The events that occurred in Charlottesville in the past few weeks have been all over the news, all over our social media feeds, and polluting our hearts. These acts of hatred and bigotry were so disgusting that I didn’t expect anyone to defend them. But, this is America, and to my distaste, people did.
“They’re trying to steal our history!”
“The Civil War made America what it is today!” (And you’re proud of that?)
“We need to remember the Civil War so that history doesn’t repeat itself!”
Yes, Bob, clearly we’ve learned a lot from the Civil War.
I agree history is important. And even more, American history is important. And it’s important that we learn about where we come from so we don’t return to that sort of behavior again. So let’s talk about history.
Why did the Civil War begin? Oh yes, it’s that magic word: slavery. The Civil War began because our president got sick of that slavery bullshit. Let’s not forget that he was also shot because he believed in equal rights. He had the nerve to try to abolish slavery. Oh, Abraham Lincoln, that silly bastard.
Webster’s dictionary defines slavery as “Submission to a dominating influence”. I find that funny. Because slavery is, as white supremacists like to say, a part of history. But let’s double check our history books, kids.
Our history briefly tells us about the struggle that slaves endured while they were owned by Americans. Nothing in our books will mention the brutality, the abuse, the rape, and the murder. They won’t describe the beatings that slaves received (beatings that made them bleed, cry, moan in pain, and sometimes die). They will never talk about slave owners cheating on their wives with the young female slaves, and let’s never pretend that the sex they were having was consensual. People today won’t talk about the working conditions, the heat, little to no food that slaves were given, or the fact that thousands of them were separated from their families from a young age.
And why don’t we talk about that? Yeah, let’s talk about how the acts of slave owners were eerily similar to those of Nazis. Let’s discuss what side our state was on. Let’s have a group chat about WHY this happened: because their skin was dark and they were different from us.
It’s so easy to say, “Why are they still mad at me? I didn’t ever own a slave! I can’t help what my ancestors did or the choices that they made!”
Well, guess what? Just like you, they believe in history. The Confederacy was a big part of American history. So was the Union. Whether we want to admit it or not, so was slavery. We cannot forget it. We cannot ignore it. We can’t write it off as something different in our history books.
Our families were a part of slavery, and that’s not something that I’m proud of.
Slaves were a part of slavery. Their treatment, conditions, and deaths are on the hands of Americans who lived before us, and that’s not something that anyone should try to erase.