My point stands. People ask stupid or ignorant questions every day in these settings. My questions stand. He made it a point to speak about her skin color. You are free to do or believe as you wish about him or what he claims. They are NOT what I question. They are not being obtuse; they genuinely do not know. Like it or not, some adults have the same awareness of History as children.
In the case of slavery, and its inherent evil, the answer should be easy for everyone. And in the case of America, a War was fought that brought that evil practice to an end.
My two bob. In I dare say there was even one white man in all of America that thought a black man was his equal. Certainly, there were very few in , but the war came anyway. Regardless of how history is taught, there will always be people who are generally ignorant of it. They could have the greatest teachers and learn nothing. I would like to respond to the many comments that I have received of this post. The woman who made this comment made it to one of my white colleagues, but her voice and tone were loud because the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center was crowded.
Her voice was heard by everyone standing close to her, in front of and behind the counter. I was waiting on another visitor when I heard the question.
Her children may or may not have been paying attention to her and I do not know why she asked the question. She may have asked the question because one of her children may have been working on a Civil War project or maybe it was because she was aware that slavery was the major cause of the Civil War. Since she knew that information, I do not think her question was an ignorant one. I have heard and read far worse, since I have worked at this National Military Park.
This family was going on the next guided tour of the Sunken Road and I was going to lead it. I chose to use her question as a teaching experience and spent an extra five to ten minutes to discuss slavery on the tour.
I had recently conducted a History at Sunset program with our Chief Historian, John Hennessy, who is an expert on slavery.
Therefore, I discussed slavery using Fredericksburg as my Civil War example. I explained that local, state, and Federal laws protected slavery in Fredericksburg and in the southern states. I briefly explained slavery in Fredericksburg and contrasted it with the surrounding counties.
I discussed the first Union occupation of Fredericksburg from April to August , when over 10, slaves escaped from the city and the surrounding counties — including a couple from the Richmond area. I also touched on my favorite subject, as I told the group that many of those escaped men returned as soldiers in the 23rd United States Colored Troops and became the first African Americans to fight in directed combat against the Army of Northern Virginia.
In essence, I did not take her question as one of ignorance, but as one which need a legitimate response. As far as my background in interacting with white people, in most of my professional life, I have had jobs and two careers, where most of my colleagues were white. I spent 35 years in the financial services industry, working my way up from a part-time teller to an Area Manager and Senior Vice President in Retail Banking.
I have spent the last 14 years in the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park as a volunteer, an Interpretive Park Ranger, and a sales associate, in the bookstores. So I have developed a lot of patience in interacting with people of all races and ethnic groups. So, when I am asked a question, I try to give an intelligent answer or as in this case, give the answer by giving the individual the information in an interpretive talk.
I have seen visitors who ask questions to provoke arguments, make jokes about learning about the Civil War, and just because they were not taught or did not learn about the Civil War. I have had thousands of Civil War conversations in my life. Many of them occur because many of our schools do not teach American History or Civics government , I was lucky because I was taught those subjects in elementary, junior high, and senior high schools.
I learned a significant amount of information about the antebellum period and Civil War because it was my favorite time period in American history. I have learned a great deal more in my time with the National Park Service. Since I have been at this park, I have learned that all school systems are not the same in teaching Civil War history and so many Americans, young and old, do not know much about the Civil War.
I feel that it is my job to try to educate them, when they go on my tours or ask me questions. I have heard and seen many comments from Americans that show there are a lot of Americans, who are still saying the same things that were said over years ago.
There are still people who do not believe slavery was a cause of the war. In fact, there was an Asian American woman, who was visiting Chancellorsville with a group of Germans.
It was after closing, as I was leaving, I was in my park ranger uniform, they asked me some questions about the Civil War. I talked to them about the war for about 30 minutes and at the end, the Asian American woman said that she did not believe that slavery was a cause of the war. I referred her to several sources of Civil War history, plus I informed her that she could read the southern states secession documents. She just walked away and said she just did not believe it.
I had just spent my own time, giving her group a short history of the Civil War and the Germans thanked me, but she walked away in disgust. I find that there are many foreigners who know more about our Civil War, than Americans know. Whether that Asian American woman even ventured to look at the documents or read any books about the war, I cannot say.
However, I think that she was more ignorant about the war than the white woman who asked the question, what was so wrong with slavery and why did it cause the Civil War.
They also must take a course and pass an end-of-year test in American History. I have taught both. What was so wrong with slavery? Well what was so wrong with Slavery? What was so good about it?
And can you answer them truthfully without being emotionally or racially biased? Why did it Slavery cause the Civil War? What other issues were prevalent or equally as central to dividing the United States? The South left the Union because the tide had turned against that peculiar institution as the United States expanded.
Rather than work within the system, the South decided to leave a Union that the FF intended to be perpetual. In , the South wrote that they were leaving the Union because of slavery.
Some people fail to get the word; others choose not to believe it. In the end, the effort to dispense Truth must be continued, one person at a time. Blacks went from being enslaved by other African Blacks in Brutish Tribal Warfare to having reliable food, shelter, medical treatment and constructive work. Guess what? Blacks today still live on the Democrat hand-out plantation as hapless, witless creatures needing someone to take care of them. In fact, compared to Africa, it was Paradise.
It is indeed available, Pat. People like John who enjoy displaying their ignorance, bigotry, and hatred are shackled to a unique form of latter-day slavery. And yet Whites were and are no less equally enslaved. You might be enslaved yourself. Now how could that be? What do you labor for and for whom? Whites were able to move and offer their services…. When you dehumanize an entire race, then it is easy to treat them in a bad way.
Ho, ho, ho… and the punchline of this emotional dramatisation — the photo of the author at the end. Overall, the experience of the average slave would have compared favourably with the alternative — 19th century darkest Africa. Democracies are designed to resolve issues like this without resort to mass expulsions, coup attempts, or the demand that those who disagree with us leave the country.
Steward T. Henderson, the author, is not in clownface, but perhaps ATD finds his photo laughable for other reasons. I would prefer not to know what they are. My mother never manifested any form of prejudice in all my years of growing up and she taught us accordingly. She was of the WW2 generation and ahead of her time in many ways. And as far as group politics is concerned, I could care less. Was ATD responding solely to my comments, perhaps? We are still living with the after effects of the Civil War.
The 2nd round of Jim Crow laws has just started in Georgia. Why would blacks not have the requisite IDs when they have the ones needed for air travel, Vaccine passports, welfare access, school access, acquiring medicines, buying alcohol, you know, the very SAME ONES the rest of us have?
But as always, blacks are THE tools the Democrats use and exploit. Some things never change with your kind Giant. Doug, Democrats allege that the laws will disenfranchise minorities, who less often have valid IDs. Why do minorities have fewer IDs? Passports, military IDs, and other government-issued photo ID are generally accepted, and some states accept student ID cards from state universities.
Seniors, for example, are also less likely to drive. How will they ever get through this life? Please read about the 5 Civil Rights cases decided in or so, that paved the way for Jim Crow Legislation. It was the Republicans o the Supreme Court who gutted the 14th and 15 Amendments. When you vote, you sign the voting rolls with your signature. It is much more difficult to forge a signature that it is is the get a fake ID. The indisputable fact is that YOU Democrats have determined that blacks and blacks only do not have the ability or capacity to provide for themselves.
By making everything about blacks it is their your attempt to deflect from the real agenda that includes getting the illegals your side needs so desperately in elections to the polls.
Actually Douglas, it was the abandonment of the Blacks by the Republican Party in agreeing to do away with Reconstruction, and in by a Supreme Court, which led to Jim Crow. More likely, it was the Klan which determined that Blacks were not to vote. There is no connection between the Klan and the Democratic Party.
Without some sort of reliable ID, how can anyone verify that the person showing up to vote is the same person who is registered to vote? If a person does not have current government picture ID then in other countries there are various means to show the people staffing the polling station that you are who you say you are and that you reside in the electoral area.
These can include expired ID, utility bills showing your name and address together with some other form of ID, sworn declarations by other residents, etc. Also, how difficult would it be for a state to offer free or nominal cost state identity cards with picture, perhaps through the motor vehicle licensing offices and other suitable state government offices? People have fought and died for the right to vote. Voter ID laws prevent people from exercising this right.
Accessing a photo ID is much more challenging for the young, the elderly, people of color, and people with low incomes. All of this concern about voter iD, is just to suppress the Afro-American vote. I am sure all states have a set up like that, or they should. You cannot apply for a VA ID card online or by mail.
Minorities may face extra challenges in securing other legally valid IDs, cost being one of those. And when you look at the history of voting in the United States it has always been one of expanding the vote, and not to hinder the ability to vote. Yes, it could be said that tens of millions in the last century alone fought and died for, among other things, the right to vote. However, how do you prevent voter fraud? Pennsylvania tallied 3 million votes by mail.
Voters who applied for a mail ballot had to give their name, address, date of birth, voting district and how long they have lived there, Kathy Boockvar, Pennsylvania secretary of the Commonwealth, has told the state Supreme Court. The court ruled that mail ballots could not be rejected on signature comparisons. When Trump registered to vote in Florida last September, he put Pennsylvania Avenue as his address.
The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections rejected his application, because the state requires you have an in-state address to register. A month later he submitted an application with his Mar-a-Lago address and was accepted. Bottom Line: Bipartisan sources agree that voter fraud — for instance, stuffing ballot boxes or voting multiple times — is an an exceedingly rare crime with almost no chance of affecting the presidential election. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, keeps a voter fraud database, which contains only entries, a tiny fraction of the number of local, state and national votes tallied since , which is as far back as the database goes.
If both parties, Republican and Democrat are concerned with the elderly, people of color, the young and people with low incomes not having the proper I. Less complaining people, more doing and helping others to participate in the American system!!! Their numbers are too numerous to count. Are they anomalies or just hard workers? Did they play the race card or did they choose to ignore it and rose on their own abilities and hard work? All this showing an ID in order to vote, is nothing more than a Jim Crow poll tax, hindering a minority to vote.
If everyone has the same I. A national ID card system would not solve the problem that is inspiring it. An ID card system will lead to a slippery slope of surveillance and monitoring of citizens. A national ID card system would require creation of a database of all Americans 4. ID cards would foster new forms of discrimination and harassment. I think we have all of the above already, except for your 1.
I find your answers, again, to be excuses and lack of taking responsibility. Anyone else have any comments or are they tired of this twisting of words and reasoning, too? You only see things one way. As far as 1 is concerned,…A national ID card system will not prevent terrorism.
It would not have thwarted the September 11 hijackers, for example, many of whom reportedly had identification documents on them, and were in the country legally. Terrorists and criminals will continue to be able to obtain — by legal and illegal means — the documents needed to get a government ID, such as birth certificates.
As far as s 2,3,4,and 5 are concerned…I am not at all comfortable with Big Brother watching me, as other Americans are. Every so often, I re-read Giant, I guess you know everything, so I really find no further point in trying to articulate my ideas. Thanks for the Democratic party line. I am sure I will be seeing you in the new socialist state you have planned for the rest of us. Being well versed in American History, and having studied it, gives me a wider perspective than most people.
Much to the chagrin of the Mrs. Giant, I have books galore on all aspects of American History, and I make sure I know both sides of an issue , before discussing it. THAT, is what makes my comments so erudite. As far as the new socialist state you mention, plans have already been advanced. Take Social Security for instance. The Social Security Act created a social insurance program designed to pay retired workers age 65 or older a continuing income after retirement.
Look at Medicare. Realize that in , 56 percent of Americans over the age of 65 were not covered by health insurance. Medicare was passed so that the members of the Greatest Generation, the Generation that survived the Great Depression, and went to war to protect our freedoms, would not have to go to the poorhouse, because of medical disease as they aged.
Do you receive Social Security and Medicare? I know you have participated in it…both are Socialist programs. There are slaves in The Kingdom today! Several Filipino and Thai women slipped me notes when I was at the local mall. They could not reach their families and their passports had been taken away. They hoped I would contact their families in the Philippines to let them know they were okay.
Americans spend a lot of time wringing their hands over slaves that have been dead for years while caring very little about the slaves that are alive right now. I think we are very Americo-centric in our country, thinking a lot of the time only of OUR history and of what happened to US, here in our lands. That was eye opening to me and I try not to think of myself as too naive. It is good to remember those slaves from years ago here in our country and that we fought a civil war to get rid of slavery but there are actual slaves existing in the world today and human trafficking that contributes to this.
We can bring to light wrongs in other countries but we only still have the power to legally rectify wrongs that happen only here in our own country. I think we need to wake up about a number of things in this country. We are NOT the center of the world as we think we are. It then becomes easier to dismiss economic and epigenetic legacies of the transatlantic slave system. In fact, rape of black women by white enslavers was so prevalent that a study revealed These were the enslaved African Americans within the closest proximity to and who spent the longest durations with white men: the ones who toiled in the houses of slave owners.
A study determined that 50 percent of rape survivors develop PTSD. It is hard to imagine that enslaved and freedom-seeking African American survivors of rape — female, male, old, young, no matter their physical or mental abilities — did not experience further anxiety, fear, and shame associated with a condition they could not control in a situation out of control.
Those African Americans with the most European ancestry, those tormented mentally, physically, emotionally, and genetically in the house, knew they had to get out. In fact, they fled the farthest — Southern whites are more closely related to blacks now living in the North than the South. Jason Allen is a public historian and dialogue facilitator working at nonprofits, hospitals, and businesses in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. A common myth about American slavery is that when it ended, white supremacy or racism in America also ended.
But the truth is that long after the Civil War, white Americans continue to carry the same set of white supremacist beliefs that governed their thoughts and actions during slavery and into the post-emancipation era.
They embraced sharecropping and convict leasing to control black labor in late 19th century, enacted Jim Crow laws to regulate black behavior in the early 20th century, and use racial terror to police the color line to this day.
In the North, whites also rejected racial equality. After emancipation, they refused to make abandoned and confiscated land available to freedmen because they believed that African Americans would not work without white supervision. And when African Americans began fleeing Dixie during the Great Migration, white Northerners instituted their own brand of Jim Crow , segregating neighborhoods and refusing to hire black workers on a nondiscriminatory basis.
The ideology, which rationalized bondage for years, has justified the discriminatory treatment of African Americans for the years since the war ended. The belief that black people are less than white people has made segregated schools acceptable, mass incarceration possible, and police violence permissible. This makes the myth that slavery had no lasting impact extremely consequential — denying the persistence and existence of white supremacy obscures the root causes of the problems that continue to plague African Americans.
As a result, policymakers fixate on fixing black people instead of trying to undo the discriminatory systems and structures that have resulted in separate and unequal education, voter suppression, health disparities, and a wealth gap. Most of us only learned partial truths about slavery in the United States. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, many in the North and South wanted to put an end to continuing tensions.
The Lost Cause is a distorted version of Civil War history. In the decades after the war, a number of Southern historians began to write that slaveholders were noble and had the right to secede from the Union when the North wished to interfere with their way of life. Due to efforts by a group of Southern socialites known as the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Lost Cause ideology influenced history textbooks as well as books for children and adults.
Union generals like Ulysses S. Even an accurate historical curriculum emphasizes progress, triumph, and optimism for the country as a whole, without taking into account how slavery continues to affect black Americans and influence present-day domestic policy from urban planning to health care.
It does not emphasize that 12 of the first 18 presidents were enslavers, that enslaved Africans from particular cultures were prized for their skills from rice cultivation to metallurgy, and that enslaved people used every tool at their disposal to resist bondage and seek freedom. From slavery to Jim Crow to civil rights to the first black president, the black American story is forced into the story of the unassailable American dream — even when the truth is more complicated.
Given what we learn about slavery, when we learn it, and how, it is clear that everyone still has much more to learn. He also gives a brief history of the many societies that have enslaved people and the many guises in which it has appeared.
Perhaps worse than the realization of how bad mankind has been in the past, is the fact that slavery still exists. It does so in its old form, such as that seen in the pre-civil war United States, and it exists in new ways.
Or put another way, we haven't seen the end of the practice of people being exploited in morally indefensible ways. That reality is what makes the book so pertinent now.
For those who need proof of its relevance, look no further than earlier this month when news broke that there are now open-air slave auctions in Libya. It is possibly the result of the country descending into lawlessness after the dictator Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and ultimately killed. The news from Libya, of course, comes on top of the news that inside of the so-called Islamic State children have for years been sold into sexual slavery.
Wright's work is scholarly -- the multitude of footnotes and citations is clear evidence that his book is well researched. However, unlike some academic books, this is very readable with fascinating insights into a practice that all right thinking people should want to eradicate.
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