Ta, Erik. Labor history is something I love. In unrelated labor news, we ratified our Union contract. I believe it has been signed, sealed, and delivered. If not, it will be imminently. The network has 30 days to give us our retro pay of 3% for 12 months and 6% (3+3) for four months. Now that I've fulfilled my lifelong mission of being a Union Maid, I'm ready to find a new and better job, close enough to home that one bus ride will get me to work. Solidarity forever.
Oliver Otis Howard is an interesting person. He did magnificent work leading the Freedman's Bureau. And he definitely founded Howard University. On the other hand, he definitely started the Nez Perce War that deprived the Nez Perce Nation of their homeland. There is a major street in Spokane named after him. He illustrates the wisdom of the ancient Egyptians whose god Anubis weighs the worth of a person's life, whether to pass to the afterlife or to be extinguished.
I just watched Free State of Jones this weekend, and it broke my heart. The closer to the end I got, the more depressing it was. Reconstruction failed so miserably, the north may as well have lost.
As long as White people who claim to believe in democracy turn their heads and look away when Black people tell them their Confederate cousins are being racist and ask for help to contain their evil and are then refused, the North will have lost
President Andrew J -- on whom Donald patterns himself along with Orban -- repealed the promise of "40 acres and a mule" to the former slaves and GAVE THE DESIGNATED MONEY TO THE WHITE SLAVEOWNERS.
Nary a peep from White abolitionists in protest.
White supremacists BURNED DOWN a duly elected government in South Carolina post-1860 that was majority Black.
But the White people who were not ACTIVELY with the white supremacists DID NOT insist that the Black elected officials be reinstated.
And White people DID NOT sit in Merrick Garland's office and DEMAND that he prosecute Donald on January 8, 2021.
So I honestly have no idea what you think you were expecting wtih the level of inactivity from the socio-dominant majority who *claim* to believe in democracy (but in the face of this hand-flapping "but we don't know what to dooooo" it's just empty words).
Don't get me started on the dismissing and pooh-poohing and patronizing tones of White people when Black people who knew what he was up to tried to raise the alarm after John Roberts' ruling in the Shelby County case in 2013. We're literally looking at the fruits of his labor right here, a decade and a year later. It's not that all those voters just "didn't show up". THEIR VOTES WERE SUPPRESSED.
And collectively, White people, when they COULD do something, did NOTHING about it. And continued to refuse when asked.
Given that utter lack of inaction over a period of a century and a half, how could you possibly imagine a different result?
Here is where the Dems fuck up by being too focused on thinking there is such a thing as a loyal opposition. The second day of the Biden administration should have had teams of immigration agents raiding Trump resorts and buildings to remove anybody without immigration papers.
Slavery is a horrid way that is used by parasites to maximize profits- that's it, that's all. Back in the 1800's a slave owner had to provide room and board for slaves. Now slaves have to purchase their own housing, pay taxes and consumer goods from the parasites, which is surely much more profitable. This is horrid and it is real.
Yay, history! It usually comes down to economics, but that doesn't get taught. The South was almost exclusively a raw materials producer (cotton and tobacco) with the cotton being shipped to factories in the North to be made into far more valuable cloth. Economies based on raw materials need to produce those materials in large quantities at the cheapest price- which leads to a very few, extremely wealthy land /forest/ mine owners and general poverty elsewhere with poor to non existent infrastructure. Raw materials producers are always vulnerable to being price undercut (this was a constant threat with cotton- where India under the Brits was also a source of cheap fibre). Northern manufacturers were complicit in the system as well.
The part about the economics of slavery "doesn't get taught" because White people do not want to know that White people used the forced labor of Black people and tortured them for those own White people's economic gain AND ONLY their own
Those same White people also don't want any other White people to know, who might be more compassionate, that slavery in the service of corporate greed STILL CONTINUES because of the loopholes in the Reconstruction Amendments
And those same White people did not and do not want Black people to vote or hold office (unless they're steppin fetchits like Byron Donalds and Tim Scott in service to white supremacy) because they know they would take steps to change the laws that hold that infrastructure in place
And they will and would go so far as to burn the building down holding those elected officials, like they did in 1860 -- or attack the U.S. Capitol, like they did in 2021 -- in an effort to thwart the will of the people
Of course. Nor does it fit with the "good/ bad" mythology that passes for history in our schools. I am old enough to remember when US relations with the Indigenous here was taught in just that way (I was going to write "Indigenous Nations", but they were just an amorphous bunch of "savages" in our schoolbooks). I remember how furious I was when I found out the truth.
Sorry to sound so ruthless, but slavery was a plague on American democracy. To end the plague the most extreme remedies were needed. Lincoln was a good man but he allowed for a post war tone that was too indulgent. Traitors should have been hung. Those who continued as belligerents should have had their property confiscated and lost their privileges as citizens. Sherman said war is hell but treason should have been treated even worse.
In addition to being a source of perpetual free labor, slavery was a convenient way for the British aristocracy to divide the numerous poor so they didn't make common cause based on economics.
White indentured servants were taught to think "I'm poor but I can never be a chattel slave," and so they despised the people who were enslaved.
Until the US comes to grips with the residue of that thinking, we're doomed as a nation, bc there is a huge white constituency which is willing to sacrifice almost anything to maintain hegemony.
Of all the Northern generals, Sherman probably had the most familiarity with the culture of the deep South, having served as superintendant of a military college In Louisiana. He was not impressed with what he saw. He found the wealthy young men of the region to be lazy and self-indulgent, going to great lengths to avoid any sort of work and spending most of their time gambling, hunting, riding or dueling.
Why work when you have a permanent underclass to do everything for you? TWO underclasses - Black slaves and Whites who could be tricked into supporting the status quo.
I find historical points like this fascinating because of the familial connection for me. Most of my family is white--a lot of my mom's ancestors fought as Confederates--but a quarter of my own ancestors were slaves. My paternal grandmother was Black, and her ancestors toiled away under the whip.
What's hilarious to me is that part of my paternal grandfather's family at one point actually owned s fairly successful plantation...right up until the feds asked so politely why nobody paid taxes on the property.
Lots of poor whites were share croppers. My grandfather was a share cropper from the 1920s to the 1950s. But at least he could go freely and his kids got slightly better education than Black families. Being better educated and white meant most of them were more economically successful later in life. But during those share cropping years they really barely survived, growing most of their food and never having any money left at the end of the year. Without money from growing tobacco in North Carolina they would have had no cash.
Lots of poor white sharecroppers voted with the Southern Democrats of the time - now, the GQP - against their own self-interest but in solidarity with other white racists.
The primary purpose of Jim Crow was to subjugate Blacks . the more insidious secondary purpose was to placate poor whites by making them believe they were somehow "superior" Just as poor, but as you point out, able to go so different (better?) schools and use nicer bathrooms and drinking fountains.
There was a simple solution to ending slavery in the South. Stop buying cotton and tobacco produced by slave labor. Northern consumers of cheap ag products were every bit as guilty as Southern slave owners.
The same conditions exist today It is just a bit hypocritical to rant against the evils of slavery while attired in clothing and using a cell phone which were produced by essentially slave labor in Asia. Want to cripple the cartels? No need to send the Army, just stop buying dope. The pen is mightier than the sword, but the purse mightier still.
What a fucking horrid part of our history. This country was made on the backs of Black slaves and I get so angry when I hear that they don't it discussed in history class because it makes wypipo feel bad. It SHOULD make you feel embarrassed and angry -so much so that we vow to not let this happen again. And hell yeah, there should be reparations.
It's also worthwhile to remember that involuntary servitude - EXCEPT as punishment for a crime - is unconstitutional....never take your eyes off the exception.
Thank you, Erik, this is fascinating!
Netflix has made Ava DuVernay's remarkable "The Thirteenth" available to everyone for free at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8.
Ta, Erik. Labor history is something I love. In unrelated labor news, we ratified our Union contract. I believe it has been signed, sealed, and delivered. If not, it will be imminently. The network has 30 days to give us our retro pay of 3% for 12 months and 6% (3+3) for four months. Now that I've fulfilled my lifelong mission of being a Union Maid, I'm ready to find a new and better job, close enough to home that one bus ride will get me to work. Solidarity forever.
Oliver Otis Howard is an interesting person. He did magnificent work leading the Freedman's Bureau. And he definitely founded Howard University. On the other hand, he definitely started the Nez Perce War that deprived the Nez Perce Nation of their homeland. There is a major street in Spokane named after him. He illustrates the wisdom of the ancient Egyptians whose god Anubis weighs the worth of a person's life, whether to pass to the afterlife or to be extinguished.
Thank the Almighty that today the labor is provided by Undocumented Workers! Do I hear an Amen!!?!?!?! AMEN!!!!
I just watched Free State of Jones this weekend, and it broke my heart. The closer to the end I got, the more depressing it was. Reconstruction failed so miserably, the north may as well have lost.
Listen
As long as White people who claim to believe in democracy turn their heads and look away when Black people tell them their Confederate cousins are being racist and ask for help to contain their evil and are then refused, the North will have lost
President Andrew J -- on whom Donald patterns himself along with Orban -- repealed the promise of "40 acres and a mule" to the former slaves and GAVE THE DESIGNATED MONEY TO THE WHITE SLAVEOWNERS.
Nary a peep from White abolitionists in protest.
White supremacists BURNED DOWN a duly elected government in South Carolina post-1860 that was majority Black.
But the White people who were not ACTIVELY with the white supremacists DID NOT insist that the Black elected officials be reinstated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVQomlXMeek
And White people DID NOT sit in Merrick Garland's office and DEMAND that he prosecute Donald on January 8, 2021.
So I honestly have no idea what you think you were expecting wtih the level of inactivity from the socio-dominant majority who *claim* to believe in democracy (but in the face of this hand-flapping "but we don't know what to dooooo" it's just empty words).
Don't get me started on the dismissing and pooh-poohing and patronizing tones of White people when Black people who knew what he was up to tried to raise the alarm after John Roberts' ruling in the Shelby County case in 2013. We're literally looking at the fruits of his labor right here, a decade and a year later. It's not that all those voters just "didn't show up". THEIR VOTES WERE SUPPRESSED.
And collectively, White people, when they COULD do something, did NOTHING about it. And continued to refuse when asked.
Given that utter lack of inaction over a period of a century and a half, how could you possibly imagine a different result?
Here is where the Dems fuck up by being too focused on thinking there is such a thing as a loyal opposition. The second day of the Biden administration should have had teams of immigration agents raiding Trump resorts and buildings to remove anybody without immigration papers.
Speaking of labor --
Lurie Daniel Favors explains the transatlantic slave trade to Prudence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoCUOmwK_I
Don't be like Prudence
Slavery is a horrid way that is used by parasites to maximize profits- that's it, that's all. Back in the 1800's a slave owner had to provide room and board for slaves. Now slaves have to purchase their own housing, pay taxes and consumer goods from the parasites, which is surely much more profitable. This is horrid and it is real.
Yay, history! It usually comes down to economics, but that doesn't get taught. The South was almost exclusively a raw materials producer (cotton and tobacco) with the cotton being shipped to factories in the North to be made into far more valuable cloth. Economies based on raw materials need to produce those materials in large quantities at the cheapest price- which leads to a very few, extremely wealthy land /forest/ mine owners and general poverty elsewhere with poor to non existent infrastructure. Raw materials producers are always vulnerable to being price undercut (this was a constant threat with cotton- where India under the Brits was also a source of cheap fibre). Northern manufacturers were complicit in the system as well.
The part about the economics of slavery "doesn't get taught" because White people do not want to know that White people used the forced labor of Black people and tortured them for those own White people's economic gain AND ONLY their own
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoCUOmwK_I
Those same White people also don't want any other White people to know, who might be more compassionate, that slavery in the service of corporate greed STILL CONTINUES because of the loopholes in the Reconstruction Amendments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CK7f8A4tPU
And those same White people did not and do not want Black people to vote or hold office (unless they're steppin fetchits like Byron Donalds and Tim Scott in service to white supremacy) because they know they would take steps to change the laws that hold that infrastructure in place
And they will and would go so far as to burn the building down holding those elected officials, like they did in 1860 -- or attack the U.S. Capitol, like they did in 2021 -- in an effort to thwart the will of the people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVQomlXMeek
If you've ever wondered why those Mothers of the Confederacy or whatever they call themselves are stealing and banning books?
Those are the reasons
Of course. Nor does it fit with the "good/ bad" mythology that passes for history in our schools. I am old enough to remember when US relations with the Indigenous here was taught in just that way (I was going to write "Indigenous Nations", but they were just an amorphous bunch of "savages" in our schoolbooks). I remember how furious I was when I found out the truth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNQ1g0l2yso
Sorry to sound so ruthless, but slavery was a plague on American democracy. To end the plague the most extreme remedies were needed. Lincoln was a good man but he allowed for a post war tone that was too indulgent. Traitors should have been hung. Those who continued as belligerents should have had their property confiscated and lost their privileges as citizens. Sherman said war is hell but treason should have been treated even worse.
Slavery was the original sin of the colonies.
In addition to being a source of perpetual free labor, slavery was a convenient way for the British aristocracy to divide the numerous poor so they didn't make common cause based on economics.
White indentured servants were taught to think "I'm poor but I can never be a chattel slave," and so they despised the people who were enslaved.
Until the US comes to grips with the residue of that thinking, we're doomed as a nation, bc there is a huge white constituency which is willing to sacrifice almost anything to maintain hegemony.
You don't sound "ruthless"
The "ruthless" ones are the White oligarchs and bigots who want to keep the system in place
https://www.wonkette.com/p/that-time-mississippi-reinvented/comment/78815937
Of all the Northern generals, Sherman probably had the most familiarity with the culture of the deep South, having served as superintendant of a military college In Louisiana. He was not impressed with what he saw. He found the wealthy young men of the region to be lazy and self-indulgent, going to great lengths to avoid any sort of work and spending most of their time gambling, hunting, riding or dueling.
For some reason, George W. Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard leaps to mind.
Why work when you have a permanent underclass to do everything for you? TWO underclasses - Black slaves and Whites who could be tricked into supporting the status quo.
I find historical points like this fascinating because of the familial connection for me. Most of my family is white--a lot of my mom's ancestors fought as Confederates--but a quarter of my own ancestors were slaves. My paternal grandmother was Black, and her ancestors toiled away under the whip.
What's hilarious to me is that part of my paternal grandfather's family at one point actually owned s fairly successful plantation...right up until the feds asked so politely why nobody paid taxes on the property.
Lots of poor whites were share croppers. My grandfather was a share cropper from the 1920s to the 1950s. But at least he could go freely and his kids got slightly better education than Black families. Being better educated and white meant most of them were more economically successful later in life. But during those share cropping years they really barely survived, growing most of their food and never having any money left at the end of the year. Without money from growing tobacco in North Carolina they would have had no cash.
Lots of poor white sharecroppers voted with the Southern Democrats of the time - now, the GQP - against their own self-interest but in solidarity with other white racists.
Appalling.
The primary purpose of Jim Crow was to subjugate Blacks . the more insidious secondary purpose was to placate poor whites by making them believe they were somehow "superior" Just as poor, but as you point out, able to go so different (better?) schools and use nicer bathrooms and drinking fountains.
There was a simple solution to ending slavery in the South. Stop buying cotton and tobacco produced by slave labor. Northern consumers of cheap ag products were every bit as guilty as Southern slave owners.
The same conditions exist today It is just a bit hypocritical to rant against the evils of slavery while attired in clothing and using a cell phone which were produced by essentially slave labor in Asia. Want to cripple the cartels? No need to send the Army, just stop buying dope. The pen is mightier than the sword, but the purse mightier still.
What a fucking horrid part of our history. This country was made on the backs of Black slaves and I get so angry when I hear that they don't it discussed in history class because it makes wypipo feel bad. It SHOULD make you feel embarrassed and angry -so much so that we vow to not let this happen again. And hell yeah, there should be reparations.
It's also worthwhile to remember that involuntary servitude - EXCEPT as punishment for a crime - is unconstitutional....never take your eyes off the exception.
And California just voted against the initiative to prohibit involuntary servitude in prisons.
I want to be shocked that it failed, but I think I'll settle for mild surprise.
Slavery is a horror. And the more you think about it, the more horrifying it becomes.