Peter D Brown, Author

In late May 2023, Florida’s State Board of Education went public with their proposal to control the way U.S. history is taught in Florida’s classrooms. Changes to the new standards sought to prevent teachers from “indoctrinating” students.

Part and parcel of Governor Ron DeSantis’ Stop Woke Act, the proposal seeks to eliminate what is known as ‘critical race theory’ from Florida’s classrooms. Critical race theory holds that racism is far more than individual biases and prejudice. It recognizes that, through a history of chronic racism, racism has become systemically embedded within American laws, policies, and institutions.

As much as some hate to admit it, critical race theory is real; it is the truth, and it exists. Slavery and its attendant racism are irrevocably part of the cultural bedrock from which our society and its institutions grew and can’t be ignored.

On July 19th, 2023, Florida’s State Board of Education approved new K–12 standards for teaching African American history.

Although the changes may seem subtle, they have significant implications. For instance, previous standards asked students to evaluate the contributions of African American individuals. This has now been changed to ask students to merely identify African American individuals.

What’s the difference? It has only recently been discovered—as late as the 1970’s—that cultivation of rice in America would not have happened without expertise brought by slaves taken from the Guinea Coast region of Africa. The European colonizers under King Charles II simply had no idea how to make rice grow in the Province of Carolina. Successful development of this crop created one of the most profitable economies in the world at the time, which in turn funded the colonization of America. This happened because of the contributions of enslaved Africans. This fact was hidden from history for over three hundred years. The colonists claimed this achievement as their own, and that’s how history was written and passed down.

It wouldn’t be until Peter Wood’s landmark book, Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion, (1974), that the world would finally understand that it was Africans who brought the expertise for designing and building the major earthworks, dams, and irrigation systems that made rice cultivation possible in America, not the Europeans. Africans contributed their sophisticated knowledge and skills to the building of America, not just their physical labor.

Failure to credit African Americans for their contributions to America’s success is complicit in forming the roots of systemic racism. Its branches and tentacles spread far and wide, creating massive conditions of inequity and disadvantage for African American citizens.

The amended teaching standards further require, when teaching the history of slavery, including “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

The implication here is to suggest that enslavement conveyed benefits to the enslaved, a falsehood perpetuated by our forebears for hundreds of years to justify slavery. The truth is these people were kidnapped, taken from their homes and families. They were tortured, killed, deprived of any rights whatsoever. They were worked to death in thankless service to their abductors. They were bred, bought, and sold like chattel by those with no right to own any human being.

The standards also require teaching that Blacks were complicit in perpetrating violence during Reconstruction and beyond. Examples include: the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 1919 Washington, D.C. Race Riot, 1920 Ocoee Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Massacre, and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre, all racially motivated incidents incited by white citizens, many in which Black citizens were blatantly massacred. Per these standards, we’re to teach how the victims should share the blame.

These are all unacceptable alterations to history. Fundamental facts like these are crucial for future generations to learn the truth of history and cannot be omitted or distorted. There’s nothing “indoctrinating” about the truth. We’ve come too far, from the Civil War up through the civil rights movement, to take such backward steps.

What you have read so far describes my motivation to write this novel. This story examines the realities of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, its injustice, and the suffering of its victims. It further acknowledges the contributions of African Americans.

The enslaved generally didn’t keep many written records of their experiences. Their stories were mostly passed down through word of mouth from generation to generation. Therefore, this story recreates what such an experience might have been like by tracing the life of an enslaved African with the fictional character, Jayvyn. In doing so, I realized my characters would have to have factual and real attributes. I would need to understand as much about their circumstances as possible if I hoped to achieve even a rudimentary sense of what their experience would have been like. I have done my best to research my characters’ African heritage, their journeys and experiences during the time period I chose: the early 1700’s. As well, I have been as thorough as possible with regard to correctly portraying historical facts surrounding the European slave trade during this period.

I have spent much time getting to know Jayvyn, but as it must always be when one endeavors to fully assimilate another’s life, I feel I have left many stones unturned. Not having had the grave misfortune to live it for myself, there’s no way to truly understand the horribleness of his experience. I am thankful, however, to have taken this journey with Jayvyn. It has been educational, heartbreaking, and uplifting—maybe not in the joyous sense—but in the hopeful sense that human beings, with all of our imperfections, can prevail in discovering better ways to coexist in a world that continually conspires to prove otherwise.

Jayvyn has taught me many things I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I hope, after reading this book, you will feel the same.

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