The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America Well after 1776, it remained striking that white supremacists were quite clear and precise as to the identity of the bête noire . For example, it has become veritable folkloric that in order to escape successfully the pincers of Jim Crow, Africans with deep roots in the U.S. often began speaking in French or Spanish so as to escape the damning accusation that they were descendants of mainland slaves, a group not notorious in its celebration of 1776 and quite willing to align with the republics foes in London thereafter . Though historians have pointed in various directions in seeking to explicate what has befallen Africans on the mainland , it is difficult to ignore the point that one central reason for this awful persecution has been the simple fact that this besieged group had their own ideas about the configuration of North America and that their conceptions often involved collaboration with the antagonists of Euro-American elites (be they indigenes , Madrid, or ultimately London). The Negro dalliance with London was then followed by various relationships with Mexico City, Tokyo, New Delhi, and Moscow , in a repetitive pattern of seeking leverage abroad to overcome the rapacity at home. However, it was not until the 1950s that Washington came to realize that, perhaps, easing racist oppression at home might serve to foil such dangerous diplomatic alliances--until then, such relations served partially to provide further grist for the oppressive mill. Nevertheless, today the continuing invidious discrimination that undermines descendants of Africans on the mainland stems in no small part from their historically consistent and staunch opposition to the capacious plans of slaveholding rebel--then republican--elites, which too often targeted these very same Africans. P. 21-22, Introduction THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION OF 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origin of the United States, by Gerald Horne (NYU Press, NY: 2014)
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 11:57:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015