The following will be a brief bit of anger from me, so you can leave the column now if that might bother you.
But, before I delve into my frustration about a recent ignorant comment, I invite you to find the famous, or infamous, photo of a slave called “Whipped Pete.” You will instantly get the idea where the moniker came from.
Rest assured that Whipped Pete was not the only slave to have endured such sadistic treatment; it’s just that his mistreatment was memorialized in a photo.
Now back to my anger. I was incensed by recent comments by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that slaves like Whipped Pete could have benefitted from this inhumanity if, by chance, they learned a trade along the way like being a blacksmith, a trade that actually helped his enslaver.
Officially, Florida public schools will teach that some slaves benefitted from slavery because it taught useful skills.
My fear is that this kind of insidious, racist and reverse critical race theory way of thinking can pick up steam and travel, especially west on Interstate 10, and find its way into Louisiana. My guess is that there are some in the land of cotton where old times there are not forgotten who may be sympathetic to what they are saying in Florida.
The warped thinking of DeSantis, who is competing for the presidential nomination of the GOP, has only met mild criticism from a few in the party.
Think about it. Under his state’s contention, a slave whose mother was sold, his sister or brother raped by the plantation owner or his children and his brothers sold — but who learned how to plant corn — somehow benefitted from slavery.
I’m angry because this foolishness is yet another effort to lessen the bloody cruelty of slavery and the people who benefitted from it. I wonder what Louisiana’s Republican gubernatorial candidates think of this kind of nonsense?
It’s just another shameless effort to over time rewrite the inhumanity of slavery, until 200 years from now some children will only know the truth by seeing smuggled videos, books or whatever AI is used in 2223.
Here’s an example of how hiding history that makes some uncomfortable happens. I recently asked a young woman who had gone to a wonderful private high school and a well-respected college: “Have you ever heard of the ‘Trail of Tears?’" She said no, but she was inquisitive, so she immediately went to her phone to find out.
Well, readers, this is another part of America’s inhumanity to its people, in this case American Indians.
Estimates are that between 60,000 and 100,000 American Indians were stripped of their land east of the Mississippi River by the federal government in the 1830s and marched 1,200 miles away to Oklahoma. An estimated 6,000 to 15,000 died on the trail.
Think about it. Under the DeSantis-Florida doctrine, those that survived may have benefitted by learning amazing endurance techniques or how to make durable footwear or how to hold quick and inexpensive burials. Heck, they could go into the funeral business.
I bet a few of you reading this column have never heard this part of America’s ugly history. I wonder why?
Now you get where I’m coming from. The whole ugly truth of slavery deserves to be told, and not trimmed, reshaped and glossed over by followers of DeSantis or any others of that ilk.
The history of my people is part of over 400 years of this country’s story.
The South’s economy would not have existed without fruits gained from the brutality of slavery and depraved treatment of people like Whipped Pete. Their true story, in all of its ugliness, should be told today and always.
And everyone’s children should know about it, minus the stupid additions.
Email Edward Pratt, a former newspaperman, at epratt1972@yahoo.com.