PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: This house also represents a complicated history of the United States. We just visited downstairs, where we know that slaves helped to build this magnificent structure, and the complex relations that Jefferson, the drafter of the Declaration of Independence, had to slavery. And it’s a reminder for both of us that we are going to continue this fight on behalf of the rights of all peoples, something that I know France has always been committed to and we are committed to, as well.
Untold History: More Than a Quarter of U.S. Presidents Were Involved in Slavery, Human Trafficking
As the country marks Presidents’ Day, we turn to an aspect of U.S. history that is often missed: the complicity of American presidents with slavery. “More than one-in-four U.S. presidents were involved in human trafficking and slavery. These presidents bought, sold and bred enslaved people for profit. Of the 12 presidents who were enslavers, more than half kept people in bondage at the White House,” writes historian Clarence Lusane in his most recent article, “Missing from Presidents’ Day: The People They Enslaved.”
Once again we take a look at the BBC’s policy of rewriting history to suit their narrative, in this case that of slavery and the wicked Southern Confederacy and the enlightened Union. But as always it’s more complicated than the simplistic, one-sided narrative that the BBC serves up….they seem pretty shy about revealing who supported what back in them thar days.
The BBC has been gloating over the success of the campaign to pour scorn and opprobrium upon the Confederacy in the US. For the BBC it’s a big, big story. On the Today programme today (08:40) they enthusiastically reported that there is a move to remove statues of those associated with the Confederacy from Congress…..’In the United States a group of Democrats has discussed removing and relocating several statues from the rather grand halls of power in Congress. For among the tributes there to former presidents and civil rights leaders are those celebrating former leaders of Confederate states – who fought in the civil war to keep African Americans enslaved.’ What the BBC doesn’t tell us is that that would probably require most of the statues to be removed in truth….was it just ‘former leaders of the Confederate States’ who supported slavery or kept slaves? And of course it’s the heroic Democrats leading the way…big cheer from the BBC….wouild they have shown as much interest if it had been Republicans making this ‘Populist’ move?
The Huffington Post is a bit more honest with us…
Let Us Honor Slave-Owning Presidents?
Here it is again, the intersection of Presidents Day and Black History Month. Eight of our early presidents, beginning with George Washington, owned slaves during their tenure in the nation’s highest office.
Jefferson and Madison thought that people of color should enjoy the same individual rights as white citizens. But not here. They averred that black and white could never live harmoniously in America together.
“I Ulysses S. Grant…do hereby manumit, emancipate and set free from Slavery my Negro man William, sometimes called William Jones…forever.”
What of the Republican Party? Those nasty right wingers……
In the 1860 presidential election, the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, opposed the expansion of slavery into U.S. territories. The party, dominant in the North, secured a majority of the electoral votes, and Lincoln was elected the first Republican president, but before his inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy.
What of the Democratic Party? Those lovely cuddly lefties……they created the Klu Klux Klan….
The first African Americans to serve in the United States Congress were Republicans elected during the Reconstruction Era. After slaves were emancipated and granted citizenship rights, freedmen gained political representation in the Southern United States for the first time. White Democrats regained political power in state legislatures across the South and worked to restore white supremacy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95aQshvaAII
You couldn’t make it up but the BBC does.
Half the story all the time.
A little bit of information for the BBC. Most slaves were captured by fellow Africans, and sold to anyone who wanted to buy them. The country in the “New World” which received most slaves was Brazil. Slaves from Africa were traded across Asia as far as India long before the transatlantic trade. The first state to ban the slave trade was Virginia. The Royal Navy lost over two thousand men fighting the slave trade across the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The slave trade to the United States was almost a side show in the scheme of things.
The BBC should really do some basic research before repeating stories from their favourite propagandists.
The BBC will also never tell you that most slaves where white and many of those were Irish. IN fact Black slaves where much more highly prized than white and they cost a lot more. Ledgers from the time showed white slaves cost an average of 6 dollars, whereas black slaves cost 20 dollars. Also there was nowhere near the level of brutality and slave beating as the revisionists would have you believe. It did not make economic sense for people to invest in buying a slave and then beat them until they could not work. Most slaves were treat well, so that they would work harder.
Maybe because the “Irish slave” story is mostly bollocks?
But bollocks beloved of angry white men who think slavery wasn’t all bad. Many of those men are deeply unpleasant racists and some are just idiots. Which are you Ken?
http://www.academia.edu/9475964/The_Myth_of_Irish_Slaves_in_the_Colonies
It was not all one way.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml
i assume you are being ironic. The Romans were big slavers; the Arabs maintained the trade. In the Fourteenth Century the ranged around the Atlantic reaching Iceland and Baltimore in Ireland. They raided the North Mediterranean coast routinely. The armies of the Ottomans and their predecessors were often slaves. Many of these slaves went on to rule their Arab countries and were instrumental in evicting the crusaders. The Ottomans and their Janiseries slave soldiers were famous and still remembered with bitterness in the Balkans. The Arab raids only stopped when the European navies stopped them. The Roayal Navy was key here. Their are some people so programmed about white guilt that the facts are often given short shrift. You read their books and dig deep and you find the truth about slavery tucked into footnotes. That old saying about the newspaper guy saying when you have a choice between the legend and the facts, publish the legend. I say let the facts speak. I have no interest in giving Europeans slave traders and owners a free pass because I have no interest in giving anybody a free pass. I await some contributions from the only people we never hear from on this topic – Arabs. The bizarre thing is that no one ask. I’ve had conversations with Arabs and after a little digging and evasion, the truth always comes out. The world is complicated and stubbornly surprises us all. At the heart of this is economics. The Arab world world was technologically underdeveloped to the chagrin of their leaders. As a result it was labour-intensive. Thus it was always – like the rest of Africa and many parts of Asia – a slave economy. Labour supply was always the problem.
Bottom of page 2, top of page 3: “Thousands of Irish were deported to the colonies by force, and their terms of service were sold to the highest bidder.” That, to me, is slavery. Whilst I agree that the immediate following point: “But the overwhelming majority who settled there did so voluntarily” is valid, that still means that “thousands” were slaves.
Sweet Mary mother of Jesus. There’s being a bit right wing and there’s being entirely f***king mental…
Hey me old china, have you voted here yet ?
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/end-the-bbc-licence-fee
Can someone spark up a petition on a pragmatic middle ground solution and I will gladly put my real name to it? You fancy the job mate?
Simple solution, pay by subscription. If its popular it will flourish.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/end-the-bbc-licence-fee
Nah wouldn’t work. I reckon our glorious leader Dave has pretty much nailed it.
Congratulations you have invented Sky TV. I’m not sure you understand what the BBC or public service broadcasting are about. But a simple question, how do you pay for The Archers using TV subscription technology?
Simple question and a simple answer, the same way other radio stations manage to broadcast.
Simple question, why should poor people be jailed for not paying the TV Licence even if they don’t listen to The Archers.
Its an unfair and unjust tax and should be abolished.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/end-the-bbc-licence-fee
Yup. Simple is definitely a word I’d use. Tell you what. You like petitions so much you set one up calling for adverts on The Archers. Meet back here in a week and we’ll see how you get on.
Set it up yourself, I am happy with this one …………. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/end-the-bbc-licence-fee
Simple .
Now, just why are you on this website ?
“Adverts on the Archers ” difficult ? Why so ? One simply has a small amount of product placement along the lines of ” Jennifer, have you got the keys to the new Range Rover ?” ” here Eddy, which field did you leave our old but always trusty JCB in ?” I have no problem with any of that, in fact it would make the show far more real if we had a bit of a real conversation in it.
Who GAF about the diverse twaddle that the Archer’s has become?
Fiddy
Simple question, why should poor people be jailed for not paying the TV Licence even if they don’t listen to The Archers?
Only ten percent of African slaves went on the passage across the Atlantic. The rest went into the Muslim world. The Arabs.depended on a ready supply of Africans particularly after the Europeans caused their supply of salves from Europe to dry up. The only place you find classical slavery de facto still happening is in North Africa. The Muslim world struggled with the idea of emancipation of slaves right up to the mid 1960s when the last of them – Saudia Arabia – finally officially made it an offence to own people. Never understand how the Arabs get a free pass when the were overwhelmingly the slavers. The Europeans joined the African and Arab trade.
BBC : Confederate states – who fought in the civil war to keep African Americans enslaved.’
Iffy statement. Ultimately, they fought the war to secede from the Union. Lincoln had no problem with allowing slavery to continue in the southern states, but he had a big problem with secession which he considered to be illegal. There would have been no war if secession had been allowed.
If at first you don’t secede, try try and try again , as they say in Texas .
The War Between the States was about the 40% tariff, which Lincoln wanted the southern states to pay to the Union on their exports.
In 1861 the South contributed 70% of the taxes of the entire nation, Lincoln didn’t wish to lose that revenue. This was why Lincoln wrote and proposed his own 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution in March 1861 (one month prior to war breaking out) which sought to permanently preserve slavery in the southern and northern states.
The South rejected this amendment, if the war was fought over slavery, why would they do that?
Progressives in ISIS and progressives in the US re-writing history.
And somewhat closer to home:
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/07/13/oxford-students-campaign-to-remove-statue-of-cecil-rhodes-and-decolonize-curriculum/
Anyone know of a good site to buy a Confederate Flag before they get erased from history .
This came up on Google:
http://www.theflagshop.co.uk/rebel–confederate-giant-flag-8ft-1218-p.asp
Whether it’s a reputable site and still in stock, I couldn’t say. I’ve never had the slightest interest in that flag but am tempted, simply as a matter of principle.
This all seems to have snowballed because Dylann Roof posed with the Confederate Flag. If someone finds a picture of Thomas Hamilton with a Union Jack, is that going to banned next? Truly, the world edges closer by the day to stupidity.
It seems that lefties are treating the film, “Idiocracy” as a statecraft manual.
“I’ve never had the slightest interest in that flag but am tempted, simply as a matter of principle.”
Same here. I have no right or entitlement to it so it’s not something I would particularly want to have myself — but as you say, there is a principle involved, and if it annoys lefties, then Je suis redneck.
This place is reputable, I’ve bought from them before.
https://www.greensofgloucestershire.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Confederate+flag
More closer-to-home nutjobbery:
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/07/14/activist-brands-flag-designed-by-12-year-old-girl-as-racist-because-it-has-a-chain/
Now this is a flag I do have a right to, and I will be even more proud to display it now.
I like the flags of Anguilla, Australia, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Columbia, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Hawaii, Manitoba, Montserrat, New South Wales, New Zealand, Niue, Ontario, Pitcairn Islands, Queensland, Saint Helena, South Australia, South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands, Tasmania, Tristan da Cunha, Turks & Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Victoria, Western Australia and the United Kingdom
‘To mark the tenth anniversary of the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London, the UK edition of the Huffington Post is running a mini-series on ‘Beyond the Bombings’. This was launched on 3 July 2015 with a feature about a poll commissioned from YouGov, for which 1,578 adult Britons were interviewed online on 23-24 June 2015′.
Perhaps the most striking finding of the survey was that a majority (56%) now considers that Islam, as distinct from Islamic fundamentalist groups, poses a threat (27% major, 29% some) to Western liberal democracy.
http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2015/ten-years-on/