Alexander Hamilton was one o America’s founding fathers. Mr. Hamilton who is now probably more recognizable because of the Broadway musical that bears his name was a different sort of founding father. You see he understood the plight of the Americans of African Descent who were fighting for not only the liberty of newly formed nation but also the liberty from the shackles of slavery. This is what Alexander Hamilton wrote about the fate of our ancestors. He sought freedom for our ancestors after the revolutionary war. You have to wonder this. If Aaron Burr hadn’t killed Alexander Hamilton in that duel and Hamilton had ascended to the office of President. Would our ancestors gotten a fair deal in his administration?

In the interpretation of treaties, things odious or immoral is not to be presumed. The abandonment of negroes, who had been induced to quit their masters on the faith of official proclamations, promising them liberty, to fall again under the yoke of their masters and into slavery is as odious and immoral a thing as can be conceived. It is odious not only as it imposes an act of perfidy on one of the contracting parties, but as it tends to bring back to servitude men once made free.

Alexander Hamilton
The War Before The War

Play The Black History Textbook Game


Cinque and Crispus
Salem and Banneker
Denmark and Nat
Monroe T and Marcus
Harry T and Harriet
Harriett and Rosa
Frederick and Booker
Langston and Zora
Ida and Ella
Phylis and Sojourner
Smalls to Robeson
Randolph and Rustin
Evers and Jackson
Mahalia I mean
Jimmy Lee and Sammy
Issac Woodward’s lost eye
Emmitt’s truth Emmitt’s abuse
Malcolm and Martin
Smith to Jordan
1898, 1906, 1919, 1921
Greenwood to Rosewood
Wilmington to Elaine
Atlanta to Chicago
The Beatdowns in Selma, Birmingham, New Orleans and Washington DC
Red Summer to King’s Spring
The Defender to Ebony
James W. and Walter
Robert and the Deacons
Gaston and Nixon
Young and Farmer
Fannie and Dorothy
Stokely and Fred
Elijah and Vernon
Charlie and Thurgood
Huey and Bobby
All these black names will now be hidden
away in white America’s newest game-show
Hide the black contributors
Roll the dice or spin the wheel
Hiding black history is a brand new deal
Open the history books
Look for the black names
There hidden away it’s just a damn shame
Where is Garrett Morgan I’m stopped at a stop light
Where do Carver and Ford connect
The airmen of Tuskegee never lost one damn bomber
There deeds are hidden away
In this game of chance black contributors don’t get an historical glance
The aim of the game is go to your child’s history book
Look for black contributors
Count them up fast
First to 100 black names that book gets a pass
Otherwise don’t use that book in a black history class
Why?
Because your ancestors aren’t treated with class.

Benjamin Franklin was one of this nation’s most revered founding fathers. He is known as a great American hero. Yet, when our young children of color are introduced to Benjamin Franklin in the earliest grades of 3-5 in units of America’s history in our public and private classrooms. The Benjamin Franklin who was a supporter of America’s democracy and signer of both the Declaration of Independence and this nation’s US Constitution isn’t revealed as a owner of human property. That aspect of Franklin is shielded from those history lessons. Hell, even in junior and senior high school history units of early American History that fact is not openly taught. Well here is how Benjamin Franklin articulated what a slave was in this description:

“A slave,” Benjamin Franklin explained in 1770, is a human Creature, stolen, taken by Force, or bought of another or of himself, with Money; and who is taken or bought, is compelled to serve the Taker, or Purchaser, during Pleasure or during Life. He may be sold again, or let for Hire, by his Master to another, and is then obliged to serve that other; he is one who is bound to obey, not only the Commands of his Master, but also the commands of the lowest Servant of that Master, when set over him; who must come when he is called, go when he is bid, and stay when he is ordered, though to the farthest Part of the World, and in the most unwholesome Climate; who must wear such Cloaths as his Master thinks fit to give him, and no other . . . and must be content with such Food or Subsistence as his Master thinks fit to order for him, or with such small Allowance in Money as shall be given him in lieu of Victuals or Clothing; who must never absent himself from his Master’s Service without Leave; who is subject to severe Punishments for small Offences, to enormous Whippings, and even Death, for absconding from his Service, or for Disobedience to Orders.

“The War Before The War
FUGITIVE SLAVES AND THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICA’S SOUL
FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE CIVIL WAR”

To say that our ancestors stood even a chance of securing freedom from this men who were the determinators of this nation’s path towards freedom is fair to say was impossible. That’s why the immediacy of a plan to create a National Commission For The Repayment Of Past Sins Towards Americans of African Descent In America’s History should be presented to each of the two major political parties platforms. It is imperative that this be a critical part of any discussion related to the support of any candidate seeking a national elective office in 2020.