1776: “Wealthy White Men” Founded the USA
America has learned a great deal about Harvard Law professor Derrick Bell over the last three weeks. His nutty and venomous philosophy, Critical Race Theory, is now familiar to many Americans. My book Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department shows what happens when Critical Race Theory gets a foothold in government policy. My book also has a photograph that perhaps explains Critical Race Theory better than any article or crazed writing by Bell over could.
I describe where I found this photo in Injustice:
The nation’s premiere voting rights museum—the National Voting Rights Museum—now sits at the foot of the bridge [in Selma, Alabama]. The museum is an inadvertent monument to the civil rights movement’s degeneration. Its outlook is neatly captured in ten words that begin its timeline display of the civil rights movement. There, we find a replica of John Trumball’s iconic depiction of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with the caption, “1776. The Declaration of Independence signed by wealthy white men.”
The original civil rights giants would never have tolerated this historically false assertion. They were patriots, driven by love for their fellow countrymen and a burning desire to make America a better place for all its citizens. They repeatedly and vehemently rejected hatred. But the nasty caption captures the bitter spirit of much of the civil rights movement today and of numerous race-based activist groups around the country.
I own the copyright to the photo. But feel free to copy and distribute. The more people learn about these nutty ideas, and the museum display in Selma, the better. Incidentally, I will be in Miami on March 29 signing copies of Injustice and also Stuart, Florida, on March 30.
It looks like the next photo plays the “3/5ths compromise means they thought blacks were less than fully human” card.
I guess it’s too much to ask a *museum* to explore the complexities of the issue and *why* it was done. Easier to wave the bloody shirt…
Interestingly, that same item—the “3/5ths rule”—just came up today in a comment to Ron Radosh’s column about Peter Beinart and Israel. I copy my response to that commenter below:
Good post. You beat me to it, although mine probably wouldn’t have been as well phrased. The 3/5 compromise is one of those things that’s easy to misrepresent as a first glance would make it seem the opposite of the actual intention. Unfortunately, too many don’t see other than that first glance and come away with that false “3/5 of a person” impression.
I actually love the way racist morons got this 3/5 thing backwards: if it was only 1/5 it would’ve been even more anti-slavery and a full 5/5 fully on board with having chattel counted as voters.
There’s even a rap artist who calls himself “3/5.” He should call himself “5/5,” then I can send him a Confederate flag.
If any one can show me anytime in American history there has been any overarching zeitgeist of white supremacy I’d like to hear about it. The fight against slavery was underway from outset of the Declaration. At the outbreak of the Civil War my memory tells me 80% of Americans were Yankees. In any event, no one enslaves people because they are of a certain race although that often plays into it because of societal conventions of what’s allowed and not allowed. In Mauritania today black folks enslave slightly less black folks, in the Sudan, black folks are murdering slightly less black folks, non-Muslims really. No, the reason people enslave and murder other people is because they’re pr-cks.
Buzz….well said. Interesting what historical prespective adds to what demagoguery goes on by the left and racist pimps in our society. I would add to your accurate picture that Article 1 Section 9 of the Constitution sets out a date certain for the prohibition of importation of ‘such persons’.
The slave trade, for all its’ moral cancer was an economic issue that had to be dealt with by the Founders. In order to get ratification, they were forced to backpeddle to some degree. Reading the various letters, it was obvious that slavery was on its’ way out. I would call attention to the ‘marriage’ of the Declaration of Independance and the Constitution, which I believe is unavoidable: “…ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL…..”. Not white men, or brown men, but ALL MEN. How can any sane review of our founding documents not see this brazen, divine statement for what it is. Further, the U.S. Navy has historical records pre dating the Civil War of its’ interdiction activities trying to halt the imprtation of ‘such persons’. Of note, my interest was called to a letter between Edward Coles and Thomas Jefferson relating to this issue. In trying to find the letter, I came across a description of the letter written by an East Coast University President, wherein he described Jefferson relating to slaves as “pests”. WOW, had to find the letter and read the full text. Well, he was correct in his quote. However, reding the text of the full letter certainly lead one in a different direction. This is the kind of ignorant review by people with an agenda that is perpetrated on our children in many cases, and certainly paradigm used by the racist pimps to further their own selfishness. Semper Fi.
I was in DC to see the cherry blossoms. I was driving up 15th Street NW through the National Mall and there is the building site for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I expect similar crap at that museum and for that reason I will never step into to. The worst museum experience I ever had, coming from a museum lover, was the National Museum of the American Indian. I learned zero since it was a “cultural” museum with zero artificats. This country has gone so downhill it can’t build a decent museum or monument/memorial anymore.
The National Museum of the American Indian is just that, all of the Americas, not just the USA.
Know what really ticks me off, using race baiting to incite violence. No black man worth his salt wants hand-outs just because of our slave history. Most black men want to be able to be “free” and work to their own conscience without someone calling them out of their name for not wanting Obama in office. Sure we were all proud that a black man is president, but now he is no different than those black men who sold their own brothers into slavery hundreds of years ago just to make a buck or two. They teach my children to hate whites and relive that history as if we have not come around two-fold. I have to constantly r-direct their anger to the right place. Please God forgive them and us and protect us again from tyranny.
Amen, SlyFox.
Sorry SF but that’s not been my experience. AAMOF their “slave history” is now a excuse for demanding all manner of things and also as an excuse for all manner of behavior. It’s being taught to children in school and in our sewer culture. Quite simply, we’ve lost several generations and are on track to continue.
if you want that to change, eliminate the national slush fund known as the Dept/Education and allow school choice.
As for being proud a black man is president, really? Who effing cares? Seriously, when i hear that I could puke. I care for what a man believes, if that happens to be black, so?
MM – he’s not “black”, he’s “colored”. Mulatto is the term?
Bugs – actually the big part missing there is “Your own people sold you, already slaves to them, to traders to be rid of them as they were dead-weight mouths to feed.” That is always glossed over though…
Hey, doesn’t the Prez’s bro live on $12 per year and live in a shanty in Kenya? If their dad wasn’t in a strong tribe they woulda been caught up and sold as slaves too, right? So then he would be here? I love how helpful Mr. Soetoro, I mean O’Bama, is to his own family.
Well, I understand that not all whites were or are wealthy. That is probably too much to grasp, so all whites must be wealthy! You know how all whites lived in massive plantation homes and had slaves and stuff! Oh, wait, no…lots of whites had it worse than even the slaves, so that probably isn’t true. WHATEVER!
One way of looking at the civil rights narrative is: “Wealthy white men signed the Declaration of Independence. Wealthy white men owned your ancestors. And wealthy white men still own you – economically, politically, and socially. That’s why you still need special help from the Government.”
Not a story to be proud of.
No mention that 1/5 of the Revolutionary war soldiers were free (the majority)or freedmen Negroes?
That the first guy to die for freedom- shot by the British on Bunker Hill, the shot that started the war- was negro Crispus Attucks?
That we celebrate New Years Days because slavery was supposed to end in 1808, bringing a new ‘Millenial Year of God’?
(In 1788, the South asked for an extension- and kept asking.)
That the third President of the United States- the Confederated United States-, was John Harris, a black man? (1781-1784)
That virtually every race law, from 1820 to now, was written by Democrats?
Including Negro segregation in marraige, as well as the military and government services, by Woodrow Wilson.
Crispus Attucks wasn’t killed at Bunker Hill. He was killed during the Boston Massacre. And he was probably a freedman of mixed race – black and native american.
No mention that the Independence movement began in 1772- because we revolted against being the last British colony to sell human beings?
Slavery had been ended by King George in all the other colonies.
Importation of slaves was banned in England by 1804, and here in America by 1807. Yup, the South was conducting illegal trade.
That piffling matter about Boston tea was considered a trivial local matter.
Madison supplied independent tea carts that sold cups at every corner, much like roasted chestnuts. He had Sam Adams hit all the bars and rouse the unemployed dock workers. The Tea Party bunch hurt no one, and even paid the captain for the busted lock on the ship- very English of them!
Franklin saw it a bit differntly- the real battle, to him, was who controlled the currency- us or the Bank of England.
Additionally, slavery was originally based on religious denomination, not race.
A black indentured servant sued to win the lifetime services of another black indenture who was being punished because he had run away. It took 3 times (!)-
he finally won, starting a legal precedent that grew.
The biggest factor was that Spain was broke- they had exhausted Mexican silver (it all ended up in China, causing rapid growth and ruinous inflation); the British Navy privateers had won the 4-way battle in the Caribbean Golden Age of Piracy, and the slave traders had no one left to sell to. Arabs and Africans were too cheap because of over-harvesting (a slave surplus)for a Spain that wasn’t buying any more, so all the traders poured into Boston Harbor.
Nobody mentions the real end of that movie about the slave freed by a Quaker lawyer went on to become– a slave trader! (Movie starts with an A, can’t remember)
found it- “Amistad”, the lawyer was JQuincy Adams, the slaves had been sold in Cuban auction
thanks, I know you were just about to tell me
Never been to the one in Selma, but I’ve been to the official Rosa Parks Museum maintained by Troy University in Montgomery.
I didn’t see any thing that ridiculous, and it was actually pretty inspiring.
However the most interesting thing was to see just how BS the typical popular version of her story is, that one a tired Ms. Parks just had enough standing after a long day working and decided to take the only available seat, which was in the white section. In fact she was already active in the civil rights movement beforehand, and it was more of an intentional, if not actually staged, act of defiance.
The actual truth of what happened is interesting enough without some simplified made-for-Hollywood BS layered over it.