Richard Day's picture

    BAD HISTORY MONTH

    North american slave revolts.png

    Granting that it’s “a radical idea,” Buchanan writes, “Suppose we repealed the civil rights laws and fired all the bureaucrats enforcing these laws.”

    Does anyone think hotels, motels and restaurants across Dixie, from D.C. to Texas, would stop serving black customers?” he continues. “Does anyone think there would again be signs sprouting up reading ‘whites’ and ‘colored’ on drinking foundations and restrooms?"

    Well suppose that someone finally exiled Ole Pat to some stud farm; forever freeing us from his communiques?

    Before I get to the real purpose of this post (involving another famous revisionist) I wish to take a short historical look at our nation's racist roots.

    I need to put in some context for my discussion.

    Around 1800, our system of slavery took a turn for the worse.

    I wrote a long time ago about how some Southern Communities treated their slaves with a bit more consideration than their horses.

    For instance, Blacks and Whites would worship together in the same church.

    But following a 13 year struggle against the French, Haitians managed to throw off their yoke of slavery in 1804. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution

    Quite a feat since such an uprising had never occurred before or after—at least one culminating in nation building.

    And quite a feat when one considers the fact that Napoleon was at his peak as a European conqueror.

    Fear of massive slavery uprisings swept through the Southern States.

    In yesterdays NYT, I had the opportunity of reading a short history of a freed slave in South Carolina who went by the intriguing name of Denmark Vesey.

    I am sure that I read of this historical figure in the past, but memories fade. And at first I confused him with Gabriel Prosser, who's rebellion was nixed by James Monroe in Virginia some 22 years prior to Vesey's demise.

    Some interesting points appear in this article.

    First, Vesey was born in the Caribbean (although Wiki notes the possibility of Africa as his origin) and he was purchased eventually by a South Carolinean.

    Second, Vesey actually won a municipal lottery (!) as a slave (!) and pocketed some $1200 due to the largesse of his master (!). A good sum in those days.

    Third, his slave master let him purchase his freedom for $600.

    Fourth, his master's widow would not allow Mr. Vesey to purchase his own wife and kids.

    I mean there is a Dickens' novel in all of this somewhere, would you not think?

    Or better yet, something along the lines of a Dumas?

    Anyway, as one might have predicted, Mr. Vesey became one pissed-off man.

    So eventually he began planning a slave revolt that was to begin on Bastille Day (wow) in 1822.

    He began his own slave revolt and was eventually hunted down and hung in 1824 with 35 others.

    A great statue remembers Mr. Vesey and was presented to the public earlier this month.

    IN SOUTH CAROLINA FOR CHRISSAKES!

    Well some folks down there do not really cater to this statue.

    The author of the NYT piece, Professor Egerton showed up to give a talk about Denmark Vesey:

    More than a decade ago, while I was giving a talk on Vesey in Charleston, a member of the audience challenged my view that what Vesey wished to accomplish — the freedom for his friends and family — could be a good thing, on the grounds that he went about it the wrong way. “Why not work within the system for liberation,” the man asked, or even “stage a protest march?”

    Although well intentioned, such questions reveal how far American society still has to travel before we reach a sophisticated understanding of the past. There was no “system” for Vesey to work within; his state had flatly banned private manumissions, or the freeing of slaves, in 1820. The only path to freedom was to sharpen a sword. Americans today can admire the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his 1963 nonviolent March on Washington, but his world was not Vesey’s, and we must understand that.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/opinion/abolitionist-or-terrorist.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20140226

    WORKING WITHIN THE SYSTEM?

    With my current attitude that Mr. Vesey and Mr. Prosser were freedom fighters; I would certainly concede them to be terrorists; just like John Brown.

    Colonialists in the 1770's were certainly freedom fighters, but the Brits certainly beheld them as terrorists.

    But enough of that!

    THE RIGHT AND HONORABLE ANDREW NAPOLITANO

    Last night's Jon Stewart's harrangue on Judge Napolitano is all over the web:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/jon-stewart-black-history-president-lincoln-daily-show_n_4853891.html?utm_hp_ref=media

    It is rare to see a Northern Republican (the Party of Lincoln?) attack Abraham Lincoln.

    There always have been and always will be grumblings from the South about THE WAR OF NORTHERN AGGRESSION. Even though the South fired on Ft. Sumter, Ft. Sumter did not fire on the South!

    But this elitist from New Jersey stating that there was no reason for the Civil War, that slavery would have died its own death over time, that it would have been cheaper for President Lincoln to purchase all the slaves from Southern slaveholders, that....

    Stewart does just fine covering all the cogent points.

    I know it is not easy to put your feet in someone else's shoes.

    I certainly gave up on ever attempting to get into Napolitano's shoes.

    But damn, are some of these libertarians that frickin cold; that frickin ignorant or that frickin blind to not see the shallowness of their revisionism?

    So we go back in our time machines witnessing James_Monroe

    splitting up the families of slaves; and tell Mr. Prosser:

    Just hang in there Gabriel; just hang in there another 64 years or 164 years and the powers that be will treat you and yours as human beings.

    Just hang in there Denmark; just hang in there another 40 years or 140 years because everything is going to turn out just ducky!

    Of course both were hung long before those dates came to pass!

    Why in 172 years, Mr. Prosser could have played in the Masters!

    These racist rants have certainly been present over the last four or five hundred years in America.

    I just had been fooled that those days were long gone, especially after Jesse Helms finally died in an old age home.

    You can still purchase your license plate in Georgia featuring the emblem of the Confederacy—plates most probably manufactured with the help of Black prisoners.

    You can still be denied the right to vote as a Black Woman if you cannot put together certified copies of your birth certificate, Marriage license, DL along with affidavits of identity. 

    Oh that's all I got today.

    No reason to get into Nugent or Gibson or....whatever at this point.

     

     

     

     

    Comments

     

    Napolitano is such a pompous idiot.  I'd like to ask him, "What is the acceptable amount of time during which we should tolerate injustice and suffering towards thousands, if not millions, of people?"   Then, when he opens his mouth to spew more nonsense, I'd run up and yell in his face the truth:  "ZERO! There is NO acceptable amount of time during which we should tolerate injustice and human suffering, you scum-sucking s.o.b.!"  

    Thank you.  The End.

     

     

     


    hahahahaha

    The problem here is that:

    THERE IS NO END!

    That Indian American, Dinesh D'Souza? says:

    Well Slavery could not have been that bad, I mean property had value and one would not have wished to destroy or demean one's property!

    This issue will never be DECIDED!

    I guess we must always speak up when revisionism raises its ugly head!

    The best I can do is to respond without using the f word.

    hahahaha

     


    Let's enslave Judge Napolitano and let him and anybody who agrees that waiting was appropriate wait for slaver to die out. While they are waiting, they can read "Slavery By Another Name" by Douglas Blackmon which details how White law enforcement, farmers, and businessman conspired to use the legal system to imprison Blacks on trumped up charges to provide cheap labor by "leasing" Black prisoners. Let Napolitano wait for rescue.

    Slaves. on the hand, mounted work slowdowns, escapes and slave revolts. They did not for rescue,


    Oh RMRD we are still guilty of trumping up charges for Blacks whilst handing White Boys misdemeanor tickets. hahahaha

    And, we need more interracial slowdowns, escapes and slave revolts as far as that goes. Especially when repub legislators attack unions.

    hahahahah

    wow!

    the end


    There is great panic among a small subset of Whites who fear they are losing power even though we have had just one Black President,.  The majority of millionaires, billionaires  and corporate heads are White, yet this subgroup feels threatened. 

    These Conservatives retaliate by trying to stop Blacks from voting, stopping immigrants from gaining citizenship,  trying to control women's bodies and attacking homosexuals. They have lost their moral core. A Black pastor has written an open letter to White clergy in Florida questioning how they can remain silent in the midst of the murders of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis. Pastor Michael Bledsoe of the Riverside baptist Church in DC poses questions similar to those posed by Martin Luther King Jr. in the Letter From the Birmingham Jail

    William F Buckley described a Conservative as a man standing athwart history yelling, "Stop". That is the mission statement of the National Review. What a horrible way to exist. Conservatives fear change.


    They also don't like the youth, even their own kids because they are going to bring change.  


    Unfortunately history is taught with the emphases on dates. kings and wars. It has only been in the last 50 years that historians are looking at how people really lived and how it impacted the history.  Misinformation can run rapid because we have no real understanding of past generations and the society they lived in.

    It was an economical necessity to get rid of slavery so our country could enter the industrial age and have an economy that would demand industrial goods.  Andrew Jackson threw us into a 3 decade long depression when he closed the National Bank System.  The Civil War was also an economical war because slavery was holding the country back from growing the economy.  Southern politics is still trying to hold the economy down.  Also people had become aware of how inhuman slavery was. The western world had ended slavery a couple of decades earlier and we needed to join them. 

    Yes slavery would have died a natural death but so would have this experimental democracy.  Lincoln understood this.  The south was going to be forced into the industrial economy.  

    After the war. this was the first time in history that women were in charge of their lives.  About 40% did not have an adult male relative that was alive.  Women could make decisions on how the family money would be spent.  They did what they had to do to support their families and created a demand for house hold goods.  Before that men chose how much would be spent on the home.  The men thought women needed to work hard so they would be less trouble.  So men bought horses and things they wanted to make their lives better. No time before had any society in history had so many women able to do this.  Women had to ask if they could buy a ribbon or a kitchen item or justify their needs to the male adult that was in charge and sometimes in charge of her money that really had been hers to begin with. There were less race horses and fancy bridles and more things for the women and children being bought after the war.  Industries like pottery, glass wear, silver plate,furniture and wood stoves took off after the war.  Women could buy sewing machines on credit and they did making Singer a rich man.  And of coarse it made things easier for women and many supported their households with those sewing machines sewing for other people.  This demand for goods also came from former slaves.  They too could earn wages and buy things to build their own households.

    We would not have prospered as much if slavery had stayed in place through the second half of the 19th century.  We would have been late to the industrial age. 


    Another interesting aspect was that the country divided along religious lines. The Baptists and Methodists split. Southern religious groups saw slavery as Biblical, while most Northern denominations saw slavery as evil based on the same text. Other Christian groups in Europe had, in general, come to see slavery as evil. This was the case in Britain where religion played a major role in ending the practice of slavery.

    The religious divisions are well detailed in Mark A Knoll's " The Civil War as a Theological Crisis". The book notes the views of Christians in Europe over the issue of slavery in the United States. As far as I can tell, the book is unique in taking a detailed look at the views of Christians in the United States and Europe on slavery in the antebellum period. Pro-slavery US Christians were outliers on the issue of slavery

    Even today we have "Christians" aiding evil people. This time the issue is persecuting of homosexuals in countries like Russia, Uganda and Nigeria.


    Thanks.   That does make sense because of their political and scientific views they have today.  This country was built because of the labor from Africa.  Yet we still don't place high recognition for their contribution to our culture and economy. 


    Wait a minute: someone from South Carolina, of all places, asked why Vesey didn't work within the system? Would that same someone ask why South Carolina itself didn't choose to work within the system instead of rebelling against the Union?


    It appears that the Professor handled it rather well.

    Better than I could have!


    I do not wish to inflame the masses, but it is Black History Month after all and there are so many cites lighting up to the challenge.

    Here is another source (THEBEAST.com) doing a fine job as it always does!

    In 1901, Georgia Gov. Allen Candler defended unequal public schooling for African Americans on the grounds that “God made them negroes and we cannot by education make them white folks.” After the Supreme Court ordered public schools integrated in Brown v. Board of Education, many segregationists cited their own faith as justification for official racism. Ross Barnett won Mississippi’s governorship in a landslide in 1960 after claiming that “the good Lord was the original segregationist.” Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia relied on passages from Genesis, Leviticus and Matthew when he spoke out against the civil rights law banning employment discrimination and whites-only lunch counters on the Senate floor.

     

    Really, it is almost the end of the month but there are fine, fine pieces out there about the Black Struggle.

    I am just a white guy enamored by this subject that will NEVER go away!

    But think about the decades following I Spy.

    Think about the first Black face you ever saw on TV News?

    We have come a long, long way.

    It is of the utmost importance that for the last five years and for the next three years we are privileged to see a Black Face speaking from the Rose Garden!

    Parts of NYC and MASS and Chicago and Milwaukee and many Northern States are plagued with racism of all sorts.

    The problem is not just in THE SOUTH, as they say.

    That's enough.

    Except that our schools are mostly funded per real estate taxes.

    I recall a Black Woman who feigned 'citizenship' in some proper suburb, living out of her car just so that her kids could receive a 'proper' education and ultimately being prosecuted; ultimately being prosecuted for her attempt to see that her kids would learn something.

    This all ends up being a problem associated with CLASS.

    Okay, I'm done.


    One of the nice things is that there are Black websites that provide daily reminders of Black history. There are books on Black history published monthly. We are learning more about the volume of Black slave revolts in well documented historical texts rather than relying on isolated, cherry picked snippets. Books on the role of Black women are pouring out.

    Black History month has become like a Golden Oldies record playing the same songs over and over again. Time has marched on. As noted above there is a statue of Denmark Vesey n Charleston. There is an African Burial Ground marking the tombs of slaves found near Wall Street in Manhattan.

    One problem we do face is often when US slavery is mentioned we get diverted into discussing other forms of slavery. It would be a part of the normal progression of discussion, but it is often the first response to a discussion about slavery in the US. "Let's look elsewhere." As such slavery becomes a mockery. Obamacare is slavery, etc.

    We have come a long way we have a long way to go.


    Oh and we have Eric!

    This new media, I mean hell, anybody (even me) can communicate.

    I aint Nugent.

    But I get some draw as it were.

    And thousands of draws add up to something and there are thousands like you and me who make their voices heard!

    If I did not believe that, I would quit!

    Yeah, we do not need the same songs--even though some songs in my head must be reproduced here. hahahah

    No, we try it this way, and we try it that way and we attempt to find a new SONG!

    Is someone like my friend at the hotel following wedding rehearsals earning 7 bucks an hour a slave. Yeah!

    But definitions count.

    WE HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO!

    FOR SURE!


    The tide has turned.  We are hearing and witnessing the last death rattles of the back lash to civil rights that ended Jim Crow.  A strong push back is in swing.  How do I know? We voted into office a person of color as president. twice.  The poles show we are looking towards a women for the next president. 


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