Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JULY 27 - AUGUST 2, 2022 UCW 19 We have taken down the Silent Sam Civil War monument on University of North Carolina Chapel Hill's campus and the statues of Confederate sol- diers on many courthouse plazas. But there are other monuments to the Civil War and slavery that cannot be removed — unfortunately. In "Scars on the Land: An Envi- ronmental History of Slavery in the American South," David Silkenat explains how over a 200-year period slavery made possible environmental disasters that cursed and continue to curse our region. Silkenat says the slave owners in America's South saw their landscape as disposable. Using intensive farming methods made possible by slavery, southern plantation owners wore out their farms. Rather than rehabilitating the land as they exploited it, they simply bought new land to replace what had been ruined. Sometimes, the replacement land could be purchased nearby. Other times, the owners and slaves from worn-out plantations would move from North Carolina to fresh lands in Alabama or Mississippi, with the enslaved people walking all the way. In Virginia, omas Jefferson noted in 1793 that he did not use manure to fertilize or replenish his worn-out tobacco fields "because we can buy an acre of new land cheaper than we can manure an old acre." Twenty years later Jefferson ac- knowledged that the intensive farm- ing by his slaves had left his soils inert. But the environmental damage as- sociated with slavery was not limited to farmlands. In North Carolina, for instance, in- tensive enslaved labor made possible the exploitation and destruction of the magnificent longleaf pine forests that covered our state. To secure the pitch and tar from the pine trees, enslaved labor tapped, and scratched the surface, taking the 'blood' the trees needed to sustain themselves, leav- ing only ghosts of once-magnificent forests. Silkenat wrote, "Intensive extraction conspired with environmental factors to expedite the forests' destruction. Scarification caused by repeating chipping made the trees vulnerable to wood-boring insects such as the ips beetle, the turpentine bore and the black turpentine beetle. Stripped of their bark, the pine trees stood defenseless against these insects. A turpentine-borer epidemic in 1848 –1849 along the Cape Fear River dev- astated the heart of North Carolina's longleaf pine." Also, in North Carolina, the use of enslaved labor during the gold rush days before the Civil War made pos- sible the extraction of gold but left a ruined landscape behind. In South Carolina, the rice planta- tions that made that state wealthy before the Civil War, required an enor- mous commitment of enslaved labor to dig and manage the canals and other waterways that provided the right conditions for the crop. ose canals and their upkeep, adjustment and repairs destroyed the natural environment and left the coastal lands permanently affected. Similarly, along the Mississippi River, the construction of levees to protect farmlands from flooding required enslaved labor. Continuing maintenance and repair demanded a long-term commitment of enslaved labor. e adjustments to the normal ebb and flow of the river still make for the continuing disruption of the great river's natural flow. In cotton and tobacco fields, hard- wood and pine forests, rice fields, goldmines, rivers and levees, slavery brought about even more damage to the environment. Although the author sets out many more examples of damage, he acknowledges that "the environmental devastation chronicled in this book pales in comparison to the brutality of American slavery on human bodies and souls. Yet looking at slavery through an environmental lens reveals how the chattel principle poisoned everything it touched." LITERATURE D.G. MARTIN, PBS-NC's Bookwatch. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Book details how slavery helped ruin the South's environment by D.G. MARTIN Look for it in your local super Markets and or Convenience stores YOUR LOCAL Beer-Seltzer-Ciders-Wine Distributor Energy Drinks We are pleased to announce the latest Flavored Malt Beverage added to our porfolio for your enjoyment