Professor’s Classroom
Subject: American History/Black History
February is Black History Month and I would like to write about a person that gets NO respect when it comes to history. We can teach all about Douglass and Dred Scott and Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King, Jr, and I do not want to take anything away from these important figures in the fight against slavery and champions of civil rights, but there are those people that began the fight even earlier than mentioned.
The very beginning of the history of this country was a pivotal time and it could have been a historic time in the anti-slavery movement….wait! Until 1775, there was NO anti-slavery movement. There may have been those people that thought it was a despicable practice but if they did they kept their thoughts and opinions to themselves…that is until the arrival of one Thomas Paine, who later became famous for his pamphlet, “Common Sense” which is credited for the whole independence movement.
In November of 1774 Paine arrived in the Colonies from England with a letter of introduction from Ben Franklin. He then set about acquiring work as a printer and writer. One of his first published works was an essay entitled “African Slavery In America”….in which he set about condemning the practice harshly….one of the first to do so publicly in the Colonies. History teaches us that several of the founding fathers detested the practice and even cursed it privately, but NONE did anything about it. Paine did!
Shortly after the publishing of Paine’s condemnation of slavery, the first anti-slavery society was formed in Philadelphia in the Sun Tavern on Second Street in April 1775.
Later in our history it was Abraham Lincoln that gave us the Emancipation Proclamation, but if you read Paine’s anti-slavery essay you will see that Lincoln had the second proclamation; he was not that original.
Everyone is taught that 22 September 1862, Lincoln issued the first Emancipation Proclamation and no where is the essay by Thomas Paine taught or even remembered. For without Paine the anti-slavery movement would have been longer in coming to the forefront of American society.
Once again I say that I am NOT trying to lessen or ignore any of the people and their attempts in the area of civil rights, only that everyone involved should be acknowledged and celebrated and held in high esteem for ending an institution that makes people slaves……
Good post! The people with the REAL courage are often the ones who are just small voice in the angry wilderness at the beginning of a movement such as this.
The fact is that those who still believe in the supremacy of whites are doing nothing more than following Nazi principles as demonstrated by Hitler and his gang. I’m not the biggest fan of Obama, but how DARE these “white is wonderful” jerks cast such a slur at the Dems?
It seems to me that it is perfectly reasonable to not like, or even detest, some national traits in people as well as individuals who exhibit those traits, but that doesn’t make those people any less important or any less human. When you get right down to it, there are few humans who can claim to be any better than the rest of us in any way shape or form.
Well, that’s not quite true I suppose – I do think the “shape and form” of many Spanish women is superior, but you know what I mean… 😆
Yes I do know what you mean…..the best year of my life was the 2 months I spent in Spain….
Thomas Paine…..I try to point out as much as possible…I mean not only was he the FIRST anti-slavery dude, but he was the FIRST American feminist…the first to call for a government retirement system…..one and on…..His works have been a major part of my political education….since I was 13 years old….I would like to see this man get the recognition that he deserves….without him the American Revolution would have been postponed for maybe a century…that is being generous but most of the Founding Fathers were all for reconciliation with England…Paine changed that mindset…..a great political thinker and a helluva MAN….
The people who DESERVE the recognition rarely get it – it’s usually the loud mouthed assholes that do so. Sound bite politics began long before we even had radio!
So true…but in Paine’s case he was labeled an atheist…and once that occurred he was ignored by historians as well as prominent Americans….which all was a lie…he was a deist….he believed in God just not the trappings of the church or that the Bible was the word of God…all of which did not help him….he was imprisoned in France during their revolution and asked Washington to help…he refused and Paine wrote a scathing letter about Washington and of course he was the perfect American and NO one was allowed to chastise him….Paine got screwed!