SINCE WE’RE HEARING A LOT ABOUT CHARLESTON’S HISTORY OF SLAVERY, it’s worth noting that New York Had A Lot Of Slaves: “To all those who think slavery was a ‘Southern thing,’ think again. In 1703, 42 percent of New York’s households had slaves, much more than Philadelphia and Boston combined. Among the colonies’ cities, only Charleston, South Carolina, had more.” What bastion of right-leaning southern-excuse-making is this from? The Nation.

Related: NYC to Acknowledge It Operated a Slave Market for More Than 50 Years.

Also: Slave Traders in Yale’s Past.

Yale relied on slave-trading money for its first scholarships, endowed professorship and library endowment. It honored slave traders when choosing figures to chisel as “Worthies” on the tower at the center of its campus, and only 40 years ago chose the names of slave traders when it was naming some colleges. According to documents these scholars have unearthed, in 1831 Yale officials led the opposition that ultimately stopped construction in New Haven of what would have been the nation’s first black college, saying that such an institution in the same city would be “incompatible with the prosperity, if not the existence,” of Yale.

There’s history all over, but only some of it is useful for allowing Acela Corridor residents to condescend. Meanwhile, here in East Tennessee — which was pro-Union during the Civil War — we have this to say: “Now that we’re re-fighting the Civil War, is it too much to ask Yankees not to leave us East Tennesseans hanging for three years this time?”

If you’re going to fight the Battle Of Fort Sanders again, please let me clean out my desk first.