Some folks are making a big deal out of this being the anniversary of Patrick Henry’s liberty of death framed address at a
(Photo: wikipedia)
March 23, 1775 meeting of some powerful Virginians considering revolutionary action. The traditional view is that it helped to get the Virginia House of Burgesses to support sending Virginia soldiers to the Revolutionary War. Henry gave his speech to urge white Virginians to fight the British. This is a portion of his speech that was preserved, including a lot kept out of traditional history books, for obvious reasons (quoted and discussed more here):
For my own part I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. . . . And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House? . . . Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? . . . Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? . . . They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. . . . If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! . . . There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! . . . Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? . . . I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
Assuming this version of his speech is roughly accurate (it was first printed by his biographer only in 1817, from recollections not notes), we see much that supports the idea that Henry was a leading “radical” in the American revolution, one willing to give his life for freedom. He asserted such views in speeches and letters and was later a strong supporter of adding the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. Yet, there is also much irony. Henry counterposes “freedom” to “slavery” and repeatedly uses the metaphor of “slavery and chains” to describe conditions of white colonists. Yet, at this point in his life, the “freedom loving” Henry had been a major slaveholder for many years, and he left some 65 African Americans firmly enslaved at his death. Clearly, the white founders’ frequent references to their own “enslavement” reveal how central African American slavery was to the colonial society and to many whites’ deep and defensive framing of the racially oppressive society they maintained and greatly profited from. It permeated their everyday thinking in many ways, indeed. In their minds, somehow, they could see their oppression as “slavery” but not the real slavery they imposed on others….. Will we ever tell the truth to our children and most of the rest of our society about our slaveholding founders?
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“Will we ever tell the truth to our children and most of the rest of our society about our slaveholding founders?”
We do. They owned slaves. Most people are aware of that, public schools as a matter of routine make mention of it, and it doesn’t effect most Americans’ opinion one way or the other, which is appropriate. The real question is this: when will you “anti-racism” types ever be truthful about your motives? You consider the founders of my country villains, and the people of my country (Americans) enemies. You wish to strip us of our history and our connections to our ancestry, you wish to eradicate our culture heroes and our ethnic identity. Lastly, you wish to displace us in our country and dispossess us *of* our country.
Who is being dishonest here?
I wish people wouldn’t hide-rate this poster into oblivion because the sentiments expressed are complimentary to this article.
Many if not most whites see themselves as perpetual victims. Regardless of how much suffering the white race has been documented as causing others, still they are victims.
So, S.L. Toddard, while you know some of the history of the white race, clearly you don’t understand it. Thus it needs to be repeated and contextualized. Not until you and others are tired of hearing it but perhaps until you finally understand it.
You are your own enemy.
“You wish to strip us of our history and our connections to our ancestry, you wish to eradicate our culture heroes and our ethnic identity.”
S.L.– you can’t see the irony in this statement..? Really? Yikes. And I don’t know exactly what you’re calling “our ethnic identity” or who you consider “our culture heroes” but…
…it’s ridiculous and appalling for any one individual to claim ownership or possession of an entire country–ie the territorial, us-vs-them, ours-vs-theirs mentality.
“You wish to strip us of our history and our connections to our ancestry, you wish to eradicate our culture heroes and our ethnic identity.”
That is irony extreme.
““You wish to strip us of our history and our connections to our ancestry, you wish to eradicate our culture heroes and our ethnic identity.”
S.L.– you can’t see the irony in this statement..?”
I think you misunderstand the word “irony”, as do so many people. What is relevant is that it is true. I am quite aware of the horrors of the middle passage, the lynchings, etc etc. Slavery was indeed a tragic footnote to American history. As far as I’m concerned it does not – and should not – alter the standing of the Founders in the eyes of most Americans – and certainly does not in mine. They were men of their time, and were not flawless. I do not see “whites” as “perpetual victims”. It has only been recently that Americans have been taught to hate themselves and their history, and it has only been over the last half century that we have allowed ourselves to be dispossessed and displaced. I understand it would not be politic to be honest about it (and that’s why you aren’t), but the fact is that “anti-racist” simply means “anti-American”. You people wish to displace and dispossess Americans, and replace us with non-Westerners. It is ethnic cleansing by definition. We Americans – unhyphenated and unconditional – are your enemies. Or, at least those of us who have not succumbed to the corporate brainwashing vis a vis television, and learned to loathe ourselves and our ancestors. Those poor Americans who have I pity more than anyone.
“Will we ever tell the truth to our children and most of the rest of our society about our slaveholding founders?”
We do. They owned slaves. Most people are aware of that, public schools as a matter of routine make mention of it, and it doesn’t effect most Americans’ opinion one way or the other, which is appropriate. The real question is this: when will you “anti-racism” types ever be truthful about your motives? You consider the founders of my country villains, and the people of my country (Americans) enemies. You wish to strip us of our history and our connections to our ancestry, you wish to eradicate our culture heroes and our ethnic identity. Lastly, you wish to displace us in our country and dispossess us *of* our country.
Who is being dishonest here?
Mr. Toddard, we ARE being honest. That’s why this blog was formed, to point out and acknowledge the continuing curse of racism and the denial that perceives it. If we continue to turn our eyes away from the issues discussed in this blog, it will NOT make racism go away as some people think.
I doubt that a lot of people knew that celebrated historical figures like Patrick actually owned slaves. Some people don’t know that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. Yet, in this country we celebrate those figures based on myths, positive images created to block out the harsh truths about history. It’s been done over and over to the point where people cringe at the thought of a legacy of hatred and destruction. This is why many whites do not like to talk about slavery, or think that it was not as big a deal as blacks are making it to be.
The idea is to not strip “you” of your history, but the idea is to TEACH YOU THE TRUTHS HIDDEN WITHIN THE MYTHS WHICH IS THEN CONVERTED INTO HISTORY. I can already tell that you don’t like to talk about racism especially in the context of American history.
Also, there is no where in this post that called the founders villians. The founders were far from saints. They are only “great” in the minds and hearts of the historians who recorded them as great men who built this country. Yet, truths say otherwise. Nevertheless, kids in schools all over the country are taught the sugary-sweet, myth-induced American history that shows successes at the hands of whites as well as provide a sense of white superiority.
Here is the inconvenient truth, Mr. Toddard:
In the last few sentences in your response you are showing the same kind of fears the people at these tea party rallies are showing. You’re afraid of having your so-called heroes exposed. You’re afraid of being “dispossessed” (whatever that means). In other words I think you’re afraid of LOSING YOUR PRIVILEGES! You’re afraid to awaken to the truth behind how you got your privileges. You’re afraid of losing your comfort zone, and you’re afraid of waking up from the so-called American dream.
And I’m being 100% honest.
“In the last few sentences in your response you are showing the same kind of fears the people at these tea party rallies are showing. You’re afraid of having your so-called heroes exposed. You’re afraid of being “dispossessed” (whatever that means).”
We are not afraid of having the Founders of our country “exposed”. Expose away. What we object to, however, is the insistence on obsessing unduly on the negative. We object to that for the most obvious and rational reason there is: our enemies wish to focus on the negative so as to de-legitimize the Founders (and our heroes in general) in our own eyes, the purpose being to crush any sense of pride we Americans may feel, to sever us from our history and from each other in order to render us docile and servile, the more easily to rob us of our patrimony – America. Obviously only a sick, suicidal people would allow such a thing. And you see these sick, docile souls here aiding and abetting you in your war against their people and history. To these self-loathing and servile Americans I say this: Our cultural ancestors sailed across horizons, conquered and tamed a continent, flew the first trans-Atlantic flight, established a Republic, sailed clipper ships to China, built towering cities whose spires pierce the clouds, flew through space and stood upon the face of the moon.
What have those who seek to replace us done to compare?
Now, that is not to say
Thanks for reminding me that you can’t reason with the irrational–your argument is based entirely on unsubstantiated allegations, faulty dilemmas, and I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I infantile bullshit.
I got news for you buddy, I’m as born-and-bred American as you are. Sweet dreams.
I have not seen evidence that you can reason at all. I am not sure which “allegations” you are alleging are “unsubstantiated” – what I am sure of, though, is that you have failed to demonstrate that any are. You have also failed to demonstrate any “dilemmas” that are “faulty”. As for “I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I infantile bullshit” I haven’t the foggiest idea to what you are referring.
Thanks for the replies to the rather illiterate and uniformed Toddard comments. A key question still remains too. Do any students in US read Patrick Henry’s famous speech and analyze its racist ironies? Free me from chains and Give ME liberty or death, not those whom I have in chains…..
I doubt if more than 5 or so out of millions, and clearly the 5 not including Toddard…..
I doubt that more than five have too, Joe. Speaking from experience, growing up in school, we were given a brief history of Patrick Henry and a snippet of his infamous speech. We were never asked about how his speech was ironic. Come to think of it, we were not really taught much about slavery other than the dates, places, and people in politics at the time.
I think it shows that Americans, not all but enough to make the point, will hold on faster to the half-truths and myths behind their history, than to the cold truths hidden from the people for so long. I also think if one did reveal the facts about Patrick Henry owning slaves, most whites won’t think much about it. They may consider that to be nothing to be concerned about, and will still consider him an “American hero.”
I just realized there’s a school near my hometown called Patrick Henry Academy, and most, if not all, of the students are white.
I asked Toddard who he considers ‘a true American’. I would like a response to this please. What is the definition of real Americans?
There is no “definition”, really. An American is an American, much like a Frenchman is a Frenchman.
Or, rather, an “American” is someone whose ethnicity is “American”. I’m sorry if that’s not helpful, but I don’t know how else to define an American.
In other words you don’t know what an American is, but yet, you are considering yourself to be one and a proud one at that?
*shakes my head*
What is a Frenchman?
“We are not afraid of having the Founders of our country “exposed”. Expose away. What we object to, however, is the insistence on obsessing unduly on the negative. We object to that for the most obvious and rational reason there is: our enemies wish to focus on the negative so as to de-legitimize the Founders (and our heroes in general) in our own eyes, the purpose being to crush any sense of pride we Americans may feel, to sever us from our history and from each other in order to render us docile and servile, the more easily to rob us of our patrimony – America. Obviously only a sick, suicidal people would allow such a thing. And you see these sick, docile souls here aiding and abetting you in your war against their people and history. To these self-loathing and servile Americans I say this: Our cultural ancestors sailed across horizons, conquered and tamed a continent, flew the first trans-Atlantic flight, established a Republic, sailed clipper ships to China, built towering cities whose spires pierce the clouds, flew through space and stood upon the face of the moon.
What have those who seek to replace us done to compare?
Now, that is not to say”
So, in other words we should live in the glorious, half-baked, myth induced, so-called history instead of facing the unpleasant, flat-out truths that are ommitted from the mainstream? We should live as if the past has in no way effected the present?
How on earth will focusing on the negatives, which I assume you mean the unpleasant truths, de-legitmize the founders and heroes? For what matter, who are YOUR American heroes and why should anyone worship them? What is the sense of pride you speak of? How is talking about the history severing history, and how will exposing the history we SHOULD know render us docile and servile? If anything, historical truths should awaken those still asleep. However, there are those like you that choose to remain asleep.
Mr. Toddard, you obviously are filled of so-called American pride, and from the last part of your response, a lot of white pride and something else. You want to continue to live in your own pleasant matrix where America is the greatest country in the world, and those who question America are out to destroy your own personal utopia of White American “greatness”.
At the same time like Distance said you want to potray yourself as a victim. In this statement that YOU made, you said:
“You wish to strip us of our history and our connections to our ancestry, you wish to eradicate our culture heroes and our ethnic identity.”
THIS IS WHAT YOUR PEOPLE HAVE DONE TO MY PEOPLE!!
Yet, you can’t understand why some of my people are angry. In fact you can’t even accept the same comment if a black man said it. No, you would call it making excuses, and tell us to pull up out bootstraps, work harder, and blah, blah, blah.
You know what? You can respond however you want. There’s no point talking to someone who wants to remain asleep. I’m sure I will encounter more people who think like you. While I’ll constantly try to rid mself of the program your people have installed into my people for hundreds of years, I will always be in pain. Yet, I will wish you well.
I don’t care about what a Frenchman is, Mr. Toddard. I asked you what an American is. Stop derailing the issue.