Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
MERRY CHRISTMAS
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Posted byLcoleDecember 24, 2019Posted inUncategorized
The seasonal respite of Christmas-New Year’s to our virtuous enslaved forbears meant post-harvest family reunions, blessed spiritual renewal, athletic competitions, male-female courtships, marriages, recreation, strong drinks and good eats , much-needed rest, escapes from chains.
Each met it as he or she found it. Each were descendants of Africans who had not only, not “offended”, their captors, oppressors, enslavers, as affirmed by the “Declaration of Independence “; but, each had by their free labor, their prepossessing skills, personal integrity, intellect, enriched exponentially the raw wildernesses of North America into global economic powerhouses and into the earth’s foremost of nations!
They identified with the life of Jesus Christ . Like Him, they too had been born in a “manger” to lowly black persons deemed chattel like: horses, cattle, sheep, by white philosophical permutations, law, national custom.
Like the Savior, their paternity was naturally, genealogically uncertain; but whoever their inseminator may have been, they all were surely born of the Holy Spirit as He had been in Bethlehem centuries before!
Born in North American English colonies who were always fighting , struggling for national sovereignty against claims of French, Spanish, themselves for possession of various Indian nations’ native lands, the Africans were instrumental in these wars, every war, against all claimants, including the Indians’.
The Africans explored the continent with Lewis and Clark in the person of Clark’s servant, York. After York, James P. Beckwourth, of white father/slave mother blazed trails across the great plains, through the distant Rocky Mountains, one bears his name. Jim Beckwourth’s vivid frontiersman’s 1855 autobiography details how he traded, trapped, scouted, hunted , fought, translated, and even became a Chief among the Crows with wives for decades .
The Civil War’s true account now shows how 200,000 black soldiers and sailors fought to preserve the Union from self-destruction in a struggle to determine whether their enslavement would be extended to new lands, territory acquired from France, after its defeat by “Haiti” in 1804, under Toussaint L’overture and Jean Jacques Dessalines, both former slaves of Saint Dominique .
Not only did the forbears preserve the Union in their “Freedom War” , they transformed it philosophically by causing its Constitution’s amending with the 13-14th Amends, granting legal freedom from slavery and citizenship in the nation and state of their birth ; followed by the 15th Amendment right to vote in federal elections (which sounds redundant, given earlier citizenship, but was germane to retrenchment of white supremacy doctrine and doggerel after the Civil War when the unredeemed, unreconstructed United States Supreme Court restored legitimacy to white murders, trickery, legal blasphemy).
So, what was gained by forbears was largely lost as crucified “Jesus Christ” hung on the cross with thousands of other inoffensive , virtuous men , women, children , who were lynched by Rome, now killed by transmogrified America.
But as He rose, so also, we rose! and do still rise to say ‘Merry Christmas’ to you and yours wherever you are!