Wed 11 Mar, 2009
| Tags: Historical amnesia, Legislation, Maryland, Massachusetts, Reparations, Slavery |
The state of Maryland is currently considering a slavery-era disclosure law, similar to the one now pending in Massachusetts and previously adopted in several other states.
Tue 17 Feb, 2009
| Tags: Apologies, Historical amnesia, Holocaust, Reparations |
The Associated Press is reporting that the French Conseil d’État (Council of State) has formally acknowledged France’s role in deporting Jews to Nazi death camps during the Holocaust in World War II.
This is a case which is strongly reminiscent of how the U.S. continues to struggle with its own responsibility for American slavery and the slave trade.
Tue 17 Feb, 2009
| Tags: Byron Rushing, Historical amnesia, Legislation, Massachusetts, Reparations, Slave trade, Slavery |
Massachusetts state representative Byron Rushing has re-introduced his slavery-era disclosure law, “An Act Relative to the History of Slavery in the Commonwealth.”
Sat 7 Feb, 2009
| Tags: Charleston S.C., Historical amnesia, History, Slave trade, Slavery |
Will Moredock, in an opinion piece in the Charleston City Paper this week, revisits the effort of the South Carolina State Ports Authority to systematically remove all references to slavery and blacks from its maritime history of Charleston and South Carolina.
Sat 1 Nov, 2008
| Tags: Barack Obama, Historical amnesia, John McCain, Presidential election, Slaveowning |
This post addresses the fact that the families of both Barack Obama and John McCain owned slaves. This week, I’ve encountered a number of questions about that slave-owning past and its significance today.
Wed 22 Oct, 2008
| Tags: Historical amnesia, History, John McCain, Politics, Presidential election, Slaveowning |
Recent news reports have publicized the fact that John McCain’s family owned slaves in the pre-Civil War South. As Douglas Blackmon related on the pages of the Wall Street Journal last Friday, Senator McCain’s great-great-grandfather owned a 2,000-acre plantation in Teoc, Mississippi where about 120 slaves labored in bondage.
Today at the Huffington Post, Abby Ferber explores the parallels between McCain’s story and that of the slave-trading DeWolf family, as chronicled in Traces of the Trade and Inheriting the Trade.
