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Florida Board fails hilariously at proving "Slavery taught skills" [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-07-22
So, in their attempt to defend Florida from the vicious attacks by Vice President Harris, Ron Desantis proclaimed that being an enslaved person “taught skills” which could be used later in life. (Presumably as a free person).
Alex Wagner and Jelani Cobb destroyed this argument.
But wait it gets worse. There’s a statement from the people who wrote these new standards defending their position again claiming that it is “well documented” that people who had been slaves gained skills during their enslavement that they could later use.
x This is a statement from two of the people who wrote Florida's new education standards on slavery. In it they give several names of people to exemplify slaves who learned skills they applied later in life.
Let's go through the supposed truth of this list one by one.
https://t.co/Y8rJLsPEv5 — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
Or did they? Join me over the jump for the sad truth.
Here’s what VP Harris had to say in Jacksonville pointing out the Rape, Torture, Human Trafficking and Terrorism that was a part of the Slave trade.
The simple fact is that many of the names on their list of examples — were not slaves. And that most of those who had been slaves gained their business and personal skills — AFTER that slavery.
For example, there’s Ned Cobb who was born in 1885 — 20 years after Slavery ended.
x The first name is Ned Cobb, who was listed as a blacksmith.
Ned Cobb was a tenant farmer and activist who born in 1885, 20 years after the emancipation of slaves.
https://t.co/dlRGuhQKzX — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
Then there’s Henry Blair.
x The second name is Henry Blair, also listed as a blacksmith.
There is no evidence Henry Blair was ever enslaved, and the fact he could register patents is evidence he was not in fact ever enslaved.
https://t.co/Ej2CE4CRAZ — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
And Lewis Lattimer, who’s parents had been enslaved but he was actually born in Massachusettes as a free man.
x The third name is Lewis Latimer, also listed as a blacksmith.
Lewis' parents escaped slavery, obtained their freedom in Massachusetts, and eventually Lewis was born, a free man in free Massachusetts.
https://t.co/abhDlganm7 — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
The first possible former slave listed is John Henry who was forced to work the railroad as a prisoner under the Black Codes following Slavery and also is a folk hero who may not have actually existed. [He did exist.] Henry was not a blacksmith, he was a railroad worker who famously battled a mechanical device at driving railroad spikes with his hammer until he died.
x The fourth name is John Henry, also listed as a blacksmith.
Detailed facts about the real John Henry are disputed, and his status is principally a folk hero.
https://t.co/yXo8tt0CTQ — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
Skipping to the chase James Forten, Paul Chuffe, John Chavis, William Whipper were also all born free men.
The seventh name on the list is extra ridiculous because it’s George Washington’s WHITE sister.
x The seventh name is Betty Washington Lewis, listed as a shoemaker.
Betty was the free white sister of George Washington, the first President of the United States, and slave owner.
https://t.co/xg2tmpAbFh — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
How exactly to people who call themselves “educators” put George Washington’s sister on a list of people who “gained skills from slavery” never mind the fact that that didn’t happen and she wasn’t a slave, she’s not African either so it doesn’t even make the point the during slavery many African-Americans became prominent businessmen and women.
Now, of the people who were slaves on the list, most of them didn't actually gain their business skills from slavery itself.
x The eighth name is Jupiter Hammon, listed as a fishing and shipping industry worker.
Jupiter is the FIRST name in the list so far who was actually a slave—all his life—and was a writer and poet. If he worked in that industry, it was in that capacity.
https://t.co/XjZWkffhRV — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
Hammon was born into slavery on Long Island. In most of the South, teaching a slave to read and write was illegal. So he gained a “skill” that wasn’t even offered to most slaves at the time and certainly couldn’t be consider an example “things I learned from slavery.”
x The 11th name is Crispus Attucks, also listed as a fishing or shipping industry worker.
Crispus was indeed a slave, and became a sailor after escaping slavery, but he was born inland in Massachusetts, and his slaver's work was cattle.
https://t.co/kwvUB19KBS — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
Attucks is the second actual slave on their list and he gained the skill of being a sailer AFTER he escaped from slavery. That’s 0-2 so far.
Then we get to number 12.
x The 12th name is Elizabeth Keckley, listed as a seamstress.
Elizabeth was indeed a slave, and learned how to be a seamstress while a slave. But it was her enslaved mother who taught her how to do that, while her slavers raped her.
https://t.co/lytyu7UE0A — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
“But it was her enslaved mother who taught her how to do that.” Gaining the skill of being a seamstress had nothing do to with her enslaved condition, it was passed down from mother to daughter which would have likely occurred if both of them had been free. Technically it was probably common for one slave to teach another slave a particular skill, but this is not a good example of that. So we’re at 1 for 3 out of the enslaved and 1 for 12 out of the entire list.
Finally, we have our first real example with James Thomas.
x at a barbershop owned by another slave, and eventually opened his own barbershop. He worked as a barber, eventually gained his real freedom, and then in his later years he was a real estate investor. He was not a tailor.
https://t.co/TLmNLYRMgg — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
Not a tailor, a barber. Not a slave exactly, his freedom was technically bought when he was 6. He learned his skill again as a free person even though he was “considered” a slave by law. 2 for 13.
Then we have another example with Betsey Stockton.
x teacher while on a missionary trip of her own after she was a fully free person.
https://t.co/842lHvrKfx — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
She became a teacher after she had become a fully free person, so this one is again a NO.
Then there’s Booker T. Washington and the totals.
x So taking stock @AlexLanfran, of all of the bull shit ("truth") you helped spread, of the 16 names in that statement:
– 9 were never enslaved
– 9 are listed in the wrong industry
– 13/14 didn't learn their skills by being slaves
– 1 was the white sister of George Washington — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
While enslaved Booker was illiterate and then taught himself to read after emancipation. Slavery did not make him a teacher.
16 people were listed and apparently, only 2 of them learned a skill while being a slave, and yet that skill wasn’t taught to them because they were a slave but rather in spite of or incidental to it.
This is fucking ridiculous. It’s dumb. It’s sloppy. It’s not even up to the standards of a half-assed google fact check.
x I made a table summarizing the results. pic.twitter.com/0K9sqGPA8M — Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023
“It is disappointing, but nevertheless unsurprising, that critics would reduce months of work to create Florida’s first stand-alone strand of African American history standards to a few isolated expressions without context.”
I actually appreciate looking up and learning about all of the successful African American business persons during the Antebellum and Civil War periods. That was actually instructive - but apparently *they* didn't bother to really look this up themselves. And yet, they worked on this for months? How in the world does someone who calls themself an “educator” get things this hilariously wrong? How does George Washington’s sister get on a list of people who “learned skills from slavery?” How does Ned Cobb get on the list when he was born 20 years after Slavery ended?
Unless pushing an agenda that diminishes the real impact and damage of slavery is exactly the point.
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