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British and American plantation owners imported millions of Africans into the colonies as slave labour. That is a fact. The legacy of slavery. American Independence saw, in time, many northern states abolish slavery in their territories. Eventually, the Civil War 1861-66 was fought over the issue of slavery and the north won militarily. The result left 6 million African Americans in the United States who had been previously enslaved. The vast majority of these people were in the south. An assassin murdered President Abraham Lincoln while he was at the theatre. There had been much debate over what to do with all these former slaves. White folk in the north, whilst despising the institution of slavery in their nation, were not real keen on having all these black folk in their midst either. Being anti-slavery did not necessarily equate with not being a racist.
African Americans & Slavery’s Legacy
Many modern folk today think that the end of chattel slavery was the good news and end of story. However, this is not the case, it was only the beginning of a very long road for African Americans and for white Americans as well. More than 600, 000 Americans died as a result of the Civil War – it was a bloody affair. The hard truth of the matter is that these plantation owners and supporting state governments had to bear full responsibility for the importation and cultivation of the many millions of African slaves. Like a lot of wealthy folk, they did not do so and ducked their responsibilities. The death of Lincoln brought in President Andrew Johnson, who pandered to the defeated southern states in many ways. Thus, we get the considered opinion of a number of American historians that the South really may have won the war, if evaluated on the concessions they received in Reconstruction. The legacy of slavery remains. Lincoln had fought to keep the union together, first and foremost.
Post Bellum America
The southern states had these large populations of freed slaves and economies dominated by labour intensive industries like cotton, tobacco and sugar plantations. They wanted workarounds, which became the Black Codes and Jim Crow. These exploitative and corrupt practices saw millions of blacks returned to slave like conditions, which were often worse than chattel slavery, where they at least had the protection of their dollar worth. Now, they would, likely, be worked to death because they had lost their resale value in peonage. Southern whites in power would maintain the disenfranchisement of their African American populations, denying them the vote via various nefarious means. Literacy tests and the like would be imposed upon an uneducated black population. These are the foul and cruel practices of white supremacy in the south. Lynching was a much favoured practice, as well, where they would lynch and then burn black human beings before a public fair or picnic type gathering. These stains upon human morality are pretty hard to wash out, even after generations. The legacy of slavery.
Segregation & Apartheid
The legacy of slavery remains in the United States, as African Americans were treated as second class citizens for decades and decades. There was no economic rebalancing enmasse for these long benighted ex-slaves and their subsequent progeny. In fact, apartheid and segregation were instituted wherever whites could get away with it. Economic ghettoes were established that locked African Americans into lives of poverty and all the associated bad shit that goes along with that. Whites did not want blacks to live near them or for their children to attend the same schools. Better funding and wealth accompanied white neighbourhoods and white schools. Banks would not lend to African Americans. Real estate agents and property developers would not sell to African Americans. The ‘so-called’ land of the free was a crock of shit like much of the propaganda spouted by white America.
Whites Bad Mouthing Black America
Whites bad mouthed blacks. Smear campaigns that blamed their economic misfortune on character failings were widely propagated. Things were set up to facilitate the failure of African Americans for the longest time. Law enforcement unfairly focused their racist attentions upon black men, in particular. The blame game was in full swing for a century and a half since the Civil War. Hoover and his FBI targeted the Black Panthers as a subversive and dangerous group. In actual fact, much of what Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers were involved with was educational and providing welfare to African Americans. He was murdered by the police.
“Fred Hampton was an influential civil rights activist born on August 30, 1948, in Illinois. Initially a gifted student with aspirations of becoming a professional baseball player, he shifted his focus to civil rights, joining the NAACP and later the Black Panther Party. Hampton emerged as a prominent leader known for his powerful oratory and efforts to unite diverse communities through initiatives like the Rainbow Coalition, which aimed to bridge divides among different racial and socio-economic groups.”
Power Hungry Capitalists
The truth is, in life, that everything that generates conflict is always about power. Who has the power and who wants it. Slave holders held the power over their slaves via overseers and slave catchers. They would whip and beat slaves to make them work harder. They would rape female slaves and breed them for profit. This was how the slave economy worked, which enriched millions of white people all over the world. Bonds were sold by banks built on the capital wealth of the slave economy. It was not some small concern quarantined from the larger economy, quite the reverse. Power and wealth go hand in hand.
Many Elites Grew Wealth From Slavery
Many of the aristocracy, the Lords and Ladies, Sirs and Dames, derived their wealth and titles from their slave holdings. These elites, we were taught to look up to, made their fortunes on the back of brutality. Their descendants still demand our respect based on their wealth and power. I would remind you to question your unquestioning obedience and check out the facts before bowing and scraping.
“The grain of truth in the New History of Capitalism is that many free-state businesses freely transacted with slaveholders, some providing vital services that facilitated the operation of the slave system. New York steamship companies competed vigorously for the Texas slave trade. During the boom decade of the 1830s, the Natchez (Mississippi) branch of the Bank of the United States offered accommodation loans to planters so lavishly that the bank found itself in possession of numerous slaves and several plantations after the financial collapse of 1839. These and others were clearly complicit in the perpetuation and expansion of slavery. “
When chattel slavery was abolished in the British empire and the US in the District of Columbia it was the slave owners who were compensated for their loss of property. The legacy of slavery.
Oligarchs & Billionaires
Powerful people, billionaires and oligarchs, are still exploiting the working poor today. The Elon Musk’s and Jeff Bezos’ flaunting their extreme wealth are enough to make you sick. Sons of Nazis and white supremacists. Every billionaire is a sign of the failure of our economic system. Capitalism has been manipulated and gamed by the few to enrich themselves at our expense. CEO’s being paid obscene amounts of money whilst their workers struggle to feed their families. It is time for a reckoning. Eat the rich!
Trump’s Ugly America
Trump’s America is despised around the world today. The ugliest and nastiest Americans have assumed power. Many of us wish for them to get their comeuppance, sooner rather than later. White supremacists like Stephen Miller and his vile cohort are making normally mild mannered folk reach for their kitchen knives. A reckoning will come and they will get theirs in full. All this bullshit anti-DEI is more lies and fictions. Trump and family are stealing billions. Meanwhile, they are depriving the working poor of food stamps and heath care. They are the lowest of the low.
The most rabid and lawbreaking examples of GOP misuse of power are in the southern states like Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and many of the former confederacy states. These are the sons and daughters of the slavers. These are the Jim Crow states, where the Black Codes imprisoned African Americans and abused them via peonage slavery up until the US entered the Second World War in 1941. When you look for strongholds of MAGA support and Christian Nationalism it is, most often, located in these places. It is like the evil will not die.
The world looks on, at the moment, and is disgusted with where America finds itself under the Trump regime. People scratch their heads and wonder how this extremist right wing shit is still flourishing in 2025 and beyond? Why haven’t these people learned to get along in a civilised manner? Why do they seek to control others through power and want to hurt them? What is wrong with these folk? The world is not going to make it if Trump, Netanyahu and Putin are calling the shots. These Far Right authoritarians are killing hundreds of thousands of human beings, as we speak.
American Revolution
“One of the strongest impressions I came away with after watching the opening episode of Ken Burn’s American Revolution was the parallels with where the United States finds itself now. Especially, in terms of the disinclination for Americans to want to pay their taxes and obey laws. You can observe right back at the very start, this desire to take stuff and expect to remain Scott free (a Scott is a tax). Smugglers and traders alike, in the colonies, did not want to pay any duties. Although, wars had been fought against the French and Indians, which involved British soldiers, the colonists did not want to contribute to the wages of these soldiers via taxes commensurate with the costs involved.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
©MidasWord
