But, to possess it, they had to dispossess the original inhabitants. Even black people who decried the veneration of Jackson in the annual Springtime Tallahassee celebrations must acknowledge that slavers had help, black help, as they herded our ancestors off for the voyage to the New World. But equally wrong are those who cling to the old-fashioned history that makes Jackson some sort of a warrior saint or Christian soldier. That's not the Jackson we knew, said conservative voices, as evidence of his wrongdoing was cited. But such a blind defense only showed how well many of us have been victimized by bad, incomplete history.
Victors write history.
Losers have no option but to walk, if they survive, while winners take all, even the official memory of conflict. For years we all learned of Jackson the patriot, the man whose will secured for us the Southeast, and whose passion broke open the closing circle of national government. And Springtime Tallahassee organizers showed maturity in coming to understand that a full telling of history merits a reconsideration of Jackson's exalted status. The same faults that color the interpretation of Andrew Jackson fuel the debate over whether the time of celebrations of things black has outlived its usefulness. In what may be a controversial decision, I asked black staffers at the Democrat their views.