The Memory of Iron (Goucher) Iron as both master and slave

The Memory of Iron (Goucher)

• Iron as both master and slave

The Memory of Iron (Goucher)• Iron working: a high-status occupation in West Africa

– Based on the power of transforming stone to metal in both

material and spiritual senses

– Smiths were expected to be experts in ritual, herbal and technological knowledge

• Ritual surrounded iron working: – repetitive nature of ritual helped improve consistency and

cultural memory

– Exclusionary nature of ritual helped to control proprietary knowledge of the trade, restricted to ritual elders

The Memory of Iron (Goucher)• Iron was ubiquitous in the Atlantic commercial

world:– Trade goods: Iron pots, nails, guns, cannons, chains,

shackles, knives, cutlasses, hoes, horseshoes, bands for barrel-making, iron bars and scrap metal for horse and mule-trappings, wire, buttons, tacks, scissors, and machinery parts for industrial and ship-related activities

• Enslaved African blacksmiths employed in ships, forts, plantations, and colonial iron works

• Sought out for their skill, but feared for their authority among African people

The Memory of Iron (Goucher)• Iron working was high status, politically effective

– Smiths became social leaders in Afro-Caribbean churches after emancipation

– Long-term success of maroon (runaway slave) communities was because they forged their own tools and weapons

– Jamaica banned slaves from metal trading in 1774

– Enslaved blacksmiths and leatherworkers at Winkle Village, Guyana went on strike and successfully negotiated an early date for their emancipation

The Memory of Iron (Goucher)• Reeder’s Pen on Morant Bay, Jamaica, 1772-1782,

excavated 1993.– 276 enslaved, free, and maroon Africans employed at the

site.

• Identified obvious evidence of iron works in structures and tools – including ritual cache under the foundry hearth

consisting of a bottle, teeth, and a cutlass – Over half the ceramics were yabbas, local

handmade type similar to colonoware

The Memory of Iron (Goucher)• Reeder’s Pen ordered dismantled by the

Governor in fear that a successful and profitable foundry would draw an attack by French and Spanish forces

• Iron working persisted in Morant Bay for the next century at a smaller scale,

• Former workers and their descendents have since been a “constant source of resistance and rebellion after the demise of the industry” (p.65)

The Memory of Iron (Goucher)

• The area is also know as the center of kumina– African-derived religion consisting of spirit

possession, drumming, dance, and blood-sacrifice rituals

– Kumina rituals guide memories of Reeder’s Pen in • the dance of the iron cutlass

• the use of Akan words referencing iron work

• an emphasis on the role of fire in political, social, and spiritual transformation: an underlying motive for the long history of revolts originating in the area

The Memory of Iron (Goucher)• Why is ironworking so powerful?• Association with Ogun, Yoruba Orisha warrior deity

associated with iron and the transformative powers of the blacksmith

• Ogun represents to two sides of iron– Destructive weapon: violent, impetuous hot-tempered

warrior – Civilizing/productive tool: known for sexual prowess,

nurturing and protection• Ogun personified as blacksmith in Orisha ceremonies, holding

the long poker of the steamship, in Trinidad and Tobago sailor bands

• Blacksmiths often identify the anvil as the mother of the forge

The Memory of Iron (Goucher)• Power force 5: http://www.powerforcefive.com/

http://www.powerforcefive.com/

Fennell, Crossroads and Cosmologies

• Emblematic and instrumental symbolic expression in core symbols within cultures– Core symbols are dominant markers, widely

recognized by cultural groups– Emblematic core symbols are most fully

expressed, conglomerate of ideas within one entity• E.g., Crucifix, Flag

– Instrumental core symbols serve practical and immediate purposes, abbreviated versions, can be individualized expressions


• Dikenga: BaKongo cosmogram– Four moments of the sun

• Core symbol in West Central African Bakongo culture groups

• Can be abbreviated with simple crossed lines

Fennell, Crossroads and Cosmologies• North American as variant in the

Americas – cultural blending and outward

African American religious expression comparatively muted to that in Lat Am

– Greater surveillance drove religious expression out of site to hidden and perhaps isolated spaces

– Archaeological discoveries of buried caches as evidence

– Led to greater use of instrumental symbols to invoke spiritual aid and protection

Nkisi bundle recovered under basement floor at Charles Carroll of Carrollton

House, Annapolis, MD


• BaKongo religious identities and expression– Nzambi Mpungu is remote Godhead (top of

Dikenga)– Basimbi (simbi sing.) are intermediary spirits– Minkisi (Nkisi sing.): container for the

manifestation of the spirit• used to communicate with and control Basimbi

Fennell, Crossroads and Cosmologies• Banganga, ritual specialists, create nkisi

– Used for both divination and enchantment– Combine bilongo substances that reference the

Dikenga: • white clay/ash for purity of Godhead• Quarts/mica/mirror reflective as in watery

boundary• Seashells/nutshells containers of life and spirit• Bird skulls/feathers/connotation of flight• Animal claws/teeth for forcefulness• Clinging vines/roots: to bind to malevolent

spirits


• Public Nkisi protected villages

• Nkisi houses• Banganga also

performed private healing and divining rituals for individuals

• Typically involve the use of Dikenga as simple crossed-lines


• American Ethnogenesis in blended cultures in Latin America

• Combined instrumental symbols from Bakongo and other regions

• Vodun in Haiti– Vèvè: drawings on ground to

summon loa, intermediary deities

• Macumba in Brazil– Pontos riscados


• Fennell cites wide-spread adoption of evangelical Christianity in North America to explain lack of ethnogenesis

• Turn to Thornton to propose alternative

Thornton, African Christianity

• Great deal of overlap in certain aspects of African and Catholic religion

• Both believe in an “other world”– Home for the dead– Superior world with power of this one

• Both see certain validity in revelations– Messages from the other world to this one, – delivered to those capable of understanding like

saints, priests, banganga


• Revelations employed to create– Philosophy: an understanding of the nature of the

other world in terms of its inhabitants and their relations

– Religion: understanding the desires of other world inhabitants so that we can obey their demands

– Cosmology: construction of the working of this and the other world as a unified entity or cosmos

Thornton, African Christianity• African revelations came in different types and

intensity– Augury: reading signs and events like bird calls, animal

behaviors, celestial movements/events– Divination: performing activity and reading results such as

Ifa (Yoruba), reading cowrie shells after being dropped on aboard

– Dream: interpreted a direct communication to individuals from those in the other world

– Visions and voices: seeing and hearing spirits– Spirit possession/mediumship: objects and people

occupied by spirits


• Nkisi: magical charms or bundles that are called on to be possessed by spirits whose influence can be harnessed by a conjurer or spirit medium

• Fixing the being into the objects

Thornton, African Christianity• Conversion and orthodoxy

– African religions lacked orthodoxy, in the sense of fixed set of rules and practices, tied to a professional priestly class.

– Trended towards greater fluidity in who may function as a priest, especially the ability for followers to walk away if a priest fails


• Continuous vs. Discontinuous revelation– Continuous describes the expectation that priests

have ongoing connection to spirit world– Discont. describes the reference to a fixed set of

revelations forming the root of an orthodoxy: Official Christendom

– Post-reformation Christianity• continuous revelation taken to be sign of witchcraft

• Salem trials as an example

Thornton, African Christianity• Revelation vs. cosmology in conversion

– T. suggests African Christianity is the result of a inclusive approach to conversion

– Co-revelations: interpretation of African revelations as signs of unacknowledged Christian God; or Christian revelations as sign of African deities and gods

– T. suggests conversion was at the level of revelation NOT cosmology, in which the African cosmology was maintained in Christianity

– Kongolese St. Anthony 1701-1706

Thornton, African Christianity• African Christianity in America

– Survival of “national” or ethnic traditions:• Practicing specific African rituals at funerals

– Witchcraft accusations relate survival of African-derived revelatory practices

• Often identified as Devil possession

• Christianity also served as lingua franca– Cult of Saints, Saints playing the roles of African-

derived territorial and intermediary spirits– Formed a common ground on which to build new

religions

Contextualizing African Spiritual traditions in the United States

• Considering the active use of ritual practice and revelation to create African American culture– Stine et al: evil eye, blue – Leone: symbolic violence– Brown: African American community structure

Blue Beads, Linda Stine et al

• Blue is most common color for beads overall at African American sites

• specifically at domestic sites in the colonial and antebellum periods


• African Antecedents: “beads are central to the lives of Africans”– used for adornment: hair, clothing, necklaces, bracelets,

waistbands, anklets

• Associated with myth and ritual – Charms used for protection from malevolent spirits and

witchcraft– Yoruba Abiku cult: adorn children in iron rings and beads

until they can care for themselves

• Personal charms were worn around neck, wrist, or ankle

• Households charms placed under door sills, and bed, over doors and windows, next to hearths


• Clear evidence of continued use of charms during slavery

• FWP sources describe animistic (spirit) belief

• Also conjurers as diviners and makers of charms

• Gullah Jack, affiliate of Vesey in 1822, was regarded as a conjurer


• The Evil Eye: belief that a hag/witch can cast an evil spell by looking at someone

• Charms worn for protection

http://bp3.blogger.com/_RqrDTdZ_py0/SAuvy40LAVI/AAAAAAAAAAs/99elJf9IrTk/s1600-h/charm3.JPG


• Cemetery evidence– Means Graveyard, SC possession cremation pits

(personal objects burned after body is buried) containing blue beads, one with more than 3000

– African Burial Ground, NY: only 7 of 419 burial found with beads,

– common ratio: suggests beads may have been identifying special individuals

ABG Burial 340 waist beads


• Color symbolism• Zora Neal Hurston (candle colors):

– Blue provided protection and success, the inverse of death– White was used for peace, wedding, “to uncross”– Red was for victory– Pink for love and drawing away success– Green for success, help to “drive off”– Yellow and brown brought money– Lavender caused harm– Black was evil and death


• 1930s Folklore project: – “Ghosts are afraid of [blue] because it reminds

them of heaven…the Negroes like to think God himself prefers blue”

• Attic louvers, gables, trim, doors, widow molding painted blue to protect house from sprits and witches

• Making blue visible, not only for protection but to demonstrate belief

Symbolic Violence, Leone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton House, Annapolis, Md.


Slayton House, Annapolis, Md.

Symbolic Violence, LeoneBrice House Kitchen,

Annapolis, Md.

Symbolic Violence, Leone• FWP ex-slave narratives describe the uses of items in

the African spirit tradition of divination– Prevent and cure disease, bring luck by controlling the

future of events

• Problem is that the sources only point to visible items worn or used short-term, not buried as caches

• Buried bundles used for fixing, or conjure– a.k.a., Hands, tobys, bags, bundles

– Used to harm, kill, make crazy, cripple, or other form of harm

Fixing the master

M for Martin


• How the caches work: Three Items– Something to identify the person

• Hair, small possession (modified button)

– Something allied to a wish• Bent pin to cure rheumatism; crab claw for strength

– Something to contain the sprit• Crystal, red cloth, mirror fragment, white ceramic,

graveyard dirt, white powder

Symbolic Violence, Leone• Centering

– Long term process of worship through the creation of spaces where the force of spirits was under control

– Placing caches, and creating cosmograms in the master’s houses was centering, a way of managing the spirits revealed in slavery

– Addressing the contradictions slavery produces in reference to kinship

• slave as simultaneously included and excluded in the household

– Cosmograms were thus active and causal, they represent a constant centering that applied to everyone, master and slave

African American community structure at Jordan Plantation, Brown

• Levi Jordan Plantation, Brazoria County Texas (Near Houston), 1848-1892

• Occupied by Jordan family and enslaved/ tenant community

• Tenant community evicted in 1892, leaving all possessions behind for lost until excavations in 1980s led by Ken Brown, U. of Houston


• Patterns in the archaeology shows that occupants of different cabins engaged in specialized occupations– Carver, carpenter, blacksmith, seamstress,

conjurer/mid-wife

• Research aimed to use this information to reconstruct internal dynamics of African American community– Focus on distinctions between internal and

external economy


• Using markers of economic status in diet and the association with non-utilitarian/luxury goods, cabins occupants could be ranked

• Showed that those with externally valuable skills (blacksmith seamstress) were low ranking– This despite the fact that

blacksmith left the plantation in 1872 after purchasing 360 acres and the seamstress opened a shop in Brazoria

• Status did not come from monetary wealth, but an internal system of meaning


• High status cabins were those of the Conjurer/Midwife and the Political leader/Prays House– Occupations that functioned to

maintain and reinforce community identity

• One way to track these is the distribution of carved bone and shell produced by a specialist in the community– Fly whisk and spur pendant in

the Prays House– Oracle bones in the conjurer

cabin– Hair pins in the seamstress and

munitions maker’s cabin

Carved bone fly whisk

Carved shell cameo – unfinished (found in

carver’s cabin)


Conjurer/Midwife Cabin

• Four caches create a cosmogram aligned to cardinal directions

1. curer’s kits and Nkisi

2. Set of coins

3. Iron kettle Nkisi below cabin doorway

4. Ash, metal and shell placed into the hearth

• Intersection was likely site for curing/conjuring rituals

Curer’s kit consisted of iron kettle bases, cubes of white chalk, bird skulls, animal paw, two sealed tubes of bullet casings, oceans hells, small dolls, high number of nails, spikes, knife blades, and fake knife blades, water rounded pebbles, two chipped stone scraping tools, patent medicine bottles, and a thermometer


Political Leader/Prays House Cabin

• Few artifacts with less variability in abandonment layer– No tools– No domestic artifacts like ceramics utensils,

cooking pots– Brass cross found in center of cabin, located near

two coins that were placed directly north and west, partial cosmogram??


Political Leader/Prays House Cabin• Carpenter and seamstress tools found

below abandonment layer suggest initial occupants

• Carpenter was promoted to foreman, though also identified as one of the men who testified against the Martins in a suit that lead to the eviction of the community

• Alterations to the cabin correspond to shift from carpenter to foreman and the creation of a Prays House with attached residence– Cabin enlarged and hearth moved


Prays/Praise House• Model from Gullah communities on Sea Islands• Prays House used as community center in quarter

community, also residence of important person• Brass cross, coins, buried ash deposits and a plaster

sculpture on the floor at the entrance define the ritual use of the space for ritual

• As community leader, the foreman likely mediated interaction between quarters and outsiders, protecting community for direct interventions, and allowing its internal structure and spiritual beliefs to be hidden and maintained

Documents

The Memory of Iron (Goucher) Iron as both master and slave