Jesse Jackson, in a speech on Wednesday, declared that
New York’s financial district was built on an “African burial ground” and
achieved prosperity “on the backs of African people.”
…Jackson compared opposition to slave reparations to
denying the holocaust.
Not thinking a policy is right or prudent is the same as denying a historical
event?
…Jackson also claimed that the influx of immigrants to
America during the late 19th century stemmed from government handouts. “People
didn’t come here looking for religious freedom; people came here looking for 100
free acres, the right to kill an Indian, and free labor.” [Full Story]
He’s complaining about government handouts? That’s pretty ironic. I guess if
the Irish would have shaken down companies to include more of them on their
boards that it would have been more seeking of his approval. I am sure that
during the potato famine in Ireland that as soon as they found out they would
have the right to kill an Indian that that was drove Irish immigration. Starving
and not being able to practice their religion in the open had nothing to do with
it all. Free Labor? Slavery isn’t exactly free labor, but wasn’t it already
abolished in the late 19th century? I am no history expert but was 100 free
acres still a promise at this time during history?
The idea of the wealth of the US being founded on slavery is a modern myth.
If you compared the North and the South during that period the North was a lot
wealthier and their wealth wasn’t dependent on the South. I think an argument
could be made that relying on slavery probably hurt the South. After slavery was
ended the South didn’t stop being an agrarian culture, but actually over time
became more productive. The South relying on slave labor instead of
industrializing their economy didn’t make the south richer and slavery actually
became a crutch that weighed them down financially and morally. So this idea of
Wall Street being built on an “African burial ground” is just more of the
unjustified rhetoric that Jesse Jackson spews forth.
