In Jailbreak Out of
History, revolutionary Amazon theorist Butch Lee shows how the
anticolonial struggles of New Afrikan/Black women were central to the
unfolding of 19th century amerika, both during and "after"
slavery.
The
book's title essay, "The Re-Biography of Harriet Tubman",
recounts the life and politics of Harriet Tubman, who waged and
eventually lead the war against the capitalist slave system. As Lee
explains, "Harriet Tubman was a radical political figure,
someone totally involved as a player in the great political ideas and
military storms of her day. She was a guerrilla. Someone who lived
and taught others to live by the communal and working-class New
Afrikan culture that her people had planted in this difficult ground,
and a Black Feminist to the end."
At
the same time, Lee exposes how the white supremacist patriarchy has
distorted the truth of Harriet's life, by both trivializing and
exceptionalizing her. Countering this disinformation, "The
Re-Biography of Harriet Tubman" surveys the reality of struggle
before and during the u.s. Civil War, showing how New Afrikan women
were repeatedly taking up the task of smashing the slave system that
confined them, on their own terms. Lee shows how what was special
about Harriet was not that she was unique in resisting, but rather
because of her military skill - "She was one of the most
brilliant professional practitioners ever at the art of war. As a
guerrilla, so elusive that she could strike fatal blows and never be
felt. Lead battles and go unseen. As an Amazon, she conducted warfare
in a zone beyond men's comprehension. But her blows still fell on
point."
Jailbreak
Out of History's second essay, written in 2014, picks up the
story where The Re-Biography leaves off, showing how New Afrikan
women's labor and resistance remained central to how the global class
struggle played out in the united states after the white men's Civil
War came to an end.
"The
Evil of Female Loaferism" details New Afrikan women's attempts
to withdraw from and evade capitalist colonialism, an unofficial but
massive labor strike which threw the capitalists North and South into
a panic. The ruling class response consisted of the "Black
Codes", Jim Crow, re-enslavement through prison labor, mass
violence, and ... the establishment of a neo-colonial Black
patriarchy, whose task was to make New Afrikan women subordinate to
New Afrikan men just as New Afrika was supposed to be subordinate to
white amerika.
"The
Evil of Female Loaferism" details New Afrikan women's attempts
to withdraw from and evade capitalist colonialism, an unofficial but
massive labor strike which threw the capitalists North and South into
a panic. The ruling class response consisted of the "Black
Codes", Jim Crow, re-enslavement through prison labor, mass
violence, and ... the establishment of a neo-colonial Black
patriarchy, whose task was to make New Afrikan women subordinate to
New Afrikan men just as New Afrika was supposed to be subordinate to
white amerika.
