Today, being the first of many entries relating to the Afrikan Diaspora, I have decided to kick it off with a defining point in African-American History...The abolishment of slavery....And in doing so, I further focus your attention to the one known as "The Great Emancipator"...That's right, good ol' Honest Abe....And because of the honesty held by the 16th US President...I feel that I need not say anything, and that, actually, he's practically written my entry for me:
I can conceive of no greater calamity than the assimilation of the negro into our social and political life as our equal...Within twenty years we can peacefully colonize the negro and give him our language, literature, religion, and system of government under conditions in which he can rise to the full measure of manhood. This he can never do here. We can never attain the ideal union our fathers dreamed, with millions of an alien, inferior race among us, whose assimilation is neither possible nor desirable. - August 14, 1862
**** I agree with Judge Douglas that he (Negroes) is not my equal in many respects, certainly not in color, and perhaps not in moral and intellectual endowment.
**** I have no purpose to produce political and social equality. I am not in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes or of qualifying them to hold office or allowing them to intermarry with white people...I have never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry Negroes, even if there was no law to keep them from it...I will, to the very last, stand by the law of this state which forbids the marrying of white people with Negroes.
**** I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will forever forbid their living together in perfect equality: and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there should be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the supremacy. - Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 26, 1857
**** Judge Douglas has said to you that he has not been able to get me to answer the question whether I am in favor of Negro citizenship. So far as I know, the Judge never asked me the question before (applause) He shall have no occasion to ever ask it again, for I tell him very frankly that I am not in favor of Negro citizenship. (renewed applause)...Now my opinion is that the different states have the power to make a Negro a citizen under the Constitution of the United States if they choose...If the state of Illinois had that power I should be opposed to the exercise of it. (cries of "good," "good," and applause) - Speech at Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854
**** Now I say to you, my fellow citizen, that in my opinion, the signers of the Declaration of Independence had no reference to the Negro whatever. One great evidence is to be found in the fact that at the time every one of the thirteen colonies was a slaveholding colony, every signer of the Declaration representing a slaveholding constituency, and not one of them emancipated his slaves, much less offered citizenship to them when they signed the Declaration. If they intended to declare the Negro was equal of the white man, they were bound that day and hour to have put the Negroes on an equality with themselves. - Debate in peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1858
::Sigh::....Good ol' Honest Abe...Hopefully, some of this information is not new to you...However, hoping is far from knowing....There are many of you all who have no idea that Mr. Lincoln subscribed to such beliefs....Last you checked, you used to dress up like him for school plays, or reading bokks about him because you thought he was the greatest guy in the world....But in all actuality, they just never told you everything about him....And just think, our youth today are falling prey to the same deceit, whether it is intentional or not...Taught to embrace the same people that held such disgraceful/degrading beliefs.......
Honest Abe...He doesn't mince his words....