Our Nation Divided

 Coming to terms with America’s original sin of genocide and slavery

Why is our nation so divided, split in half, as it were? Some cannot understand why almost half the country cannot see the evils of racism and bigotry. Others cannot understand why some people don’t have the common sense to keep things the way they are. Why don’t those people want to live up to our ideals? Why are these people tearing at the fabric of our society? 

The problem may be intrinsic to our system. Our founding fathers were white men of European descent who said, “Let’s build a great country based upon the noble ideals of justice, liberty, freedom, and democracy. All we need to do is to displace the native population and use the labors of enslaved black people of African descent to build our shining city set upon a hill. And God be with us.” 

They didn’t hear the cries of “God help us,” from the brown people being driven from their native lands. They didn’t listen to the pleas of “Have mercy” on the lips of the black people under the whip of progress. Today, we are living in a time of increased political polarization. We are faced with our own cries of God help us and Lord, have mercy.

Did the nation’s conflicted beginnings bring us to our current dilemma? We need not forsake our truly noble ideals, but we must acknowledge the evil fires that forged our nation. While privileged school children have been taught about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and about how "we the people" came together "to form a more perfect union," black, brown, and Native American children have been systematically excluded from that grand vision.     

Is it any wonder that we find ourselves facing such conflict? We have promoted democratic ideals and humanitarian values while standing upon a legacy of genocide and slavery. Given such a tangled history, pat answers and motivational speeches will probably not get us through. Facing the questions, along with some difficult work, may help us to move forward. 

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Image: "Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention" at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Artist: Junius Brutus Sterns
Medium: Oil on canvas

Date: 1856

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The Fifth Station of the Cross: Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross

                                 [The following is from a series first posted during Lent in 2015.]


< The Fourth Station of the Cross                                                                                The Sixth Station of the Cross >

Soldiers force Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross

A wood engraving of handcuffed and shackled slaves passing the U.S. Capitol

According to tradition, Simon of Cyrene was a black man ordered by Roman soldiers to help Jesus carry the cross. In the United States, our own Empire was built in large part upon the backs of African slaves, forced to carry the burden inflicted by Empire. It is a blight we cannot erase, but slavery has been a common tool of Empire throughout the ages.  

Twelve American presidents owned slaves and eight of them, starting with Washington, owned slaves while in office. Almost from the very start, slaves were a common sight in the executive mansion. A list of construction workers building the White House in 1795 includes five slaves - named Tom, Peter, Ben, Harry and Daniel -- all put to work as carpenters. Other slaves worked as masons in the government quarries, cutting the stone for early government buildings, including the White House and U.S. Capitol. According to records kept by the White House Historical Association, slaves often worked seven days a week -- even in the hot and humid Washington summers. (From "Slaves Built the White House and Capitol" at Afrocentric Culture by Design)

We still struggle to overcome the inertia of slavery as we wrestle and argue over voting rights, racial profiling, and prejudicial hiring practices.

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America's Roots: Why America Needs a Slavery Museum

“It’s Not Just Black History, It’s National History”

The Whitney Plantation was originally owned by a German immigrant family called the Haydels and run by the slaves they owned, but it now belongs to John Cummings, a successful trial attorney and white southerner in his late 70s who has spent 16 years and more than $8 million of his own fortune on the project. Cummins and Ibrahima Seck, director of research, want to educate people about the realities of slavery, its history and its impact on the country today.

“The history of this country is rooted in slavery,” says Seck. “If you don’t understand the source of the problem, how can you solve it?”

This beautifully filmed video from The Atlantic provides a glimpse into the history of the Whitney Plantation and its mission. (Introduction from the Aleteia website)

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America's Roots: The Whitney Plantation Museum

CBS This Morning takes a look at the Whitney Plantation and how it confronts a painful aspect of American history

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America's Roots: The Imperfect Thomas Jefferson

The following video, just under ten minutes long, was aired on CBS Sunday Morning in a segment titled, "The Duality of Thomas Jefferson." It examines Jefferson the progressive thinker and writer of the Declaration of Independence juxtaposed to Jefferson the plantation owner and slaveholder.  You can view it at their YourTube site at https://youtu.be/bzZnqXvRSLE.

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Our American Roots: Embracing the Paradox

Captain John Smith's 1612 map of the Colony of Virginia offered the first detailed map of the Chesapeake Region 

Dr. Barry Whittemore, Professor of History, Anthropology, and Philosophy at the University of North Georgia and Unitarian Universalist minister made the following statement which succinctly captures the essence of our American roots:

“400 years ago today two English privateers traded a captured cargo (20-30) of Africans for provisions in the colony of Virginia, launching us down the road to slavery. Less than three weeks earlier the House of Burgesses met for the first time in Jamestown, launching us up the road toward representative democracy.

“We are a people of paradox. What is good in our nation and what is evil in our nation are 400 years old. We tend to extoll the virtues of one and sweep the other under the rug. Both must be held to the light and dealt with before we can be whole. Never speak of one without remembering the other. Embrace the paradox.”

The privateer ships in question were the White Lion and the Treasurer. They delivered the first Africans to these American shores and thus began our foundational move toward slavery. It took a tragic war to free ourselves from the bondage of such beginnings, and we are still emerging from that history.

A Time for Healing

Today, bells will be ringing to commemorate a National Day of Healing as we mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first slaves to the American colonies. A statement issued by the National Parks Service offers hope for healing and reconciliation:

August 25, 2019 is the 400th anniversary of the first landing of enslaved Africans in English-occupied North America at Point Comfort in Hampton, Virginia, now part of Fort Monroe National Monument, a unit of the National Park System. 

The anniversary will be commemorated at Fort Monroe as a day of healing and reconciliation. The park and its partners are inviting all 419 national parks, NPS programs, community partners, and the public to come together in solidarity to ring bells simultaneously across the nation for four minutes—one for each century—to honor the first Africans who landed in 1619 at Point Comfort and 400 years of African American history.

Detail from John Smith's map of Virginia showing Point Comfort

Each day this week, Not Dark Yet will feature some shared insights in marking 400 years of African American history.



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The Fifth Station of the Cross: Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross

                                 [The following is from a series first posted during Lent in 2015.]


< The Fourth Station of the Cross                                                                                The Sixth Station of the Cross >

Soldiers force Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross

A wood engraving of handcuffed and shackled slaves passing the U.S. Capitol

According to tradition, Simon of Cyrene was a black man ordered by Roman soldiers to help Jesus carry the cross. In the United States, our own Empire was built in large part upon the backs of African slaves, forced to carry the burden inflicted by Empire. It is a blight we cannot erase, but slavery has been a common tool of Empire throughout the ages.  

Twelve American presidents owned slaves and eight of them, starting with Washington, owned slaves while in office. Almost from the very start, slaves were a common sight in the executive mansion. A list of construction workers building the White House in 1795 includes five slaves - named Tom, Peter, Ben, Harry and Daniel -- all put to work as carpenters. Other slaves worked as masons in the government quarries, cutting the stone for early government buildings, including the White House and U.S. Capitol. According to records kept by the White House Historical Association, slaves often worked seven days a week -- even in the hot and humid Washington summers. (From "Slaves Built the White House and Capitol" at Afrocentric Culture by Design)

We still struggle to overcome the inertia of slavery as we wrestle and argue over voting rights, racial profiling, and prejudicial hiring practices.

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The Fifth Station of the Cross: Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross

< The Fourth Station of the Cross                                                                                The Fifth Station of the Cross >

Soldiers force Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross

A wood engraving of handcuffed and shackled slaves passing the U.S. Capitol

According to tradition, Simon of Cyrene was a black man ordered by Roman soldiers to help Jesus carry the cross. In the United States, our own Empire was built in large part upon the backs of African slaves, forced to carry the burden inflicted by Empire. It is a blight we cannot erase, but slavery has been a common tool of Empire throughout the ages.  

Twelve American presidents owned slaves and eight of them, starting with Washington, owned slaves while in office. Almost from the very start, slaves were a common sight in the executive mansion. A list of construction workers building the White House in 1795 includes five slaves - named Tom, Peter, Ben, Harry and Daniel -- all put to work as carpenters. Other slaves worked as masons in the government quarries, cutting the stone for early government buildings, including the White House and U.S. Capitol. According to records kept by the White House Historical Association, slaves often worked seven days a week -- even in the hot and humid Washington summers. (From "Slaves Built the White House and Capitol" at Afrocentric Culture by Design)

We still struggle to overcome the inertia of slavery as we wrestle and argue over voting rights, racial profiling, and prejudicial hiring practices.

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