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LTE: Florida’s new slavery curriculum

August 13, 2023 by To The Editor

To the editor:

 

Revisionist history? Delusional thinking? Whitewashing? Self-serving politics? 

I refer to the attempt by Florida to paint slavery with a beneficial side. A brief history: In the 1600s and 1700s, Europe practiced slavery on a very large scale. It was an accepted “social program” that provided reliable, cheap (read: very cheap) labor. 

Various forms of slavery have been practiced throughout history. White people in Europe, called serfs, were essentially slaves. Child labor was a form of slavery. And so it goes. And then, we have white colonists from America sailing to Africa and elsewhere to pick up cargoes of natives. 

Hey, why not? It was an accepted practice. 

I picture myself a native in Africa and one day I am hijacked onto a ship, chained, etc. I arrive in a strange environment, still in chains. Forced into a life totally foreign to me, I am subjected to very stringent and cruel treatment. 

But wait, during this time I learn new skills — maybe picking cotton, tending as a house servant, tending farm animals, maybe even carpentry skills. President Thomas Jefferson is someone I can name who allowed this skill, but this was an extremely limited practice. 

I am not allowed to learn writing or reading skills (except in some very rare circumstances). Any form of self-governance is absolutely taboo. OK, OK, so I am exaggerating. Or, am I?

Back to Europe; child labor was common. The young girl or boy gets up very early, has breakfast, and trots off to the factory to work eight or more hours for pennies and under very harsh conditions. But, hey, they got to learn skills. 

If anyone reading this letter doesn’t get the message about the “benefits” of slavery in our South, then I feel discouraged but I will keep trying to set the record straight.

As President Ronald Reagan once said to Mikhail Gorbachev about the Berlin wall, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” 

I say to Gov. Ron DeSantis and his cronies, tear down your wall of distortions, hate, and shame.

 

Sincerely,

Walter Haug

Marblehead

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