MEDITATIONS ON AMERICAN MORALITY
Column Written 8/20/98
© 1998 Mumia Abu-Jamal
All Rights Reserved
"They [Americans] are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging" -- Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English Poet; Letters to Earl of Chesterfield (27 May 1775)
If one listens to the anguished screeches and squawks of politicians and high- paid pundits, the most recent scandal said to be rocking the presidency is touted as proof positive that 'American Morality' is falling. The majoritarian media repeat this grim mantra, and the claim reverberates like wails in an echo chamber.
Let us take a brief stroll through history to examine American morality.
When the constitution was being written it hit a serious snag: What to say (if anything) about human slavery. What the delegates did was compromise. As delegate Roger Sherman of Connecticut put it, it was "better to let the Southern states import slaves then to part with these states." Another Connecticut delegate, Oliver Elleworth, had this to say about the "morality" of slavery; those "are considerations belonging to the states themselves." (Const. Journ., 21 Aug. 1787)
One Southern delegate, Col. George Mason of Virginia, denounced the slave trade as "infernal traffic," adding, "Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgement of heaven on a country" (Sounds good huh? The good Col. owned slaves) (Const.Journ. 22 Aug, 1787)
Shortly after the American Revolution was over, a Polish poet visited George Washington's estate Mt. Vernon: "We entered some negroes' huts, for their habitations cannot be called houses. They are far more miserable then the poorest of the cottages of our peasants. The husband and his wife sleep on a miserable bed, the children on the floor. A very poor chimney and a little kitchen furniture stands amid this misery - a teakettle and cups. A boy about fifteen was lying on the floor with an attack of dreadful convulsions. The general had sent to Alexandria for a physician. A small orchard with vegetables was situated close to the hut. Five or six hens, each with ten or fifteen chickens, walked there. That is the only pleasure allowed to negroes. They are not permitted to keep either ducks or geese or pigs. They sell the chickens in Alexandria and buy with the money some furniture…They receive a cotton jacket and a pair of breeches yearly. The general possesses 300 negroes, excepting women and children of which a part belongs to Mrs. Washington…."
(This kind of gives "The Father of our Nation" a whole new meaning, huh?)
Shall we even address Thomas Jefferson, who, through his slave/sexual property, Sally Hemmings, probably has more black descendants than white descendants? (All of whom were kept in slavery until his death!)
What kind of morality drives a people from their own land, authoring a "Trail of Tears?" (over 12,026 Cherokees driven from NE Alabama and NW Georgia, despite a US Supreme Court ruling saying it couldn't be done).
What kind of morality nods silently at genocide?
What kind of morality inserts dictators around the world and removes democratically elected leaders at will?
What kind of morality allows the illegal wiretapping of leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Dr. Huey P. Newton, and othesr under COINTELPRO-like programs?
What kind of morality spits on the poor while sucking up to the wealthy?
For millions of beings, from this nation's very inception until this very hour, the notion of "American Morality" is not a given. It is an illusion. © 1998 MAJ