Letter: Wounds of racism, slavery far from healed
Wounds of racism, slavery far from healed
We have a problem with racism in this country. The killings of unarmed African Americans by police, the killing of nine African Americans in a church in South Carolina, the controversy of flying the Confederate flag on public property in the South and the reaction to the election of an African American as president, have underscored the racial divide.
The country was born with the twin problems of racism and slavery. Slavery in the United States dates to the 1600s. The U.S. constitution mentions slaves in several of its clauses. The southern states would not have entered the union without some protection of slavery in the constitution — the South’s economy was based on slavery and slave labor.
Some would like rewrite American history and paper over the problem of slavery by using misinformation or euphemisms: i.e. the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery; its corollary, the Civil War was fought over (some vague) issues of “states rights”; or even that slavery wasn’t so bad for the slaves.
There is no doubt that concerns over slavery were the prime cause southern secession. Just read through their Declarations.
Here is Mississippi’s Declaration, 1861, second paragraph:
“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization.”
The problem persists, more than a century after the Civil War.
R. E. Heubel