The Persistent Messaging About How Badly America Wanted to End Slavery

Amodern-day comparison could be Republicans taking credit in their states for infrastructure projects, including building roads and bridges, without mentioning they voted against the Infrastructure Bill. While researching, I kept running across people trying to convince me that historical figures like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington worked so hard to end slavery when, in some instances, it didn’t end until 100 years after such attempts were made.

The State of Florida is an example, but they are not alone. In reviewing Florida’s State Academic Standards for Black History, I uncovered example after example of efforts to end slavery, with no mention of the winning side who did all they could to maintain it. To be sure, there were organizations like The Quakers (though they once traded slaves themselves) and individuals like Thomas Paine who worked hard to end enslavement. Others like John Jay pushed for gradual manumission, and he freed several of his slaves during his lifetime once he felt they deserved it. Abraham Lincoln had much to say about maintaining enslavement but is credited in Florida for his “evolving views.”

Here are some examples of what Florida requires teachers to tell children about Black History:

SS.68.AA.2.5 Identify political figures who strove to abolish the institution of slavery (e.g., Thaddeus Stevens, Abraham Lincoln, Zachariah Chandler).

SS.68.AA.2.6 Evaluate various abolitionist movements that continuously pushed to end slavery. Benchmark Clarifications: Clarification 1: Instruction includes the Society of Friends (Quakers) and their efforts to end slavery throughout the United States. Clarification 2: Instruction includes writings by Africans living in the United States and their effect on the abolitionist movement (e.g., Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, David Walker, Martin Delaney).

SS.912.AA.1.10 Evaluate efforts by groups to limit the expansion of race-based slavery in Colonial America.

SS.912.AA.2.4 Examine political actions of the Continental Congress regarding the practice of slavery. 12 Benchmark Clarifications: Clarification 1: Instruction includes examples of how the members of the Continental Congress made attempts to end or limit slavery (e.g., the first draft of the Declaration of Independence that blamed King George III for sustaining the slave trade in the colonies, the calls of the Continental Congress for the end of involvement in the international slave trade, the Constitutional provision allowing for congressional action in 1808).

SS.912.AA.2.5 Examine how federal and state laws shaped the lives and rights for enslaved and free Africans in the 18th and 19th centuries. Benchmark Clarifications: Clarification 1: Instruction includes how different states passed laws that gradually led to the abolition of slavery in northern states (e.g., gradual abolition laws: RI Statutes 1728, 1765 & 1775, PA 1779, MA & NH 1780s, CT & NJ 1784, NY 1799; states abolishing slavery: VT 1777).

SS.912.AA.2.6 Analyze the provisions under the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution regarding slavery. Benchmark Clarifications: Clarification 1: Instruction includes how slavery increased through natural reproduction and the smuggling of human contraband, in spite of the desire of the Continental Congress to end the importation of slaves.

SS.912.AA.2.7 Analyze the contributions of founding principles of liberty, justice and equality in the quest to end slavery. 13 Benchmark Clarifications: Clarification 1: Instruction includes the principles found in historical documents (e.g., Declaration of Independence as approved by the Continental Congress in 1776, Chief Justice William Cushing’s notes regarding the Quock Walker case, Petition to the Massachusetts Legislature on January 13, 1777, Constitution of Massachusetts of 1780, Constitution of Kentucky of 1792, Northwest Ordinance of 1785, Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Southwest Ordinance of 1790, Petition from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery of 1790, Petition of Free Blacks of Philadelphia 1800, United States Congress Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1808). Clarification 2: Instruction includes the contributions of key figures in the quest to end slavery as the nation was founded (e.g., Elizabeth “Mum Bett” Freeman, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay).

SS.912.AA.2.9 Explain how early abolitionist movements advocated for the civil rights of Africans in America. Benchmark Clarifications: Clarification 1: Instruction includes leading advocates and arguments for civil rights (e.g., John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Rush). Clarification 2: Instruction includes the abolitionist and anti-slavery organizations (e.g., Pennsylvania Abolition Society [PAS], New York Manumission Society [NYMS], Free African Society [FAS], Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes and Others Unlawfully Held in Bondage, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery).

SS.912.AA.2.10 Evaluate the Abolitionist Movement and its leaders and how they contributed in different ways to eliminate slavery. 14 Benchmark Clarifications: Clarification 1: Instruction includes different abolitionist leaders and how their approaches to abolition differed (e.g., William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, President Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens, Sojourner Truth, Jonathan Walker, Albion Tourgée, Harriet Tubman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Wilberforce [United Kingdom], Vicente Guerrero [Mexico]). Clarification 2: Instruction includes how Abraham Lincoln’s views on abolition evolved over time. Clarification 3: Instruction includes the relationship between William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass and their respective approaches to abolition. Clarification 4: Instruction includes the efforts in the creation of the 13th Amendment. Clarification 5: Instruction includes different abolition groups and how they related to other causes (e.g., women’s suffrage, temperance movements). Clarification 6: Instruction includes the efforts of the American Colonization Society towards the founding of Liberia and its relationship to the struggle to end slavery in the United States.

SS.912.AA.2.11 Describe the impact The Society of Friends had on the abolition of slavery. Benchmark Clarifications: Clarification 1: Instruction includes the relationship between the Abolitionist Movement involving the Quakers in both England and the United States. Clarification 2: Instruction includes how the use of pamphlets assisted the Quakers in their abolitionist efforts. Clarification 3: Instruction includes key figures and actions made within the Quaker abolition efforts in North Carolina.

All these examples come from the first 15 pages of a 216-page document. Far more time is spent noting unsuccessful attempts to end slavery, some of which were no such thing, than descriptions of the successful attempts to maintain or expand it. Time and again, Florida refers to various attempts to end the International Slave Trade, which was ended in 1808. What they never tell you is that it was a protectionist move to keep prices up on domestic-bred slaves, whose production was promoted by forced breeding and rape.

Not once does Florida clarify that Abraham Lincoln wanted to ship freedmen off to Liberia or Central America and never considered Black people his social or intellectual equals. If he could have kept the Union intact with slavery allowed, he would have. He said multiple times in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates that you never hear quoted:

“What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this; and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not. Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound judgment, is not the sole question, if, indeed, it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill-founded, cannot be safely disregarded. We cannot, then, make them equals. It does seem to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted; but for their tardiness in this, I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the South. — Abraham Lincoln

Have You Actually Read The Contents of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates? | by William Spivey | Black History Month 365 | Medium

Florida is not alone in perpetrating the lie that leaders generally wanted the slaves freed. Many thought slavery was wrong and wanted it to end. I don’t intend to minimize their efforts and sacrifices. Some died supporting abolition, but let’s not ignore those who took their lives. Don’t take credit for the KKK Acts of 1871 without acknowledging the existence of the Klan.

Reading through Florida’s guidelines and misrepresenting history is disturbing, yet they didn’t invent many of the lies they tell. Many sources describe “natural increase,” including some provided by the US Government. Historians and statisticians provide many reasons substantiating why enslaved people increased rapidly in America while barely keeping up in the rest of the Western Hemisphere. Not once do they mention forced breeding and rape.

“The growth of the slave population has important implications for comparative studies of slave well-being, disease environments, treatment, work regimes, and ability to form families.” — J. David Hacker

Jenny Bourne: Expert on Enslavement | by William Spivey | Black History Month 365 | Medium

It would be nice to believe that America was always on a steady path to eliminate enslavement or that it was King George’s fault and that the Continental Congress or the Constitution had a secret plan to end slavery, but they didn’t. Thomas Jefferson, President in 1808 when the importation of enslaved people ended on paper, wrote a letter years before to George Washington advising him to put his money into slaves, extolling the value of Black women and the return on investment from her children. Jefferson proved his appreciation for Black women by having six children with one.

Thomas Jefferson’s Four-Percent Solution | by William Spivey | Black History Month 365 | Medium

Governor Ron DeSantis, a former history teacher, is wrong for pushing these lies and forcing them on Florida’s children instead of the truth. Given his stance on migrants and asylum seekers, I have no reason to believe he would have ended enslavement any sooner than it happened. He just wants to take credit for it. Even after the Civil War and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, slavery was reinvented with the Black Codes and, later, Jim Crow. The 13th Amendment contains an exception that still exists for prisoners; that is why we still have mass incarceration—food for thought.

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This post was previously published on Black History Month 365.

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