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| The problem is very significant and deep-set in a past wherein the virtues of faith, courage, hope and love were decidedly propagated as that of Whites in word and deed, ... relegating Blacks to the desired role and subservient non-virtues of imitation, obedience and praise rather than assimilation as now often claimed! We hasten to add that most great minds like Thomas Jefferson quickly acknowledged that though inferior to Whites, ... Native Americans also possessed the virtue of courage equal to White men. Keep in mind that "courage" is the most important virtue according to Aristotle, ... not Jesus who placed "faith" as number one, followed by "hope" and "love." For men like Jefferson, ... to be a slave was evidence of a lack of courage but in reality any Blacks who had the courage to escape being slaves were either lucky or criminals. Hundreds of thousands of Black men such as bargemen on right were believed by slave owners and traders to be little more than a valuable beast of burden. But, despite it all, many African-Americans, both Black and Mulatto, were able to assimilate the culture of Messianic Christians in Africa, the Americas and Europe; ... and, rebel against ideology that categorized and classified them inferior to self proclaimed superiors like David Horowitz imagines himself to be, ... regarding matters that matter to him.
Obvious matriarchal tendencies in African-American cultural dynamics during and after slavery have left many offspring with a unrealistic view of their heritage, ... to the extent of perceiving courage to have existed in Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman but not Black men. The result of this near constant reinforcement by the schools and mass media is that millions of African-American women suffer from illusions about selves as stand-alone pillars of courage rather than part of unions with men for good. Alice Walker's book "The Color Purples," was written about a period in American history when Civil War veterans, north and south, Black and White were respected for courage. But, she depicted Black men as cowards, and women associated with them, ... as wives, girl-friends, daughters and victims as heroes. Like Horowitz, she internalized books like "Gone With The Wind" and judged harshly a group of men she imagined to have existed without redeeming virtues. It is not the fault of Alice Walker to have unnatural attitudes about men but irrational for women to imagine salvation without men in their family heritage. As a consequence, far too many Black women have little or no interest and regard for their blood kin in a great struggle that certainly challenged the courage of many African heritage men. But, mothers generally do not know where or when. The fault is not that women lack interest in geography and history, ... they simply learn and know it differently than men generally do and neglect sons and daughters receiving an important balance in self-identity and even names. We applaud and love the underground railroad but it was of miniscule importance compared to the more than 40,000 African-American men (including only son of Frederick Douglass who did as much or more than the biblical Moses) who sacrificed their lives to free over four million people. They all loved "Mother Moses," as do we and remembering she loved and married a Civil War veteran! Click below. Understand that of the 4.5 million free and enslaved African-Americans in the 1860 census, ... over 63 percent of the approximately 315,000 military age and fit young men of African heritage in America by 1864 were volunteered in the great struggle. Half of the 200,000 enlistees had to escape slavery and rebel forces in order to find and join Union regiments. An additional 200,000 older men were employed as civilian laborers to build fortifications, shipping facilities and especially burial work crews following bloody battles that killed many thousands, both Union and rebels. And, not to be forgotten are the thousands of Black women volunteered, engaged and often married to bandage wounds and hearts of men in their moments of death. Bible reading was important and many literate young Black and Mulatto women did so for men who wanted to hear "the Word." Normal demographic curves of about seven percent of any society being military age and fit males in the 17 to 25 year range, ... such as World War II when the United States with a total population of about 150 million was able through maximum conscription only able to enlist about 12 million young men enforced by two million women volunteers. Germany by contrast enlisted some 10 percent of its population by conscripting men up to and even over age 40 years (and had over 10 million deaths).
Somewhat because of antagonists like Horowitz, we are compelled as alert, enlightened and educated African-Americans to tell offspring about the known and unknown ancestral kin that lived and died in one of the great emancipation struggles in human history, .... including that led by Moses and Joshua whom African-Americans traditionally learned to respect and admire. African-Americans obviously know a lot more about the Children of Israel coming out of bondage, ... than Horowitz (admittedly unenlightened by ideologies of Huey Newton rather than enlightenment of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) It is doubtful that young men like Huey Newton (not the beneficiary of a Black College education) ever learned, imagined or taught others in California about the functional faith of: "the least of us" in great flights and fights to be free in our own "promised land." Prime Military Age Enlisted Current Generation of Births --- 1980 - 2009 ------------ Post-WWII Generation of Births --- 1950 - 1979 ------------ WWII Generation of Births --- 1920 - 1949 900,000 + WWI Generation of Births --- 1890 - 1919 700,000 - Emancipated Generation of Births --- 1860 - 1889 ------------ Emancipation Generation of Births ---1830 - 1859 315,000 200,000 By year 1850, over 50,000 young men and women per year were escaping slavery to refuge in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and far away Canada. Slave owners forced passage of a second fugitive slave act in 1850 to force local officials to aid them in recapture of slaves but all of King Cotton's men, horses and guns could not put "humpty dumpty back together again." |
Email: Editors, More Mary Matters bradyenterpriseassociation@gmail.comwith questions or comments about this web site. |
During early years of the Civil War, ... the Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered that any slaves who escaped to join the Union forces and later captured by rebels would be executed for treason. Lincoln promptly advised him the Union would do likewise to rebels; and Davis promptly rescinded order.
