Quadibloc
2020-07-20 17:02:02 UTC
Saw a headline: Kanye West claims that Harriet Tubman never freed the slaves!
Considered to be shocking ignorance on his part!
From that headline, I said, wait a minute. I know I saw on television when I was a
child a spot pointing out that it was a "popular misconception" that _Abraham
Lincoln_ freed the slaves. This was based on the fact that he signed the
Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War, and so his act of signing it
didn't _immediately_ free any slaves at that moment, as the states in rebellion
were not heeding Federal law.
But when did anyone claim that Harriet Tubman freed the slaves?
Then I read the article - he said that the slaves "freed" by Harriet Tubman went
to working for other white men.
To comprehend all this, I looked up Harriet Tubman's claim to fame. She bravely
went into the South on thirteen rescue missions, helping about 70 slaves to
escape.
All right, then, Kanye West wasn't just claiming that Harriet Tubman didn't put an
end to slavery - which is true - but that she didn't even bring the 70 slaves she
rescued out of slavery!
History, however, does not record that she _sold_ them to anyone.
The fact that, after being freed, they still needed to work to eat, and they
didn't have capital to start their own businesses, and they didn't have much
choice of black-run businesses to work for...
so that many of them ended up working for white people _as employees_
did not, by any stretch of the imagination, mean that they were still slaves.
Otherwise, most of the white people in the country could appropriate the
sufferings of the black people.
What seemed to be the case after Taylor Swift seems to be demonstrated once
again. He needs professional help. Of the psychiatric variety.
John Savard
Considered to be shocking ignorance on his part!
From that headline, I said, wait a minute. I know I saw on television when I was a
child a spot pointing out that it was a "popular misconception" that _Abraham
Lincoln_ freed the slaves. This was based on the fact that he signed the
Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War, and so his act of signing it
didn't _immediately_ free any slaves at that moment, as the states in rebellion
were not heeding Federal law.
But when did anyone claim that Harriet Tubman freed the slaves?
Then I read the article - he said that the slaves "freed" by Harriet Tubman went
to working for other white men.
To comprehend all this, I looked up Harriet Tubman's claim to fame. She bravely
went into the South on thirteen rescue missions, helping about 70 slaves to
escape.
All right, then, Kanye West wasn't just claiming that Harriet Tubman didn't put an
end to slavery - which is true - but that she didn't even bring the 70 slaves she
rescued out of slavery!
History, however, does not record that she _sold_ them to anyone.
The fact that, after being freed, they still needed to work to eat, and they
didn't have capital to start their own businesses, and they didn't have much
choice of black-run businesses to work for...
so that many of them ended up working for white people _as employees_
did not, by any stretch of the imagination, mean that they were still slaves.
Otherwise, most of the white people in the country could appropriate the
sufferings of the black people.
What seemed to be the case after Taylor Swift seems to be demonstrated once
again. He needs professional help. Of the psychiatric variety.
John Savard