By Al Benson Jr.
The radical Northern abolitionists before the War of Northern Aggression have always been painted in what passes for history books as a noble, self-sacrificing breed who would sacrifice even their lives to free the black man from slavery in the South. The South, in these same “history” (and I used that term loosely) books is portrayed as a land of benighted darkness which only the sacrifice of the dedicated abolitionist can penetrate—men of the caliber of 19th century terrorist John Brown. The “history” books look with favor on such men. So do those who write communist propaganda—and you often have to wonder if the two are the same. Interestingly enough, there were abolitionist societies in the South but these are never mentioned in the history books, at least not any I ever read.
The conclusion I draw from that fact is that the Southern abolitionists were not really radicals of the leftist stripe but the Northern abolitionists leaned in that direction. Hence they get good press while all others are ignored.
If you think that statement is a bit strong, all you need do is to look at some of the comments of William Lloyd Garrison, one of the foremost of the radical Northern abolitionists.
Garrison, writing in his newspaper The Liberator in 1837 stated: “The motto of our banner has been, from the commencement of our moral warfare, ‘our country is the world—our countrymen are all mankind.’ We trust that will be our only epitaph.” You have to admit that such a statement sounds strongly internationalist in character, but then Garrison goes on to say that, next to the overthrow of slavery, the cause of peace will command his attention. And he sums up by stating: “As our object is universal emancipation—to redeem woman as well as man from a servile to an equal condition,–we shall go for the rights of woman to their utmost extent.” So he goes from slavery, to “peace” to “women’s rights (feminism)” and all these are areas that, even today, are a fertile breeding ground for Marxist endeavor and propaganda.
In his book Wendell Phillips author Carlos Martyn has observed, in regard to abolitionism that: “Thus it was that the crusade against slavery inevitably led first to the movement in behalf of woman and then to the movement in behalf of labor.” And of course abolitionist (and apostate) Wendell Phillips was in the thick of all this. And Mr. Martyn also noted of Garrison that: “There were those among the Garrisonians, too, who had adopted every ism of the day. These they sifted into their Anti-Slavery utterances, and thus produced the impression that Abolitionism was the nucleus of every scatter-brain theory and Utopian enterprise. Mr. Garrison himself was a sinner in this respect.” Whether the abolitionists adopted some oddball ideas or not, there were those among their number who seemed to be guiding them in the same direction that the Marxists were taking—from slavery to feminism and “womens’ rights” to involvement in the labor movement to “peace.” Of course your average run of the mill “historian” today would say that this was all totally coincidental—no collusion here on anyone’s part at all. It all just “happens.” Interestingly enough, Mr. Martyn noted Wendell Phillips’ comments regarding the South. Wendell Phillips said, in a speech We have not only an army to conquer, but we have a state of mind to annihilate…When England conquered the Highlands, she held them—held them until she could educate them,–and it took a generation. That is just what we have to do with the South; annihilate the old South, and put a new one there. You do not just annihilate a thing by abolishing it. You must supply the vacancy. I don’t know about anyone else, but to me, it sounds like Wendell Phillips was advocating that Cultural Genocide be practiced on the South.
So, as you can see, the Cultural Genocide problem here in the South is not new. It’s been going on since before the War of Northern Aggression in some form or other, but intensified more after that war because that’s when the real push came, via “reconstruction” to change the South from the Old South to NO South!
What’s just as bad is that it seems that Northern abolitionists almost practiced a form of the class struggle technique on Southern folks in kind of a reverse form. By their blatant attacks on Southern slavery what they really managed to do was to unite Southerners, both slave owners and those who would never own a slave, into one solid group who felt, with justification, that their section of the country was being attacked. Donnie Kennedy has noted in his informative book Rekilling Lincoln that: “…even nineteenth century historians have noted the fact that the vicious attacks upon Southern slavery by radical abolitionists had a harsh, negative impact on the Southern abolition movement. In 1866, George Lunt of Massachusetts noted this negative consequence of radical abolition agitation: The States of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee were earnestly engaged in practical movements for the gradual emancipation of their slaves. This movement continued until it was arrested by the aggressions of the abolitionists upon their voluntary actions. .. The abolitionists, however, refused to accept as impending fact, and insisted upon convicting as criminals those who were so well disposed to bring about the very result at which they themselves professed to aim. The consequences were such as might have been reasonably expected. Promised emancipation refused to submit itself to hateful abolition.”
So, basically, the radical Northern abolitionist movement deep-sixed the Southern abolitionist movement that was working toward gradual emancipation and pushed all Southern folks into a mode of self-protection over concern for what the radical Northerners had planned for them—and what they had planned for them was Cultural Genocide. So I have asked myself, given the leftist nature of Northern abolitionism, if that was the real game of the Northern abolitionist movement. They weren’t so much interested in really getting rid of Southern slavery as they were in getting rid of any potential competition to their movement—because when the slavery question was settled—they had “other plans” for their movement. Donnie noted in Rekilling Lincoln, on page 65, that: “The radical abolitionists crying ‘freedom from slavery’ and denouncing the South as ‘defenders’ of slavery were, by design or by ignorance, completely overlooking the efforts of Southerners to reduce and ultimately end slavery.” In my opinion, it was by design. At least some of the leadership on the Northern abolitionist movement knew what they were doing and the effect it would have and they went ahead anyway because portraying the South as a nation of slaveholders, when 80% of them never owned a slave fit in with their agenda.
And, as historian Otto Scott noted, most people think that abolitionism died with the end of the War of Northern Aggression, but it didn’t because many of the Republicans in Washington were really abolitionists and all the historians did was to change their name from Radical Abolitionists to Radical Republicans. But the same Marxist worldview was still there—world “peace” the feminist movement, the labor union movement—it was all still in place, much of it to be worked out in the 20th century, and much of it still being pushed now.
“Reconstruction” is still in place. Now they call it Political Correctness. Cultural Genocide is still emphatically in place in the South. Now they call it the “new South” or “cultural diversity” or some other high-sounding title to cover up what it really is. And most people don’t realize what’s being done to them. The next phase of this game is to put down white folks and make them feel guilty for being white and this is going on all over the country. It’s part of national “reconstruction.” So stay tuned, folks, if you thought it couldn’t get any worse, you haven’t seen anything yet.
revisedhistory 