But for now it is time for the Way Black History Fact.
So today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Underground Beach Club.
From the Streets to the Beach.
For the latest in beachwear, visit Underground Beach Club dot com. All right, I'm gonna say that normally, what I try to do on this show is I try to research everything and make sure that I have verifiable sources and that the sources decided in those verifiable sources are also verifiable. I have to say that that is not true of this, but I suspect there's a reason. It feels very true in all the sources that I found that were credible kind of had a similar position.
But you'll see what I mean.
And you'll see why this would naturally be hidden, And I think that this would inspire a lot of conversation moving forward. All right, this comes from Black Youth Project dot com.
The writer is Shirandaj Brown.
Seems like every year I learned some new factoid about how plantations operated during this live the time of chattel slavery of African peoples in the Americas, I inevitably come across another unfortunate piece of knowledge that I wish I never had to know. At the same time, I always understand how it's of vital importance that these things be remembered, because white supremacy is always in the business of forgetting
and deals exclusively in lies. This week I learned about laughing barrels, and slaved Africans were not allowed to laugh on some plantations, and so, in an active defiance and as a mode of survival, they often stuffed their heads into barrels in order to laugh out of sight and out of earshot of enslavers.
This apparently is.
Where we get the term barrel of laughs. After quite a bit of research, I am still unsure of whether or not this is a myth, but I will proceed here with the understanding of laughing barrels as a literal rather than as literal rather than figurative, which is more or less the same conclusion that I come. All right, now, here's what I discovered, Ramses. Okay, so now we know that some slaves are not permitted to laugh when on
the plantation. It was forbidden for slaves to laugh as they worked, presumably because the masters were afraid that if it ever turned into laughter at them, the whole system might start to crumble. The masters viewed slaves laughing as a form of disrespect to them. Some plantation owners had barrels set up on the plantation. When a slave hurt something funny, they would run up to one of these
barrels in order to laugh. Of course, laughter is part of the human experience, however, dire but slaves in these circumstances were wise to keep things to a brief chuckle as they worked. However, the laughter was too great, but they couldn't contain themselves. Those slaves would find a barrel and that standing around and under the pretext of looking for something, to reach down into it as far as they could and let their laughter ring out where nobody
could hear them. The barrel sometimes contained water, which would help with the noise. All right, I'm gonna go back to Shiranda, She says, we need more reminders that our enslaved ancestors felt more than just anguish, because they were fully human. Our people found ways to laugh even when
it was dangerous for them to do so. I liked to think about how they might have giggled, how their bodies might have quaked with their forbidden laughter, shaking until their abs were sore and tears were in their eyes. I think about this and it's a reminder that they also felt lust. They kissed, they made love to feel
the pleasure of touching closeness. And they also played with little children, bounced happy babies on their knees, saying songs, told stories, and shared intimate moments of braiding each other's hair. They loved and showed love in whatever ways they could, stealing seconds of togetherness and amusement that they were never
supposed to have. The reason why this is important is because sometimes when a group of black people, young black people in particular, say something funny, they'll all kind of double over and laugh, and then they'll scatter while doubled over, And it's reminiscent of the image that this paints in my mind. You know, when someone says something funny, you kind of duccinly start laughing and you kind of take
off running through that little bit of scatter. So this kind of reminded me of a barrel laugh, and I felt like there might be some CONNECTI
Tissue there are with the epigenetics we're about to talk about