Responding to Representative Jasmine Crockett’s and Jamal Bowman’s Comments on 'Oppression'

Among the many recent examples of racism directed against both our nation and white people in particular, three examples prominently stand out. On November 20th Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (TX-D) retorted during a debate on DEI on the House floor, “You tell me which white man was dragged out of their homes! You tell me which one of them got dragged all the way across an ocean and told that you’re gunna go to work!  We’re gunna steal your wives—we’re gunna rape your wives. That didn’t happen—that is oppression!”  More recently, Rep. Jamal Bowman argued in his “Dear white people” letter that white supremacy led to a jury’s finding Daniel Perry innocent of criminal charges in the death of Jordan Neely. He additionally hurled other false charges against the “white people” of America. Finally, on December 13th Duke rape accuser Crystal Mangum finally admitted 18 years after ruining many lives that she fabricated the rape accusation she leveled at several white male students. Although she asked the young men to forgive her, she admitted, “I don’t have any regrets.”

All of these racially incendiary examples stem from the false historical narrative put forth in DEI and CRT initiatives. Despite the billions spent to create the false image of Western Civilization and the U.S. being unique in bearing the responsibility for slavery and for oppressing non-whites, a lingering historical reality contradicts this simplistic view. Such racist opinions, now thoroughly ingrained in higher education and the federal government, require a detailed response. Several historians have recently responded to the plight of an estimated 3 to 4 million white Christian slaves who were seized by non-Western people of color for over 1,200 years. Unfortunately, these responses have neglected a more complete societal comparison between Anglo-America and Africa. In response to Rep. Crockett’s charges, in particular, it’s important to remember that: 

– African kingdoms aided and abetted the enslavement of both Africans and Europeans for almost 1,200 years. Anglo-America enslaved Africans for less than 250 years—the United States for less than 100 years. Despite the international African slave trade being eventually stopped by Europeans, Africa today has the most slaves of any continent. 

– For 1200 years, European women were openly trafficked as sex slaves in Africa’s Muslim city-states on both its Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Contrary to DEI and CRT teaching, Biblical and societal norms in British North America worked to discourage such sexual relationships. For example, there is no African equivalent to our colonial anti-miscegenation laws. Moreover, African Muslim leaders openly kept large harems of Christian women for sexual purposes. Although at times there were so many Christian slaves in Algiers that one could be purchased for the cost of an onion, the ransom price established to free Christian women and men showed their actual value. When Edmund Cason was sent by England in 1646 to purchase the freedom of as many slaves as possible, he spent over £1,000 each for many of the freed English women vs only £38 for men.

– Although CRT argues that the conditions faced by African slaves in America were unprecedented, European slaves in Africa faced far worse. African slaves in America saw no equivalent to the conditions faced by tens of thousands of European galley slaves—chained to their oars for the duration of their short lives. 

-- The greatest threat to slavery in America was the written word. The Bible, the Declaration of Independence, and many legal ‘freedom suits’ all served to win freedom for countless slaves. Where are the African equivalents to our Abolitionist Societies and to our documents and lawsuits opposing the enslavement of Christians? There are none. There simply are no African equivalents to U.S. v Claiments of the Amistad (1841) or “Mum” Bett v Ashley (1791) and countless other freedom suits. Nor did any African city-state ever pass the equivalent of the ‘Personal Liberty Laws’ that many northern states enacted in opposition to the federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

– Before the end of slavery in America, there were many white martyrs who willingly gave their lives, their fortunes, or who were severely punished for their efforts to abolish slavery. Elijah Lovejoy died for freedom of the press. Robert Carter III—the richest man in America at the time—gave away his entire fortune to free Africans from slavery in Virginia. (He died poor, and his grave is unknown today.)  Cassius M. Clay, Charles Sumner, and John Brown risked their lives or personal well-being in the struggle. Sherman Booth and John Hossack were among the many whites found guilty of harboring slaves in violation of the Fugitive Slave Act. Where is the list of African or Muslim martyrs who struggled to free any of the millions of white slaves held in Africa?

-- Whereas Islam has many different sects within the faith–similar to Christianity–not one single African or Islamic sect argued for an end to the enslavement of Europeans. Within Christianity, however, Quakers, Congregationalists, Unitarians, and other powerful Christian voices opposed African slavery. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of white American Christians signed petitions to Congress urging the abolition of African slavey.

– Americans so opposed slavery that they fought THREE wars against the institution–two to free white Americans enslaved in Africa and one to free Blacks enslaved in America. What African or Muslim nation can boast of such a record?

– Whereas there are many examples of prominent individuals of the “oppressive race” working to end slavery in America (John Brown, Theodore Weld, Lewis Tappan, William L. Garrison, etc.) it’s difficult to find a single African or Islamic leader who devoted his life to the betterment of European slaves. Eighteenth and nineteenth-century America produced many authors, poets, educators, clerics, editors, and politicians who worked diligently to develop an anti-slavery culture in our nation before the Civil War. There is simply no cultural equivalent to Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Garrison’s “The Liberator,” or Longfellow’s ”Poems on Slavery” in Africa over the 1,200 years of European enslavement.

– Often, American slaves could simply run away from their condition. In doing so, they were protected by northern antislavery citizens of both races. Unfortunately, the typical U.S. History textbook fails to mention that the same men who formed the Republican Party in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin, were part of a 5,000 strong band of white males who freed an escaped slave from jail only days earlier. European slaves in Africa had no such opportunities for freedom. They were trapped by deserts, the Mediterranean Sea or the Atlantic Ocean, and a population that mostly regarded them as ‘dogs’ and ‘beasts.’ There are no examples of thousands of African males organizing to free white Christian slaves such as what happened in Ripon, Boston, and elsewhere.

--Anglo-American society often celebrated the successful escapes of Africans from slavery within our nation. The Amistad freedom fighters became celebrities in New England where collections were taken up to pay for their education and legal costs. Frederick Douglass, Phyllis Wheatly, Sojourner Truth, Harriett Tubman, Benjamin Banneker, William Wells Brown, and numerous other African American slaves became both successful and prominent within the white dominated culture of their time. The ‘white oppressive’ society permitted their establishing newspapers, operating successful businesses, petitioning authorities for redress, and allowed for their filing of lawsuits—often with results in their favor. African slave states tolerated no such activities on the part of their European slaves.

– It’s commonly agreed the worst experience for African slaves was the “Middle Passage” across the Atlantic. Slaves that died enroute from unsanitary, crowded conditions were simply thrown overboard. This, however, is not unlike the thousands of European slaves who died for centuries while being chained for life to an oar in an Islamic galley or who worked on building the massive breakwaters for African harbors. These unfortunates were beaten daily to get the very last ounce of work from them, then simply cast into the Mediterranean when they died. To replace them only required attacking any defenseless Christian coastal town or ship to obtain more.

– Many prominent Americans joined the American Colonial Society, an organization charged with purchasing the freedom of slaves and returning them to their homeland in Africa. Americans purchased land in Liberia, Africa, and supported missionary and educational efforts to improve the lives of Africans. No Africans ever bought land in Christendom for the sole purpose of returning Christian slaves to their homeland.

– Many states in both the North and South passed “manumission laws” to encourage freedom. No African or Islamic city-state ever passed laws to encourage non-white masters to free their white slaves. 

--Due to many of the reasons above, it’s no surprise that among all nations in the Western Hemisphere, the fewest number of African slaves were brought to what is now the United States. It’s also notable that only in the U.S. were slaves able to augment their numbers through natural childbirth—thanks to a longer life expectancy than in Latin America.

These are only some examples of how Rep. Crockett was  wrong in her interpretation of the past. There are additional historical examples to prove her wrong—the indentured servitude of countless Anglo emigrants to British North America, the enslavement of the Irish who were sent to the Caribbean during Cromwell’s reign, the plight of over 25,000 British convicts who arrived in American in chains, the impressment of tens of thousands of Englishmen and Americans into virtual slavery by British naval press gangs, the breakup of families and the sale of countless German “Redemptioners” in the colonies before the Revolution. Nor does this include the contemporary example of Western women being the victims of countless rapes or sexual assaults by “people of color”—often from Africa—in Scandinavia and other parts of Western Europe. One British paper declared the 1400 young girls who were sexually abused and traded amongst the foreign-born men in the city of Rotherham in recent years were the equivalent of their being sex-slaves.

The above examples are given as a partial answer to Rep. Crockett.. Can it be that she and Jamal Bowman represent the two best examples of what’s wrong with DEI and CRT?

The writer has been a social studies educator, founder of Rho Kappa -- the National Social Studies Honor Society -- past president of the Florida Council for the Social Studies, and a former Elementary School Principal of the Year in Lee County, Florida. He may be reached at: jsbovee@aol.com.

Why Today's Youth Seem to Need Some Lessons in History and Racial Oppression!

The young Asian student begins her diatribe with the seemingly now heavily endorsed view of the past racial injustice, "Given that white women have never had to endure racism or colonial oppression . . . "  From what is taught today in educational classrooms K-12 through College and in the mainstream media, how could anyone disagree? 

Watch how one scholar takes it upon himself to give the young lady a "needed history lesson."  

Why is there so much foolishness being taught in history classes today? It's no accident that the only educational subjects that no state has ever been held accountable to a national standard are American History and Civics/American Government. Because no state is accountable for what   students know in these subjects, literally anything can be taught! Often, it's a false and

un-American narrative such as this young Asian student has received. Congress had the chance

to correct this oversight thirty years ago and failed to provide equity to American History. 

Our Latest Educational Posters--Civil War Mascots!

 Our Civil War ancestors' love of pets is something we all share with them. In some cases, their mascots came to embody the Regiments that adopted them! A few of the 'mascots' were more than what we might call "therapy pets" today--they fought in the ranks with their human comrades and weathered many a devastating battle! Next in our line of educational posters that the 150th PA Bucktail Regiment and the 111th PA Veteran Volunteer Regiment use in their 'living history encampments' are these two new additions below.  These can be downloaded and used by classroom teachers and other lovers of history by clicking the appropriate hyperlink. Send any great anecdotes or interesting stories about Civil War mascots to us so we may use them in the future.  

To download a Microsoft WORD File of this, Click HERE.  To obtain a jpeg, click HERE.  

Our Tribute to "Sallie"- the feisty pit-bull

of the 11th PA Volunteers!

To download a Microsoft WORD File of this, Click HERE.  To obtain a jpeg, click HERE.  To view a short video on Sallie, Click HERE.

European vs African Slavery in the Modern Age

Calls for racial reparations for Africans who experienced slavery over 150 years ago have taken many American cities and even several states by storm. Forgotten in these calls for racial reparations for slavery is the fact that the United States only protected the institution from its inception in 1776 until 1865--only 89 years! Slavery was pretty much an accepted cultural practice throughout the world at the time. In fact, it was the United States and Great Britain that began the campaign to end slavery--often in opposition to Africans and Muslims who wished to continue the practice. Not taught today is a fact that our Founding Fathers were aware of--that Africans had waged wars to enslave whites for over 1100 years! The poster below provides a quick overview of the institution of global slavery from the end of the Roman Empire to the present day. None of these facts are generally acknowledged by our mainstream media or educational institutions today because they run counter to the Marxist teachings known as Critical Race Theory. To read other examples of the false narratives put forth by CRT advocates, simply search for the terms "CRT" or "slavery" in this Blog. 

   To download a copy of the above, click HERE.  

Is the Civil War Still Relevant Today?

Often when we look back upon history, we sense that the 'past' is past and that it is no longer relevant to the present. For years as a public-school teacher of American History, I struggled to get my students interested in the subject. As comedian Red Foxx used to say, "How is knowing when George Washington crossed the Delaware going to help me in a brick fight?" Today, this seems to be no longer a problem. Youth are marching, protesting, burning, and demanding change based upon "past" injustices. To rectify these abominations, they are ready to inflict new injustices upon innocent Americans in the hope that the present generation can atone for the crimes of the past. As a result, the issues that brought about the greatest tragedy in our nation's past seem to be eerily still with us today. The following educational poster has identified five major issues that contributed to Civil War in the 1860s that seem to be increasing in tempo today. They not only parallel the issues of the past, they threaten to reignite a new, perhaps even greater conflict in our nation in the early 21st century. These posters are used in 'living-history' encampments along with many others directly related to events that took place during the Civil War. Not surprisingly, these two posters often generate the most conversation and help to prove that the issues for which our ancestors fought have still not been settled.

To look at some recent news articles that support each of the five issues outlined above, click HERE>