The Lincoln Memorial is a perennial must-visit destination for school field trips, disparate marches, and movements of all persuasion. Unfortunately, it is a super-sized serving of baseless beliefs and wholesale lies.
Consider that throughout the presidential campaign of 1860, then-candidate Lincoln had all but promised not to interfere with Southern slavery, which he reiterated in his first presidential inaugural address:
Jonathan Clark
ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery) are witnesses — and PTSD survivors — of an extraordinarily 401 years of a unique experience in this country. ADOS blacks were truncated from Africa, an incomparably rich and diverse interlacing tapestry of cultures denied to every cargo load that docked here, beginning in 1619. The only surviving documents for those stolen families are shipping manifests, and few of those have survived to the present. Breaking their spirits began a centuries-long history of vile degradation at the hands of the whites who benefitted from systemic white supremacy from the day they were born — an unearned birthright for whites, an exceptional denial by a country that deems itself exceptional among all other countries on the planet. How do you make reparation for a people who rapidly made it possible for the US to move from an agrarian to an industrial economic power
I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.
Jonathan Clark, quoting Abraham Lincoln
Former slave owners found themselves in a temporary economic bind when their principal source of wealth generation disappeared, so the reunited States government provided reparations to see them through. To the victor go the reparations. The former slaves and their descendants were the principal losers of institutions that had already been brutally exploiting blacks since 1619 and continue to be ruthlessly brutalized to this very day. The white participants still had plenty of opportunities to continue the exploitation of ADOS, making easy targets in the 13th Amendment
Even though Lincoln was elected president, he had done so with almost no support from the South and less than 40% of the popular vote. And in a move that many refer to as “political genius,” Lincoln appointed his political rivals to cabinet positions, ostensibly to destroy enemies by making them friends — a move that would lead to disloyalty and backroom drama.
Jonathan Clark, quoting Abraham Lincoln
The white participants found new opportunities to continue the exploitation of ADOS. The 13th Amendment does not hide the catch clause in the small print, it places that gotcha right in the middle, in an exception clause, the devil slithers in the details.
ADOS blacks have always been denied ties to an incomparably rich and diverse continent of interlacing cultures denied to every cargo load that docked here from 1619 forward.
How do you make reparation to a people who singlehandedly made it possible for the US to move from an agrarian to an industrial economic power? This is a superpower that offers little to ADOS. Well, there is this way:
“Mistakes were made. This is ancient history, so get with the program.”
Mistakes — a genteel way to apply centuries of whitewash, to breed generations of apologists who pledge to the spirit of American Exceptionalism: one soundbite at a time, faithfully parroted from each generation to the next.
Wealthy whites (there are essentially no wealthy blacks) believe their destiny rests on manifest destiny ship manifests for stolen Africans) from the first mistold Thanksgiving to the NFL of the USA football games in November that marks a moment when colonialists and savages broke bread. Is taking a knee a traitorous? Are BLM protestors exceptionally criminal sorts who threaten godfearing lovers of Law and Order who consistently vote for judges who are “tough on crime.”
This country progressed from an agrarian to an industrial economy: one drop of a slave’s blood at a time.
Thanks for reading.
billziegler1947 
Bill, as you know, because of all of this, ADOS are tore up from the floor up. We are being subjected to what the whites subjected the Indians to. Because of our history, when you look around, what gains have we made? What were we ‘allowed’ to accomplish? Why is it that when we tried to build our own medical institutions, schools, libraries, banks, towns, and we succeeded, whites burned it down, blew it up and massacred us to make sure that they kept their boot on our necks while inviting ‘immigrants’ over here and setting them up, pretty, while we were forced into homelessness and abject poverty and add insult to injury and the whites made it so that immigrants joined in with them in the gentrification process and now claim that “immigrants built this country” when that is a bald faced lie!
You are right. We don’t have any REAL wealth. We don’t have generational wealth. We cannot hand down businesses to our children like the whites can, thus making sure that they are set for life and the whites actually think that they achieved what they ‘own’ by the sweat of their brow when nothing existed over here except for trees until our ancestors were forced to chop those trees down and get to building this country.
And finally, whites have got a lot to answer for and believe me, they will.
Thank you for posting this. It is most sincerely appreciated, as always!
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You bring up a very important point, Shelby. The Indians had been here a damned long time and had respected the place in a system that did not rely on innate violence. Western Civilization has always viewed history in the militant idolization of weaponry, allied with a Judeo-Christian “tradition” that depended on the whims of a monotheistic “faith.” Distrust is drummed into dynamic. The interpretations of their one-book-fits-all Bible contains all the violence needed to keep them warring with each other, and with a particular disdain for Islam that continues to the present day. Abraham’s firstborn son was the issue of a slave, they still haven’t come close to getting over that. It didn’t stop the perfect founding Fathers of the perfect Constitution to keep hate alive. Slavery comes natural to patriarchs who descended from patriarchs for as far back as the white couple created by white god-interpreters of Europe. Colonialists to a world where they were not welcome, but that hasn’t ever stopped them from bringing the good news of the West, their missionaries, and their holy gunpowder.
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And yet today is celebrated as “Columbus Day.” I wonder how many Indians are celebrating this day? With about only 45 or so of them left, I hardly think they are. In fact, I know the ones in Minneapolis, MN are NOT celebrating because they are homeless. What was once theirs was stolen and now they have been relegated to the fate of all homeless people; “ignored,” when this land IS still theirs. I just don’t know how these “colonizers” can look themselves in the mirror and not puke their guts out, because “colonizers,” they still are!
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The indigenous inhabitants had been here approximately 10,000 years, the roots run deep, and the cultures complex. The empires of Europe take a different approach — conquer, ethnically cleanse, and impose Western values on the survivors. Those survivors do not get to maintain their autonomous existence for very long, they must conform to the institutions of the colonialists. All treaties become temporary measures, all those treaties become worthless as more colonists arrive. Somehow those explorers and colonizers and settlers find a way to look in the mirror and to mutter “Well, mistakes were made but that’s all blood under the bridge. Shrug.”
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Please note that Europe has a still great diversity of old cultures and minority languages being usually protected. For example in Germany you still find the Slawic Sorbians in the South-East, in Italy there are the Reto-Romanic Ladinians in the North, in Spain the rebellious Basques while in Scandinavia live the nomadic Samis n the very North. There are much more of course!
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Thank you for the important point, Ulli. I admire every independent State that yet survives the hegemonies surrounding them — the imposition that repositions their independent identities. My country (US) has a long history of countless systemic regime-changes — followed by the installment of a puppet leader who toes the line and kowtows to Exceptionalism.
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Diversity was the normal case till the upcoming of nationalism in the middle of 19th century here in Europe. We had a ‘Holy Roman Empire of German Nations’ for example, Russia till today is still multi-ethnical from its long history, big empires in the Middle East (Persia or Osman, etc.) profited a lot from multiple regional and cultural influences on their territories, just to name some positive examples in this regard. Some weeks ago I stumbled over a German village with the French name ‘Monplaisir’ because the Prussian king and the noble people spoke mainly French over 250 years ago. And today all Jewish temples or churches are heavily protected by German police. Real progress?
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Did slaves also work in factories and the like, and not just on the land?
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Thanks for the question, Katrina. They were assigned to work that supported munitions and basically any job that could not be filled by non-slave labor. The wages for such work were paid to the slaveholders. Here is a recent article from the Washington Post on those “employment opportunities.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/07/09/national-archives-slavery-payroll-receipts-civil-war-confederacy/
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Hard to know what to say about this sort of thing. The world is full of monsters, eh? I know that there are good people, too, but I think that we have to have wariness as our default position, until proven otherwise, because the arseholes of the world just walk all over the unwary.
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You can’t learn from your mistakes if you cast monsters as heroes of history — particularly figures such as Lincoln. He became a martyr at the moment of assassination. His views were consistent throughout his political life, but they were buried with him. Myths filled the vacuum to such an extent that the slightest criticism becomes patriotically anathema.
Arseholes also enjoy walking over the unwary.
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Hi came here from sound eagle’s blog and glad I stoooed by
You write so well and explain a derp and heavy topic with such clarity
And it is sad to read about Such roots and crimes against humanity and trusting healthy healing and needed changes will continue to be made moving forward
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Hello Prior, I thank you from the heart for these kind words. They inspire me to continue my analyses of the crime scenes sanctified by whitewashed histories.
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