In-laws came by today and it's usually when I get to know what the wingnuts

[mmonk]

have on the radio and TV. Today, they started talking about free slaves in America during the Confederacy had slaves. So what's this all about and which hate speaker was elaborating on this? Anyone keep up with the Limbaughs (rightwing talkers) and Fox out there that can give me a clue on that one? I usually ask a question here every week after Sunday to try and figure it out to rebut them the next time. Last week I had to ask about the culvert for turtles. Anyone out there know who is speaking this garbage on our airways and broadcast media?

[Historic NY]

1. There have always been free persons of color from the 17th century forward,

Strange I had almost a same history question today about the Revolutionary War period and prior.

[Hekate]

2. I have no idea where the wingnuts are getting this, but here's two *real* sources...

The novel "The Known World" by Edward P. Jones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Known_World
"The Known World is a 2003 historical novel by Edward P. Jones. It was his first novel and second book. Set in antebellum Virginia, it examines issues regarding the ownership of black slaves by free black people as well as by whites. A book with many points of view, The Known World paints an enormous canvas thick with personalities and situations that show how slavery destroys but can also be transcended."

The biography of Anna Kingsley of the Kingsley Plantation in Florida
"Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley: African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner" by Daniel L. Schafer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Kingsley
"Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley (c. 1793 – April or May 1870) was a West African slave turned slaveholder and plantation owner in early 19th century Florida. At 13 years old, she was captured and sent to Cuba where she was purchased by and married to Zephaniah Kingsley, a slave trader and plantation owner. Kingsley freed Anna in 1811 and put her in charge of his plantations in East Florida. For 25 years, Kingsley's unique family lived on Fort George Island in modern-day Jacksonville, where Anna managed a large and successful planting operation, owning slaves of her own. When American laws threatened the Kingsley family, they moved to Haiti. Kingsley died soon after, and Anna returned to dispute her husband's relatives contesting Kingsley's will that sought to exclude Anna and her children from inheriting the holdings left to them by Kingsley. Anna was successful, despite the hostile climate toward blacks. She settled in the Arlington neighborhood of Jacksonville, where she died in 1870 at 77 years old. The National Park Service protects Kingsley Plantation, where Anna and Kingsley lived on Fort George Island, as part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve."

On my first-ever trip to Florida this summer I stayed with an old friend who settled there a few years ago. We did some touristy things together, including visiting one plantation. I was curious to see how this one would be presented, and was pleased to see the National Park Service was hard at work doing things like rebuilding the slave cabins. But what really surprised me was the story the Park Service ladies in their Smokey the Bear hats told me about the Kingsley Plantation. Since they were sold out of Anna Kingsley's bio, I went to the Barnes and Noble in Jacksonville and picked up a copy, written by a local college professor.

So there you have it. I don't know what the wingnuts are saying and I hope I never find out, but these are very interesting pieces of history.

Hekate

[teenagebambam]

4. I just moved to Arlington

I'm a short walk from the cemetary where her two daughters are buried, and it's believed she may be buried there as well.

[Hekate]

5. She was certainly a remarkable woman...

When the world you are in (the known world, as it were) has slaves, it's divided into slave and free, and if you're ambitious you certainly know which side you want to be on. There were slaves in Africa, a long history of slave-trade between Africa and Arabia, and there is still a slave trade between Arabia and the Indian subcontinent. The trade wasn't invented by white Americans (as Alex Haley realized in Roots), but was certainly viciously exploited by them. Anna Kingsley had the wit to rise in the world she found herself in, and clearly exploited what opportunities she had.

Quite a few years ago I read that most plantation tours were conducted by white women wearing Scarlett O'Hara dresses, with slave quarters tastefully ignored. That began to change after the publication of "Roots", the article said, when African Americans started showing up on these tours and asking to see the places their own ancestors had inhabited, asking what their lives had been like. That's why I was curious as to how the Kingsley place would be presented, and I went there with no idea of who Anna Kingsley was.

According to the two ladies in the book shop there (both in Park Ranger uniforms, not antebellum hoop skirts) the Kingsley place was historically very inaccurate when the State Park Service ran it, but that the National Park system is slowly trying to rectify that now. And they told us about Anna.

We didn't see a lot of Florida while we were there, but we got around -- Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Amelia Island, some adorable little town known for its old architecture, lots of little restaurants serving food I'd never had before -- but we certainly enjoyed being with our friends in a whole different lifestyle from our own. Their condo is right on the beach and has more square footage than our house. Zowie.

Hekate

[mmonk]

6. Interesting. Was anyone talking about either one on CSpin?

As I walked off, one of them mentioned C-Span.

[Hekate]

7. That might be it. C-SPAN does author interviews, author lectures at bookstores and the like...

They're actually quite good with that. The novel won awards when it came out and I wouldn't be surprised if the biography of Anna Kingsley also got an award or will get one soon.

Historical context means a great deal, but wingnut spinmeisters are able to rip anything out of context and muck it up.

Hekate

[nevergiveup]

3. Several years ago a red-neck uncle of mine told me

in so many words that the "Middle Passage" in reality was like a Carnival Cruise. I asked him where he heard this and he said a buddy told him. Rush, Beck, Hannity, Michelle Malkin, a buddy.....all equally reliable news sources.

[heppcatt]

8. I used to post at this board that had 3 libs and 20 right wingers

I never listen to AM radio or watch fox. Mostly because i just don't need the negativity.
But i could tell every day what was said on those shows.
Because all 20 of those right wingers would repeat the same exact thing every day.
It was actually very funny.

[ThomWV]

9. If they can find one example of a reprehensible event that make their point they blow it up

to make it look like an everyday occurrence. However none of those same people who are so willing make a rare event look like a good example are not at all willing to note that there were entire counties in the south that were well established Unionist areas in which the Confederate army was ineffectual.