Jefferson and Haiti
The roots of racism in this hemisphere run remarkably deep. Henry Louis Gates Jr. has the story this week of Thomas Jefferson's reaction when the Slave Revolt broke out in Haiti in 1791. Naturally, the slave trade capitalists were panicked as hell:Jefferson was terrified that the creation, and flourishing, of a black republic in the New World would serve as a model for the rebellion of America’s own slaves; and that, at all costs, would be unacceptable. As early as 1793, Jefferson wrote to James Monroe that “Never was so deep a tragedy presented to the feelings of man … I become daily more and more convinced that all the West India Island will remain in the hands of the people of colour, and a total expulsion of the whites sooner or later take place. It is high time we should foresee the bloody scenes which our children certainly, and possibly ourselves (south of the Potomac), have to wade through and try to avert them.” Two years later, in a letter to Aaron Burr, Jefferson compared the Haitians to assassins and referred to them as “Cannibals of the terrible republic.”
Jefferson feared that a successful Haitian revolution would threaten the stability of slavery: “If something is not done, and done soon, we shall be the murderers of our own children.” By 1802, Jefferson’s worst fears had come true: the “course of things in the neighboring islands of the West Indies,” he wrote to Rufus King in July, “appears to have given considerable impulse to the minds of the slaves….a great disposition to insurgency has manifested itself among them.”
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Pay walls: This story is wild. New York Newsday, the Long Island, NY newsdaily constructed a pay wall ($5 per week) for access to its online content back in October. They got 35 subscribers.
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Happy Winter! Des Moines' cumulative snowfall this season now measures 41.4 inches, the most in the city since 1886. It's mostly fun and games for somebody like me, who has had his office closed for parts of three days, but it may not be for the students of Des Moines Public Schools. They might have to go to classes on Saturday! Can I hear a collective "OMG"?!
posted by CM @ 9:04 PM
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