Recap Question: What Do You Mean...Free-ish?

“Slavery didn’t end in 1865. It just evolved. It turned into decades of terrorism, violence, and lynching,” said Bryan Stevenson, delivering the 2017 Tanner Lecture on Human Values. Bryan Stevenson—lawyer, social justice activist, law professor, and founder of Equal Justice Initiative—says the abolition of chattel slavery left the door open for slavery to evolve. The core issue with its evolution is the prevailing belief in white supremacy.

Cornerstone Speech March 21, 1861, Savannah GA

Alexander Stevens, VP of the Confederacy delivered the Cornerstone Speech: Defense of slavery. Perceived differences between the North and South. Racial rhetoric used to show the inferiority of Black people.

The Corwin Agreement (aka Slavery Amendment)

February 26, 1861, Representative Thomas Corwin of Ohio introduces his own text for an amendment protecting slavery: "No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State."

 

Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and the 13th Amendment (1865)

"In my view as a scholar of race and colonialism, Emancipation Days — Juneteenth in Texas — are not what many people think, because emancipation did not do what most of us think it did." —Dr Kris Manjapra, Dept of History Tufts University

 

General Order No. 3 - National Archives

On June 19, 1865, two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s historic Emancipation Proclamation, U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3, which informed the people of Texas that all enslaved people were now free. Granger commanded the Headquarters District of Texas, and his troops had arrived in Galveston the previous day.

 

Fighting for freedom denied

Fear is our biggest enemy - false evidence appearing real and real evidence appearing false. 
"The worst form of fear is the gloomy thoughts that create an eerie atmosphere inside one’s mind."—Poem Analysis

 

Abolition Amendment

December 2, 2020: Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Representative William Lacy Clay (D-MO-1) propose constitutional amendment to close slavery loophole in 13th amendment.The 13th Amendment abolished most—but not all—slavery, permitting slavery or involuntary servitude “as a punishment for crime.” The Abolition Amendment would finally finish the job started by the Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation, and 13th Amendment and end the morally reprehensible practice of slavery and forced labor in America, and send a clear message: in this country, no person will be stripped of their basic humanity and forced to toil for someone else’s profit.

Episode giveaways:

• Article: The Power of Perspective Taking: How leaning in can expand our worldview and deepen our relationships. Perspective taking is a multidimensional ability that includes understanding not only someone’s visual assessment of reality (their viewpoint), but also their perceptual assessment (their understanding). In other words, it's the power of stepping into someone else's personal narrative, which often reflects historical celebration. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-personal-narrative/201906/the-power-perspective-taking
• NPR: Democrats Push 'Abolition Amendment' To Fully Erase Slavery From U.S. Constitution. Federal lawmakers introduced an joint resolution that seeks "to prohibit the use of slavery and involuntary servitude as a punishment for a crime" under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/03/942413221/democrats-push-abolition-amendment-to-fully-erase-slavery-from-u-s-constitution
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