On July 4th, many Americans celebrated the
idea that the Revolution, in freeing the American colonies from Britain, set
forth a new nation dedicated to freedom, democracy and the proposition that
“all men are created equal.” While the beginning words of the Declaration of
Independence stating the concept of human equality are well worth celebrating,
the reality of the American Revolution has a very different, sinister side.
I
presented the sinister side in a letter published today by the Washington Post in its July 9th
edition (posted online late July 8th). The message was necessarily constricted
by the space limits allowed for published letters. Here is the letter as posted
online:
Ignoring an important part of
the American Revolution
The July 4 editorial “What ‘America First’ should really mean”
portrayed the United States as “a nation that long ago set itself against
tyranny.” But this ignored the elephant in the room: The American Revolution
was motivated in part to preserve slavery.
In 1772, four years before
the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the English court
decision Somerset v. Stewart was generally interpreted to
mean that slavery had no legal basis in England. In contrast, the laws of
the southern American colonies defined slaves not as people but as property.
The contrast between these laws and the public’s view of the Somerset decision
could not be starker. The southern colonies feared that Somerset would
eventually apply to them and abolish their way of life. In their view, the only
way to preserve slavery was to become independent of Britain. Their support for
independence was essential to the Revolution’s success.
The moral impact of Somerset eventually
led Britain to abolish slavery in nearly all of its colonies. It did that in
1833, 32 years before slavery was abolished in the United States by the 13th
Amendment. Had Britain succeeded in suppressing the Revolution, slaves in the
United States might have been freed a lot sooner.
John L Hodge, Jamaica Plain,
Mass.
The words of the Somerset
decision call slavery “so odious” that it could only be established by “positive
law,” which in England meant an Act of Parliament. Parliament never authorized
slavery. While the precise holding of Somerset
has been debated, the public in England and America understood it to mean that
slavery had no legal basis in England. After Somerset, many slaves in England simply walked away from their
masters. Many slaves in the American colonies who learned of this decision ran
away to look for a way to get to England.
The words of the Somerset
decision starkly contrasted with the slave laws of the American colonies that
defined slaves not as people but as property. This excerpt from the 1740 slave
law of South Carolina states the concept of slavery accepted by the southern
colonies. The law provided
that all Negroes and Indians . . .
mulattoes or mustizoes who now are, or shall hereafter be, in this Province,
and all their issue and offspring, born or to be born, shall be, and they are
hereby declared to be, and remain forever hereafter, absolute slaves, and shall
follow the condition of the mother, and shall be deemed, held, taken, reputed
and adjudged in law, to be chattels personal, in the hands of their owners and
possessors, and their executors, administrators, and assigns, to all intents,
constructions and purposes whatsoever. . . .
Thus, for example, any person with any visible African
ancestry was, by law, a slave and not a person. In these southern colonies,
there was legally no such thing as a free black (though some blacks still managed to live as free). There was no such thing as a black as
a legal person. A lawsuit like Somerset could
not have occurred in these colonies, because a slave had no right to bring a
case to court. The southern practice of slavery, and sometimes the northern
practice, remained in accordance with such laws until the end of the Civil War.
The sinister side of the American Revolution is not simply that the southern colonies needed to preserve slavery to protect their economies and way of life. It is also that the northern colonies needed to unite with the southern colonies to wage the Revolution. The northern colonies knew quite well what the southern colonies wanted and joined with them nonetheless.
What is the purpose of recognizing the dark side of the
American Revolution? First, it is important in general that people know the
truth and not be governed by myths. Second, the mythical view of America
prevents Americans from recognizing the extent to which the United States has
not, historically or today, been the world’s leader in fulfilling the concept
of human equality. Third, the mythical view of the American Revolution feeds a
nationalistic mentality that underlies the Trumpian idea of “America First.”
The nationalistic mentality thrives under Trump, but it
was not his original idea or just a Republican one. Former President Obama, for
example, said in a speech at a Democratic National Committee dinner (Oct, 6,
2010), “this country is the greatest country
on Earth,” and he expressed similar sentiments about America’s greatness in many
of his major speeches as president. Other presidents, Republican and Democrat,
have done the same.
The progressive task of advancing democracy in the United
States requires a hard look at where the country has failed and where it is
faltering. This hard look includes acknowledging that the origin of this
country depended on the need to preserve slavery in total contradiction to the
concept of human equality. In addition, the Declaration of Independence itself
referred to “merciless Indian savages.” Many debilitating contradictions remain
today. Myths about America’s greatness are blocking our view. We cannot change
what we do not see.
Sources for the letter and this post:
Alfred & Ruth
Blumrosen, Slave Nation: How Slavery United the Colonies and Sparked
the American Revolution (2005)
A. Leon Higginbotham,
Jr., In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process: The
Colonial Period (1978)
Slave laws
Generally:
South Carolina:
Virginia:
Georgia:
North Carolina:
Selected Additional Resources:
David Brion Davis, The
Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (1969)
J. Jean Hecht, Continental
and Colonial Servants in Eighteenth Century England (1954)
Winthrop Jordan, White
Over Black; American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (1969)
Betty Wood, The Origins
of American Slavery (1997)
My books and letters seek to penetrate the walls of myth
to see how things really are. Learn more about them from my website:
JohnLHodge.com .
