It’s Black History Month – Some Things You Should Know
In 1976, Republican President Gerald R. Ford began the yearly tradition of a nationwide Black History Month when he urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Yes…a Republican started the yearly tradition of Black History Month.
This was the culmination of an effort started decades before, by historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson, known by some as the “Father of Black History”, when he announced “Negro History Week” in February 1926. The purpose of Woodson’s efforts was to spread understanding of the important contributions and achievements made by the black race to history. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), founded in 1915, by Dr. Woodson, and originally called the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, states, “Woodson chose February for reasons of tradition and reform. It is commonly said that Woodson selected February to encompass the birthdays of two great Americans who played a prominent role in shaping black history, namely Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, whose birthdays are the 12th and the 14th, respectively. More importantly, he chose them for reasons of tradition. Since Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, the black community, along with other Republicans, had been celebrating the fallen President’s birthday. And since the late 1890s, black communities across the country had been celebrating Douglass” (Emphasis mine).
The histories of all people are filled with moments of greatness and moments of deep regret. Unfortunately, the telling of history is often used as a political weapon in order to further an agenda or to accomplish one or another selfish goal. Black history is no different. We cannot gloss over things that are uncomfortable to admit or discuss while only highlighting the grand achievements. History itself is not political, it is just that…history. Things either happened or they didn’t. People make it political for their own reasons. Although we don’t know who actually said, “History is written by the victors,” there is an unfortunate truth to the statement. And the Victors do not have to be people who have conquered another people through war. Victors can also be people who have successfully propagated a particular narrative that reflects their own biased assertions. A real historian’s job is to get past the politics and the fluff and to simply tell the truth as best as possible. Warts and all.
On that note, I would like to review some facts of history you may or may not have known.
Black people traded and kept white people as slaves
Yes, that’s right.
Moor’s, a term used to describe black people who hailed from North Africa and were largely Muslim, had held an estimated 1.2 million white people , mostly Christian slaves during the few hundred or so years that the Moorish Kingdoms spent invading Southern Europe. The Moor’s didn’t just enslave white people though. They had no qualms about enslaving fellow black people as well. It’s time that more people realized that slavery was not just something that white people did to black people throughout history.
Black people sold other black people into slavery
Many black people were involved in the slave trade which brought millions of unfortunate souls to this country in chains. The slave trade could not have been as big as it was if it were not for the complicity of black Africans.
It is estimated that 90% of the people sent to the new world from Africa were slaves of other Africans and then sold to the European slave traders. For powerful West African kingdoms the slave trade was one of their primary sources of trade and wealth for many years. Many African kingdoms enriched themselves by selling other fellow black people into slavery for centuries.
Europeans, Americans and Africans, black and white, share the responsibility for the crime against humanity which was the African slave trade.
Black people had slaves right here in America
In fact, the very first person to own a slave legally in one of the original 13 American Colonies was a black man. And the process behind how he came to be a slave owner set the table for all of the future legal slave trading to occur in America.
Anthony Johnson (1600-1670) was a freed slave who owned 250 acres of land in America and also held the services of four white and one black indentured servants. His black indentured servant, John Casor, requested that Johnson release him as he was past the seven years most indentured servants were required to give as a term of their indenture. Johnson denied he knew of any indenture of Casor and declared that he, Casor, was to be his servant for life. Johnson’s neighbors, the Parkers, worked on behalf of Casor to have Johnson release him, which he eventually did. But Johnson was not happy about this and eventually sued the Parker’s to get Casor back. In 1655 the courts ruled in favor of Johnson and this black man Johnson became the first formally recognized slave owner in the colonies. When Casor became Johnson’s servant for life he became the first person in Britain’s 13 colonies to be legally be declared a slave.
There were many other blacks who owned black slaves in America.
In 1860, William “April” Ellison owned a cotton gin shop plus a 900 acre cotton plantation in South Carolina, which was worked by 63 slaves of his own plus another 9 who were slaves of his sons. He also supported the expansion of slavery into the Kansas territory.
William was also a very ardent supporter of the Confederacy when war broke out in 1861, and even had a grandson who served in a Confederate Artillery Unit. After his death in December of 1861 his family continued to support the Confederacy by farming food for, and giving money to, the Confederate Army.
Antoine Dubuclet was also a wealthy black slave owner who owned a large sugar plantation in Louisiana which was worked by 100 slaves. After the war Dubuclet was elected as a Republican to become Louisiana’s first black State Treasurer.
These are just two examples of many black people who owned slaves in America. More examples can be found here.
Blacks fought on the side of the Patriots during the Revolution
Approximately 5,000 blacks fought on the side of the Patriots against the British. The article The Black Patriots of The American Revolution states, for example, “Service of African American soldiers alongside their white counterparts is strikingly illustrated in an August 24, 1778 ‘Return of the Negroes in the Army’ notice, which listed 755 black soldiers in fifteen brigades of Gen. George Washington’s main army at White Plains, New York. Black soldiers were listed in regiments in other states, as well.”
Thousands of blacks fought on the side of the Patriots during the Revolution despite the fact that the British were offering them freedom in return for serving the Crown. The fact that black men fought on the side of the Patriots shows that the ideas of Liberty and Freedom are colorblind.
Some more examples of black people’s service to the Revolution can be found here.
The belief that the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves is simply not true and Lincoln did not believe whites and blacks were equal
Many Republicans take great pride with the fact that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. They say he was a great hero who held the Union together and defeated slavery! They built a myth around the man that may not be entirely deserved or stand up to acute investigation. This is not the place to go into all of the details around why Lincoln may not have been as great as a hero as many believe.
But we can take a look at what Lincoln thought of black people.
Abraham Lincoln said this at his fourth debate with Stephen Douglas in 1858:
“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”
There is enough evidence to support that Lincoln personally was against slavery. But his Emancipation Proclamation issued in September of 1862 was not intended to free any slaves in the States he controlled. Instead, it stated, “…all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free…” This meant that Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation freed exactly…zero slaves. He was in effect saying he would free the slaves in another country, which the South was, but not his own. Talk about “Do as I say, not as I do.”
But what about slaves in States which Lincoln controlled, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri? Turns out that the “Great Emancipator” let them keep their slaves. Why? Because they were on the side of the Union. But the hypocrisy of Lincoln has been glossed over in the minds of most people. The genius behind the proclamation was that it shifted the focus of the war in many people’s minds from what it really was, a dispute over State’s rights, to one on slavery.
It is also true that many blacks fought for and supported the Confederacy during the war. Not just as cooks or laborers, many fought in combat units, in spite of the fact it was technically illegal for them to do so for most of the war.
As a side note, there are also ample examples throughout history of white people being held in slaves in America as well.
There are also many black Conservatives
There are many, many black Conservative Americans. They are people who believe in less government, more personal responsibility and freedom and who fly in the face of the myth that leftist America is the natural home of blacks in this country.
People such as Larry Elders, Candace Owens, Charles Payne, Dr. Thomas Sowell and Dr. Ben Carson all are pretty famous in their own right. But then there are scores of lesser known black Conservatives, people such as W.B Allen, Brian Bledsoe and The Rev. Arnold M. Culbreath, who all destroy the myth that black people are not Conservatives.
And why wouldn’t there be black Conservatives? It’s a philosophy that first and foremost is about freedom and enabling people to use their own God given talents to rise up and succeed beyond their wildest dreams, while leftism promises nothing but dependency and misery. What right minded person of any color or creed wouldn’t choose more freedom and limitless opportunity over the oppression and poverty which leftism brings?
We also need to talk about Black Lives Matter
Do black lives matter? Of course they do. But no more so than any other life. So…
All Lives Matter. It’s not racist to say that. If you think it is, there really is something mentally wrong with you.
But I’m talking about the BLM organization.
First and foremost the Black Lives Matter organization is a Marxist (Communist) one which seeks to overthrow our Capitalist based system and install something akin to any one of the oppressive, totalitarian Communist regimes which have been guilty of murdering over 100 million innocent people throughout history. One of the founders of BLM, Patrisee Cullors, admitted she and her fellow BLM co founders were Marxists in 2015.
“We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories. And I think that what we really tried to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk,” Cullors said.
What is BLM demanding now? Nothing less than a complete suppression of anyone opposed to them and their radical agenda. Just like the good totalitarian Communists they are. And if you disagree with them you are obviously a racist who deserves to be suppressed and denied your basic Constitutional rights such as Freedom of Speech.
BLM is also closely affiliated with, and a part of, the Movement 4 Black Lives (M4BL). M4BL is a kind of umbrella organization which calls for their followers to: END THE WAR ON BLACK COMMUNITIES; END THE WAR ON BLACK YOUTH; END THE WAR ON BLACK WOMEN; END THE WAR ON BLACK TRANS, QUEER, GENDER NONCONFORMING AND INTERSEX PEOPLE; END THE WAR ON BLACK HEALTH AND BLACK DISABLED PEOPLE; END THE WAR ON BLACK MIGRANTS; END TO ALL JAILS, PRISONS, AND IMMIGRATION DETENTION; END THE DEATH PENALTY; END THE WAR ON DRUGS; END THE SURVEILLANCE ON BLACK COMMUNITIES; END TO PRETRIAL DETENTION AND MONEY BAIL; THE DEMILITARIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT; END THE USE OF PAST CRIMINAL HISTORY.
Do you think they believe they are in a war right now? And who do they think they are “at war” with? Why, white people everywhere of course. “While this platform is focused on domestic policies, we know that … white supremacy and nationalism are global structures.”
M4BL is where radical leftist groups such as BLM gather to plot and plan their dreamed of overthrow of America. They are outwardly anti-Capitalist, “We are anti-capitalist: We believe and understand that Black people will never achieve liberation under the current global racialized capitalist system.” And a read through of M4BL’s website shows they are deadly serious about what they plan to do. This is not some fly-by-night group of starry eyed dreamers. They are well organized and well funded by groups such as the George Soros funded Tides Foundation and Act Blue. The amount of action guides, informational material, planning guides and other tools for radical agitation on their website is impressive…and frightening. It is something Patriots need to study, to know what we are dealing with, and in many cases emulate. You have to give it to the left. They know how to organize.
But BLM is not a civil rights group as many brainwashed people believe. It is a leftist political group whose main purpose is to gather and secure power. And just like Lincoln used the falsely titled Emancipation Proclamation to rewrite the narrative of The War Between the States into a moral crusade against slavery in order to preserve the power of a centralized Federal government over the States, BLM is using a truly just cause, civil rights, to secure its own power over American society with the active collaboration and appeasement of many foolish people. BLM says, “Together, we can — and will — transform. This is the revolution. Change is coming,” and that should frighten every Liberty loving person out there.
Like all races, creeds and religions, black people have a history filled with triumph, tragedy and moments of great regret. They are no better or no worse than anyone else, and as a Christian and a Patriot I bear no ill will towards anyone based on their skin color, how they look, or any other physical attribute. What matters to me is how you are as a person. Are you respectful, kind and decent? And how do you see me? Do you judge me by the color of MY skin, or MY faith, or MY gender?
We should be mindful of the tragedies inflicted upon all people by ruthless tyrants who used their position of power to oppress and suppress others for their own gain. Whether it is a totalitarian government like Communist China committing genocide against their Uyghur minority population, or a radical group like BLM that is trying to use their power to suppress other people’s Liberties, taking away people’s God given rights and Freedoms should arouse righteous indignation in all of us, no matter the color of our skin.
There is a quote from Dr. Carter G. Woodson that many people would do well to heed:
It’s fine to be proud of who you are or where you come from and to express that pride in meaningful and constructive ways. But a truly colorblind society would exist as Dr. Woodson said. It would not be one where we have Black History as a “separate but equal” celebration. Instead it would simply be “history”, where truth and facts reign supreme over bias and agendas.