This was a difficult but important book to read. The legacy of slavery and racism on our society is both overt and subtle. Much of it is ignored and glossed over but some people are trying to integrate a more historically accurate interpretation into our institutions and lives.
The first part of the book takes place at the farm/plantation of the founding father Thomas Jefferson. The reality is that slavery was a big part of all the founding fathers life and business, but Jefferson has some especially egregious behavior. He split families, tortured slaves and even had six (!) children with a slave that was his wife’s half sister! The estate is trying very hard to integrate this lesser told story into the traditional story and it is a difficult task. How can the misery and suffering of the slaves be reconciled with the fact that they allowed him to do his incredibly important work?
This plantation is an independent project of a wealthy retired businessman to preserve the stories of the slaves that sustained it. It is incredible work that I am glad is being done. The reality of our history needs to be preserved and integrated, it cannot be ignored and buried. I hope to be able to visit this important contribution.
Angola is a maximum security prison in Louisiana that is filled with black men preforming forced labour for cents on the hour. It is modern day slavery and it highlights the corruption of the justice system as an overt means of continuing slavery. All talk of reconciliation is empty as long as this practice continues. This section was so infuriating.
The actual events of Juneteenth were fascinating to me. The end of slavery in the South after the Civil War was a messy crazy process. I was not aware that plans to give slaves plots of land was rejected last moment. How different things might be today if it had happened.
The legacy of slavery in Manhattan is also something not talked about often. The economics of slavery were embedded throughout all of states and New York was no exception. Just because it was on the “winning” side doesn’t mean that it doesn’t bare any responsibility.
The Blackford cemetery is a Confederate cemetery and it is a focal point for Confederate culture. Is it possible to honor the soldiers without getting tangled in their implicit support of slavery? Is it possible to celebrate a culture when that culture justified a war to maintain slavery? It is a similar situation to post war Germany where everyone has to grapple with the fact that normal people enabled the slaughter of millions of people. What I experienced is that Germans have reframed the teaching of the history in terms of “Never Again”, i.e. we must teach this to ensure that it can never happen again. Unfortunately I don’t see this kind of hard work being done in the US.
I don’t think we will be able to address the legacy of slavery and racism without a clear acknowledgment and acceptance of the past. I really appreciated the way this book presented the historical blind spots of US history. Highly recommended.