Wonderful article in the January edition of the Smithsonian called The Life and Trials of Samuel Green. Now, of course, very few people, including me, have any clue who Samuel Green was, or why knowing about his life was important.
First though, I must say that I am grateful that the president's war against any facts and truth that annoy his sensibilities, including those battles against the Smithsonian, its magazine as well as the museums, has not gone so far as to prevent articles like the one to which I am referring to be stripped from publication. While some may take that as a hopeful sign, or perhaps even proof that his attacks on the truth are overblown, I offer the recent removal of references to slavery by the National Park Service from the President's House in Philadelphia as a reminder that we are losing small battles every day in this war to whitewash our shared history.
So, to quickly summarize, Samuel Green who was born into slavery around 1802, and spent decades in bondage, was able to save enough money due to his being "hired" out to other farms to purchase his freedom in 1833, and then the freedom on his wife about nine years later, although their two children remained enslaved.
Despite this horrific fact in itself, Green spent the next few decades involved in preaching about the Gospel. Although, to be precise, his ministry was called "exhorting" as Black men were not allowed to become ministers even within the more advanced (for its time) rules of the Methodist religion.
Sadly, the times were moving in the wrong direction for free and enslaved Blacks as the country careened towards the eventual secession of the South, followed by the Civil War. Life for people like Green did not get better, only worse, as laws were created which enshrined the separation of the races in terms of voting rights and land ownership, and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act which compelled runaways, even in free states, to be returned to their enslavers.
By 1854, Green's son and sister, having recently been sold to a man they regarded as the worst man in Maryland due to his vicious whippings and abuse, decided to flee to Canada.
A note here. Is it me, or is telling American citizens that they must participate in what they regard as an immoral act, reporting the whereabouts of enslaved people so they can be returned to their "owners", not dissimilar to administration officials at DHS and ICE advising protesters in the various cities being invaded by armed, masked officers to stand back, or even help them locate, people, and yes, they are people, who are being targeted for their non-white skin color?
Anyway, at this point, the abolitionist movement was in full vigor with books like Harriet Tubman's Uncle Tom's Cabin being widely circulated.
Sam Jr did escape successfully, which, along with other successful escapes from the various plantations and farms where slavery was in full bloom, caused even more backlash against Blacks, freemen as well as those who were slaves.
Which brings us to the day when Samuel Green was arrested for aiding, among others, his son to flee to Canada.
And what was the most damning evidence presented? That Green owned a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, an "inflammatory" book that "created discontent" and fomented "insurrection".
So, in April 1857, Green was convicted, to a great extent, for owning a book, and sentenced to ten years in prison.
Fortunately for Green, he was pardoned after only five years behind bars, a free man again, for the second time.
Learning about the atrocities committed by American businessmen who believed that their way of life was threatened by the abolition of slavery, about how even after the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted, Black people in America were subject to all sorts of cruelty, including lynching, but even worse, systemic bigotry embedded in the laws of our country, is painful. And that some type of divine intervention was instrumental in our nation's founding, seems ludicrous.
As I have said before, it is OK to have two thoughts in our heads at once, the belief that American democracy is a noble experiment, that "all men are created equal" is an axiom worth striving to prove, that the Constitution and Bill of Rights were created by men with foresight and great ideals, despite their owning slaves, dismissing women's rights, and believing that only land owners should have the right to vote. They were men, not gods, and men can be both good and evil in their deeds.
But people like Donald Trump seem incapable of this trait. They perceive that acknowledging faults equates to weakness, so better to pretend that only good things have happened in America, than to deal with the times when we fell far short of the ideals of our founders, who themselves fell short of their own noble words.
What really galls me, really makes me cheer, at times, for some type of calamity to befall our great country, is that along with the obsession with ridding America of DEI policies, those very same people think that we are a Christian nation. That deporting people whose only crime is that they violated an arbitrary line in the sand to attain a better life is what Jesus would do. And, that killing American citizens who believe that the real morality is standing against such cruelty is OK too.
I am not a believer that God intervenes in our daily lives, that She somehow favors people born in country A over those born in country B, or that natural disasters occur due to excessive sinning, or a lack of acknowledgement of who is really in charge.
But, if God is truly watching, is truly contemplating some form of punishment for those who have perverted or otherwise misinterpreted the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, I wonder if we would even recognize such an event in its true meaning. That perhaps:
extreme weather events are divine signs that we are on the wrong track in our abuse of our planet.
economic meltdowns (like 2008) are hints from above that our devotion to money and material possessions is off path.
the slaughter of humans, be it in Ukraine or Palestine, Sudan or Myanmar, should remind us that God expects us to seek peace, and to call out those who create chaos and violence, regardless of whether that nation or ideology aligns with our beliefs. Killing is killing.
All around America, especially in red states, there are active efforts to suppress the history of our country in the guise of a war against wokeness, even though those same people have a hard time defining what is woke.
I maintain that the teachings of Christ are some of the most woke lessons ever presented which make it all the more insidious that those same people who are so fervently anti-woke, at the same time pretend to be Christian. I call them CHINOs, rhymes with RINOs, Christian in name only.
If you truly believe that diversity, equity and inclusion are horrible concepts then you must reject all the great accomplishments achieved by non-white men, women, first and second generation Americans, anyone with a disability, in other words, over 70% of the population because if it wasn't for policies that encouraged people that looked different from our founders, all white men, in the 250 years of our national existence, America would never have attained its current, although perhaps tenuous due to the current administration's egoistic policies, position in the world.
Better woke than asleep, or worse, just cruel.
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