Sunday, July 8, 2012

Lame Cain

Chris Rock:
“Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren’t free but I’m sure they enjoyed fireworks.”
Conservatives were unhappy that Mr. Rock seemed to suggest that slaves were not free when our country declared it's independence in 1776.  Mr. Rock is entirely correct, the emancipation proclamation was issued in 1863, which began the process of freeing the slaves.  By 1865 most of the slaves were free in the south.  Ninety years, 4 generations of slaves lived and died in the time from our nations birth to freedom for all Americans.
Herman Cain:
  "I think it was Chris Rock who made fun of the fact, ‘Well, it might be Independence Day, but the slaves weren’t free then.’ Look at it this way, if America had not become independent, slaves might still be slaves.”
Herman Cain may know about pizza but his grasp of history is terrible.  In 1807 Britain outlawed the slave trade in the entire British empire.  Britain outlawed slavery itself including in most of its colonies in 1833.   If the US hadn't declared Independence from Britain, American slaves would have been freed 30 years earlier.  Mexico, Cuba, France, Argentina, Bolivia and many others all abolished slavery before the US did.  Early US history was brutally cruel for slaves and Native Americans, lets not whitewash our past. 
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