Did you know? This is what honest education about racism looks like:
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE ATTACKS "MERCILESS SAVAGES" AS ONE OF THE REASONS
TO START A NEW NATION
TO START A NEW NATION
In the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson listed 27 grievances against King George III as reasons to justify breaking away from England.
The 27th grievance reads:
"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.”
These words capture the captures the hostility towards Indigenous people who are described as merciless savages who murder men, women, and children.
This thinking lead to the ongoing gradual removal or extermination of Indigenous people from all the states East of the Mississippi after the success of the American Revolution
The 27th grievance reads:
"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.”
These words capture the captures the hostility towards Indigenous people who are described as merciless savages who murder men, women, and children.
This thinking lead to the ongoing gradual removal or extermination of Indigenous people from all the states East of the Mississippi after the success of the American Revolution
THE ELECTORAL POWER OF COUNTING ENSLAVED PEOPLE AS THREE FIFTHS OF A HUMAN BEING
The writers who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to write the US Constitution faced a dilemma. The 25 delegates out of 55 delegates who owned slaves wanted to count their slaves for purposes of determining how many people would be in the newly formed US House of Representatives. The delegates from the non-slave states did not want to count the enslaved. Of course the enslaved have no voice.
The delegates landed on counting the enslaved as 3/5ths of a human being for purposes of representation and taxation.
The implications were enormous as the South would gain a least a dozen additional congressmen along with those additional electoral votes. Nine of the first 15 presidents came from the South.
In the U.S. Constitution, the Three-Fifths Compromise is part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3:
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
The delegates landed on counting the enslaved as 3/5ths of a human being for purposes of representation and taxation.
The implications were enormous as the South would gain a least a dozen additional congressmen along with those additional electoral votes. Nine of the first 15 presidents came from the South.
In the U.S. Constitution, the Three-Fifths Compromise is part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3:
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
The US Constitution and the African slave trade
There was disagreement about slavery among the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention. They did agree that the African slave trade was horrific. They did not rush into profiting American ships going to Africa to capture free African people but allowed Congress to ban that practice in twenty years. In 1808 Congress prohibited the African slave trade.
This clause from Article I, section 9 describes the legalization of the African slave trade for twenty years
"The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person."
This eyewitness account from 1771 captures the barbarous nature of capturing free Africans and "importing" them to what became the United States:
According to a surgeon on board one slaver, after several male captives and one woman had attempted to rise up against their captors, the captain sentenced them to a “cruel death, making them first eat the heart and liver of one of those he had killed. The woman he hoisted by the thumbs, whipped, and slashed with knives before the other slaves till she died.”
This clause from Article I, section 9 describes the legalization of the African slave trade for twenty years
"The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person."
This eyewitness account from 1771 captures the barbarous nature of capturing free Africans and "importing" them to what became the United States:
According to a surgeon on board one slaver, after several male captives and one woman had attempted to rise up against their captors, the captain sentenced them to a “cruel death, making them first eat the heart and liver of one of those he had killed. The woman he hoisted by the thumbs, whipped, and slashed with knives before the other slaves till she died.”
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW
Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law in 1793 to provide a legal outlet for slave owners to capture and return their slaves who had escaped. The Fugitive Slave law of 1793 required that slave owners or hunters go before a local magistrate to prove ownership. The escaped slaves could not testify as slaves could not be witnesses in court.
The Fugitive Slave Law also dictated a fine of $500 for anyone aiding in helping these escaped slaves. That is over $15,000 in 2022 dollars.
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 replaced this law with even more stringent rules.
An industry of slave hunters arose to profit from capturing escaped slaves and in many cases even capturing people who were free and returning them to the south to be sold in slavery. Think Solomon Northrup.
Many northern states passed personal liberty laws to frustrate slave owners and slave hunters. These laws required slave owners and hunters to produce actual evidence that the captured person was their slave.
The Fugitive Slave Law was so powerful that even in 1847 Ona Maria Judge, an escaped slave from the household of Martha Washington feared that she and her daughter could be brought back to slavery by Martha Washington's heirs. She was living in New Hampshire then.
When Ms Judge escaped from Philadelphia where President Washing lead the nation in the Philadelphia capital, Washington issued a notice questioning why would one of members of his household escape. Clearly out of touch with the desire for freedom.
The Fugitive Slave Law also dictated a fine of $500 for anyone aiding in helping these escaped slaves. That is over $15,000 in 2022 dollars.
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 replaced this law with even more stringent rules.
An industry of slave hunters arose to profit from capturing escaped slaves and in many cases even capturing people who were free and returning them to the south to be sold in slavery. Think Solomon Northrup.
Many northern states passed personal liberty laws to frustrate slave owners and slave hunters. These laws required slave owners and hunters to produce actual evidence that the captured person was their slave.
The Fugitive Slave Law was so powerful that even in 1847 Ona Maria Judge, an escaped slave from the household of Martha Washington feared that she and her daughter could be brought back to slavery by Martha Washington's heirs. She was living in New Hampshire then.
When Ms Judge escaped from Philadelphia where President Washing lead the nation in the Philadelphia capital, Washington issued a notice questioning why would one of members of his household escape. Clearly out of touch with the desire for freedom.