1 November 2020
To the elected leaders of America, whether you be at a local, state or national level of government.
I take no pleasure in the need to write this letter. However, I feel that it is necessary, in order, for us to establish a plumb line from which we can once again put this great nation back onto the tracks from whence it has been derailed.
Over the past several decades there has been a great push to erase major portions of American History.
It is ignorance of this very history that has brought us into the racial division which we are experiencing in America today.
Today, I would like to set the record straight.
America was founded on Christian principles. This is undeniable when one reads the writings of our founding fathers.
Many of our founders were preachers and evangelists. Many of them had even received formal education as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Those who fought for our freedom from Great Britain were both black and white.
I feel it is important to stir up in you a reminder of our roots; the very foundation of America.
God said; "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
It is from the systematic erasing of American history that there is even such a thing as racial division in America.
I am convinced, if all Americans knew of our rich heritage of black and white working side by side to build this nation, there would be a much higher level of mutual respect and therefore much less division.
Firstly, it must be noted that slavery was originally forced upon the colonies by the king of England. It was this legacy that our founding fathers strived to end once we declared our independence from Great Britain.
Richard Allen (1760-1831) was a slave on a plantation in Delaware. After hearing the preaching of a Methodist evangelist, Richard gave his life to Christ. He instantly preached the gospel message to anyone who would listen. As a result of this, the owner of the plantation also gave his life to Christ and then realized that he should not hold slaves.
Richard was freed and went north to Philadelphia, where he preached to over two thousand people a week as he pastored a "white" church. There was no spirit of racial division present in this place!
Richard Allen later became a soldier in the American Revolution. He became friends with Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Together, they formed the first black denomination in America, the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Philadelphia had a population of around 40,000, with approximately 70 Doctors. When the yellow fever hit Philadelphia, most of them fled in fear.
However, Dr. Benjamin Rush, along with Richard Allen and another black pastor, Absalom Jones stayed and treated the sick. They worked together, side by side to save lives.
At the time, Philadelphia was a city with a population of around 40,000. Yellow fever was killing about 120 people a day in this city.
The political history of black Americans actually starts in the year 1787.
There are some today who would like to convince us that racial division is imbedded into our Constitution.
They like to point to Article 1, Section 2, known as the 3/5 clause, as proof of this. They say that this clause refers to blacks as only being 3/5 of a person.
They do this either out of ignorance or in some cases, willful deceit.
This premise was investigated by Frederick Douglass, a black American and an early abolitionist.
Frederick Douglass was born a slave and remained a slave until he escaped to New York. There he gave an anti-slavery speech and became a pastor at Zion Methodist Church.
During his first years of freedom, Frederick studied under the white abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison.
Garrison taught Frederick that the Constitution was a pro-slavery document. Frederick Douglass accepted this claim, and this is reflected in his early writings and speeches.
It was later in his life that he investigated these claims for himself. He studied the U.S. Constitution. He studied the writings of the writers of the Constitution.
Through these studies, Frederick drew the conclusion that Garrison had taught him incorrectly, and that the Constitution is an anti-slavery document, not a pro-slavery document.
These conclusions are very important.
Those who wish to attack our Constitution today use the same premise that Garrison had taught, and due to mass ignorance of "we the people", they have gotten away with it for a season.
Racial division in America can only be healed by the study of actual American History. The documented truth.
The 3/5 clause of the Constitution dealt only with representation, not a person's worth.
The Constitution had established that for every 30,000 inhabitants in a state, they would receive one representative to congress.
The southern states took this as an opportunity to strengthen their hold on slavery. Much of their population was made up of slaves. In fact, almost one half of South Carolina's population were slaves at the time.
By counting their slaves (who by the way weren't allowed a vote or representation) they could almost double the number of pro-slavery congressmen in congress.
The northern, anti-slavery states were vehemently opposed to this. The southerners counted their slaves as property, not persons.
The anti-slavery founders wanted only free blacks to count for representation. They understood that the fewer pro-slavery representatives in congress, the sooner they could abolish slavery in America.
They made the argument, that if "property" was going to be counted for representation, then they should also be able to count their horses, cattle, etc.
This brought about a compromise. They came to the agreement that only three fifths of slaves (60%) could be counted for representatives. This greatly reduced the number of pro-slavery representatives in congress. If not for this clause, slavery would more than likely still be present today in America.
Free blacks were often allowed to vote in both the north and in the south.
These are the reasons that Frederick Douglass was able to conclude that the Constitution was definitely an anti-slavery document.
Wentworth Cheswell was another great American hero of the revolutionary war. He was of African and European descent and was elected to serve as a judge in New Hampshire in 1775.
What most Americans don't realize, is that Wentworth Cheswell is a black American hero who rode to warn that the British were coming. We only learn about Paul Revere in our schools. This is another case of great black Americans serving alongside of great white Americans. We have been in this together since the beginning!
In 1789 congress passed the Northwest Ordnance.
This was a law which outlawed slavery in any of the federal territories.
Because of this law, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa entered into the nation as Free states.
In 1808 congress continued its fight against slavery by abolishing the slave trade. The reverend Absalom Jones, whom I mentioned earlier, preached a great sermon commemorating the occasion.
By 1820, most of the founders were dead. Thomas Jefferson's party, the Democratic Party had become the majority party in congress.
In 1820 the Democratic Party passed the Missouri Compromise, which reversed the 1789 Northwest Ordnance. This permitted slavery in almost one half of the federal territories. Several new states were allowed to enter into the nation as slave states.
For the first time since the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, congress officially promoted slavery.
In 1850, the Democratic congress passed The Fugitive Slave Law. This law required northerners to return slaves who had escaped from the south or pay huge fines. Slave hunters used this law as a means to kidnap free blacks in the north and bring them into slavery in the south.
This Democratic passed law was so disastrous for blacks in the north, that many of them fled to Canada to escape the consequences of it. It is estimated that over 20,000 blacks left America because of this law. This was the height of the Underground Railway, which helped many slaves from the south make it all the way to Canada.
In 1854 the Democratic controlled congress passed the Kansas Nebraska Act. This law allowed slavery to be introduced into parts of the territory where it had been forbidden by earlier laws.
This prompted the formation of a new political party in May of 1854.
Anti-slavery Democrats, along with anti-slavery members of the Whig party, "Free Soil" Advocates and Emancipationists formed the Republican Party to fight slavery and secure equal rights for black Americans.
They called it the Republican Party because they wanted to return to the principles of freedom and equality first laid out by the founding fathers in the founding documents of the Republic, before the pro-slavery members of the congress had perverted them.
There are many other black hero patriots which are also a rich part of our history.
During the battle of Yorktown in 1781, we are taught about "the hero" Marquis De La Fayette, a French general. He was only part of the victory. There is also a black American hero involved in this victory.
James Armistead, a black patriot from Virginia became a double spy for America.
He went to the British general, Cornwallis and convinced him that he was an escaped slave. He became Cornwallis' servant, and was actually feeding information back to general La Fayette about the British Military plans.
General Cornwallis approached him and asked him to be a spy. He told him to go back to the Americans and then send him information on their plans.
This great patriot was feeding the Americans good information and the British false information, which helped us to finally defeat the British in this battle. The information he was providing to both sides brought the British into a trap. The American army on one side, and the French navy on the other side. Armistead's patriotism more than likely shed years off this war.
The battle of Bunker Hill also has a black American patriot as a hero.
Peter Salem fought in this battle along with about a dozen other black American patriots.
It is reported that Peter Salem hunted down the British commander and killed him, leaving the British army in chaos and handing the victory over to the Americans. He is accredited with saving hundreds of American lives that day. He received several commendations and medals for his service to America.
Lemuel Haynes was a black American pastor who joined in the fight against the British to secure our freedom. After the war he returned to his churches, where every year on George Washington's birthday he would preach a sermon on George Washington, his commander in chief with whom he had fought along-side of.
How do you think this great black American hero would feel about tearing down George Washington's statue?
The first African American appointed to a government post in America was William Nell. He wrote a history book titled
"Services of Colored Americans in the wars of 1776 & 1812". He also wrote another, larger book titled
"The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution."
This is history that was once taught in our schools.
Actual American history proves that black and white American patriots worked together, side by side to make America great.
Did you know that the Word of God tells us that "from one blood God created every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth"?
Did you know that Moses had a black wife, and that God seriously rebuked his brother and sister for speaking ill of her?
In 1856 the Republican Party entered its first presidential election.
They issued their first Party Platform. It contained only 9 "planks".
6 of those 9 planks sent forth proclamations of
Black Equality & Civil Rights for African Americans, based on the founder's intent as written down in the Declaration of Independence.
The Democratic Party platform of that year took a totally opposite position.
Their candidate, James Buchanan warned;
"All efforts of the abolitionists are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences and all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people."
In spite of their efforts, the Republican Party lost that election.
The following year, 1857, the Democratic controlled Supreme Court issued the Dred Scott Decision. This decision declared that blacks were not persons, but property.
Their chief justice, Roger B. Taney, wrote these words:
"[Blacks] had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and the Negro might justly be reduced to slavery for his benefit."
1860-The next election for president of the United States.
Republican Abraham Lincoln ran against Democratic U.S. senator Stephen Douglas.
The Republican platform of 1860 opposed both the Fugitive Slave Law and the Dred Scott decision. It also stated their intention to end slavery and win civil rights for black Americans.
The Democratic platform of 1860 praised both the Dred Scott decision and the Fugitive Slave Law. They even handed out copies of the Dred Scott decision to show their support for keeping slavery in America.
The Democratic Party split in 1860.
The entire party believed in slavery. The northern democrats did not desire to split the nation over it. The southern democrats believed that it was worth splitting from the Union to keep their slaves.
Northern Democrats voted for Stephen Douglas for president. Southern Democrats voted for John C. Breckenridge.
This split enabled Abraham Lincoln to win the presidency with only 40% of the popular vote, but 59% of the Electoral College.
Republicans also won a majority in the house and senate in that election. This was the very first time in history that the Republicans gained control of the Law-making progress in America.
Realizing that this change was going to bring about the end of slavery and the beginning of civil rights for black Americans, the southern Democrats left the congress and took their 11 states with them. They formed a new nation from this split. The name of their newly created nation was
"The Slave Holding States of the Confederacy".
The northern Democrats, who remained with the Union continued their fight to keep slavery and deny civil rights to black Americans.
1862-The Republican Party abolishes slavery in Washington DC.
1863-The Emancipation Proclamation was issued, freeing all slaves in the southern states which were in rebellion.
Black Americans gathered around clocks on December 31, 1862, waiting for the first minute of 1863 to strike. This was when the proclamation officially started. Frederick Douglass attended one of these. It was a jubilant day, not only for black Americans, but for all Americans who cherished the freedoms framed by our founding fathers.
On the other side of the fence was the speech of the Confederate vice president, Alexander Stephens. Stephens said;
"Slavery is the cornerstone of the Confederacy."
The newly elected Republicans moved swiftly to pass legislation giving black Americans equality within the courts. Before this, they could not even be a witness or file a lawsuit before the courts.
They passed a law giving equal pay to all soldiers, whether you were black or white. They worked diligently to secure civil rights for all Americans.
In 1864, a northern Democrat, General George B. McClellan, ran against President Lincoln. As part of his platform, he stated;
"Our bloody civil war has now lasted four years under the mismanagement of Abraham Lincoln. Nearly one million white men have been sacrificed." He also said; "[Lincoln] has declared his intention to convert it [the civil war] into a war for forcible abolition and Negro equality, social and political."
The 1864 Republican platform called for a Constitutional amendment to forever end the existence of slavery.
1865-The civil war was ended, the Confederacy had been defeated.
President Lincoln visited Richmond, Virginia, with the black troops of the 29th Connecticut Regiment. This was the former capitol of the Confederacy.
A black officer of the regiment recorded the occasion. He wrote;
"As the President passed along the street, the colored people waived their handkerchiefs, hats and bonnets and expressed their gratitude by shouting repeatedly, 'Thank God for His goodness! We have seen His salvation.' The white soldiers caught the sound and swelled in numbers, cheering as they marched along. All could see the President. He was so tall. One woman shouted, 'Thank You, dear Jesus! For this sight of the great coming!' No wonder tears came to the President's eyes, when he looked on the poor colored people, who were once slaves and heard the blessings uttered from thankful hearts and thanksgiving to God in Jesus. Thousands of colored men in Richmond would have laid down their' lives for President Lincoln."
Do you see the mutual love between white and black Americans at this juncture of history? We must get back the truth of our rich history!
Originally Posted by MercyandFaith
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