Rewriting History, Conservatively

WHERE, but in Florida? Except maybe Texas. Republican far right delusional extremists, emboldened, are again on the attack. Public school teahers are now requuied to teach their students that enslaved African-American were taught skills which contributed to their potential success after emancipation. Already they (teachers) are required to omit mentioning that racism still exists in these United States, so,why not complete the fictional rewriting of history and contemporary America? Let us stipulate, for the sake of fictional fantasy, that AFricans came to the Unitd States voluntarily, having spent ther life savings to pay for the passage, eager to work for European-Americans as volunteers. That they danced with joy beneath a benevolent sun and master's attentive eye, planting anf reaping for the sheer fun of it,celebrating their good fortune. that they eagerly converted to the true Christian faith of their generous, loving masters, enthusiastically abandoning all vestiges of their primitive, barbaric African culture, eagerly exchanging their own music for gospel songs. And of coure, following the change in the labor laws after the "war between the states, African-Americans cheerfully embraced their new social status, found gainful employment in an atmosphere of racial harmony and equality, and blended into white American culture seemlessly welcomed by whites as brothers and equals, a situation which endures to this day, praise the lord. There is a grain, a tiny grain, of truth to what is otherwise essentially nonsense. Thomas Jefferson had a nail factory atMonticello, and slave labor hammered out nails. Jefferson's lenient tretment of is hundreds of slaves was overwhelmingly the exception, not the rule. The ooe usable skill slaves were taught on antr-bellumplantations was how to pick cotton and tobacco in the hot sun from dawn to dusk, with the whip waiting to dole out punishment to anyone who worked too slowly, or with coplaint. The whip was used so often tha the term "cracker" emerged to describe whie folk generally, and isused todaay, butnot in mixed company. On one occasion Jefferson personally whipped a recalcitrant slave, and reported that the experience disgusted him. George Washington, ever the fastidious organizer, adorned his slaves in uniforms of overalls and straw hats, but didn't have Jefferson's industrial ingenuity; no nail factory was to be seen at Mt. Vernon. Pointing out that slaves were taught marketable skills, and acting as if this was commonly done, that is even remotely justifies slavery, is like remarking that coal miners are given water breaks, and see sunlight on weekends. I recall being taught in school that conditions on plantations for slaves were no worse than those of white factory workers in nineteenth century New England, which says more about the industrial revolution and its brutality towards laborers than it does about any fictitiious benevolence of the slave system. I was also taught that the Civil War was fought over "state's rights", which is to say, the right of the state's white masters to own slaves. That minor detail was not mentioned. Next thing you know, children in conservative America will be taught that Martin Luther King's complaints were mere minor details, and that late twentieth century African-Americans congregated in inner city ghettos by choice.