Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome
By
John C Abercrombie
- 11
When it comes to race and the discussion of race in the United States, there is a great divide. Many see the fact that slavery in the main was supposed to have ended with the Civil War on one side with the belief of “just get over it.” on the other side.
On the other side of the great divide are those who have suffered through generations of not only slavery but the aftermath that lingers to this day. How can this be?
The best known work in this area goes back to the work of Dr Joy DeGruy Leary and argues the experience of slavery and continued discrimination and oppression generates psychological trauma that leads to psychological and behavioral problems that affect a lack of self-esteem, feelings of anger and internalized racist beliefs.
The book was published by Uptone Press of Milwaukie, Oregon in 2006 and rereleased by the author in 2017.
Psychologist Alvin Poussaint and journalist Amy L Alexander first proposed the theory. DeGruy wrote about it in her 2001 doctoral thesis. Describing how “sustained traumatic injury as a direct result of slavery and continues to be injured by traumas caused by the larger society’s policies of inequality as a result of slavery and continued injured by trauma caused by the larger societies of inequality, racism, and oppression.
In her book Dr DeGruy argues that PTSS is a result of unresolved post-traumatic stress disorder arising from the experience of slavery, transmitted across generations down to the present day, along with the stress of contemporary racial prejudice (e.g., via racial microaggressions). This manifests as a psychological, spiritual, emotional, and behavioral syndrome that results in a lack of self-esteem, persistent feelings of anger, and internalized racist beliefs.
Microaggression is defined as a statement, action, or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority
PTSS is not a disorder that can simply be treated and remedied clinically but rather requires profound social change in individuals, as well as in institutions, which continue to deify inequality and injustice toward the descendants of enslaved Africans.
The theory has been generative of subsequent academic work in clinical psychology and black studies. To understand the origin of the disorder, it is necessary to look at the misrepresentation of the hardships of slavery:
- Many people have been led to believe that Black History started with enslaved people arriving on the shores of what is now the United States. This statement is grossly untrue as there has been a deep rich history of Blacks and their contributions to civilization and education dating back before the Greeks and Romans.
- The reason this has not been disclosed is that it was necessary to limit knowledge to justify the enslavement of humans.
- These people were free before they became prey of the English who sold them not only in the United States, but all of the Americas.
- Slavery was a cruel life, these people were not on a luxury cruise, they were herded into huge unsanitary and uncomfortable quarters for profit.
- Many died in route. So many that there are reports of sharks following the ships to take advantage of bodies being tossed overboard after the premature death of the human cargo on board.
- Women were subjected to brutal punishment and rape for the pleasure of the crew
- Slaves were forced to live in human excretions such as urine, feces and vomit.
- Some slaves even committed suicide by jumping overboard.
- These enslaved people were being bought and sold for the purpose of making a profit for the slave traders and those who bought them. Many of the buyers became rich cultivating land stolen from the original people, the Native Americans who today have been restricted to less than 1% of their original land.
- From the time these enslaved people were brought to the shores of the United States, there were concerted efforts to keep them uneducated and uninformed.
- They were prevented from any benefit of their labor.
- They had no rights as human beings
- To show the contemptuous feelings towards the treatment of Blacks we look at the Casual Killing Act of 1669 which declared it legal to kill a slave while correcting because malice could not be presumed.
- Savage beatings could be justified.
- Families could be split apart for the benefit of the owner. Spouses were sold away; children were sold away.
- Women were raped and the children were treated as slaves.
- Many were forced to entertain the owners and their guests.
- These are just some of the conditions facing slaves.
But these days are gone. Actually, yes and no because at the end of slavery, we have people who have after centuries of ill treatment had nothing to show for it, no land, no money, no worldly goods, no education and nowhere to seek comfort. Leaving them at the mercy of those who had previously owned them and gotten rich from free labor.
There was an evil intent in preventing Blacks either slave or free from learning and it was not because they could not learn. It was to prevent them from knowing who they were and where they came from. It was to prevent competition and free the rewards of entrepreneurship by Non-Whites. It was deliberate and with malice.
An exception to slavery is embodies in the 13th amendment that allows slavery and many governmental institutions profited mightily from the practice of hiring out convict labor.
Average of the minimum wages for prisoners paid by the states, in dollars per day for non-industry work is $0.93 Average of the maximum wages paid to prisoners by the states, in dollars per day $4.73 Lowest wage reported, in dollars per day, for prisoners working in private industry $0.16.
Keep in mind that many Blacks are sentenced to accordantly lengthy sentences and that many governmental entities earn a significant percentage of their budget on the undue citations and conviction of people, and it is possible to see the horrors of the matter.
Even those fortunate to get advanced degrees are not free from the shackles, resulting in no opportunity or compensation below that of other workers.
Laws that are viewed favorably such as Social Security have an impact because it originally eliminated two significant classes of workers, domestic workers and farm labor which were disparity filled by Blacks.
Redlining which prevented in large part home ownership, the greatest source of generational wealth. It also makes it more costly to buy such items as insurance, get financing to improve the property and the list goes on.
“Well intended appearing programs” such as urban renewal were highly disruptive and destroyed entire thriving communities.
The Interstate was absolutely a disaster for many of the thriving Black communities.
The killing of unarmed Blacks by police is nothing new and the use of body cameras only serve to show what happened after the fact. But with no consequences to people who are packed back in the same position to reoffend is disheartening.
A continual flow of cases of wrongly convicted people and the excuse of misconduct and unethical activities only adds to the reality of the syndrome.
This list could be extended indefinitely, but this is a significant look at the devastation that fuels PTSS.
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Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.
How Is It Different From PTSD? | AJ+ Opinion How is Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome different from PTSD? Dr. Joy DeGruy explains how trauma can be passed on generation after generation.
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Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing
In the 16th century, the beginning of African enslavement in the Americas until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and emancipation in 1865, Africans were hunted like animals, captured, sold, tortured, and raped. They experienced the worst kind of physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual abuse. Given such history, isn’t it likely that many of the enslaved were severely traumatized? And did the trauma and the effects of such horrific abuse end with the abolition of slavery?
Emancipation was followed by one hundred more years of institutionalized subjugation through the enactment of Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, peonage, convict leasing, domestic terrorism and lynching. Today the violations continue, and when combined with the crimes of the past, they result in yet unmeasured injury. What do repeated traumas, endured generation after generation by a people produce? What impact have these ordeals had on African Americans today?
Dr. Joy DeGruy, answers these questions and more. With over thirty years of practical experience as a professional in the mental health field, Dr. DeGruy encourages African Americans to view their attitudes, assumptions, and behaviors through the lens of history and so gain a greater understanding of how centuries of slavery and oppression have impacted people of African descent in America.
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome helps to lay the necessary foundation to ensure the well-being and sustained health of future generations and provides a rare glimpse into the evolution of society’s beliefs, feelings, attitudes and behavior concerning race in America.
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“Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome,” Part 1.
Joy Leary, the Black Bag Speakers Series, PSU, 2006 Dr. Joy Leary from the Graduate School of Social Work discusses her highly-acclaimed book, “Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome.” Part 1 of 2. Recorded October 17, 2006.
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African-American Males & the Residual Effects of Slavery
African-American Males & the Residual Effects of Slavery is an attempt to further investigate and to demonstrate the existing relationship between slavery and forms of mental illness among African descendants in the United States today. Also, the book exposes perceptions and levels of neurosis and psychosis of African-Americans as a result of oppression and racial discrimination from Jim Crow and Post-World War II
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“Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome,” Part 2.
Joy DeGruy Leary, the Black Bag Speakers Series, PSU, 2006 Dr. Joy Leary (now DeGruy) from the Graduate School of Social Work discusses her highly-acclaimed book, “Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome.” Part 2 of 2. Recorded October 17, 2006.
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The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of Black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER
LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE WINNER
HEARTLAND AWARD WINNER
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NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The New York Times USA Today O: The Oprah Magazine Amazon Publishers Weekly Salon Newsday The Daily Beast
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The New Yorker The Washington Post The Economist Boston Globe San Francisco Chronicle Chicago Tribune Entertainment Weekly Philadelphia Inquirer The Guardian The Seattle Times St. Louis Post-Dispatch The Christian Science Monitor
From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.
Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration” within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.
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Post Traumatic Slave Disorder
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Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome California Institute of Integral Studies
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To fully understand the Black experience, it is necessary to see what is involved and see how it is perpetuated. Most start with a flawed view of it and what it entails. There have been a couple of books written by people who posed as Black, but it was a temporary experience at best. To those who think it is just the experience of slavery and tht it happened long ago and does not affect us today is not aware to put it mildly.
Imagine that you are in the experience day in and day out with no escape and you have a small taste of the life of a Black person in the United States of America. To solve the problem, first we have to understand it and face it.