Joe Biden, the Presidential Candidate for the upcoming November Elections referred to Trump as the "first racist" President of the united states of America. Could Biden be playing to the gallery? If it were not so, then it wouldn't be uncharitable to call him "ignorant" of America's history. In truth, other former Presidents were slave owners and Joe Biden knows that very much.
History has it that among the handful of delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention who shouted "all men are equal", about dozens of the delegates own slaves, including the main man himself, George Washington.
Washington was said to have upward of 300 slaves. Can you beat that? Out of the dozen of of them who have had slaves during their lifetime, about eight of them had slaves while being p Presidents. Interestingly, the white house was built by black slaves who took the roll of servants, but in reality, their servitude went beyond that.
I want to recall to mind for Biden that even the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States was himself owner of several hundred slaves. So much for "all human beings are equal and have the right to happiness". Let's not forget a middle aged man who compelled little Sally, a fourteen year old slave girl to lie with him. A rape that continued until she started bearing children for him at the age of sixteen. The sad incident bear fruit to five more children of bondage to make it six in total.
It would have been a different issue entirely if she was his Mistress. But that was not the case, because records have it that he owned her just like one owns a property in the legal and literal sense. Could such a slave be in a position to refuse, give or demand? Could it be said that the sexual relations that existed between the two were mutually consented to? I think not, a slave who is at the mercy and caprices of her master must submit to his will without question or even an inkling of resistance. The result may not be pleasant for her or for the poor and innocent kids. The resultant effect as a whole, is for now Mama Sally, to resign to her fate.
Old man Jefferson never recognized the paternity of the kids nor were they liberated until just before his demise. He consented to free the children conceived by his slave and then shortly after, he died in 1826.
In the recent protests resulting from the gruesome but broad daylight murder of George Floyd by four policemen, some protesters managed to overturn the statutes of Jefferson and Washington in Minneapolis. These acts were simply an expression to show to the rest of the world that the acts of these men are still fresh in the minds of the children and grandchildren of the oppressed.
Another president who have had slaves is Andrew Jackson, whose family was said to possess about 300 slaves. For Jacksons part, he was said to encourage his slaves to form family units, a common practice among slave masters. These acts are nothing but strategy to have an increased number of slaves within the family, for cheap labor and perhaps to discourage those who are contemplating escape.
Zachary Taylor, who served from 1849 to 1850, was the last president of the United States to have slaves while in the White House. He was said to own about 150 of them on his plantations in Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana.
The last president to own a personal slave was Ulysses S. Grant, the Commander-in-Chief of the Union armies during the Civil War! He served two terms between 1869 and 1877. He had had a black slave in the years before the Civil War, but granted him his freedom in 1859.
President Trump should not be blamed for exhibiting tendencies that borders around racial discrimination. He is simply leaning towards what some his predecessors did in the open and in secret. I give it to him for being so clear about his feelings towards people perceived not to belong to the "elite race". In my opinion, he is far better than those who hide under the veneer of religion, politics and hypocrisy, yet are racists through and through.
One thing is pretty clear though, racists rand racism runs in the blood. Its like a virus that runs through every nerve and sinew of the body, until one is completely consumed by it. That is why it is nearly impossible for such as are driven by it not to express it, or the form of it.
Sincerely @izge.
No it is false. Most Democrats I know are racist.