Actual U.S. History

A couple of years ago, Nike made the decision to pull its July 4th edition of its sneaker that featured the original American flag with the 13 stars representing our 13 original American states.

This is the classic flag created in 1776 by Betsy Ross. This was the flag General George Washington flew during the Revolutionary War – America’s seven-year war for Independence from Great Britain.

Nike pulled its “Betsy Ross Flag Sneaker” off store shelves after former NFL Quarterback and Nike spokesman Colin Kaepernick claimed this flag to be a racist symbol.

Kaepernick explained his claim in a tweet, where he quotes Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery.

“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine,” said Kaepernick. “There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”

What Kaepernick’s quoting of Douglass fails to mention is that this speech was delivered in 1852, before the Civil War, when slavery still existed.

Also, Douglass was not anti-America. He escaped slavery and rightly wanted to end the evil of slavery in America. But he ends his speech with optimism about America, stating:

Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.”

Frederick Douglass was an influential writer and orator in the Abolishonist Movement, became a bank President after the Civil War and was appointed United States Marshall for the District of Colombia by President Rutherford B. Hayes.

At the 1888 Republican National Convention, Douglass became the first African-American to receive a vote for President of the United States in a major party’s roll call vote.

Unlike Colin Kaepernick and many on today’s Left, Frederick Douglass loved America.

Betsy Ross was a Quaker from Pennsylvania. She was a fierce opponent of slavery. Betsy Ross believed the existence of slavery in America contradicted the promise made in America’s founding document, our DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, which states that:

“All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

No country in the world had ever been established on this principle. This was a uniquely American idea.

Yes, it’s true the evil of slavery existed in America at the time of the American founding.

Slavery was the norm in the world at that time — continues to be the norm in much of the world today.

Led by Betsy Ross, her state Pennsylvania was the first American state to abolish slavery in 1780 to fulfill this original American idea that “all men a created equal” – meaning all are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Much of the world adopted this American idea, liberating billions of people from Hitler, from Communism, and other forms of tyranny.

Hundreds of thousands of American soldiers have died on the battlefields of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa defending these ideals — not just for Americans, but for all people.

Yet Nike has decided that our original American flag is a racist symbol even though President Barack Obama flew the Betsy Ross flag at both his Inaugurations.

Betsy Ross was born on January 1, 1752 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was one of thirteen children.  She and her husband started an uposltery business and created wall hangings.

George Washington was a close friend of Betsy’s uncle George Ross.

Betsy made wall and bed covers for General George Washington while he was in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress in 1774. She began making flags for the Continental Army.

Her husband John died in 1776 from a gunpowder explosion at the start of the Revolutionary War.

Her second husband, Joseph, was captured by the British in 1781 and died in the prison in 1782.

In 1776, George Washington asked her to create the first American flag – with the 13 stars symbolizing the 13 original states. This was the flag George Washington and his army flew during America’s 7-year War for Independence with Great Britain.

By the time of the Civil War, every state in the North had abolished slavery. There were 19 “Free Sates” and 15 Confederate states.

We then had the Civil War to end slavery once and for all in America – followed by Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in America.

Soon thereafter, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, permanently outlawing slavery in America and guaranteeing black Americans the right to vote.

None of this would have happened without the original American promise – as stated in America’s Declaration of Independence – that “all men are created equal.”

In 1920, this idea was expanded to give women the right to vote.

It’s well worth noting that an estimated 11,000 African-Americans (including slaves) fought in the American Revolution on the side of George Washington and the Patriot Army because they believed in the promise of America.
The most famous African-American Patriot was Crispus Attucks, who shot and killed by British soldiers in the Boston Massacre in 1770.

In April 1775, at Lexington and Concord, black militia responded to the call and fought with Patriot forces.
Prince Estabrook was wounded during the fighting on 19 April.

African-American soldiers fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill alongside white soldiers. These African-American Patriots believed that they would win their freedom by fighting for America’s Independence because slavery was a British institution and America was promising freedom for all people.

During the course of the war, about one-fifth of the American army was black. At the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, Baron Closen, a German officer in the French Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment, estimated the American army to be about one-quarter black.  This was shocking to the British and to the world.

The Left’s Assault on America’s Founders

Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of America’s Declaration of Independence.

Yet, his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, recently voted to stop honoring Jefferson’s birthday because he owned slaves.

But Jefferson became an opponent of slavery because he saw the obvious contradiction between America’s founding idea and permitting the continuation of slavery.

As America’s fourth President, in 1807 he signed into law a ban on the continued importation of slaves from Africa. Jefferson thought that by ending the continued importation of slaves, slavery would end gradually on its own.
It’s true that Jefferson owned slaves because slaves often came with the acquisition of land and the institution of slavery was so embedded in the culture of that day.

Slavery had existed in the Americas since Christopher Columbus brought the first African slaves to our continent in 1492. Slavery was part of life throughout the British, Spanish, French and Portuguese Empires – and everywhere. Few even considered the possibility of life without slavery.

In 1767 at age 24, Jefferson inherited 5,000 acres of land and the legal ownership of 52 slavese by his father’s will.
Through his marriage to Martha Wayles in 1772, Jefferson inherited two plantations totaling 11,000 acres and the legal ownership of additional 135 salves.

In all, Jefferson ended up owning some 600 slaves who came with his acquisition of lands.

This was life in the British colony of Virginia prior to the American Revolution.

But Jefferson became uneasy with the institution of slavery. In his writings on American grievances justifying the Revolution, he criticized the British for bring slaves to the colonies.

Jefferson led the ban on the continued importation of slaves to Virginia in 1778 — one of the first jurisdictions worldwide to so.

As President, Jefferson in 1807 signed into law a national ban on the continued importation of slaves.
Jefferson supported the gradual phase-out of slavery. He worried that releasing all at once could leave many unprepared to earn a living. What would happen to the elderly and the infirm? What would happen to those who had no education or skills to become employable?

In 1784, Jefferson proposed federal legislation banning slavery in the New Territories of the North and South after 1800, which failed to pass Congress by one vote.

In his Notes on the State of Virginia, published in 1785, Jefferson expressed the belief that slavery corrupted both masters and slaves alike.

Starting in 1784, Jefferson started releasing slaves he believed had the skills to earn a living.

George Washington had a similar relationship with slavery.

Like Jefferson, his slaves came with the lands he acquired.

But during the American Revolution and after it, Washington turned against slavery.

Like Jefferson, he began to see the contradiction between slavery’s continued existence and America’s founding principle. But if he released the 124 slaves owned (plus another 193 slaves he controlled mostly through his marriage to Martha Custis Lee), he wondered where they would go and how they could survive?

In his will, written several months before his death in December 1799, George Washington left directions for the emancipation of all the slaves he owned.

But his will stipulated that elderly slaves or those who were too sick to work were to be supported throughout their lives by his estate.

Children without parents, or those whose families were unable to ensure their education, were to be taught reading, writing, and a useful trade, until they were ultimately freed at the age of twenty-five.
Washington’s will stated as follows:

And I do moreover most pointedly, and most solemnly enjoin it upon my Executors . . . to see that this clause respecting Slaves, and every part thereof be religiously fulfilled at the Epoch at which it is directed to take place; without evasion, neglect or delay, after the Crops which may then be on the ground are harvested, particularly as it respects the aged and infirm.”

In December 1800, Martha Washington signed a deed of emancipation for her deceased husband’s slaves, a transaction that is recorded in the abstracts of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Court Records.

George Washington’s slaves would be freed on January 1, 1801.

Fellow Virginian James Madison, the primary author of America’s Constitution, also owned slaves and saw the contradiction.

While a young student at Princeton, Madison began to question the institution of slavery.

Madison surprised many when he brought a 24-year-old slave named Billey to attend the Continental Congress of 1783 to begin work on America’s Constitution.

He wanted Billey to see the momentous event – the birth of a new nation.

Billey had been deeded to Madison by his grandmother when Billey was an infant and Madison was 8. Madison decided to release Billey in Philadelphia where he could live freely.

Madison wrote to his father as follows about his reasoning:

On a view of all circumstances I have judged it most prudent not to force Billey back to Va. even if could be done; and have accordingly taken measures for his final separation from me. I am persuaded his mind is too thoroughly tainted to be a fit companion for fellow slaves in Virga. The laws here do not admit of his being sold for more than 7 years. I do not expect to get near the worth of him; but cannot think of punishing him by transportation merely for coveting that liberty for which we have paid the price of so much blood, and have proclaimed so often to be the right, & worthy the pursuit, of every human being.”

Madison and Billey remained lifelong friends. After he released Billey, Madison wrote this to a friend:

My wish is if possible to provide a decent & independent subsistence…Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labour of slaves. The difficulty of reconciling these views has brought into my thoughts several projects from which advantage seemed attainable.”

In 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, Madison argued that the slave trade was “dishonorable to the National character.” He further contended that slaves should not be taxed because it would be “wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.”

In 1794, he married Dolley, a Quaker whose father had emancipated his slaves in 1783.

So a number of America’s founders owned slaves – including our most famous founders from Virginia – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

They owned slaves because of their family history as slave holders and because slavery was so embedded in southern culture and throughout the British colonies and the world at that time.

But they also came to see the contradiction between the founding principle of the American Revolution that “all men are created equal” and permitting the continued existence of slavery.

They wanted to find a way to end slavery without tearing the union apart. They also wanted to end slavery in a way that would allow freed slaves to survive – with adequate training, education and skills that would equip them to make a living.

But the Left ignores this history – of how America’s founders and their commitment to the American idea of a nation “conceived in liberty” actually led to the end of slavery in America. America’s founders knew well that slavery and liberty could not survive together.

They were all looking for a way to transition America away from slavery.

But the Left wants all memorials to Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison and America’s founders torn down.

The Left gives Jefferson, Washington, and Madison no credit with founding America on the idea that ended slavery, not just in America, but throughout the Western world.

America’s founders all believed that slavery had to end. The question was how to end it.

America’s second President John Adams acknowledged that:

Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude and I am utterly averse to the admission of slavery into the Missouri Territories. It being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.”

American founder Benjamin Franklin said:

Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.”

Franklin also said:

Neither my tongue, nor my pen, nor purse shall be wanting to promote the abolition of what to me appears so inconsistent with humanity and Christianity.”

American Founder Alexander Hamilton said:

Who talks most about freedom and equality? Is it not those who hold a Bill of Rights in one hand and a whip for affrighted slaves in the other?”

American founder and America’s first Chief Justice John Jay said:

“It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honor of the States as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.”

But they also had to hold the union together. We had to fight a rematch with Great Britain in the War of 1812. The British Empire wanted its colonies back. The British Army burned Washington, DC to the ground.

We then had the Civil War in 1861 to 1865 to finally end slavery in America – when 700,000 Americans died on America’s battlefields.

This is out of a population at the time of 30 MILLION.  Adjusted from population growth, this would be like 9 MILLION Americans dying in a war today.

Many, including Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, saw the Civil War as fulfilling the promise of the American Revolution – completing the promise of America’s founding principle that “all me are created equal.”

The truth is, without the American Revolution, slavery would have continued to exist throughout the British Empire, including in the American colonies, for much longer.

The American Revolution called attention to the evil of slavery – caused the entire civilized world to consider ending the institution of slavery.

The American Revolution triggered the emergence of the first broad-based abolitionist organizations, including the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (organized in 1775, reorganized in 1784) and the New York Manumission Society (1784).  Soon, other groups appeared in New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and elsewhere.

In 1794 an American Convention of Abolition Societies was formed.

Progress toward the abolition of slavery in America was rapid at first.  By 1788, six states had ended the slave trade.
But ending slavery nationally ran into obstacles at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which agreed to leave the slave trade intact until 1808 as part of a compromise to keep the southern states in the union.

Abolitionists were furious about this compromise – which included the clause recognizing slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation in the House of Representatives.

This compromise (believed by abolishonists to be temporary) allowed Southern slave states to have more power in Congress, but also allowed for the ratification of the Constitution and the keeping together of the union of 13 states – plus Vermont, which abolished slavery in 1777.

The choice was this compromise to keep the southern states in the union, or no union – no country. The nationwide abolition of slavery would have to wait until the Civil War, 74 years later.

The American Revolution and progress of the Abolishonist Movement in America sparked intense debate about slavery in the British Empire.

The loss of the American colonies forced the people of Great Britain to consider ending slavery.

The famous British writer Edmund Burke and member of Parliament wrote in defense of the American Revolution and argued fervently for ending slavery. Burke crafted a proposal for the gradual phase out of slavery that culminated in Parliament passing the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 that ended slavery in most British colonies.

The American Revolution was the catalyst for the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire and the civilized world.

The United States of America is the first country in human history founded on the proposition that “all men are created equal.”

America quickly grew into the freest, most prosperous nation in human history because, it turns out, freedom really does work best for everyone.

But the American Left and today’s Democrat Party leadership wants to tear it all down.

America is not perfect. We’re just better than any other country that has ever existed. And the few countries that have come close to our level of freedom, prosperity and success have done so by adopting America’s founding principles.

By the way, if your annual income is higher than $8,290, you are among the top 50% of richest people in the world.
This is why millions of people are trying to do all they can to get into America.

But America’s school children are being taught today that America is a racist country, an evil country.
And today’s Democrat Party leaders have adopted this line of attack on America.

On MSNBC, Georgetown Professor Michael Eric Dyson actually compared the Betsy Ross flag to such symbols of hate as the Nazi swastika and burning crosses of the Ku Klux Klan.

CNN commentator Bakari Sellers defended Nike’s decision with the preposterous smear that “this country was built on white supremacy.”

Barack Obama’s former Attorney General Eric Holder said on MSNBC:

When I hear these things about let’s Make America Great Again, I think to myself, exactly when did you think America was great?”

The Democrat Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo also mocked the idea that America was ever great, saying in a speech:

We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great.”

What today’s Democrat Party is doing is trying to divide America along racial lines so they can win the votes of minorities.

Disgracefully, they are trying to turn the American flag into a symbol of racial oppression instead of the symbol of liberty and justice for all that it really is.  If America is so racist, why are billions of people worldwide (almost all minorities), trying desperately to move here?

• No, America Was Not Built on Racism