Northeastern Illinois University hosted the Forks In the Road exhibit that documented a large slave market in Natchez Mississippi where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans were brought to be sold and traded as property. Without the human labor and as Dr. Bin Levi informs us, agricultural, building and metallurgy skills embodied in the individuals stolen from Africa, plantation owners could do little with the land, taken from native inhabitants. It was big business with investors and purveyors of the goods. Many of the companies involved then are still operating today as prominent corporations in the fields of finance, insurance and clothing to give a few examples.
Bin Levi talks about which Africans were preferred for labor and which for the plantation's "fancy ladies" because of their physical characteristics. He speaks about the cultural, religious and agricultural knowledge embodied in the people that were stolen from their homes, survived the brutal transport to North America and then often worked to death by in a system that applied the lash to improve individual out put in the field.
It was an early example of modern Capitalism's methods and it generated the wealth used to industrialize the North.
Project Success, NEIU, Pinkey A. Stewart, PhD
Dr.Josef Ben Levi - Philosophy Faculty NEIU j-benlevi@neiu.edu
Dr. Josef Ben Levi, Ed.D is a scholar of ancient and Medieval Philosophy, classical African civilizations, Education, Curriculum and Disability Studies. He is a scholar of Biblical, Ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Gnostic literature. His language facilities include Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Mdw Ntr (ancient Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian history, African and African-American History and Literature. European Renassiance History, and Moorish Spain. His research activity also includes current studies in ancient Gnosticism and the Meroitic language of ancient Nubia, which he has been pursuing since the 1970âs. He is also interested in the works of Niccolo Machiavelli, Frederick Nietzsche and African, African-American, pre-Socratic as well as Socratic philosophers. He has traveled and lectured widely on a variety of topics related to antiquity. His current research interest is in translating Meroitic and Kemetic inscriptions. He currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at Northeastern Illinois University
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