I am concerned about the revisionist history of America in readings like the “1619 Project,” that says America today is still full of systemic racism and white privilege that began at its founding. This is not so.
“The 1619 project” from the New York Times is full of untruths. Many history scholars or professors, many who are black, have written rebuttals to its claims. Please check out the “Unites Campaign 1776” website. Another good website to check out is the Heritage Foundation.
One of the most egregious errors put forth is that our country was founded in 1619 when the first slaves came to Jamestown, meaning our nation’s founding is based on slavery and racism. The present states New Hampshire down to Georgia used to be Colonies of the British Empire starting in the early 1600s. Therefore, slavery was present way before these colonies became the United States of America in 1776 with the signing of the “Declaration of Independence.” Per Leslie Morris of Politico, “The 1619 Project” also claims that the colonies fought for independence from Britain to keep the institution of slavery alive in America. This is crazy false. The “Declaration” lists over 20 reasons for separation from Britain, and none of them have anything to do with slavery or fear of it being outlawed. According to the Historic England website, England did not ban the transatlantic slave trade until 1807. Slavery itself did not end until the Slavery Abolition act was passed in 1838. So England was still promoting slavery in 1776. Thomas Jefferson actually had a condemnation of slavery as a reason for separation in his first draft of the “Declaration”, but he was forced to take it out by representatives of the 2nd Continental Congress from South Carolina and Georgia who were offended by the passage. Otherwise, these 2 colonies would not participate in the revolution. The Congress compromised because the support of all the colonies were needed to fight the British. The first draft says in part,” He (the King) has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights to life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or incur miserable death in their transportation thither….Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce…”.
The Heritage Foundation website explains in the article, “How to Understand Slavery and The American Founding,” that some of the founding fathers did own slaves, but many did not. Benjamin Franklin didn’t. He said that slavery was “an atrocious debasement of human nature” and a “source of serious evils.” He even co-founded an abolition society in 1774. John Adams apposed slavery with a passion all his life, and he called it “a foul contagion in the human character.” John Madison was also strongly opposed to it. George Washington owned slaves but he struggled with the barbarity of the institution. He did set some of his slaves free after his second term as president and the rest by a request in his will.
In the “1619 Project”, Nicole Hannah-Jones says that the white writers of the “Declaration” did not believe the words written were meant for black people. This is not true. Jefferson’s intent was to denounce the King for slavery in the “Declaration of Independence” of which he was the principle author. He and the other founders were not perfect for Jefferson did own slaves. He did set several free upon his death, but most he did not. Still he proposed a resolution to abolish slavery when he was in the Virginia House of Burgesses that was voted down. His proposal to end the international slave trade was approved by the 2nd Continental Congress.
The truth Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal” has always remained in our nation’s founding document as a rebuke of slavery even though some of the founders struggled with setting their slaves free. There were always some blacks who were free, mainly in the northern colonies, before the “Declaration” and “Constitution” were written. Five thousand free black men served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
Jefferson didn’t put an asterisk by “all” with a note saying except for black people. Many northern states took this truth to heart and passed laws to restrict or ban slavery soon after the revolution was over. The founders knew at our founding that the “created equal” phrase in the “Declaration” was true for all people, including blacks, and they were trusting that the passage of this document would begin the process of making the extinction of slavery a reality.
The Northwest Ordinance was passed in 1787 and signed by George Washington to prohibit slavery in all future federal territories, namely Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin When the US Constitution was passed in 1788, there was nothing condoning or sanctioning slavery or refusing civil rights to blacks in the document. Despite this, white people in the southern states, who would form the Democratic Party, kept the practice of slavery alive.
In 1820 with the Democrats controlling congress, the federal law banning slavery in new states was ignored, and the Missouri Compromise was passed with the new state of Maine banning slavery and Missouri allowing it. In the meantime, abolition societies made up mostly of white, Christian, Republican males grew in number in the north of the country. And many white men and women helped the black people escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad, despite the threat of arrest or worse.
The Republican party was formed in 1850, mainly to end the expansion of slavery. First Republican President Abraham Lincoln said in 1859, “I think slavery is wrong, morally and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole union.” This was enough for the southern states to secede from the Union and form the Confederate States to protect the institution of slavery. Their constitutions actually mentioned slavery as a right.
The firing on Union troops at Fort Sumter started the Civil War. In 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed 3.5 million black people from bondage in the southern states. He said in the act that “it was warranted by the US Constitution.”
After the war ended in 1865, the US Congress passed the 13th Amendment ending slavery for all. Hannah—Jones says that black people had to fight for their liberty. Some did in the war, but she fails to mention that over 360,000 mostly white men in the North, or Union, fought and died to end slavery. 258,000 men from the confederacy died as well. Unfortunately, slavery has existed probably from the beginning of time all over the world, but America is the only place where there was a civil war to end it. To the American haters out there, doesn’t this mean anything?
Per the book, “Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White,” by David Barton, the 14th amendment giving blacks the vote and the 15th amendment giving them citizenship, and therefore all the rights of whites, were passed soon after the war. But democrats still kept these rights from black people. Freed blacks began to vote republican in the north and south, but the democrats formed the Ku Klux Klan to stop this through intimidation. Still 23 black men were elected to congress as republicans. Half were former slaves. This was huge progress in their freedom. More civil rights bills were voted on in congress. Two dozen civil rights bills were passed into law by 1875, including desegregation of schools, when the republicans were in the majority. Then no more for the next 89 years because the democrats took over. The democratic southern states ignored the federal desegregation laws and passed state laws to keep black children in dilapidated, inferior schools.
Finally, Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights act that ended segregation for blacks and again gave them their civil rights. Still many democrats voted “no” on this act so many republican votes were needed.
I wanted to give this timeline because many people today, especially younger ones, do not know the true history of this nation. This country was not founded on slavery or racism. The British brought it here. Most of the founders and the republican party have always wanted to get rid of slavery, but they tried to work with the democrats to end it through the legislative process. I guess this was their weakness, but if they had refused to compromise with the democrats, the country could have gone to civil war earlier, which of course many people were trying to avoid at the time. There are still racists today in America, but the number is a lot fewer than what democratic politicians and liberal academia say. I think everyone should go to see the Museum of Civil Rights in Memphis. When I visited I was able to see how far this nation has come in giving civil rights to all.
There are many examples of black men and women who have risen from poverty to achieve prosperity. That is what America provides through free market capitalism. But in inner cities, poverty is rampant because most have been run by the democratic party for decades. Their policies have kept people on welfare and thus dependent on government. Like after the civil war, democrats want to keep children in failing schools because the teacher’s unions give money to the their party. When government pays more welfare to moms for children born out of wedlock, this encourages more families to live without fathers. This leads to more crime and violence in the children. Instead of taking responsibility for these failed policies, the democrats want to blame racism, and they pin it on republicans. The republicans have never been the party of racism or slavery or the KKK. They have always fought for the opposite.
Webster says that Racism means that one views himself as superior based on race or that one is prejudice towards a certain race. Prejudice means an irrational attitude or hostility towards someone based on one’s race. This all has to do with matters of one’s heart and mind. The Christian church needs to encourage forgiveness and pray for revival so that the Holy Spirit can people from the inside. Sometimes people think that something a person might say or do is racist when it is not. We need to talk about our perceptions with each other or just forgive and let it go.
There is a book called “Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War,” by Wilford Reilly. He lists over 100 recent cases of supposed racist crimes that turned out to be faked by the “victims.” Now if crimes based on racism were so prevalent, why would people have to make stuff up? As for white privilege. I don’t believe that this exists. The people who allege this are saying that white people have gotten everything not by earning it with skill or deserving it (privilege) but just because they are white. How can this be when some black people are rich while some white people are unemployed, poor, or homeless?
President Trump’s policies have proven to help black people in the inner city to get out of poverty and into jobs with wages that are increasing. We need to vote him back into office as well as Mayors and Governors who will push for similar policies in their cities.