Next week is the 4th of July.
On that date in 1776, a group of wealthy Southern slave-owners, and their Northern business partners, announced to Great Britain, that they were severing their political and economic ties with it, due to certain policies and practices, the most salient being the abolition of slavery in the British colonies, following the suppression of the African slave trade; even though that reason was not mentioned in the final draft.
After the Revolutionary War, the Constitution embedded slavery as an organic part of the whole in 1789, when slaves in the South were counted 3/5s of a man--a quota--for purposes of Congressional representation.
In 1852, Frederick Douglass asked rhetorically "What is the Fourth of July to the Slave?" in an epic speech.
In 1857, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Dred Scott v. Sanford, that no blacks whether slave or free, could be citizens of the United States, and that the black man had no rights that the white man was bound to respect!
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued an Executive Order emancipating slaves in the states, or parts thereof, then in rebellion with the United States, and most importantly, his action enabled the enlistment of able-bodied freedmen into the armed forces of the United States, out of military necessity.
The ensuing, now-"Freedom War," as the slaves named it, refuted that racist judicial rubric with artillery shells, rifle fire and bayonet thrusts that commanded "respect" for black people and for their black troops, 200,000 strong, whose gallantry secured their own freedom and saved the Union from dissolution!
So, while the 4th of July is a white holiday, the black Independence Day is April 9, 1865, when Lee surrendered to Grant, ending the slavery, and the Civil War! We celebrate that date as the "African American Passover," here in western Missouri, by praising God for deliverance.
Next week is the 4th of July.
On that date in 1776, a group of wealthy Southern slave-owners, and their Northern business partners, announced to Great Britain, that they were severing their political and economic ties with it, due to certain policies and practices, the most salient being the abolition of slavery in the British colonies, following the suppression of the African slave trade; even though that reason was not mentioned in the final draft.
After the Revolutionary War, the Constitution embedded slavery as an organic part of the whole in 1789, when slaves in the South were counted 3/5s of a man--a quota--for purposes of Congressional representation.
In 1852, Frederick Douglass asked rhetorically "What is the Fourth of July to the Slave?" in an epic speech.
In 1857, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Dred Scott v. Sanford, that no blacks whether slave or free, could be citizens of the United States, and that the black man had no rights that the white man was bound to respect!
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued an Executive Order emancipating slaves in the states, or parts thereof, then in rebellion with the United States, and most importantly, his action enabled the enlistment of able-bodied freedmen into the armed forces of the United States, out of military necessity.
The ensuing, now-"Freedom War," as the slaves named it, refuted that racist judicial rubric with artillery shells, rifle fire and bayonet thrusts that commanded "respect" for black people and for their black troops, 200,000 strong, whose gallantry secured their own freedom and saved the Union from dissolution!
So, while the 4th of July is a white holiday, the black Independence Day is April 9, 1865, when Lee surrendered to Grant, ending the slavery, and the Civil War! We celebrate that date as the "African American Passover," here in western Missouri, by praising God for deliverance.
