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Christmas During Slavery
’ve always been amazed by
how the smiles, goodwill, kindness, and merriment of the Christmas season quickly turns to “business as usual” as soon as the clock strikes mid- night on Christmas Night. Thinking about the quick change, my thoughts turned to how slaves must have felt after plantation owners rescinded the week of freedom given to them to celebrate Christmas and New Year.
Indeed, some slaves used that time to steal away when the slave master was dis- tracted by the festivities. By the time the master realized the slave was missing, a week or more had passed – too long to be found close by.
However, during the Christmas and New Year sea- sons, slaves celebrated the sea- son in many different ways. Caught up in the Christian holiday joviality and relaxed atmosphere on the plantation, slaves enjoyed a camaraderie they could express only during
this season.
During that time, the mas-
ters gave slaves their yearly al- lotment of shoes and clothing, served delicacies eaten only during the season, and maybe a present above or beyond what was needed to survive. Many slaves waited to marry during Christmas because this was the only time when work did not consume daily energy and the master and mistress would allow them to marry in the big house and provide a lavish spread for them.
Some slaves treated Christ- mas as just another work day. However, keeping in mind that many slaves practiced Islam and did not embrace Christianity, a religion slave owners used to justify slavery.
Having been separated, many slaves requested passes to travel to other plantations to see their wives and children who had been sold away. Often, the passes were used to explain their presence on the roads and were used to steal
away to freedom.
Moreover, children would
hide and lie in wait to catch people who could afford gifts and not release them until they were given a trinket, toy or a few coins. Reportedly, Harriet Tubman used the holidays to help slaves escape to freedom because of the length of time before they would be missed.
Frederick Douglass
wrote that the holidays were a “psychological tool of the op- pressor wherein slaves en- gaged in activities such as playing ball, wrestling, run- ning foot races, fiddling, danc- ing and drinking whiskey contests. Douglass felt these activities were used to appease those who yearned for free- dom ultimately serving ulte- rior motives of slave owners.
Today, our Christmas fes- tivities remain similar. How- ever, we realize the world has a long way to travel to reach the “peace and good will to- wards Man” proclaimed for the Holiday.
With that in mind, first let us resolve to make 2019 a year of Fruit of the Spirit wherein we practice love, peace, joy, goodness, gentleness, faithful- ness, and self-control daily with our family, friends, coworkers, and everyone whom we meet. Then, every day will feel like Christmas.
Happy New Year and Har- rambee.
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Donald Trump And Humpty Dumpty
ust recently, someone placed on our desk an old
nursery rhyme, “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. And all the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty to- gether again.”
Immediately, we thought about Donald Trump and his present situation.
Pecker or no Pecker, Cohen or no Cohen, Trump is in an undeniable pickle. Robert Mueller’s (former 6th Director of the F. B. I.) picking him to pieces like a fun- gus inside the bark of a tree or like a patient tick on an arrogant hound. Each day, something else falls off the egg.
And unfortunately, we the people, have a front-row seat to the ongoing destruction of our Democracy.
So, what are we to do? Should we pray? Yes, we should always pray . . . but for what? Should we pray for impeachment or common sense? And between im- peachment and common sense, can we avoid a total shutdown of the Light of the Free World?
Trump has the ultimate control of ordering Martial Law. And, and the damage of Martial Law due to mis- judgment, in the hands of fools is always a possibility. So, how do we put Humpty back together again?
The answer is “We Don’t.”
Instead, we find a better, hard-boiled egg.
Jailbreaking The Firestick Has Become A Hot Trend
irst, the good news. Jail-
breaking the Amazon Firestick is not illegal, so don’t expect the Feds to come knocking down your door and prosecuting you.
Jailbreaking the Amazon Firestick can be accomplished by installing an app known as Kodi which then runs between other apps, so you can watch movies, TV shows and even sporting events. The Kodi app was designed by the XBMC Foundation, which is a non- profit company, which simply means they are not making money from you using their app.
However, jailbreaking the Firestick and then selling the sticks in mass volume can get you in serious trouble.
In 2017, Daniel David Browne from Llansamlet made over $300,000 by sell- ing boxes which were jail bro- ken with Kodi. He was reported to the local Police and received an eighteen- month prison sentence as
some of the apps he installed were copyrighted.
Consumers who buy jail broken devices should be care- ful as some of these devices can contain other copyrighted apps and software which may make them illegal. The bottom line is that it is not illegal to jail break the Firestick yourself, but buying these devices from third parties that are “fully loaded,” can be dangerous as you do not know which apps are installed. Sellers are all over eBay and Craig’s list, and they are making a lot of money.
These sellers are basically criminals profiting from this new hot trend. The Firestick is not the only device that can be jail broken, you can add the Roku, iPhone, iPad, Raspberry Pi, laptops, TVs, and Android devices. They can all be ma- nipulated in some form to run Kodi.
Kodi was first introduced in 2002, originally called the
Xbox Media Center. In 2014, it was renamed to Kodi. Kodi’s primary function is to provide a gateway to media streaming content by Wi-Fi and in some cases ethernet if you use an adapter.
Kodi is not without its faults, it needs to be updated regularly and the program- mers are ways working on beta versions. The beta versions don’t always run smoothly, be- cause it is still in testing mode. If your Wi-Fi is slow, it can be frustrating to watch a movie or TV show as the content can freeze from time to time. But for the most part it runs well on a good service.
Kodi, is also not the easiest app to upgrade and in rare cases you may have to reset the media to install a fresh ver- sion of Kodi. The good news is, there is plenty of tutorials on the web to get you started with Kodi. Kodi also works with 3D and various formats including H.264. Installing Kodi is somewhat easy, fast and since it is an open source program it is free to download. However, be prepared if you are not technically incline to make some minor adjustments to your Firestick.
Eric Hall, holds a Master’s Degree from the University of South Florida in Instructional Technology and Cybersecu- rity Digital Forensics. Follow him on Facebook.
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 1, 2019 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5