and Julia Sugar.)

During his lifetime, Sugar George had a strong reputation, and his name appeared on many critical documents. He served as witness for many people, and often he prepared letters for illiterate people in the community.

In addition to his being a veteran of the Union army, his serving as part of the leadership of the Muskogee nation, Sugar George had a strong interested in the plight of his people. Being a literate man himself, he supported educational causes of the Indian Territory Freedmen. He served on the board of the Tullahassee Mission School, a school for Creek and Seminole freedmen. Because of his strong sense of finance, he also was requested to keep the financial records of the school.

Sugar T. George died on June 30, 1900. He is buried in the Agency Cemetery in Muskogee. A beautiful gray granite tomb with large marble monument about five feet high with the following inscription:
"In memory of Rev. SUGAR GEORGE. Died July 31, 1900. Aged 82 years. The day is past and gone the evening shadows appear. O may we all remember well the night of death draws near." (3)



http://www.african-nativeamerican.com/sugar_t.htm




A significant number of Afro-Americans were sold, escaped or fled from Slavery and eventually settled in the West, where they were adopted by Indian tribes and accepted into the tribal structure as equals. Many even assumed roles of leadership.

Sugar George is buried under a five-foot marble marker in the now-abandoned Agency Cemetery. This burial ground is in complete abandon, off Highway 69 in Muskogee, behind a truck repair shop. Sugar George and other African leaders rest in the over-grown thicket, now forgotten by townspeople and historians alike. I tried so hard to get something written in his own hands. But as stated above the Creek nation like many Native American Nations are ashamed of their role in the Slave trade of Africans. Despite their first impression of this African being a human image of their sacred Buffalo. Because his skin was brown like the buffalo, his eyes dark like the buffalo, and his nostrils flared and strong like the buffalo, they thought of the African as a sacred being in human form. Greed can change a Human Being faster than the wind. My family was on the Trail of Tears with Wild Cat. It hurts me to my core to know that not even the MIGHTIEST of African WARRIORS are aknowledged as well as their offspring. Native Americans must open their eyes to their role in the enslavement of Africans and its lingering hold on the Nations. So that WARRIORS like Sugar can have their burial sites looked after like any other member of the tribe. shame and fear of the past has allowed weeds and growth to cover his tomb, but not his memory EVER... He shall never be forgotten no matter how hard the Creeks try. You can hide a lot of things, but the African influence is obvious in the Creek Nation flag and in the faces of many. I call this Great African Creek Leaders name out with great reverance SUGARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Note---A visit to the Creek Council House in Okmulgee will provide little information on Sugar T. George, although he served on the tribal council of this nation for many years. Authorities will claim no knowledge of his history.

In 1860, some twenty years after Rev. J.W. Loguen fled form Slavery. He received a letter from the women who had owned him in Tennessee. She knew his whereabouts because he had just published a book about his life as a Slave and a freedman. His reply to her, made public in the abolitionist paper, The Liberator, showed how differently master and Slave looked upon life. This man is one of my most favorites, his words will slice you and dice you. Who says words are no match for the sword? I say they are more powerful than the sword because they are forever, and the sword is an instrument used to stifle them, and easily broken by them. Perception back then and in todays time is why we still find ourselves in this struggle. Slavery and its evils are timeless in the minds of Americans of African decent. To us it feels like yesterday, but to many whites it was as long ago as the days of Noah. With these pages it is my highest hopes that we understand the differences of perceptions and find a meeting of the minds somewhere in between.
Peace 2 U
qp




Mrs. SARAH LOGUE: Yours of the 20th February is duly received, and I thank you for it. It is a long time since I heard from my poor old mother, and I am glad to know that she is yet alive, and you say,”as well as common.” What that means, I don’t know. I wish you had said more about her.

You are a women; but had you a woman’s heart you never could have insulted a brother by telling him you sold his only remaining brother and sister, because he put himself beyond power to convert him into money.

You sold my brother and sister, Abe and Ann, and twelve acres of land, you say, because I ran away. Now you have the unutterable meaness to ask me to return and be your miserable chattel, or, in lieu thereof, send you $1000 to enable you to redeem the land, but not to redeem my poor brother and sister, and not that you should get land. You say you are a cripple, and doubtless you say it to stir my pity, for you knew I was susceptible in that direction. I do pity you from the bottom on my heart. Nevertheless, I am indignant beyond the power of words to express, that you should be so sunken and cruel as to tear the hearts I love so much all to pieces: that you should be willing to impale and crucify us all, out of compassion for your foot or leg. WRETCHED WOMAN! Be it known to you that I value my freedom, to say nothing of my mother, brothers and sisters, more than your whole body; more, indeed, than my own life; more than the lives of all the Slaveholders and tyrants under heaven.

You say you have offers to buy me, and that you shall sell me if I do not send you $1000, and in the same breath and almost in the same sentence, you say, “You know we raised you as we did our own children.” Women, did you raise your own children for the market? Did you raise them for the whipping post? Did you raise them to be driven off, bound to a coffle in chains? Where are my poor bleeding brothers and sisters? Can you tell? Who was it that sent them off into sugar and cotton fields, to be kicked and cuffed, and whipped, and groan and die; and where no kin can hear their groans, or attend and sympathizie at their dying bed, or follow in their funeral? WRETCHED WOMAN! Do you say you did not do it? Then I reply, your husband did, and you approved the deed – and the very letter you sent me shows that your heart approves it all. SHAME ON YOU!

But, by the way, where is your husband? You don’t speak of him. I infer, therefore, that he is dead: that he has gone to his great account, with all his sins against my poor family upon his head. POOR MAN! Gone to meet the spirits of my poor outraged and murdered people, in a world where Liberty and Justice are MASTERS.

But you say I am a thief, because I took the old mare along with me. Have you got to learn that I had better right to the old mare, as you call her, than Manasseth Logue had to me? Is it a greater sin for me to steal his horse, than it was for him to rob my mother’s cradle, and steal me? If he and you infer that I forfeit all my rights to you, shall not infer that you forfeit all your rights to me? Have you got to learn that human rights are mutual and reciprocal, and if you take liberty and life, you forfeit your own liberty and life? Before God and high heaven, is there a law for one man which is not a law for every man?

If you or any other speculator on my body and rights, wish to know how I regard my rights, they need but come here, and lay their hands on me to enslave me. Did you think to terrify me by presenting the alternative to give my money to you, that I meet the proposition with unutterable scorn and contempt. The proposition with is an outrage and an insult. I WILL NOT BUDGE ONE HAIR’S BREADTH. I will not breathe a shorter breath, even to save me from your persecutions. I stand among a free people, who, I thank God, sympathize with my rights, and the rights of mankind: and if your emissaries and venders come here to re-enslave me and escape the unshrinking vigor of my own right arm, I trust my strong and brave friends, in the city and State will be my rescuers and avengers.



Yours, &c.,

J.W. Loguen.

From The Liberator, April 27, 1860





The Rev. J. W. Loguen,
as a Slave and as a Freeman.
A Narrative of Real Life:
Electronic Edition.
Loguen, Jermain Wesley
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/loguen/loguen.html <<< free online full version of his book check it out.

On the way from Khartoum to Port Sudan, about 200 km north-east of Khartoum, near Bagrawiya, the traveller passes by the area of the ancient Meroë, where he can find a group of a few dozens of pyramids spread over a small hill about one quarter square kilometer in size. The pyramids, much smaller than their well-known counterparts in Egypt, are the remains of a royal cemetery from the Meroitic kingdom (between 300 B.C. and 300 A.D.).

Ancient approach
The region of the Nile Valley which lies in the northern part of the present Sudan, has been influenced by the Egyptian civilization since the time of the Ancient Egyptian Kingdom. This influence grew stronger during the occupation by Egypt in the period of the Middle Kingdom and reached its summit after the Egyptians conquered the whole region up to the 4th Nile Cataract.
The Egyptian colonization lasted for almost five centuries and came to an end when in the twelfth century B.C. the Egyptian Empire fell into pieces.

4oo years later it were the kings of Napata in northern Sudan who ruled the Nile Valley from the Blue Nile down to the Delta. They revived the burial customs of the pyramid many centuries after the Pharaos had stopped building them and employed Egyptian artists in their architectural works. While the Napatan kingdom had to give up Egypt in 661 B.C. and subsequently the Egyptian influence started to decline, the burial traditions still survived and, after the the transfer of the kingship to the Meroitic line in the third century B.C., were taken over by the kings of Meroë.

Present approach
Excavations at Bagrawiya started in the 19th century, when the Europeans made their first archaeological expeditions into Nubia. When the British took control over Sudan in its new boundaries, part of the treasury had already been brought to Paris, Munich and Berlin. As most of the remains was left unprotected at that time, it experienced severe damage by the steady action of winds and dust storms over the decades of this century.

Today the most urgent preservation work is done by a small group of specialists under the leading of F.W.Hinkel, a German Architect and Archaeologist, supported by the Sudanese government and some international aid.

St. Monica
Widow; born of Christian parents at Tagaste, North Africa,(a few miles from algeria) in 333; died at Ostia, near Rome, in 387. Saint Monica, an African laywoman, is a saint with whom most black women can readily and easily identify, because Monica epitomizes the present-day black woman.


We are told but little of her childhood. She was married early in life to Patritius who held an official position in Tagaste. He was a pagan, though like so many at that period, his religion was no more than a name; his temper was violent and he appears to have been of dissolute habits. Consequently Monica's married life was far from being a happy one, more especially as Patritius's mother seems to have been of a like disposition with himself. There was of course a gulf between husband and wife; her almsdeeds and her habits of prayer annoyed him, but it is said that he always held her in a sort of reverence. Monica was not the only matron of Tagaste whose married life was unhappy, but, by her sweetness and patience, she was able to exercise a veritable apostolate amongst the wives and mothers of her native town; they knew that she suffered as they did, and her words and example had a proportionate effect.

Three children were born of this marriage, Augustine the eldest, Navigius the second, and a daughter, Perpetua. Monica had been unable to secure baptism for her children, and her grief was great when Augustine fell ill; in her distress she besought Patritius to allow him to be baptized; he agreed, but on the boy's recovery withdrew his consent. All Monica's anxiety now centred in Augustine; he was wayward and, as he himself tells us, lazy. He was sent to Madaura to school and Monica seems to have literally wrestled with God for the soul of her son. A great consolation was vouchsafed her — in compensation perhaps for all that she was to experience through Augustine — Patritius became a Christian. Meanwhile, Augustine had been sent to Carthage, to prosecute his studies, and here he fell into grievous sin. Patritius died very shortly after his reception into the Church and Monica resolved not to marry again. At Carthage Augustine had become a Manichean and when on his return home he ventilated certain heretical propositions she drove him away from her table, but a strange vision which she had urged her to recall him. It was at this time that she went to see a certain holy bishop, whose name is not given, but who consoled her with the now famous words, "the child of those tears shall never perish." There is no more pathetic story in the annals of the Saints than that of Monica pursuing her wayward son to Rome, wither he had gone by stealth; when she arrived he had already gone to Milan, but she followed him. Here she found St. Ambrose and through him she ultimately had the joy of seeing Augustine yield, after seventeen years of resistance. Mother and son spent six months of true peace at Cassiacum, after which time Augustine was baptized in the church of St. John the Baptist at Milan. Africa claimed them however, and they set out on their journey, stopping at Cività Vecchia and at Ostia. Here death overtook Monica and the finest pages of his "Confessions" were penned as the result of the emotion Augustine then experienced.

St. Monica was buried at Ostia, and at first seems to have been almost forgotten, though her body was removed during the sixth century to a hidden crypt in the church of St. Aureus. About the thirteenth century, however, the cult of St. Monica began to spread and a feast in her honour was kept on 4 May. In 1430 Martin V ordered the relics to be brought to Rome. Many miracles occurred on the way, and the cultus of St. Monica was definitely established. Later the Archbishop of Rouen, Cardinal d'Estouteville, built a church at Rome in honour of St. Augustine and deposited the relics of St. Monica in a chapel to the left of the high altar. The Office of St. Monica however does not seem to have found a place in the Roman Breviary before the sixteenth century.

In 1850 there was established at Notre Dame de Sion at Paris an Association of Christian mothers under the patronage of St. Monica; its object was mutual prayer for sons and husbands who had gone astray. This Association was in 1856 raised to the rank of an archconfraternity and spread rapidly over all the Catholic world, branches being established in Dublin, London, Liverpool, Sydney, and Buenos Aires. Eugenius IV had established a similar Confraternity long before.

Publication information
Written by Hugh T. Pope. Transcribed by Paul T. Crowley. In Memoriam, Mrs. Margaret Crowley & Mrs. Margaret Kenworthy
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume X. Published 1911. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

Bibliography
ST. AUGUSTINE, Confession, IX, reprinted in SURIUS. GUALTERUS, Canon Regular of Ostia, who was especially charged with the work of removing the relics from Ostia by Martin V, wrote a life of the saint with an account of the translation. He appended to the life a letter which used to be attributed to St. Augustine but which is undoubtedly spurious; it purports to be written to his sister Perpetua and describes their mother's death. The BOLLANDISTS decide for the contemporary character of the letter whilst denying it to St. Augustine. BARONIUS, Ann. Eccl., ad an. 389; BOUGAUD, Histoire de S. Monique.

Picture is of Chief Black Eagle

Many of the Yamasee mixed in with the Seminole and moved to Oklahoma. In 1730 some of the Yamasee settled on the site of what is now Savannah Georgia and took on the name, "Yamacraw." The Yamasee originally resided in Georgia but moved to the Carolinas when Spanish settlers pushed them out of Savannah. The Yamasee then became allies with the British in the Tuscarora War of 1711. Just as the Spaniards did, the British as well turned on the Yamasee and took advantage of their "gentle" nature. After the Tuscarora War, The British took the Yamasee land at gunpoint and refused to pay the tribe for the land. The British then captured Yamasee women and children and sold them into slavery. In retaliation the Yamasee gathered their relative, neighboring tribes of the Apalachees, Choctaw, Chickasaw, the Creek Confederation, The fearsome Catawbas, and the Cherokees. This event was one of the largest Native American war parties in history called "The Yamasee Uprising." The Catawbas was formed from the remnants of other Native American tribes that were massacred by war and epidemics of the 17th century. The main tribes of the Catawba was made up of the Chowan, Cangaree, Nachee, Coosah, and the Yamasee. The term "Catawba" comes from the Yuchi words "Ko" meaning "People" and "Taba" meaning "Strong." The name "Catawba" was used primarily after 1715 but the name that this group originally went by was "Iswa." The Iswas called themselves "Iyeye" and "Nieye" which means "Real People" and were in reference to them being the original Native Americans whom were black. The Iswa are mentioned in early Spanish records by the name of "Isa" when referring to the black Moors of Spain. The word "Isa" is an Ashuric Syraic Arabic word used by Muslims for Jesus and the language of the Moors was Arabic. The Olmecs spoke a dialect of Nuwabu which is a Akkadian dialect of Nubia in Africa. In 1736 the Catawbas joined the Mu-skogee.

After the 1715 war, Native American power collapsed in the South. Many of the Yamasee escaped to Florida joining Negro slaves and other black tribes to form what would later be called the Seminole. The nucleus of the Seminole tribe was the Oconee who lived along the Oconee River in Georgia. The Oconee were part Hitchiti. The Oconee emigrated from the Oconee River Westward to the Chattahoochee River where they mixed in with the Lower Creeks. Many of these bands began to settle in Florida and became known as Seminole, which means "Runaway." Five tribes made up the Seminole which were the Oconee, Yamasse, Apalachicola, Yuchi, and Lower Creeks. In 1729 A Kashita chief named Captin Ellick married three Yuchi women and persuaded some of the Yuchi to move in with the Creeks, but Governor Ogelthorp of Georgia fearing this mass joining of the two nations agreed to give the Yuchi the rights to their own land. The final seize of land did not occur until 1751. The U.S. Government's concern was to keep the Indian nations segregated for fear of a mass uprising. Many of the Yamasee and the Oconee decided not to inter-marry into the red tribes and decided to keep their original "black" ancestry. Other Oconees and Yamasee did infact mix with other nations and produced black factions in almost every aboriginal tribe. There is a saying in the Shoshone tribe that states, "Coming full circle" in which is in reference to the original Natives being of African ancestry, loosing their African blood due to the mixing with Asians and Europeans and thousands of years later, mixing back into the vine. In a book entitled, "A Guide to Indian Tribes of Oklahoma" it states on page 228:

"The Seminole are one of the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma. More than any
other of these tribes, they are a cosmopolitan Indian group. Both their men and
their women have always been remarkable in their appearance. The men particularly o the Tiger Clan , have a dark, copper-colored complexion . They are well develop in muscle and limb, and are capable of great physical endurance, a large head, square chest and face, and slightly aquiline nose are tribal characteristics. The women generally tend to average height or less. One ethnologist has stated that the three representatives types of a handsome and pretty, and comely woman coal be selected from the Seminole as the first tribe in rank among the American Indians for fine looking women."

In 1862 a colossal stone head was discovered in the state of Veracruz along the steaming Gulf Coast of Mexico. In the years to come, artifacts from the culture later termed "Olmec" turned up at widespread sites in Mexico and adjacent Central America, with the greatest number of characteristic themes being present in the region of the original discovery.


For decades these findings were misinterpreted. The Maya were thought of as the "mother culture" of Mexico, and therefore the Olmec were either insignificant or Maya themselves, and in any case later in development. Then in 1939 a carving was discovered near the gigantic head with a characteristic Olmec design on one side and a date symbol on the other.

This revealed the first inklings of a shocking truth, later confirmed by radiocarbon dating: At least in terms of their comparative antiquity, the Olmec had a far greater right to be considered the mother culture. Hundreds of years earlier than anyone had imagined, simple villages had given way to a complex society governed by kings and priests, with impressive ceremonial centers and artworks. Today some find the term "mother culture" misleading, but clearly the Olmec came first.
In his invaluable book The Maya, Michael Coe makes the case that the Maya and many other civilizations were clearly dependent on Olmec achievements. Also on the theme of the cultural continuity between the Olmec and the Maya is Kent Reilly's paper, "Olmec Iconographic Influences On the Symbols of Maya Rulership" (online here at Mesoweb/PARI).

One of the best books ever written about the Olmec is available as a free electronic download at the website of Dumbarton Oaks: Click the link under Pre-Columbian Studies for Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks by Karl Taube (2004).

Other megalithic heads were discovered in the intervening years, all with "African" facial features. While it is unlikely that the founders or leaders of Olmec civilization came directly from Africa, their remote ancestors may well have originated there and migrated to Asia, where many original populations of countries like Cambodia and the Philippines have similar characteristics. These might have been brought along when the first humans entered the Americas.

A characteristic motif of Olmec art is a human face with a jaguar mouth, sometimes called a "were-jaguar". To some scholars, this suggests a derivation of Olmec religion from shamanistic shape-shifting. In The Ancient Kingdoms of Mexico, Nigel Davies suggests that there is evidence that the Olmec practiced human sacrifice, including that of infants.


No Olmec mythology survives, except for what may be inferred from symbols in art and architecture. But some specialists have deduced from representations of the "were-jaguar" that in Olmec mythology a human mated with a jaguar.


This hypothesis is advanced, for instance, in Michael Coe and Rex Koontz's Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs, which presents an excellent introduction to the Olmec.

A good in-depth treatment of the Olmec, fully illustrated in color, is The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership.

This handsome volume is the catalog of a 1996 exhibition of the same name, described online by Gillett G. Griffin with a selection of photographs.

The jaguar is a potent symbol throughout Mesoamerican cultures. Based on other artworks that they left behind, the Olmec clearly imagined that their shamans transformed on ritual occasions into this ferocious jungle beast.

A particularly striking demonstration of the stages of this transformation was presented at the 1996 Olmec exhibition in Washington, D.C. A sculpture of a human in a kneeling ritual position was lined up with another humanoid figure in the same posture but with the ears, muzzle and mouth of a jaguar. Adjacent was a similar hybrid standing erect, and behind this was a long-tailed creature, almost fully a jaguar but for its human fingers, in the stance of a man.

Photographs of these sculptures are available in the exhibition catalog, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson and Beatriz de la Fuente.

Just as the Olmec is properly described as Mesoamerica's mother culture, it is also identified as the region's first civilization. The distinction between a culture and civilization is touched upon in this quote from Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs by Michael Coe and Rex Koontz: "'By their works ye shall know them,' and archaeologists tend to judge cultures as civilizations by the presence of great public works and unified, evolved, monumental art styles."



Olmec Links

Our page about the Olmec Colossal Heads links to a complete assortment of them on the Web.
Also at Mesoweb, see The Cultures of Ancient Mexico, a series of photographs and commentary that begins with the Olmec. (Also see that feature's Index for more Olmec objects.)

A selection of Olmec Art from the website of Edgar Martín del Campo.


******FREE ONLINE BOOK VERSION ON THE OLMEC BELOW******http://www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/RT08/143olmec/olmec001.html

Septimius Severus (193-211 A.D.)
Michael L. Meckler
Ohio State University


Introduction

Lucius Septimius Severus restored stability to the Roman empire after the tumultuous reign of the emperor Commodus and the civil wars that erupted in the wake of Commodus' murder. However, by giving greater pay and benefits to soldiers and annexing the troublesome lands of northern Mesopotamia into the Roman empire, Septimius Severus brought increasing financial and military burdens to Rome's government. His prudent administration allowed these burdens to be met during his eighteen years on the throne, but his reign was not entirely sunny. The bloodiness with which Severus gained and maintained control of the empire tarnished his generally positive reputation.
Severus' Early Life and Acclamation
Severus was born 11 April 145 in the African city of Lepcis Magna, whose magnificent ruins are located in modern Libya, 130 miles east of Tripoli. Septimius Severus came from a distinguished local family with cousins who received suffect consulships in Rome under Antoninus Pius. The future emperor's father seems not to have held any major offices, but the grandfather may have been the wealthy equestrian Septimius Severus commemorated by the Flavian-era poet Statius.[[1]]
The future emperor was helped in his early career by one of his consular cousins, who arranged entry into the senate and the favor of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Life as a senator meant a life of travel from one government posting to another. Moorish attacks on his intended post of Baetica (southern Spain) forced Severus to serve his quaestorship in Sardinia. He then traveled to Africa as a legate and returned to Rome to be a tribune of the plebs. Around the year 175 he married Paccia Marciana, who seems also to have been of African origin. The childless marriage lasted a decade or so until her death.

Severus' career continued to flourish as the empire passed from Marcus to Commodus. The young senator held a praetorship, then served in Spain, commanded a legion in Syria and held the governorships of Gallia Lugdunensis (central France), Sicily and Upper Pannonia (easternmost Austria and western Hungary). While in Gallia Lugdunensis in 187, the now-widowed future emperor married Julia Domna, a woman from a prominent family of the Syrian city of Emesa. Two sons quickly arrived, eleven months apart: Bassianus (known to history as Caracalla) in April of the year 188, and Geta in March 189.

News of Pertinax's assassination 28 March 193 in an uprising by the praetorian guard quickly reached Pannonia, and only twelve days later on 9 April 193, Severus was proclaimed emperor. Septimius Severus had the strong support of the armies along the Rhine and Danube, but the loyalty of the governor of Britain, Clodius Albinus, was in doubt. Severus' envoys from Pannonia offered Albinus the title of Caesar, which he accepted.

The Civil Wars with Albinus, Niger, and Didius Julianus
In the city of Rome, Didius Julianus gained the support of the praetorian troops and was promoted as the successor to Pertinax. Although Julianus' authority did not extend much beyond Italy, Severus understood that legitimacy for a Roman emperor meant having one's authority accepted in Rome. He and his army began a swift march to the city. They met practically no resistance on their advance from Pannonia into northern Italy, as Julianus' supporters defected. By the beginning of June when Severus reached Interamna, 50 miles north of Rome, even the praetorian guard stationed in the capital switched sides. Didius Julianus was declared a public enemy and killed. Septimius Severus entered Rome without a fight.
Civil war was not yet over. Another provincial governor also had his eyes on the throne. In Syria, Pescennius Niger had been proclaimed emperor on news of Pertinax's death, and the eastern provinces quickly went under his authority. Byzantium became Niger's base of operations as he prepared to fight the armies of the west loyal to Severus.

Niger was unable to maintain further advances into Europe. The fighting moved to the Asian shore of the Propontis, and in late December 193 or early January 194, Niger was defeated in a battle near Nicaea and fled south. Asia and Bithynia fell under Severus' control, and Egypt soon recognized Severus' authority. By late spring, Niger was defeated near Issus and the remainder of his support collapsed. Syria was pacified. Niger was killed fleeing Antioch. Byzantium, however, refused to surrender to Severan forces. Niger's head was sent to the city to persuade the besieged citizens to give up, but to no avail. The Byzantines held out for another year before surrender. As punishment for their stubbornness, the walls of their city were destroyed.

Severus' Eastern Campaigns
During the fighting, two of the peoples of upper Mesopotamia -- the Osrhoeni and the Adiabeni -- captured some Roman garrisons and made an unsuccessful attack on the Roman-allied city of Nisibis. After the defeat of Niger, these peoples offered to return Roman captives and what remained of the seized treasures if the remaining Roman garrisons were removed from the region. Severus refused the offer and prepared for war against the two peoples, as well as against an Arabian tribe that had aided Niger. In the spring of 195, Severus marched an army through the desert into upper Mesopotamia. The native peoples quickly surrendered, and Severus added to his name the victorious titles Arabicus and Adiabenicus. Much of the upper third of Mesopotamia was organized as a Roman province, though the king of Osrhoene was allowed to retain control of a diminished realm.
The tottering Parthian empire was less and less able to control those peoples living in the border regions with Rome. Rome's eastern frontier was entering a period of instability, and Severus responded with an interventionist policy of attack and annexation. Some senators feared that increased involvement in Mesopotamia would only embroil Rome in local squabbles at great expense. [[2]] The emperor, however, would remain consistent in his active eastern policy.

Legitimization of the Severan Dynasty
Severus also took steps to cement his legitimacy as emperor by connecting himself to the Antonine dynasty. Severus now proclaimed himself the son of Marcus Aurelius, which allowed him to trace his authority, through adoption, back to the emperor Nerva. Julia Domna was awarded the title "Mother of the Camp" (mater castrorum), a title only previously given to the empress Faustina the Younger, Marcus' wife. Bassianus, the emperor's elder son, was renamed Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and given the title Caesar. It was this last step that marked a decisive break with Albinus.
Albinus had remained in Britain as governor during the struggles between Severus and Niger. Although Albinus had not attempted open revolt against the emperor, he seems to have been in communication with senators about future moves.[[3]] By the end of 195, Albinus was declared a public enemy by Severus. The governor of Britain responded by proclaiming himself emperor and invading Gaul.

A weary Roman populace used the anonymity of the crowd at the chariot races to complain about renewed civil war, but it was Gaul that bore the brunt of the fighting. Albinus and his supporters were able to inflict losses on the occasion of the initial attacks, but disorder was so great that opportunistic soldiers could easily operate on their own within the lands under Albinus' nominal control.

The tide began to turn early in 197, and after a Severan victory at Tournus, Albinus found himself and his army trapped near Lyon. A battle broke out 19 February 197. In the initial fighting, Albinus' troops forced the Severans into retreat, during which Severus fell off his horse. When the Severan cavalry appeared, however, Albinus' army was routed. Lyon was sacked and Albinus, who was trapped in a house along the river Rhône, committed suicide. Severus ordered Albinus' head to be cut off and sent to Rome for display. Many of Albinus' supporters were killed, including a large number of Spanish and Gallic aristocrats. Albinus' wife and children were killed, as were many of the wives of his supporters. Tradition also told of the mutilation of bodies and denial of proper burial. The emperor revealed a penchant for cruelty that troubled even his fervent supporters. A purge of the senate soon followed. Included among the victims was Pertinax's father-in-law, Sulpicianus.

Severus and the Roman Military
Severus brought many changes to the Roman military. Soldiers' pay was increased by half, they were allowed to be married while in service, and greater opportunities were provided for promotion into officer ranks and the civil service. The entire praetorian guard, discredited by the murder of Pertinax and the auctioning of their support to Julianus, was dismissed. The emperor created a new, larger praetorian guard out of provincial soldiers from the legions. Increases were also made to the two other security forces based in Rome: the urban cohorts, who maintained order; and the night watch, who fought fires and dealt with overnight disturbances, break-ins and other petty crime. These military reforms proved expensive, but the measures may well have increased soldiers' performance and morale in an increasingly unsettled age.
One location that remained unsettled was the eastern frontier. In 197 Nisibis had again been under siege, and the emperor prepared for another eastern campaign. Three new legions were raised, though one was left behind in central Italy to maintain order. The Roman armies easily swept through upper Mesopotamia, traveling down the Euphrates to sack Seleucia, Babylon and Ctesiphon, which had been abandoned by the Parthian king Vologaeses V. On 28 January 198 -- the centenary of Trajan's accession -- Severus took the victorious title Parthicus Maximus and promoted both of his sons: Caracalla to the rank of Augustus and Geta to the rank of Caesar.

Before embarking on the eastern campaign, the emperor had named Gaius Fulvius Plautianus as a praetorian prefect. Plautianus came from the emperor's home town of Lepcis, and the prefect may even have been a relative of the emperor[[4]] The victories in Mesopotamia were followed by tours of eastern provinces, including Egypt. Plautianus accompanied Severus throughout the travels, and by the year 201 Plautianus was the emperor's closest confidant and advisor. Plautianus was also praetorian prefect without peer after having arranged the murder of his last colleague in the post.

Upon the return to Rome in 202, the influence of Plautianus was at its height. Comparisons were made with Sejanus, the powerful praetorian prefect under the emperor Tiberius. Plautianus, who earlier had been adlected into the senate, was now awarded consular rank, and his daughter Plautilla was married to Caracalla. The wealth Plautianus had acquired from his close connection with the emperor enabled him to provide a dowry said to have been worthy of fifty princesses. [[5]] Celebrations and games also marked the decennalia, the beginning of the tenth year of Severus' reign. Later in the year the enlarged imperial family traveled to Lepcis, where native sons Severus and Plautianus could display their prestige and power.

The following year the imperial family returned to Rome, where an arch, still standing today, was dedicated to the emperor at the western end of the Forum. Preparations were also being made for the Secular Games, which were thought to have originated in earliest Rome and were to be held every 110 years. Augustus celebrated the Secular Games in 17 B.C., and Domitian in A.D. 88, six years too early. (Claudius used the excuse of Rome's 800th year to hold the games in A.D. 47.) In 204 Severus would preside over ten days of ceremonies and spectacles.

By the end of 204, Plautianus was finding his influence with the emperor on the wane. Caracalla was not happy to be the husband of Plautilla. Julia Domna resented Plautianus' criticisms and investigations against her. Severus was tiring of his praetorian prefect's ostentation, which at times seemed to surpass that of the emperor himself. The emperor's ailing brother, Geta, also denounced Plautianus, and after Geta's death the praetorian prefect found himself being bypassed by the emperor. In January 205 a soldier named Saturninus revealed to the emperor a plot by Plautianus to have Severus and Caracalla killed. Plautianus was summoned to the imperial palace and executed. His children were exiled, and Caracalla divorced Plautilla. Some observers suspected the story of a plot was merely a ruse to cover up long-term plans for Plautianus' removal. [[6]]

Severus and Roman Law
Two new praetorian prefects were named to replace Plautianus, one of whom was the eminent jurist Papinian. The emperor's position as ultimate appeals judge had brought an ever-increasing legal workload to his office. During the second century, a career path for legal experts was established, and an emperor came to rely heavily upon his consilium, an advisory panel of experienced jurists, in rendering decisions. Severus brought these jurists to even greater prominence. A diligent administrator and conscientious judge, the emperor appreciated legal reasoning and nurtured its development. His reign ushered in the golden age of Roman jurisprudence, and his court employed the talents of the three greatest Roman lawyers: Papinian, Paul and Ulpian.
The order Severus was able to impose on the empire through both the force of arms and the force of law failed to extend to his own family. His now teenaged sons, Caracalla and Geta, displayed a reckless sibling rivalry that sometimes resulted in physical injury. The emperor believed the lack of responsibilities in Rome contributed to the ill-will between his sons and decided that the family would travel to Britain to oversee military operations there. Caracalla was involved in directing the army's campaigns, while Geta was given civilian authority and a promotion to joint emperor with his father and brother.

Severus was now