One Race, The Human Race

By Caroline Niesley

James Forten

“Free Man of Color”, Revolutionary War Veteran & POW, Prominent Philadelphia Sailmaker & Rigger Employed 40 White and Black Persons, Author and Abolitionist, Inventor – Rescued 12 Persons from Drowning.

Robert Purvis

“Free man of color”, Abolitionist, Author, Public Speaker, Businessman, Gentleman Farmer, Member of the Vigilante Committee of the Underground Railroad

Concerning the overlooked deaths of Black Americans in the violent aftermath of George Floyd’s death in police custody. Attorney General Bill Barr told Mark Levin, “I believe ALL black lives matter.”  Exactly.

CNN reported 100 people died violently as they and other networks increased ratings with inflammatory reporting of White police and Black suspects producing outrage.  In the ensuing violence Black and White children were murdered, some intentionally, some accidentally.  

Near the historic Frederick Douglass house, Cedar Hill in DC, an 11 year old killed by a stray bullet to his head fired by one of 5 arguing young men who left the scene in a sedan.  The child and the young men were Black.  A journalist asked what Douglass would have said.

What would Mr. Douglas say of our affluent, cell phone wielding society, where well shod Marxists trash poor urban neighborhoods with aplomb as Democratic politicians praise them from behind Covid masks in the narrative of fighting racism covering their party's history before a contentious election. A Black Republican, from the era of Douglass, would be furious.       

In his autobiography, Frederick Douglass, a Christian and former slave wrote of his experience with righteous anger.  After he’d achieved fame as a speaker, the daughter of his former owner wrote Douglass. 

Her father was on his deathbed and wanted to speak with him.  Douglass went.  The two men reconciled. Douglass was criticized for being merciful.  He’d seen what a lack of mercy brings.   

245 years of slavery plus one hundred years of disenfranchisement and segregation made a cancer in the Republic which won’t stay in remission.  Oceans of blood from millions who died in slavery and the war fought against it cannot cleanse us of this evil inflammatory division. 

Yet everyone of good will who heard Dr. King speak of his “dream” believed a colorblind society not only possible but around the corner.  What happened?

Booker T. Washington, whose memoir Out of Slavery is not to be missed, eloquently said, “There is a certain class of race problem-solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out, they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public." 

One example of Washington’s claim occurred at the funeral of civil rights activist, John Lewis.  Former President Obama raised applause and approbation at the solemn event by projecting the evils of his own Democratic Party, invoking ghosts of Bull Connor and George Wallace with the zeitgeist of Jim Crow, upon the people of the Republican Party.  What verbal ledgerdemain.

What he did not say was the Republican Party was responsible for the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th amendments to the Constitution finally granting suffrage to black Americans.  These laws were ignored in the Democrat controlled South.  Dixiecrat poll taxes, twenty page exams and the Klan made voting impossible for Black Americans for 100 years in the South. 

A 14 hour filibuster by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, a former Klansman for whom Barack Obama gave a public eulogy fit for a king, was staged to stop the Civil Rights Act.  After, Republican Senator Everett Dirksen took the floor quoting Victor Hugo, “Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come,….”  Time magazine, in their June 19, 1964 issue stated, “it is Dirksen’s bill (The Civil Rights Act of 1964), bearing his handiwork more than anyone else’s.”  No wonder no one has ever heard of Dirksen.

Politics are as complicated as human beings, take Pennsylvania.  The State Constitution of 1770 read, “All freedmen having a sufficient common interest with an attachment to the community have a right to elect officers,….”  Which meant any man with property could vote by law in PA.  67 years later, in 1837, there was a Convention to amend and insert the word “white” before the word “freedmen”!  There were a good number of nays but not enough.  In protest of this decision which had disenfranchised him, Robert Purvis wrote in 1838, “there is but one race, the human race.” 

Having the legal right to vote did not mean you could.  Revolutionary war veteran, James Forten, a “free man of color” owned a business which could rig a ship to sail around Cape Horn.  After the war, James Forten learned sail making in London, became foreman for a sailmaker in Philadelphia then bought the business with 40 Black and White employees.  Forten refused to rig slave ships even writing owners to state slavery was inhumane! 

Forten, a contemporary of Jefferson, wrote on Jefferson’s words, how it is self-evident all men are created equal and how we are all made in “GOD's” image.  He used all caps for “GOD”.  

Mr. Forten was proud of an award he received which hung on the wall of his home on the three hundred block of Lombard Street for saving the lives of 12 persons from drowning.  He insisted his employees: attend church, drink no alcohol and vote with the business in mind. 

Mr. Forten, one of the wealthiest gentlemen in Philadelphia, Black or White, was prevented from voting by threats.  His son survived an attack by white ruffians.  So Forten asked his white workmen to vote for him and so they did.   

When Forten died on March 4, 1842 Philadelphia saw the largest funeral cortege in memory.  Over a thousand Black persons plus hundreds of White persons attended to honor him.  August 1^st, 1842 The Lombard Street Riot took place.

The political situation was as densely layered as today.  Prior to the riot there was back and forth vandalism among ethnic groups.  Active abolitionists were staunch Protestants and Masons intolerant of Catholics and foreigners.  Some were Ulster men or the original Bad Orange men.  They voted Whig, Liberty and Free Soil Parties. After the Whig party self imploded; Whigs, Liberty and Free Soilers got behind Lincoln's new radical Republican Party.  Free men of color lived on the edge of a knife being unable to vote and at the mercy of those in office. 

Partisan newspapers pitted Irish Catholic immigrants against Whig Protestant Abolitionists inciting fear unskilled jobs would not go to foreigners.  Historian Thomas Sowell said free Black Americans were preferred over Irish immigrants.  Blacks were American born and Protestant.  Irish Catholics fell in with the pro slavery Democratic-Republican Party, the precursor of today’s Democratic Party. 

There was anti-Catholic scorn.  Robert Purvis called Democrat Chief Justice Taney who decided the Dred Scott decision, "that old Jesuit".  

This is the spooky era of the Know Nothings a "Nativist" American born, pro slavery, secret society party.  The Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia has no stained glass windows at street level due to them.  They hated Irish and German immigrants because they hated Catholics using terror and violence to prevent them from voting! 

Know Nothings carried awls to stab with.  If they saw a German coming to vote they'd put his head in a bucket of pig's blood in front of the polling place.  A prophecy of the Klan to come.  The couping era.  

 Couping meant kidnapping men, getting them drunk in a safe house, dressing them in each other’s clothes and forcing them to vote early and often for the Know Nothing Party.  There is evidence Edgar Allan Poe died of trauma and alcohol poisoning after being couped by Know Nothings in Baltimore in 1849.

Lincoln said it best, “I am not a Know-Nothing — that is certain. How could I be? How can anyone who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ We now practically read it, ‘all men are created equal, except negroes.’ When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.’”

To add to the perfect storm of prejudice and partisan politics there came an economic collapse.  On August 1st 1842, between 5^th and 8^th and Lombard Street a parade of a thousand free people of color celebrated West Indian Independence Day alongside a Quaker Temperance march.  Irish Catholic immigrants had a violent encounter with the Black marchers, beating them and looting Black homes. 

The Second African Presbyterian Church and Smith's Hall Abolitionist's meeting house were burned.  The riot lasts three days.  Firemen were attacked.  Constables and firemen stood down.

The rioters head to 9^th and Lombard to the fashionable three story home of the son in law of the late James Forten, the wealthy, notorious abolitionist, Robert Purvis.  The town house had a secret trap door under the children's playroom where escaped slaves hid. 

Unbeknownst to the rioters, Purvis spoke on behalf of an Irish Free State while visiting England.  His wife, their young children and servants are upstairs.  Purvis expecting the worst sat on the stairs facing the front door armed.

Meanwhile, a Catholic priest, Fr. Patrick Moriarty rebukes the Catholics in the mob to deserved shame.  The mob dispersed.  If the mob had broken down the door, they would have been surprised to see the free man of color was White.

If you look up Robert Purvis, you will see a Daguerreotype of a man worthy of a Bronte novel and a member of a singular league of truly extraordinary gentlemen, The Underground Railroad.  Purvis was the image of privilege; handsome, outspoken, rich, white and one eighth black.  He was proud of his Black, Jewish and English heritage.  He was proud of his interracial family.  He told all: friend, foe, even the administration of Andrew Jackson when he registered for the first passport for a free man of color.  And he got his passport too.

William, his father, wanted to take his family back to England but died when Purvis was 16.  One year later Purvis spoke publicly on Abolition, it became his passion. Harriet Forten and “Rob”, childhood sweethearts, were married at twenty by a White Episcopalian Bishop in the home of the bride's parents James & Charlotte Vandine Forten.  

Rob’s looks were an asset in service of the Vigilante Committee the active arm of the Underground Railroad in Southeastern Pennsylvania as he could enter any courtroom and confront any man.  He was an impetuous man of action, not averse to using a buggy whip on a man with a warrant at the Doylestown Courthouse.  Purvis’s lawyer stalled a hearing for a captured fugitive slave in his care.  The judge said get another warrant.

Purvis hurried the young man to his buggy.  A man ran out after them waiving the new warrant.  Purvis whipped the man, then the horse and off they flew.  The young man and his three brothers all were eventually freed. 

William Still, a free man of color, was known later as the President of the Underground Railroad.  He, unlike Purvis, kept his records of slave rescues hidden in a Quaker attic.  Purvis destroyed his in the fear the fugitives could be identified and sent back into slavery.  Still’s house is gone but his marble front step remains like a relic.  O the people who crossed his threshold. 

They did not cross into the South as Harriet Tubman did.  That took supernatural grace.  Most slaves who made it to the Pennsylvania border knew Philadelphia as a sanctuary, a city of brotherly love, sometimes. 

The Fugitive Slave Act however made it a crime to help or not report an escaped slave.  This is where the Vigilante Committee came in.  They hid slaves until they could get them to New England or Canada.  They met their needs and transportation. 

William Stills, would take fugitives personally in a buggy to Canada.  The members were all businessmen who could hang a sign on their door as they often had to leave town without notice. 

Harriet Tubman however went in and out of slave territory with a gun in her coat for dogs, irate slave owners and any slave who wanted to go back.  Never caught, as a poorly dressed slave woman, Harriet Tubman was as overlooked as a book in a library. 

The story of William Still and William Passmore and five Black stevedores rescuing sanctuary seeking slave Jane Johnson and her two little boys from her naive planter owner caused a sensation!  And without any violence.  Her owner did not understand the law in Pennsylvania granted slaves asylum if they asked and she did.

Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass visited William Passmore in prison.  As the only white man present, he was held responsible.  Jane, now a free woman, gave testimony at the trial and Passmore was freed.  Even the newspapers rejoiced. 

Read these true stories.  They are better than any fiction.  Why no films?  I guess it doesn’t fit their narrative.  In reality all races came together.  Or as Robert Purvis famously said “there is but one race, the human race.”   

Abolitionists used; wiles, Law, their homes, family and friends, their money and faith in God to do so.  As Thomas Garrett, a White Quaker friend of Tubman, said after being fined into penury for the crime of helping slaves, “Judge thou hast left me not a dollar, but I wish to say to thee and to all in this courtroom that if anyone knows a fugitive who wants shelter and a friend, send him to Thomas Garrett and he will befriend him.”  

Abolitionists were considered lunatics and religious fanatics.  The precursors of Lincoln's Republicans.  The only people of our time comparable would be pro-life, anti-abortion activists, the brave ones who tell women there is an option before they enter the abortion clinic.

Many pro-lifers as the abolitionists have suffered illegal imprisonment and physical injury for bravely taking a very unpopular view while others feel abortion is unfortunate but the law.  

Many think they would be on the abolitionist side if they had lived during slavery.  Would people who are afraid now of posting a pro-life opinion on social media risk their reputations and lives as the conductors of the Underground Railroad did?  You think?

 Cardinal Newman said, "To be deep in history, is to cease to be Protestant".  Indeed, after researching the politics of slavery I can say, "To be deep in American History, is to cease to be Democrat".

 

 

Calumny Kills or Let Them Eat Ice Cream

Death of the Princess de Lamballe, by Leon Maxime Faivre 1908

    The painting of the death of the Princess de Lamballe is rather stagy.  Trust me it is the clean version.  More of her later.  For the past 5 years I've watched people encourage others to hate people they don't know.  It happens all the time on cable news and social media.  When I opened a Facebook account to contact art colleagues for a "master class", I never imagined it was not a forum for polite exchange of ideas.  I must admit, after being called "delusional" and a "sanctimonious ass" by "friends" even "relatives" because I am Catholic, I was wrong.  Those innocent days are gone as we enter the Pandemic wherein people are hoping other people die.  Not people who want to go back to work!  Not the "Boomer Remover" evil.  I mean people who want public figures to die so their political party can take over and form a one party Socialist America which will give them something for free.  Just to hype it up, the news media eager for narratives on racial injustice found the death of an unfortunate handcuffed man while being knelt upon by a policeman a cause celebre.  A cry to hit the streets with Antifa and force the man they hate into what they call a bunker, the White House.  The man who died in police custody isn't even being mentioned now.  Looting, burning businesses, stealing, even beating up small helpless women is seen as radical chic.  Moving a safe out of Wells Fargo with a front end loader is a new civil right.  Those who own storefronts are arming themselves with baseball bats like the Sikhs in the London riots because the police aren't around.  Politicians unaccustomed to dealing with Law call them vigilantes.  The press who got frantic if they saw a blue collar citizen protesting lockdown without a mask now praise mobs of youngsters throwing bottles at police without masks as peaceful protesters.  Pyramids of bricks mysteriously appear on city streets inviting the violent to break windows.  All to teach the evil police force a lesson.  A wise man said violence makes more violence.  It does.   

    The news media posts inflammatory lies in order to heighten the violence then feign surprise when things get worse.  All based on anger and defamation of character.  Which brings me to the end of Nancy Pelosi's grip on her gavel.  A movie of  Nancy showing off her well stocked supply of gourmet chocolate ice cream in a gleaming, expensive, stainless steel fridge, a chef would die for.  The clip will re elect President Trump.  Nancy has only herself to blame.  Who would do a puff piece on gourmet food while families go hungry and many world wide are dying of a painful hereto for unknown virus?  If Melania had done such a thing she would have been crucified.  She is criticized when she visits children in a hospital!   I mentioned a meme to a friend, photo of Nancy eating an ice cream which said, "Let them eat ice cream".  I said, thinking of Marie Antoinette, "quotes can kill."  My friend thought I meant people might believe Nancy Pelosi actually said it.  No, Nancy isn't literary enough even if the quote came to her.  Referring to the original, "Let them eat cake," falsely attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette.  Indeed Marie Antoinette was not averse to the poor.  She funded many charities for poor women, the hungry and marginalized.  She brought women artists into the Academie for the first time.  She would have been horrified to be forever falsely quoted as saying let poor people eat cake they do not have.  This quote was made up by revolutionaries who wanted to end the monarchy in any way possible.  They thought it would kill her and it did.

     They didn't have memes then but they did have pamphlets and more people could read or get someone to read for them than you think.  Indeed sound bites or cries were the only news many heard.  There were far worse things said about the King and Queen and relatives, friends, servants, or humble farmers.  The calumny has long been debunked.  The King and Queen it turns out were charitable, devout people who refused to let the Swiss guards fire on the violent French mobs.  They were repaid when the mobs murdered the guards and murdered them.  Marie Antoinette stumbled when led to her execution.  Her guard asked if she hurt herself and she remarked nothing could ever hurt her again.  Her husband was executed.  Her little boy was forced to say publicly at her trial his mother abused him sexually.  The little boy age died two years after,  a prisoner abused mentally and physically.  Her 17 yr. old daughter was sent to Austria.  How indeed could she ever feel joy again?  Nuns, priests aristocrats and servants were being beheaded in the city.  Her loyal Carmelite wanna be sister-in-law Princess Elisabeth who spent her time doing social work, so beloved her servants put themselves between her and the arresting officers also was executed.  Princess Elisabeth was painted by Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun.  She is a considered a Catholic martyr for the way she died.  She repeated the De Profundus and embraced her co condemned.  She was forced to watch them die first.  She had a supernatural calm.  The mob was edified by her courage, no one cheered when she died.  By comparison Jacques Herbert the man who forced the prince to accuse his mother of incest was later condemned and became hysterical as he was put under the blade.  He was an atheist who called for the de christianizing of France.  Bloodthirsty mobs of looters and ex soldiers were drowning farm families in the provinces because their Catholicity made them suspect as potential traitors.  They also provided free food, drink and goods for their executioners.   The peasants were stripped, bound and drowned enmasse in boats; men, women and children without mercy.  

Princess de Lamballe, the Queen's Lady in Waiting Princess Maria Theresa of Savoy was arrested too.  Italian and German, she was a devout, childless widow who never remarried.  Maria Theresa wrote to Marie Antoinette their friendship was the charm of her life.  She suffered a lamentable end.  The worst I think.  Maria Theresa was called in to be interrogated and asked to praise equality and to denounce the Queen.  She happily praised equality but she could not denounce her friend, she said, "it is not in my heart."  The interrogator said take her away.  She was taken to a courtyard.  It was daylight.  She was perplexed why they were letting her go.  The door opened and she saw bodies of dead people and a large group of rough men with weapons.  She stepped back but she was pulled out.  PULLED OUT.  She was struck on the head with a pike, a sharp metal infantry spear.  Here is gets really bad.  She staggered.  It was said she was stripped, raped and literally torn to pieces.  She was beheaded.  She was known for her long blonde hair.  People on the street and in their houses recognized whose head it was and remarked, "they got Lamballe!"  One story said the mob attached her pubic hair to her chin for a beard.  Her head was taken to Madame Tussaud for a wax image then carried on a pike around Paris and brought to Marie Antoinette's cell for her to see.  We don't know if Marie Antoinette saw or was told about it but either way she fainted.  They were like sisters both foreign born rejects with tragic lives.  "Your friendship has been the charm of my life."  I got to thinking what it was like to be pulled out by a mob of sadistic men who had been taught to hate you without even knowing you.  I thought how I would feel if my best friend had been torn to pieces for not denouncing me.  Vice versa how she would feel if I was pulled out and torn to pieces for  loyalty to her.  Calumny kills it really does.  

    We appear to be entering an era of a new revolution in America, one about collective blood revenge based on ignorance of history and the unrealistic expectations of materialism by way of Marxism.  The revolution we had was about God given rights, not state given rights, set into law for the betterment of mankind.   Radical inhumane revolution must be forced whatever the consequences and requires calumny and  genocide. Considering the "preservative" English and American revolutions George Watson said in his The Lost Literature of Socialism,  "It is 1789, then, that unbinds revolution from its conservative chains, and the socialists were its heirs.  The sense of the word shifted lastingly from Right to Left after the Bastille fell."