----- Original Message ----- From: "Debra Jackson/Harold Forsythe" <[log in to unmask]> To: "Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history" <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 9:14 AM Subject: Re: Mount Vernon Opens Rebuilt Slave Cabin > Mr. Forest, > > You have not considered that absence of ocean-worthy ships in your > calculation. Paul Cuffee (sp?), one of the first black men, if not the > first, to operate such a ship took a boatload of blacks voluntarily back > to Africa during the second decade of the 18th century. > By the way, "jungle" is not a geographic descriptor. I think you meant > to write rainforest. Though the equatorial zone of Africa contains most > of Africa's rainforest, some of the land there is more arid; some quite > arid. Think" the different agricultural environments of Virginia or South > Carolina. > So, one African would come from a region so rainy that chiefly bananas > would grow there but fifty miles away sprang another African, who knew > chiefly millet, dry cultivated rice, etc. > > Harold S. Forsythe > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Basil Forest" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 4:06 PM > Subject: Re: Mount Vernon Opens Rebuilt Slave Cabin > > >> Material quality of life is what kept free blacks in the US rather than >> going back to the jungle lifestyle they came from. >> >> Basil Forest >> >> >> >> ************************************** See what's new at >> http://www.aol.com >