I saw a recent commentary over the 4th that is not in history books. Jefferson was in a financial bind and because of Virginia law could not free his slaves. History has a filter and does not provide the rest of the story.
I saw a recent commentary over the 4th that is not in history books. Jefferson was in a financial bind and because of Virginia law could not free his slaves. History has a filter and does not provide the rest of the story.
It is correct that Virginia law at that time did not permit the freeing of enslaved people. In addition, when the Declaration was written and proclaimed, we were still very much at war. In Virginia, many plantation owners had their homes burned down by British soldiers, particularly under Banastre Tarleton. Men who were active in the American government (2nd Continental Congress at the time of the Declaration) or in state level government) at times had to relocate or flee to avoid capture by the British. Soldiers might have been taken prisoner, but those in the government were in danger of execution for treason if captured. The war itself took up all their energy, and there was no time to consider plans for educating and providing paying jobs if slaves would have been freed. In those times, there was a lot of chaos, poverty, and hunger. The British would raid farms and steal cattle and every kind of food to feed their troops who were far from home. Washington's men also needed to eat, and would have to rely on local farmers also though Washington said they must pay for what they took in fairness to fellow Americans and to maintain their loyalty - but Congress had no power to tax and funds were limited - and colonial money was mostly worthless. So even the farmers were hungry. So, during these chaotic times most people suffered in some way, and there were not "paying jobs" such as we know today at that time - money worthless, farmers away at war. In some cases, enslaved men were offered freedom if they served in the military, offered by British and by Americans, but there was no real ability to formulate a humanitarian plan for the orderly freeing of all enslaved people at that time. The war needed to be won, or most leaders would have been executed, and the people as a whole would have been little more than slaves. In Boston, prior to the outbreak of the war, people were forced to have British army officers housed in their own homes, and women were forced to cook and clean for military men, forced by law, by the Quartering Act. So, actually white people were slaves prior to the outbreak of the war, not only African Americans. A different kind of slavery to be sure, since white people in Boston technically owned their own homes and could carry on their own business, but if you were forced to give up your bedrooms to British military, forced to cook for them and do their laundry, while you slept on the kitchen floor like CInderella, surely that was a form of slavery. Most people today don't know enough history to have any idea what things were like at that time - we can imagine what we want and believe things should have been different without having any idea of the realities. The enslavement of Africans and African Americans was evil, it was an evil system, starting with Africans who sold members of other tribes to white men for transport to North American and the Caribbean, and continuing up until the Civil War. But I can't blame the "founding fathers" for a mess they inherited. George Washington is vilified by some as a slave owner, but he did give orders that families should not be broken up and sold apart, and he kept and provided for those too unwell or too old to continue working, with provisions made for their care to continue after his own death. While slaves could not have been freed under Virginia law at one time, it became possible later, and Washington did free his slaves and provide options and a transition plan to go into effect after his death. The realities of making a fair and workable plan involved more than we might imagine today, there is more to consider than I would try to enter into this textbox. People need to read beyond the high school textbooks or even college level textbooks and dig deeper, but too few have an interest to try to learn and understand history. Or they believe completely false things, like, university students who demanded that a statue of Lincoln be removed because he had been a slave owner (untrue and I hope many of us know).
There are many more slaves today here in the US and all over the world, today compared to the start of the Civil War. There are millions who are enslaved by human traffickers, and that does include very young children also. There are women, men and children enslaved for sex work and also for general labor. They are definitely slaves. Those forced to do sex work are forced to service many customers on a daily basis, and they have no say. In a research study on trafficking, through interviews with women who were trafficking survivors, it was learned that the majority had multiple forced abortions. In the study (by Lederer and Wetzel) one woman reported having had 17 abortions. To learn more about the trafficking of children, the movie "The Sound of Freedom" is out this week on limited release - it is not going to be shown at all theaters, and is probably going to have a limited number of days in theaters - though it has had huge success since opening on July 3, that perhaps it will stay around longer than originally planned - I understand it has been #1 this week. The movie is not depressing because it is based on a true story of children being rescued from traffickers in a sting operation, with two children who are especially featured in the movie ending up back home with their parents. So it is very hopeful and leaves with hope, though we have to be the hope for the modern day slaves. But today - it is much worse in so many ways than in earlier centuries. Greater numbers of slaves for sure, and all races and nationalities. With slavery in the US historically, there were many situations in which enslaved people were treated with extreme cruelty, and at the same time, other situations in which enslaved people apparently were fed and clothed adequately and treated reasonably well - though not to minimize the injustice of the lack of freedom, lack of opportunities, and sources of distress that historians would not always know. So, not intending to minimize that, and yet, it appears that most people who live in the situation of human trafficking today live in horrific circumstances, and their lifespan is shortened tremendously. Lederer & Wetzel (2014) examined this from a public health perspective and those who escaped trafficking had headaches and neurological conditions from the horrific abuse, but not only that - long, long lists of symptoms and health conditions that were directly caused by their horrifically abusive treatment during trafficking. Slavery, whether old or new, is a terrible evil, and it did not end with the Civil War. It's still with us in a different form. You can help to end the trafficking of children at our borders by signing a petition to support legislation proposed by Senator Marsha Blackburn - read about it here and sign if you wish: https://lifepetitions.com/petition/human-trafficking?utm_source=email_070523 and see the trailer for "The Sound of Freedom" and consider buying a ticket and seeing the movie this weekend while it is still around: https://www.angel.com/pay-it-forward/sound-of-freedom?utm_medium=direct&utm_source=angel-freedom&utm_campaign=sound-of-freedom-theatrical
Those who voted for Joe Biden and Democrats also support the criminals involved in human trafficking. Because the Congressional investigation reveals Biden family invests money in human trafficking, yet I donтАЩt see any BidenтАЩs supporters condemn his crimes at all.
Illiberals today have shamelessly turned themselves into cohorts of criminals of the worst kind. They even boast about what they have done.
In my comment, the legislation proposed by Senator Marsha Blackburn would require that all children who are being brought into the US illegally must be DNA tested. That is because if the children are being brought in by parents, there would be a DNA match, and if brought in by traffickers, unlikely to have a DNA match. Of note, the DNA testing was being done previously but under the BIden administration this was stopped because it was deemed unnecessary. Possibly it was not necessary because the Biden was making so much money off the traffickers? Wide open border, and all these unaccompanied minors, or rather, accompanied by cartel guys who bring them across and sell them. Blackburn's bill, by requiring the DNA tests on all children who enter illegally - not all children, but those entering illegally - would put a stop to most of the trafficking. It has been reported that about 30% of the children entering illegally are being trafficked. Remember all the criticism about children being separated from their "parents"? They were often being separated from their traffickers and kept safe until things could be sorted out. Anyway, yes, I recently became aware of Biden's involvement in trafficking. The US is one of the biggest trafficking destinations, and Mexico is reportedly the largest supplier at least to the US, and among the top suppliers globally. More can and should be done, but resuming DNA testing would be a good start.
I did see Sound of Freedom on July 3rd. It is now the top selling movie. Trafficking is now gaining more recognition while at the same time growing bigger. There will always be pedophiles, the evil. We need to make sure to severely limit or totally remove their supply.
There is no benefit whatsoever to comparing whether one form of slavery is worse than another. Each instance of it, in the past and today, is an affront to humanity. We need to get clear on that, and work to abolish and make amends for all forms of it. There is great reward in righting wrongs.
And, is growing...Thanks to the Central Bankers with the International Mafia enabling uncontrolled INVASION OF THE WEST to provide for the putrid and abominable sins of Human Trafficking/Sexual Slavery of children, babies and all kinds of human beings...FOR TRULY EVIL AND HORRIBLE PURPOSES OF ALIEN BEINGS DIRECTLY FROM HELL wearing human being suits on Earth.
I have read several biographies of the founding fathers over the years, that concur with what you have said. It was not all as neat or cut and dried as I learned in school. It's been a while since I read it, but pretty sure it was Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton who noted that the slave question almost derailed the entire revolution/declaration of independence. There would have been no unity had the slave issue been addressed at the time, many of the founding fathers did not get along, and it was a fine line to walk to hold the coalition together during the years of the war and the writing of the constitution.
Yes, it was very difficult to get all 13 colonies to agree on whether to go to war and how to conduct the war. If they had also had to agree on slavery and solve that first, we would not have ended up as the United States. In a way, like today, think about the difference between California and, say, Florida. People in the various colonies differed from each other greatly, not so different than today - and it was a tough job to bring everyone to more or less consensus about the Revolution. And then the Constitution as well - Patrick Henry was a delegate to the convention that wrote the Constitution but he thought he "smelt a rat" and did not attend at all, and it was a hard job to get each state on board.
Especially since that convention was ostensibly being held to amend the Articles of Confederation, NOT make a whole new government! About 30% of the delegates, headed by Alexander Hamilton himself, were the culprits of this hijack of intention. They just had to have their central bank and powerful fed gov't.
Yes, it is amazing how much I did not learn about how all this really went down. Granted, I did not take any history classes outside of what was required in all my years of formal education. I credit my daughter, who loved history even as a child, to prompt me to start digging deeper. And the more I dig, the more I appreciate the miracle that was the birth of this nation and its Constitution.
Not sure if that link is working as intended, I got an error message and then redirected - but am aware that ranchers and farmers have started using mRNA vaccines with cattle and pigs. I'm thinking going forward, most people would do well to grow their own gardens from heirloom seeds (while you can still get them) and try to get meat from any local farmer who doesn't give the new vaccines to his herd. Who may be "organic" or perhaps beyond organic. Though I am hoping that the mRNA or vaccine bits would be destroyed by cooking, at least regarding the meat. I know, some people want to make it challenging for us to get any food, much less food that is clean and safe.
I think if real history were taught in schools like we had in the 50s and early 60s, people might have a better understanding of our past! Instead they get crt, woke junk, pronouns and sexual deviancy! They are the most confused generation of elementary, Jr. High and hi school students weтАЩve ever had. TheyтАЩll grow to be confused adults.
Thank you for your brief history lesson! Well done.
Nancy, a while ago this evening, I wrote another post with suggestions for some good history books for kids and adults, including a series by Peter Marshall and David Manuel in adult and children's editions, also the series of 5 books by Rush Limbaugh with his wife Katherine on American history. IF you scroll through the comments you may found the info about those books. But I'll mention some other good books for children and teens. Anything you can find by Jean Fritz is going to be really entertaining and at the same time, really authentic history. For children in the primary grades, there are books with illustrations on every page, and titles like "Where was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?" and "Why Don't you get a Horse, Sam Adams?" and "And then what happened, Paul Revere?" They really are historically accurate, but written in a memorable way that younger children enjoy - well, Amazon suggests ages 7 through 9, but I think you can go younger or older with some of these. But then Fritz also does books that are more middle school to high school level, like, "Early Thunder," which is about a 14 year old boy whose father is Tory (loyal to the King) while the boy has friends on both sides, but gradually finds himself siding with the patriots. Amazon says that one is for ages 8 -12, but the 14-year-old hero should be a clue that it's really for somewhat older readers, plus, it's 256 pages which is way too long for an 8 year old. Thus, in the reviews by parents, some say they and their kids didn't like it - they may have been too young for it - but still 70% gave it 5 stars. While most of Fritz's books are biography and teach a lot of history through telling the stories, Early Thunder is historical fiction, with fictional characters like this boy and his father and his friend - but at the end of the book she tells you who was real who was not, and the story centers around a true historical incident that could have been the start of the Revolution though the situation was cleverly de-escalated. Fritz started writing and publishing in the late 1950's, and apparently wrote for 4 decades. So the books are more similar to what you recall from the 50's and 60's and not like the revisionist things one reads today from people who hate America. Fritz loved America, and writes really sparkling, brilliant stories that bring real heroes to life. The "big kid" biographies are marked on Amazon as being for ages 8 to 12, and I'm not sure that is correct in all cases, but if you buy one for a grandchild or nephew and it turns out to be too advanced, books can be saved till a child is ready. Some of her biographies for older kids would be "Bully for you, Teddy Roosevelt," and "The Great Little Madison," but she wrote about 100 books in all. I noticed in one of the reviews by parents, a mom wrote that she thought reading stories more than history books gave her son a love for history and I think the stories are important. Besides the Jean Fritz books, and the other two series from my other comment - there is a series from the 1950's - 1960's that I read when I was young, "We Were There..." like, "We were There at the Boston Tea Party." (by Robert Webb. I read that when was 7 years old, though a website says it is for ages 8 -14. This one was 1st published in 1956, but reprinted in 2013 and is still available in that paperback edition. If you have young people in your extended family, it is a good one to teach history and inspire a love for the US. This same "We Were There series" with originals from 50's & 60's can still be found in used hardbacks or in some cases, reprinted paperback if you search.
Very interesting! I have heard about the Rush books he spoke about when I was in the car. I will look into Jean Fritz , as she appears to be a wealth of info. Thank you.
It was the Royal Diaries series that piqued my daughter's interest in history. A series of historical fiction books that are written from the perspective of what a 13-15 year old historical figure would have written in her diary about the events of her time. I read them too and learned as much as she did.
IтАЩm in agreement on how terrible the current woke social studies curriculum is, but I also think that what I learned back in the 60s was a complete whitewash of what actually happened. One key point that was never covered was how much wealth was shipped back to Spain and the Vatican for many years after Columbus landed in the тАЬnew worldтАЭ. Just on ship in one of the many many armadas, which happened to sink in a storm, and wasnтАЩt recovered until the mid-20th century, is now a museum in Key West. It was carrying silver bars that amounted to $600M in 2015 dollars. I found that shocking, by itself it reveals the real motive for ColumbusтАЩ journey, and the real picture of what his group did after they landed. As far as IтАЩm concerned, the Vatican needs to give those stolen goods back. ItтАЩs not ok to sit on wealth that was stolen at gunpoint. Ditto with the taxpayer funds that are now in the pockets of the Big Pharam CEOs. They should be required to return every penny.
Wonderful comment. There's also a slanderous rumor that Robert E. Lee, cousin to Richard Henry Lee, Founding Father, owned slaves.
This is a lie. He abhorred slavery, but was executor of his wife's father's estate (she was Washington's granddaughter), and her father died with slaves, high debts, and a provision in his will that his slaves by freed within 5 years of his death.
The slaves needed to work to make the money to pay the debts, they were paid, and the slaves freed. This was 10 years before the War Between the States.
Concise, accurate and thoughtful...Finally, finding intelligent people worth the time to read and GAVE TO MY GRANDCHILDREN TO READ, as well. Poor things...Grammy keeps them perpetually learning even in the summer when taking breaks from other activities. Ha..ЁЯШО....Actually, the poor horses NEEDED A BREAK before getting a bath and curried. They sure have lost all their winter weight quickly this year.
Funny, because that's just what the Progressives like to complain about and that's why they created 1619 Project. A similar complaint that ended with a shoddy solution. The nuances of history are lost on most everyone.
Their motivation was not to improve our history. Their intent was to establish a false narrative to destroy America and demand undeserved "reparations" on top of decades of welfare handouts, affirmative action, quotas, and preferential treatment.
I read something about that, too. It seems that he was in debt, and if he tried to change the status of his slaves, they would have been liable to seizure and resale on the slave market to repay any debt that he had, so instead of officially freeing them, he told them that if they "escaped", he would not pursue them, thus in effect, freeing his slaves and permitting them to retain their family group.
There are articles describing Jefferson's severe debt burden at various sites around the net, as well as information about his slaves. Wikipedia has an article entitled ''Thomas Jefferson and slavery'' that gives details. Many of his slaves were sold off after his death to help pay off the debt.
Think of today's politicians, like Biden, Pelosi, Obama, the Clintons etc. etc., who have ''somehow'' become quite rich through holding important office as ''public servants''---how things have changed...
And some additional info about Jefferson the others who were involved in writing and editing the Declaration is at this link - Jefferson actually 1) 3 yrs after writing the Declaration, introduced legislation in the Virginia legislature that would have abolished importation of slaves and created an orderly process for freeing slaves - which all failed to pass the vote in the legislature; 2) as President he signed a bill passed by Congress to ban the importation of slaves, and he had supported this bill 3) He wrote strongly against slavery on several occasions. There is a lot more there, info on Ben Franklin (who once owned slaves but freed them in his lifetime and became President of an abolitionist organization) and also John Adams and Roger Sherman, on the committee to write the Declaration, who never ever owned any slaves. Good article. https://www.westernjournal.com/dem-rep-displays-stunning-lack-knowledge-declaration-independence-slavery/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=conservative-brief-WJ&utm_campaign=dailypm&utm_content=western-journal
ok, so you either donтАЩt comply with such a law or you move your slaves to a state where you can free them. ItтАЩs ridiculous to claim that Jefferson, with all of his wealth, couldnтАЩt possibly find a way to free his slaves.
I saw a recent commentary over the 4th that is not in history books. Jefferson was in a financial bind and because of Virginia law could not free his slaves. History has a filter and does not provide the rest of the story.
It is correct that Virginia law at that time did not permit the freeing of enslaved people. In addition, when the Declaration was written and proclaimed, we were still very much at war. In Virginia, many plantation owners had their homes burned down by British soldiers, particularly under Banastre Tarleton. Men who were active in the American government (2nd Continental Congress at the time of the Declaration) or in state level government) at times had to relocate or flee to avoid capture by the British. Soldiers might have been taken prisoner, but those in the government were in danger of execution for treason if captured. The war itself took up all their energy, and there was no time to consider plans for educating and providing paying jobs if slaves would have been freed. In those times, there was a lot of chaos, poverty, and hunger. The British would raid farms and steal cattle and every kind of food to feed their troops who were far from home. Washington's men also needed to eat, and would have to rely on local farmers also though Washington said they must pay for what they took in fairness to fellow Americans and to maintain their loyalty - but Congress had no power to tax and funds were limited - and colonial money was mostly worthless. So even the farmers were hungry. So, during these chaotic times most people suffered in some way, and there were not "paying jobs" such as we know today at that time - money worthless, farmers away at war. In some cases, enslaved men were offered freedom if they served in the military, offered by British and by Americans, but there was no real ability to formulate a humanitarian plan for the orderly freeing of all enslaved people at that time. The war needed to be won, or most leaders would have been executed, and the people as a whole would have been little more than slaves. In Boston, prior to the outbreak of the war, people were forced to have British army officers housed in their own homes, and women were forced to cook and clean for military men, forced by law, by the Quartering Act. So, actually white people were slaves prior to the outbreak of the war, not only African Americans. A different kind of slavery to be sure, since white people in Boston technically owned their own homes and could carry on their own business, but if you were forced to give up your bedrooms to British military, forced to cook for them and do their laundry, while you slept on the kitchen floor like CInderella, surely that was a form of slavery. Most people today don't know enough history to have any idea what things were like at that time - we can imagine what we want and believe things should have been different without having any idea of the realities. The enslavement of Africans and African Americans was evil, it was an evil system, starting with Africans who sold members of other tribes to white men for transport to North American and the Caribbean, and continuing up until the Civil War. But I can't blame the "founding fathers" for a mess they inherited. George Washington is vilified by some as a slave owner, but he did give orders that families should not be broken up and sold apart, and he kept and provided for those too unwell or too old to continue working, with provisions made for their care to continue after his own death. While slaves could not have been freed under Virginia law at one time, it became possible later, and Washington did free his slaves and provide options and a transition plan to go into effect after his death. The realities of making a fair and workable plan involved more than we might imagine today, there is more to consider than I would try to enter into this textbox. People need to read beyond the high school textbooks or even college level textbooks and dig deeper, but too few have an interest to try to learn and understand history. Or they believe completely false things, like, university students who demanded that a statue of Lincoln be removed because he had been a slave owner (untrue and I hope many of us know).
Thanks. A great exposition of the reality of slavery at the time. We know also that slavery- in its many forms - exists today.
There are many more slaves today here in the US and all over the world, today compared to the start of the Civil War. There are millions who are enslaved by human traffickers, and that does include very young children also. There are women, men and children enslaved for sex work and also for general labor. They are definitely slaves. Those forced to do sex work are forced to service many customers on a daily basis, and they have no say. In a research study on trafficking, through interviews with women who were trafficking survivors, it was learned that the majority had multiple forced abortions. In the study (by Lederer and Wetzel) one woman reported having had 17 abortions. To learn more about the trafficking of children, the movie "The Sound of Freedom" is out this week on limited release - it is not going to be shown at all theaters, and is probably going to have a limited number of days in theaters - though it has had huge success since opening on July 3, that perhaps it will stay around longer than originally planned - I understand it has been #1 this week. The movie is not depressing because it is based on a true story of children being rescued from traffickers in a sting operation, with two children who are especially featured in the movie ending up back home with their parents. So it is very hopeful and leaves with hope, though we have to be the hope for the modern day slaves. But today - it is much worse in so many ways than in earlier centuries. Greater numbers of slaves for sure, and all races and nationalities. With slavery in the US historically, there were many situations in which enslaved people were treated with extreme cruelty, and at the same time, other situations in which enslaved people apparently were fed and clothed adequately and treated reasonably well - though not to minimize the injustice of the lack of freedom, lack of opportunities, and sources of distress that historians would not always know. So, not intending to minimize that, and yet, it appears that most people who live in the situation of human trafficking today live in horrific circumstances, and their lifespan is shortened tremendously. Lederer & Wetzel (2014) examined this from a public health perspective and those who escaped trafficking had headaches and neurological conditions from the horrific abuse, but not only that - long, long lists of symptoms and health conditions that were directly caused by their horrifically abusive treatment during trafficking. Slavery, whether old or new, is a terrible evil, and it did not end with the Civil War. It's still with us in a different form. You can help to end the trafficking of children at our borders by signing a petition to support legislation proposed by Senator Marsha Blackburn - read about it here and sign if you wish: https://lifepetitions.com/petition/human-trafficking?utm_source=email_070523 and see the trailer for "The Sound of Freedom" and consider buying a ticket and seeing the movie this weekend while it is still around: https://www.angel.com/pay-it-forward/sound-of-freedom?utm_medium=direct&utm_source=angel-freedom&utm_campaign=sound-of-freedom-theatrical
Those who voted for Joe Biden and Democrats also support the criminals involved in human trafficking. Because the Congressional investigation reveals Biden family invests money in human trafficking, yet I donтАЩt see any BidenтАЩs supporters condemn his crimes at all.
Illiberals today have shamelessly turned themselves into cohorts of criminals of the worst kind. They even boast about what they have done.
In my comment, the legislation proposed by Senator Marsha Blackburn would require that all children who are being brought into the US illegally must be DNA tested. That is because if the children are being brought in by parents, there would be a DNA match, and if brought in by traffickers, unlikely to have a DNA match. Of note, the DNA testing was being done previously but under the BIden administration this was stopped because it was deemed unnecessary. Possibly it was not necessary because the Biden was making so much money off the traffickers? Wide open border, and all these unaccompanied minors, or rather, accompanied by cartel guys who bring them across and sell them. Blackburn's bill, by requiring the DNA tests on all children who enter illegally - not all children, but those entering illegally - would put a stop to most of the trafficking. It has been reported that about 30% of the children entering illegally are being trafficked. Remember all the criticism about children being separated from their "parents"? They were often being separated from their traffickers and kept safe until things could be sorted out. Anyway, yes, I recently became aware of Biden's involvement in trafficking. The US is one of the biggest trafficking destinations, and Mexico is reportedly the largest supplier at least to the US, and among the top suppliers globally. More can and should be done, but resuming DNA testing would be a good start.
I did see Sound of Freedom on July 3rd. It is now the top selling movie. Trafficking is now gaining more recognition while at the same time growing bigger. There will always be pedophiles, the evil. We need to make sure to severely limit or totally remove their supply.
A greater question is ... What kind of man wants sex with children?? Why is the market here so huge? What have we become?
There is no benefit whatsoever to comparing whether one form of slavery is worse than another. Each instance of it, in the past and today, is an affront to humanity. We need to get clear on that, and work to abolish and make amends for all forms of it. There is great reward in righting wrongs.
And, is growing...Thanks to the Central Bankers with the International Mafia enabling uncontrolled INVASION OF THE WEST to provide for the putrid and abominable sins of Human Trafficking/Sexual Slavery of children, babies and all kinds of human beings...FOR TRULY EVIL AND HORRIBLE PURPOSES OF ALIEN BEINGS DIRECTLY FROM HELL wearing human being suits on Earth.
Yeah, but you don't see leftists or feminists going to Libya to free them in the slave markets, do you?
Right?! I think we'd be better off dealing with that, for sure!
I have read several biographies of the founding fathers over the years, that concur with what you have said. It was not all as neat or cut and dried as I learned in school. It's been a while since I read it, but pretty sure it was Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton who noted that the slave question almost derailed the entire revolution/declaration of independence. There would have been no unity had the slave issue been addressed at the time, many of the founding fathers did not get along, and it was a fine line to walk to hold the coalition together during the years of the war and the writing of the constitution.
Yes, it was very difficult to get all 13 colonies to agree on whether to go to war and how to conduct the war. If they had also had to agree on slavery and solve that first, we would not have ended up as the United States. In a way, like today, think about the difference between California and, say, Florida. People in the various colonies differed from each other greatly, not so different than today - and it was a tough job to bring everyone to more or less consensus about the Revolution. And then the Constitution as well - Patrick Henry was a delegate to the convention that wrote the Constitution but he thought he "smelt a rat" and did not attend at all, and it was a hard job to get each state on board.
Especially since that convention was ostensibly being held to amend the Articles of Confederation, NOT make a whole new government! About 30% of the delegates, headed by Alexander Hamilton himself, were the culprits of this hijack of intention. They just had to have their central bank and powerful fed gov't.
Yes, it is amazing how much I did not learn about how all this really went down. Granted, I did not take any history classes outside of what was required in all my years of formal education. I credit my daughter, who loved history even as a child, to prompt me to start digging deeper. And the more I dig, the more I appreciate the miracle that was the birth of this nation and its Constitution.
Thanks- great clarity and context. I appreciate you sharing.
Not sure if that link is working as intended, I got an error message and then redirected - but am aware that ranchers and farmers have started using mRNA vaccines with cattle and pigs. I'm thinking going forward, most people would do well to grow their own gardens from heirloom seeds (while you can still get them) and try to get meat from any local farmer who doesn't give the new vaccines to his herd. Who may be "organic" or perhaps beyond organic. Though I am hoping that the mRNA or vaccine bits would be destroyed by cooking, at least regarding the meat. I know, some people want to make it challenging for us to get any food, much less food that is clean and safe.
I think if real history were taught in schools like we had in the 50s and early 60s, people might have a better understanding of our past! Instead they get crt, woke junk, pronouns and sexual deviancy! They are the most confused generation of elementary, Jr. High and hi school students weтАЩve ever had. TheyтАЩll grow to be confused adults.
Thank you for your brief history lesson! Well done.
Nancy, a while ago this evening, I wrote another post with suggestions for some good history books for kids and adults, including a series by Peter Marshall and David Manuel in adult and children's editions, also the series of 5 books by Rush Limbaugh with his wife Katherine on American history. IF you scroll through the comments you may found the info about those books. But I'll mention some other good books for children and teens. Anything you can find by Jean Fritz is going to be really entertaining and at the same time, really authentic history. For children in the primary grades, there are books with illustrations on every page, and titles like "Where was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?" and "Why Don't you get a Horse, Sam Adams?" and "And then what happened, Paul Revere?" They really are historically accurate, but written in a memorable way that younger children enjoy - well, Amazon suggests ages 7 through 9, but I think you can go younger or older with some of these. But then Fritz also does books that are more middle school to high school level, like, "Early Thunder," which is about a 14 year old boy whose father is Tory (loyal to the King) while the boy has friends on both sides, but gradually finds himself siding with the patriots. Amazon says that one is for ages 8 -12, but the 14-year-old hero should be a clue that it's really for somewhat older readers, plus, it's 256 pages which is way too long for an 8 year old. Thus, in the reviews by parents, some say they and their kids didn't like it - they may have been too young for it - but still 70% gave it 5 stars. While most of Fritz's books are biography and teach a lot of history through telling the stories, Early Thunder is historical fiction, with fictional characters like this boy and his father and his friend - but at the end of the book she tells you who was real who was not, and the story centers around a true historical incident that could have been the start of the Revolution though the situation was cleverly de-escalated. Fritz started writing and publishing in the late 1950's, and apparently wrote for 4 decades. So the books are more similar to what you recall from the 50's and 60's and not like the revisionist things one reads today from people who hate America. Fritz loved America, and writes really sparkling, brilliant stories that bring real heroes to life. The "big kid" biographies are marked on Amazon as being for ages 8 to 12, and I'm not sure that is correct in all cases, but if you buy one for a grandchild or nephew and it turns out to be too advanced, books can be saved till a child is ready. Some of her biographies for older kids would be "Bully for you, Teddy Roosevelt," and "The Great Little Madison," but she wrote about 100 books in all. I noticed in one of the reviews by parents, a mom wrote that she thought reading stories more than history books gave her son a love for history and I think the stories are important. Besides the Jean Fritz books, and the other two series from my other comment - there is a series from the 1950's - 1960's that I read when I was young, "We Were There..." like, "We were There at the Boston Tea Party." (by Robert Webb. I read that when was 7 years old, though a website says it is for ages 8 -14. This one was 1st published in 1956, but reprinted in 2013 and is still available in that paperback edition. If you have young people in your extended family, it is a good one to teach history and inspire a love for the US. This same "We Were There series" with originals from 50's & 60's can still be found in used hardbacks or in some cases, reprinted paperback if you search.
Very interesting! I have heard about the Rush books he spoke about when I was in the car. I will look into Jean Fritz , as she appears to be a wealth of info. Thank you.
It was the Royal Diaries series that piqued my daughter's interest in history. A series of historical fiction books that are written from the perspective of what a 13-15 year old historical figure would have written in her diary about the events of her time. I read them too and learned as much as she did.
IтАЩm in agreement on how terrible the current woke social studies curriculum is, but I also think that what I learned back in the 60s was a complete whitewash of what actually happened. One key point that was never covered was how much wealth was shipped back to Spain and the Vatican for many years after Columbus landed in the тАЬnew worldтАЭ. Just on ship in one of the many many armadas, which happened to sink in a storm, and wasnтАЩt recovered until the mid-20th century, is now a museum in Key West. It was carrying silver bars that amounted to $600M in 2015 dollars. I found that shocking, by itself it reveals the real motive for ColumbusтАЩ journey, and the real picture of what his group did after they landed. As far as IтАЩm concerned, the Vatican needs to give those stolen goods back. ItтАЩs not ok to sit on wealth that was stolen at gunpoint. Ditto with the taxpayer funds that are now in the pockets of the Big Pharam CEOs. They should be required to return every penny.
Wonderful comment. There's also a slanderous rumor that Robert E. Lee, cousin to Richard Henry Lee, Founding Father, owned slaves.
This is a lie. He abhorred slavery, but was executor of his wife's father's estate (she was Washington's granddaughter), and her father died with slaves, high debts, and a provision in his will that his slaves by freed within 5 years of his death.
The slaves needed to work to make the money to pay the debts, they were paid, and the slaves freed. This was 10 years before the War Between the States.
Concise, accurate and thoughtful...Finally, finding intelligent people worth the time to read and GAVE TO MY GRANDCHILDREN TO READ, as well. Poor things...Grammy keeps them perpetually learning even in the summer when taking breaks from other activities. Ha..ЁЯШО....Actually, the poor horses NEEDED A BREAK before getting a bath and curried. They sure have lost all their winter weight quickly this year.
good reply thanks mate Brisbane Aust
Excellent and much needed history lesson!
I wish more people realized that "history" is filtered.
Unfortunately most of history is lost to the ages because not all accounts are included.
Funny, because that's just what the Progressives like to complain about and that's why they created 1619 Project. A similar complaint that ended with a shoddy solution. The nuances of history are lost on most everyone.
Their motivation was not to improve our history. Their intent was to establish a false narrative to destroy America and demand undeserved "reparations" on top of decades of welfare handouts, affirmative action, quotas, and preferential treatment.
I read something about that, too. It seems that he was in debt, and if he tried to change the status of his slaves, they would have been liable to seizure and resale on the slave market to repay any debt that he had, so instead of officially freeing them, he told them that if they "escaped", he would not pursue them, thus in effect, freeing his slaves and permitting them to retain their family group.
There are articles describing Jefferson's severe debt burden at various sites around the net, as well as information about his slaves. Wikipedia has an article entitled ''Thomas Jefferson and slavery'' that gives details. Many of his slaves were sold off after his death to help pay off the debt.
Think of today's politicians, like Biden, Pelosi, Obama, the Clintons etc. etc., who have ''somehow'' become quite rich through holding important office as ''public servants''---how things have changed...
And some additional info about Jefferson the others who were involved in writing and editing the Declaration is at this link - Jefferson actually 1) 3 yrs after writing the Declaration, introduced legislation in the Virginia legislature that would have abolished importation of slaves and created an orderly process for freeing slaves - which all failed to pass the vote in the legislature; 2) as President he signed a bill passed by Congress to ban the importation of slaves, and he had supported this bill 3) He wrote strongly against slavery on several occasions. There is a lot more there, info on Ben Franklin (who once owned slaves but freed them in his lifetime and became President of an abolitionist organization) and also John Adams and Roger Sherman, on the committee to write the Declaration, who never ever owned any slaves. Good article. https://www.westernjournal.com/dem-rep-displays-stunning-lack-knowledge-declaration-independence-slavery/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=conservative-brief-WJ&utm_campaign=dailypm&utm_content=western-journal
ok, so you either donтАЩt comply with such a law or you move your slaves to a state where you can free them. ItтАЩs ridiculous to claim that Jefferson, with all of his wealth, couldnтАЩt possibly find a way to free his slaves.