What Benefit Is There in Defending Men Who Owned Slaves?
By: Walter Rhein
Tags: Slavery, BlackLivesMatter, Racism, Politics, Truth

What Benefit Is There in Defending Men Who Owned Slaves?

False narratives only serve to control us

Photo by michael schaffler on Unsplash

We live in a society that is never hesitant to criticize. Young people are often mercilessly attacked in the media even though they haven’t lived long enough to make any detrimental impact on our nation. In fact, Millennials make up the majority of active duty members of the military. But despite the fact that all things related to national defense are generally beyond reproach, the whole generation of young people is constantly disparaged.

Meanwhile, it’s impossible to have an intellectual debate regarding the atrocities of the true villains of history without encountering massive opposition. The fact that educated people feel an instinctive need to object when you point out the immoral actions of revered historical figures only serves to underscore the psychological impact of institutionalized racism.

There is no justification for the United States to continue to print the likenesses of slave owners on our national currency. At best, any glorification of slave owners only serves to erode our collective understanding of the true horrors of the institution, and at worst it serves as a tacit endorsement of racist thinking. If we are to make further progress towards collective enlightenment, we must recognize rather than deny the atrocities that contributed to the fundamental structure of our nation’s development.

Occam’s razor

One of the basic tactics employed by manipulative people is to pretend a situation is more complicated than it actually is. They attempt to browbeat you with claims of their superior intelligence, their greater experience, or any other of a number of irrelevant factors they use as leverage in an effort to prove your opinion means less than theirs.

However, the moment you sense a person requires an inordinate amount of time to make what should otherwise amount to a simple point, you should start to suspect that they are being disingenuous. Manufactured complexities are often a sign of deception.

Occam’s razor is a philosophical principle that states the simplest explanation is usually the best one — Dictonary.com

A basic example of Occam’s razor is as follows:

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, says Occam’s razor, it’s probably a duck. Not a goose disguised as a duck that infiltrated the flock. Sure, that hypothetical exists. We can’t 100% rule out that it didn’t happen. But c’mon. It’s a duck — Dictonary.com

It seems like a rational person could never be convinced to accept that a duck is a goose in disguise, but it’s the important not to dismiss the power of the underhanded tactics at play. All accepted narratives are to the benefit of some group, and if you attempt to unravel these narratives, you will be subjected to viscous assaults. It’s important to stand fast in the face of hostility.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four — George Orwell, 1984, p77.

The facts are indisputable

In the United States the Founding Fathers hold a status of unquestionable reverence that is incompatible with a philosophy of sincere intellectual advancement. The simple fact is that Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and many others, were responsible for unforgivable atrocities that came as a result of their status as slave owners.

However, our society is inclined to do more than just disregard these abhorrent behaviors. When you bring forth an honest account of the acts of evil these men committed, you will be subjected to lengthy and convoluted arguments that are inherently as absurd as a demand that you must not assume a duck is a duck without considering it might be a goose in disguise.

The whole point of the discussion is to create a distraction from the fundamental reality that Washington pulled teeth from the heads of his living slaves, and Thomas Jefferson repeatedly raped a black child whom he kept captive throughout her entire life.

Hostile responses

I’ve written on both of these topics and it’s terrifying to witness the kind of bizarre responses that people are willing to post publicly on the internet attributed to their own name. The most common emotion you encounter is blatant defiance. Many Americans simply refuse to recognize the truth about our Founding Fathers and act as if you have committed some egregious error by simply posing an intellectual argument, based on fact, that contradicts their whitewashed interpretation.

The most common response, in regard to Jefferson and Sally Hemings, is to regurgitate the commonly believed narrative that their relationship was some kind of grand romance. The same individuals that will claim that there is no “evidence” that the relationship was abusive, are willing to believe this idealistic interpretation without hesitation.

The fact that we don’t have any writing from Hemings detailing the relationship is exactly the point. She was a slave, and therefore not allowed any agency throughout her whole life. History has been robbed of her voice, through the actions of Thomas Jefferson. Therefore, it’s inappropriate to believe only one side of the story. It is exactly because we lack facts that we must discuss the possibility that her life with him was a never ending torment.

Have some respect for the victims

It’s amazing to read responses that defend Jefferson and are completely tone deaf about their own complete dismissal of the potential suffering of innocent, oppressed victims. Their only concern is to defend the revered status of Jefferson, and they’re willing to trample over the basic humanity of slaves to do so. The minds of the people that propagate these narratives are completely shut. They see the victims as irrelevant non-humans, and it’s abhorrent.

Some individuals who object to discussing the dark truth about Jefferson write me privately, which is also revealing. If these people want to compose long-winded defenses of why they think it’s acceptable for a 44 year old man to have a sexual relationship with a 14 year old girl that he owned as property, then they should publish these statements publicly and sign them with their name. Personally, I’d prefer to have my name on an argument that such a relationship is in all instances an unspeakable act of abuse.

The people that defend such behavior are, in a very real sense, brainwashed. They simply do not want to pull back the curtain and gaze upon the horrible reality. When you push them on it, they have a wide variety of psychological justifications for not doing so. They’ll tell you that they have read extensively on the subject, that they have greater experience than you, that we should view the people of the past within the context of their era. But the simplest explanation of their actions is that they have simply trained themselves to denounce evidence that does not conform to their pre-conceived belief.

Expect hostility whenever you speak truth to power

Sometimes the most important argument you can make is the one you expect to be met with hostility. Human beings do not like to have their preconceptions challenged. Recognizing the truth about slave owning Founding Fathers, and slavery as an institution in our nation, disproves a tremendous amount of what we have been told to think about our country.

There is an inherent danger in believing things that are fundamentally untrue. When your thought process is flawed, you are less capable of influencing the world. It can be painful to abandon an idyllic impression of the world and our history, but in the end, doing so provides you with a greater capacity to build a better future.

The current state of discourse in the United States is irresponsibly infantile, and our tolerance of this attitude contributes to social unrest and violence. It’s time to dismantle the mechanisms that have been constructed to prevent us from perceiving our current and past realities. The fight against institutionalized racism must include an insistence that absurd, and clearly false narratives designed to sugar-coat the past in order to protect the villains of history at the expense of the victims cannot be tolerated.

In the end, we have to have a commitment to truth, even if it requires the sacrifice of the people we’ve been conditioned to perceive as heroes.