Happy summer of constitutional meltdowns! And hope you’re buckled up for the long weekend ahead…
Cause July 4 didn’t free America. It merely promised America freedom—one day…
Pretty ballsy statement coming from an immigrant about a watershed American moment, right? Trust me, I know. How could the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence, which so beautifully and famously boasts, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” not really live up to its own hype? How could that document, shouting that wildly a revolutionary statement not free America?
Well. Because July 4 was about white men. And technically, not even all white men. Mostly just the landowning ones.
Like Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the first draft of the Declaration.
Dude was as messy and self-conflicted as humans get. I mean, imagine writing a draft section on why the king is essentially a war criminal for “captivating and carrying” distant people into the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade—as you yourself “own” 150 or so human beings! As you yourself are sleeping with one of those enslaved people, your wife’s half-sister no less XXX, As you yourself enslave your own children born from this “entanglement” with the enslaved Sally Hemings?
That, in a nutshell, is basically your guy: Thomas Jefferson. Congress signed a final draft of the Proclamation, but hacked off the bits where Jefferson speechifyies against the king and against slavery (you’ll recall some 2/3 of the dudes who signed the thing were also slave drivers). Anyways, the Declaration is circulated and printed widely throughout the 13 colonies. And just about every newspaper reproduces the Declaration of Independence.
Here’s the bit about white, landowning men:
One of the papers that picks up the piece is Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette. It’s the big wig in print in those days, partly because Ben used his position as a postmaster to push circulation and profits. The Gazette publishes the Declaration on July 10, 1776 giving it front page cover. Turn the page and you’re met with 14 slave-ads that ran in the same paper on the same mo-fcn day, promising rewards for the return of slaves and indentured servants. You already know most Black folk were enslaved back then; so those indentured servants were white, including many poor white men.
Just pause and think about that little footnote. Did the editor stop while type-setting the words “all men are created equal” to flip his shit cause he’d just reached out his hand to collect payment for the 14 slave-ads running in the very same paper and even on the very same page?
And here’s an interesting aside about white women privilege, 1776 version:
There were 30 white women printers at work in 1776 throughout the colonies. So yeah, white women were definitely not created equal—both not equal to the men envisioned by the Declaration, and certainly not equal to the slaves and indentured servants who barely had opportunity to read and write, nevermind taking up privileged positions like becoming a whole fcn printer!
Mary Katherine Goddard printed the Declaration on July 10, 1776 in her two papers, the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Journal. Did she think twice about the hubris of that bombastic statement, “All men are created equal”? Mary Katherine, like Ben Franklin, was also a postmaster. But unlike the dude Ben, who expanded his printing empire thanks to being a postmaster, she lost her postmaster position. Why? Cause she was a woman.
Anyways. This big deal document galvanizes white America, until the slave issue blows up into a civil war. Enter, Juneteenth. A whole 89 years later.
Juneteenth showed up to finally shake the shackles off black bodies held in bondage.
Yeah, yeah, yeah—I know it’s the Emancipation Proclamation that did the legal work. But don’t you think it’s pretty telling America has a whole holiday commemorating white men’s freedom from Britain and until 2020, absolutely nothing, zip, nada commemorating black folks’ freedom from bondage? I mean, ever heard of Emancipation Proclamation Day? No.
And Yet. Even Juneteenth didn’t free America.
Cause if that were true, how could gross inequality stemming from structural (also known as government-sanctioned) racism persist? If George Floyd was truly free, wouldn’t his “unalienable Rights (to) Life” have kept him alive? And listen. It’s not just about police brutality or what became clearer to you in 2020. It’s about the sharp divisions in opportunity based on your zipcode, your skin color, your sexual orientation and identity.
So this freedom. Land of the Free. Home of the Brave. How the heck do we ever realize this freedom, not just for dudes with enough billions to buy out Twitter. But liberty for All of us?
Well. That’s where you come in, Sunshine. That’s your job. Seriously.
Neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Emancipation Proclamation uprooted white supremacy. Which is why and how a man like Thomas Jefferson could write the poetry of “All men are created equal” without seriously considering guilty of the same war crimes he accused the king. To Jefferson, colonizing white landowning men was criminal. Because they were white. Enslaving Sally Hemings, coercing her into sex, and then enslaving his own children—that was acceptable. Maybe even patriotic.
Acknowledging the distance between Juneteenth and July 4 is a path toward freedom for all. That’s got to be at the heart of meaningful celebration.
So. How do you go about your gargantuan, mammoth job of freeing America?
Especially in a post-Roe world where every Constitutional right you take for granted is now threatened?
Where to even start with a project that seemingly elusive? Well, easy. You start with you. Dismantle the white supremacy that lives within you. Imagine if that had been part of Thomas Jefferson’s American project? How wildly different would our world be? As wildly hopeful as what your kids will inherit, cause you bothered to do the hard work.
Juneteenth showed up to finally shake the shackles off black bodies held in bondage.
Yeah, yeah, yeah—I know it’s the Emancipation Proclamation that did the legal work. But don’t you think it’s pretty telling America has a whole holiday commemorating white men’s freedom from Britain and until 2020, absolutely nothing, zip, nada commemorating black folks’ freedom from bondage? I mean, ever heard of Emancipation Proclamation Day? No.
And Yet. Even Juneteenth didn’t free America.
Cause if that were true, how could gross inequality stemming from structural (also known as government-sanctioned) racism persist? If George Floyd was truly free, wouldn’t his “unalienable Rights (to) Life” have kept him alive? And listen. It’s not just about police brutality or what became clearer to you in 2020. It’s about the sharp divisions in opportunity based on your zipcode, your skin color, your sexual orientation and identity.
So this freedom. Land of the Free. Home of the Brave. How the heck do we ever realize this freedom, not just for dudes with enough billions to buy out Twitter. But liberty for All of us?
Well. That’s where you come in, Sunshine. That’s your job. Seriously.
Neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Emancipation Proclamation uprooted white supremacy. Which is why and how a man like Thomas Jefferson could write the poetry of “All men are created equal” without seriously considering guilty of the same war crimes he accused the king. To Jefferson, colonizing white landowning men was criminal. Because they were white. Enslaving Sally Hemings, coercing her into sex, and then enslaving his own children—that was acceptable. Maybe even patriotic.
Acknowledging the distance between Juneteenth and July 4 is a path toward freedom for all. That’s got to be at the heart of meaningful celebration.
So. How do you go about your gargantuan, mammoth job of freeing America?
Especially in a post-Roe world where every Constitutional right you take for granted is now threatened?
Where to even start with a project that seemingly elusive? Well, easy. You start with you. Dismantle the white supremacy that lives within you. Imagine if that had been part of Thomas Jefferson’s American project? How wildly different would our world be? As wildly hopeful as what your kids will inherit, cause you bothered to do the hard work.
❤️
Magogodi
p.s.s.On newspapers printing Declaration
p.s.s.s. On Jefferson, the king’s war crimes x slavery
P.s.s.s.s On Hemings descendents: as last as 2019 they were denied the right to be buried on Monticello, something Jefferson’s white descendants still do.
