Quote of the day:
"The reason there are so few females in politics is because it is too much trouble to put make-up on two faces." Maureen Murphy
Today's lesson will be a little different format. This past weekend two organizations met in Downtown Greenville for the purpose of putting the Confederate flag back on the top of the state capitol building. It used to be there but so much pressure was put on the politicians to remove it that it was indeed taken down but still is on display somewhere on the state capitol grounds. The leader in the protest was the NAACP who said the flag represents racism and slavery to them and is therefore offensive. They also have chosen to boycott South Carolina because the flag has not been removed completely. The rest of this prologue will be the history of slavery so be advised.
Slavery has existed on this planet since before recorded history. There are hieroglyphs on Egyptian tombs that show the Egyptians enslaving any peoples they defeated in combat. One of the largest enterprises of the Vikings was the slave trade as well as the Mongols sweeping down from the far east. They would enslave those that they thought they could sell and murder the rest. But lets get closer to the present. The trade for African slaves began when one tribe in the interior would raid another tribe in the interior and take them across the Sahara and sell them to the Arabs in North Africa. Then the slave trade began in earnest. There were seven or eight African nations on the coasts of Africa that were the outlet African slaves for hundreds of years. They always had a small supply on hand but when they spotted a slave ship's mast on the horizon, they would send raiding parties into the interior and round up a number of their brethren and have them ready to sell when the slaver docked. This is documented both by the kings of these countries and by the ship owners. Most of the time, white men were only allowed off their ships for a very short time to make payment.
The very first African slave to step foot on the North American continent were those brought by the Spanish into what was then known as Spanish Florida in about 1560. Spanish Florida in those days went from the Jacksonville area to the Mississippi River. This meant that most of the slaves went ashore in the Saint Augustine, Florida, New Orleans, Mobile and Pensacola areas where deep water ports existed. The next instance was a British crew sailing a man-of-war under a Dutch flag sailed into Jamestown, Virginia in about 1609 and traded slaves for food. The same thing happened in the port of Plymouth, Massachusetts about 1629. There is no need for me to tell you how many American Indians that were enslaved by the settlers and sailed back to Europe and sold into slavery. As far as I can research the first African that stepped ashore in the American colonies was near Beaufort, South Carolina in Port Royal Sound. The influx of slaves into the colonies, mostly by Dutch and English ships, continued unabated until the colonies passed a law in about 1806 forbidding the import of slaves. As you might suspect, before the law was passed a close census was taken of the existing slaves to make sure the present population was self-sustaining, meaning just as many slaves were born as died. The biggest ports for the sale of slaves was New Orleans, LA., Mobile, Alabama, Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, SC and Annapolis, Maryland. There were other smaller ports but these were the largest.
There is no question that slavery was important to the southern states agrarian society. The biggest problem was that any exports from the southern ports would have to pass through the northern ports so people like the big cotton and commodity brokers in New York could get their cut. This made the southern raised cotton and other commodities more costly in Europe and other areas than they needed to be. The southern planters complained but the United States Congress sided with those power brokers in the North and that was the root of most of the problem. The Southern states decided to secede from the Union so they could sell their commodities to whomever they wanted to at whatever price they could get. There were other issues but slavery was not an issue in the beginning of the American Civil War, the issue as decreed by Abe was preservation of the Union, hoping patriotism would be the impetus. After the Union army was severely defeated by a rag-tag Confederate army at the Battle of First Manassas and several battles afterward, the northern newspapers were screaming "Stop the bloodbath, let them have their own nation." Wisely, Abe did not buy that and changed horses and made the abolition of slavery as the main issue appealing to morality rather than patriotism. It worked.
Keeping in mind that the Confederate battle flag did not exist until 1861, lets do a comparison using NAACP logic as to the display of flags.
The following states/nations should be boycotted and their flags banned because of their involvement with the enslavement of Africans.
Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Louisiana, Alabama, Massachusetts, Great Britain, the Netherlands the modern African nations of Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sudan, Togo, Ghana, Togo, Benin and last but not least, Ethiopia. That's right, folks, the World Health Organization has verified that slavery is alive and well in these African nations today. I did not mention the other eight African nations that were in the slave trade hundreds of year before the arrival of the Europeans.
I believe that that girl from Birmingham, Alabama that disappeared from Aruba without a trace is in one of these countries as a slave.
Let's all go the the United Nations building and protest the display of the flags of all the above nations as being racists and a reminder of slavery. Oh by the way, I forgot Zanzibar. That is where a great many potential slaves of all nationalities and hues are gathered and sold to the various above mention nations.
The NAACP says that the Confederate battle flag indicates racism and slavery. That is not what it means to me and thousands of others that know what really happened in that terrible struggle. It reminds me of the 20th Maine at Little Round Top, the 4th Alabama at Little Round Top, The US Prentiss regiment at the "Hornet's Nest" at Shiloh, the "Stonewall" division in the Shenadoah Valley Campaign and many other displays of raw human courage and determination by members of this melting pot of humanity known as Americans.
How can we ever forget that?
I warned y'all about my soap box.
AUGUST 31ST
1777 On this date Patriot Captain Samuel Mason survives a savage Indian attack on Fort Henry (which he commanded) on the Ohio frontier. The Indians were a montage of different tribes in the Ohio valley, Mason was a member of a distinguished Virginia family. At the beginning of the attack, a few of Mason’s troops were caught outside the stockade trying to retrieve some livestock and drive them back inside the fort. Mason and 14 other troops rushed outside to help those trapped outside but that is just what the Indians wanted and ambushed them. All of the rescuers were killed except Mason. He was severely wounded and crawled under a log and was not detected. Yet another rescue team ran out to help Mason and they were wiped out also. Eventually Mason made his way back into the fort, recovered from his wounds and stayed the fort commander for several more years. Later on Mason fell on hard times and was accused of thievery. Mason responded by going deeper into the western frontier which meant those settlements on the Mississippi River. For reasons known only to Mason, he organized a small gang including his brother, and began preying on the boats and barges traveling the river plus raids on some of the villages and settlers on the Natchez Trace. Mason’s gang enjoyed quite a bit of success because of the lack of law enforcement. Remember, west of the River belonged to France, we had not yet made the Louisiana Purchase. Eventually Mason and his gang was captured on the west bank of the river by French troops and delivered to Colonial officials at the Natchez, Mississippi outpost. The gang shot their way out by killing three guards. After this a large reward was put on Mason’s head, dead or alive. The money was too much of a temptation for a couple of Mason’s gang members and they killed and beheaded Mason and took the head to the Natchez outpost to try and collect the reward. A couple of the officials at Natchez outpost recognized the two as being members of Mason’s gang and they were promptly hanged. To this day, no one has ever figured out why Mason went on the other side of the law, but greed was his undoing.
1939 On this date Adolph Hitler orders the invasion of Poland and 58 divisions mass on the Polish border in a line about 1,700 miles long. Hitler had been warned by Great Britain, France and Spain that any invasion into Poland would mean war. So Hitler sends a few German soldiers across into Poland dressed in Polish uniforms and had them re-cross into Germany and destroy a few inconsequential buildings. They then brought in several prisoners, dressed them in Polish uniforms and them killed them and claimed that Poland had invaded Germany and were killed and here are the bodies to prove it. After that, the 58 division cranked up and crossed the Polish frontier led by swarms of Panzer and Tiger tanks. The brave but foolish Polish cavalry responds with a charge on horseback like they did in the days of Napoleon. Of course they were annihilated. The next afternoon war was declared on Germany by the majority of the rest of Europe and hell ensued.
1864 This day sees the Battle of Jonesboro, Georgia. US General William T. Sherman had been slugging his way toward Atlanta from Chattanooga, Tennessee, a distance of about 100 miles whist facing the CSA army commanded by CSA General Joseph E. Johnston. Johnston was a believer in rock solid defense and let the enemy beat their brains out trying to crack it. That strategy was not working with Sherman and the CSA army had been constantly retreating since Chattanooga. A few days earlier, CSA President Davis had relieved Johnston and installed CSA General John Bell Hood who was known to be very aggressive. Hood did not disappoint and ordered several attacks on the Union army but the CSA army suffered appalling losses to the point that the CSA army was deemed ineffective. On this day General Sherman orders the capture of the railroad south of Atlanta near Jonesboro, Georgia. This was the last supply route into Atlanta. A CSA division commanded by General William Hardee attacks the dug in Union troops near Jonesboro and is repulsed with staggering losses and the Union forces cut the railroad and that was the end of Atlanta, Georgia.
1985 Earlier a man the newspapers name “The Night Stalker” had been terrorizing the people of Los Angeles. He would sneak into a house late at night, shoot any men present and then rape, kill and mutilate any women there. The police had a hell of a time finding out who it was because he left no witnesses. He had murdered at least 12 people before the police got a break and was able to identify the prime suspect as Richard Ramirez. The police debated as to whether or not to publish his photo and describe his car in the newspaper being afraid it would warn Ramirez that they were on to him. Fortunately Ramirez was on a road trip and when he arrived in Los Angeles late in this day, he saw his face on the front page pf the paper and on TV. He was driving down the street in a Latino neighborhood when he was recognized. The men in the neighborhood dragged that son-of-a-bitch out of his car and began beating the living shit out of him. The police finally arrive and dragged Ramirez away from the howling mob just in time or he would have been killed. During his trial he yelled and screamed at the jury claiming he was a devil worshipper. He was sentenced to death and yelled on his way out of the courtroom that he was not afraid of death; it was part of his reward of worshipping the Devil. But this bastard filed appeals which were denied, of course, but if he awaited death why was he appealing the death penalty? All of that courtroom bravado was bullshit. He is as afraid of death like the rest of us. He remains on death row to this day. Like I say, lets go back to medieval times with monsters such as this.
Born today:
1870 Italian educator Maria Montessori. She said “If help and salvation are to come, it must come from the children because from children we get men and women.” Sound wisdom, Maria.
1903 US actor Arthur Godfrey. He said “I am proud to pay taxes in this great country, but I would be just as proud at half the price.” Me too, Arthur, me too.
1918 US songwriter Alan Jay Lerner. He said “I am a great fan of females, and I have the bills to prove it.” Been there, done that, have tee shirt.
1935 US activist and Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver. He said “You don’t have to teach people to be human, you have to teach them how to stop being inhuman.” That is a pretty deep though there, Eldridge.
Thanks for listening. I can hardly wait until tomorrow...
