On Feb. 9, a member of Congress took an important step in attempting to educate the nation about an important slice of history relative to the White House. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) sent a letter to President Barack Obama to suggesting that the latter find a way to commemorate those enslaved individuals who helped to build the White House.
The letter stated, in part, "An acknowledgement of the role of slave labor displayed in the White House would be an important symbol that the United States does not run from its history, but rather learns from it." The White House, of course, is an important icon of the nation's identity but embodies one of its most long-standing contradiction: a revolution against tyranny that maintain (and expanded) the enslavement of millions.
According to the White House website, in the last two years alone, there were 1.5 million individuals who visited the White House. None of those visitors would necessarily know that 12 U.S. presidents were slaveholders and seven of them had slaves in the building we now call the White House which opened in 1801. There is no mention of these facts either in White House tourist brochures or any other documents given to visitors.
George Washington is not included in this scenario because he and nine of his slaves spent his presidency in Philadelphia. Ironically, a plaque does exist recognizing those nine individuals which is part of the new pavilion in Philadelphia that houses the Liberty Bell. The pavilion is built over the site and specifically the slave quarters where Washington lived as president. It took a decade of protests, lawsuits, and grassroots activism to finally get the National Park Service to include the plaque which it initially refused to do.
Plaques also exist that acknowledge the slaves who helped to build the U.S. Capitol, many of whom also worked on the White House. In June 2010, Congress dedicated two plaques in "Emancipation Hall" at the Congressional Visitor's Center. The plaques state, "This original exterior wall was constructed between 1793 and 1800 of sandstone quarried by laborers, including enslaved African Americans who were an important part of the work force that built the United States Capitol."
As noted, many of these individuals built the White House between 1790 and 1800. This included unskilled as well as skilled labor. For example, there were at least five black carpenters -- Peter, Ben, Daniel, Harry, and Tom -- who worked on both structures. Slave labor also cut down trees, made bricks, cleared the land, and performed many, many other tasks all without pay, adequate food, or basic health care.
A public plaque or some other display would, in part, complete the circle of owning the history of presidents, Congress, and slavery. While there are hundreds of memorials, plaques, and other means that present a false narrative of American history, there are too few that genuinely tell the more complicated and often harsh reality that many faced as U.S. democracy unfolded.
As Rep. Ackerman notes in his letter, "I urge you to take steps to have an appropriate representation acknowledging the role of slave labor in constructing the White House in an area of public viewing."
The constant whinning and repartition is tiring. Slavery was LEGAL in this country....however horrible that was it is the truth...
Native Americans suffer from horrible rates of disease, incest, drug addiction, alcoholism, suicides, etc., and they focus on the monikers of sports teams.
Blacks experience insane abortion rates, children out of wedlock, black-on-black crime, poor educational progress, drug addiction, incarceration rates, etc., and they want to focus on slaves building the White House.
OK, slaves built the White House, NOW WHAT?
The Democratic Party's web site today identifies that their Party started with the Civil Rights Battles of 1960's but the Democratic Party is the oldest of the two Political Parties. Ken Mehman as head of the Republican Party appologized for the Republican Party and its weak Presidents that allowed the Democratic South to harrass Blacks after the Civil War in 2003 but the Democratic Party has never appologized for anything. Maybe you can write to get President Obama to offer the excuse..
Now you have the answer to your question
Prior to the civil rights era, Southern whites were primarily Democrats, because the Republican party was the party of Lincoln. But when the Democratic party supported civil rights legislation in the 1960s, Southern whites started abandoning the Democratic party in droves. The Republican party became the new home to those Southern whites and their ideological descendants.
It was always a case of racist Southerners, not racist Democrats. And now the Republican party is the home of such people. The Republican party hasn't been the party of Lincoln for a long time.
Today the Democratic Party has been taken over by liberals who feel that they are more enlightened and better than everyone capitalizing on the same racist mindset that sustained them in the old South. Democratic Racism has been changed to Democratic Liberalism. Why are you carrying their water??
When George Washington became president, the nation's capital was located in NY, New York, a state which had not yet abolished slavery (Rep. Ackerman's own state leg. would not abolish slavery until 1799, but only for the children of slaves born after that date. The enslaved adults would have to wait for as many as 28 more years but must be free by 1827).
So I think the honourable gentleman from NY should begin his own re-election campaign with a very public acknowledgement of his state's recalcitrance on the issue of slavery. And the Washingtons did free *some" slaves before moving to NY.
When the capital was transferred to Philadelphia the Washingtons had a legal problem because the more enlightened state of Penn. (than Rep. Ackerman's) had passed a law by which slaves brought into the state became free after six months of residence. Since most of the household's slaves were Martha's, they would have had to compensate the Custis heirs if he freed them. So to make a long story short, they shuttled them back and forth from Phil. to Mt. Vernon.
IMHO the Rep. is putting the suicide squeeze on the Prez at the most opportune moment instead of getting his own (state) house in order first.
I hope this gets posted.
No because he said Americans paying taxes to Britain would be tantamount to being Slaves to them.He fully understood what Slavery was and the effects of enslaving other humans. He and others rationalized Slavery by deem Blacks non human,so it was acceptable to enslave them according to him and all other Slave holders and majority White Americans at the time.
hes still my favorite president.
Circumstances, ignorance, and greed all play their parts in the horrors of life, while hopes, knowledge and compassion do the same for our greatest achievements ... and that will never change. Fair and balanced recognition of both should be our goal.
This nation was not only founded on slavery, but also genocide.
And we're still perpetuating it.