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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMichael Harriot: Yall wanna hear how the fear of Black ppl's freedom led to...
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Michael Harriot
@michaelharriot
Yall wanna hear how the fear of Black ppl's freedom led to a plot to establish White Wakanda, Trump's impeachment, Jan 6, congressional stagnation, the crack epidemic, mass shootings, the South almost winning the Civil War
And what it all has to do with Juneteenth?
A thread
11:54 AM · Jun 19, 2022
Michael Harriot
@michaelharriot
Yall wanna hear how the fear of Black ppl's freedom led to a plot to establish White Wakanda, Trump's impeachment, Jan 6, congressional stagnation, the crack epidemic, mass shootings, the South almost winning the Civil War
And what it all has to do with Juneteenth?
A thread
11:54 AM · Jun 19, 2022
Unrolled thread here (view here to see attachments)
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1538596105159680001.html
Yall wanna hear how the fear of Black ppl's freedom led to a plot to establish White Wakanda, Trump's impeachment, Jan 6, congressional stagnation, the crack epidemic, mass shootings, the South almost winning the Civil War
And what it all has to do with Juneteenth?
A thread
First, let's get rid of the idea that there were "very few white slaveowners." It's just not true.
One in 3 white Southerners were slave-owners.
How can that be true? Well, 75% of whites are homeowners. But there 230 million whites & only 83 million owner-occupied homes. How?
Just because your name isn't on the mortgage, if you live in a house that's owned by a parent, family member or spouse, you're a homeowner.
That's the only way 400,000 ppl can control 4 million slaves. For instance, on James Island, SC, there were ~1500 ppl.
1200 were enslaved
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This doesn't even factor in the hired slave supervisors, those who "rented" enslaved ppl; or those who sold and produced goods made from slave labor.
I only say this bc it explains why emancipation was so scary to white southerners. Black freedom meant white economic collapse
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And this also explains the Knights of the Golden Circle.
The KGC was a secret society formed by America's most powerful men to create a Wakanda for slavery. The 1st plan was to invade Mexico but they were scared whites would be outnumbered (Google "All of Mexico movement"
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Their second plan was one that you would never believe. They were going to use violence to overturn a free & fair election just before the next president took office.
How?
They were gonna kidnap the president.
The First Secret Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln
On the way to his first inauguration, Abraham Lincoln got word that he was at risk of attack. Brad Meltzer on how he survived.
https://time.com/5829275/first-secret-plot-kill-lincoln/
When the plot to kidnap Lincoln failed, they moved to phase 2:
Now, a lot of people believe the Confederates were crazy for thinking they could defeat the mightiest army in the world. But that's because they don't know about the Knights.
The KGC weren't just some crazy, racist yahoos. They were crazy, racists with POWER. They had chapters called "castles" all over the country filled with rich and influential members secretly fomenting support for secession.
They were planning for war & they were gonna win.
How?
Sure America's army and navy were strong but they were scattered (there were VERY FEW flights back then that could move an entire brigade) and MOST of their weapons had been moved to places that would be controlled by the South.
Why would the military be that unprepared?
Well, James Buchananthe president before Lincolnhad no idea that his cabinet was filled with members of the Knights of the Golden Circle. They had essentially funneled money, weapons and authority to a group of anti-American racists who were planning to overthrow the U.S.
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Luckily, the antebellum equivalent of the FBI actually DID SOMETHING when they heard about this plot. They told Lincoln about the kidnapping, they indicted Floyd and Buchanan refused the centerpiece of the KGC planto abandon an entire fort
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You probably never heard of it. It's a little unimportant military installation in SC called Fort Sumterwhere the first shots of the Confederate War for Human Trafficking.
But that wasn't even supposed to happen. The KGC didn't care about SC. The place they REALLY wanted was...
TEXAS.
A whole month earlier, on Feb 15 DAYS after the plot to kidnap Lincoln was foiled, Gen. David Twiggs surrendered the fort in San Antonio to a KGC militia led by US Marshall Ben McCulloch. The fort was filled with guns Texas Gov. Sam Houston had just bought for the Rangers
This would have been the first battle of the Civil War but nary a shot was fired.
Why?
Ben McCulloch was a member of the KGC
Texas Gov. Sam Houston who voted for secession was a member of the KGC
Twiggs, the general who surrendered was a member of the KGC
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Had they succeeded, they assumed they'd control Mexico, Texas, Central America and the entire Caribbean. You have to remember that the value of the enslaved property in the south was... You know what, it's so hard to believe I'll let an
To be fair, these confederate racists weren't the first ones to come up with this harebrained scheme to create white Wakanda. They actually stole it from a guy named William Walker. There was just one difference.
William Walker actually succeeded.
That's right, in 1855, Walker hired mercenaries to invade Nicaragua and build his own slave nation. As dictator, he revoked the country's emancipation proclamation, reinstituted slavery and became a celebrity. Southerners would point to Walker like: "See...it can work!"
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But Walker's dictatorship didn't last long. He was eventually ousted when Honduras, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala & others were like: "Fuck this guy."
The US convicted Walker left but they didn't like a united Central America bc, in 1870, we discovered a lucrative cash crop:
Bananas.
To protect its business interests, America occupied these countries for decades. Even when the countries kicked the US out, America funded "rebel" organizations to protect the interests of companies like the United Fruit (Chiquita).
There is no evidence that the CIA introduced crack into Black neighborhoods to support these rebels. But the US government admits that it allowed cocaine smugglers to flood the US with cheap cocaine that eventually ended up in... I'll let the Inspector General's report explain:
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Now, let's go backwards.
Walker had a Spanish nickname that came from the Dutch word for pirate, "Vrijbutier" After the civil war, they began using Walker's nickname to label people who used an arcane Senate rule to exercise dictatorial power.
They called him "The Filibuster."
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And after enslaved people were emancipated, the 14th Amendment defined citizenship, due process & equal protection. I'm sure you know that.
But it has a second part that has nothing to do with citizenship or due process. It's almost like they tacked on a weird rant at the end.
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Why did they do that?
And what the hell does any of this have to do with Juneteenth?
Well, when Abraham Lincon issued the Emancipation proclamation, it was supposed to go into effect on Jan 1, 1863. But it only technically applied to places that were under Union control.
By that time, Texas had the 2nd-busiest port in America. Its biggest city had the second busiest port in America, one of the biggest cotton exchanges in the country and a strategic naval location. Needless to say, this place was important to everyone.
It was where the KGC planned to launch their Mexican invasion so Sec. of War Floyd sent the heaviest ordinances to protect it. It was known as a safe harbor for pirates. It was so racist that, in 1860, only TWO FREE BLACK PEOPLE lived in the entire city...
And it was so important to the future of Whitekanda that during the entire war, the Union blockaded it and actually took control of the city on October 4, 1862 without a shot fired. But three months later, on a very important day, Confederates took back control of the city...
On Jan 1, 1863.
Emancipation Day.
The union wouldn't control Galveston Texas again.
Even after Lee surrendered, Galveston remained under Confederate control.
This is where the rant in the 14th Amendment comes in. See, all those Knights & Confederates were guilty of treason
So they could all be technically hanged and dispossessed of their property. Lincoln was under pressure not to give them amnesty. He finally agreed to give some soldiers amnesty but not the Confederate leaders or legislators.
They'd going to lose their slaves AND THEIR PROPERTY!
So, on April 14, 1865, a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle went back to plan A.
Five days after the Confederacy surrendered on April 9, Knight of the Golden Circle Member member John Wilkes Booth climbed the curtain in Ford Theater and killed Abraham Lincoln.
On May 28, 1865, Andrew Johnson announced that he would pardon all Confederates forgiving hundreds of the Knights of the Golden Circle, including Nethaniel Bedford Forrest, KGC member who would go on to join another secret societythe Ku Klux Klan
On June 2, Gen Edmund Kirby negotiated a SEPARATE surrender for the forces in Galveston.
And on June 19th, Union forces announced that the enslaved people of Galveston were free.
And Republicans were still mad at Johnson for letting the insurrectionists off the hook
So when the Republican-dominated legislature passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to define citizenship, Johnson vetoed it because, according to him, it was anti-white, and Black people were too dumb to understand freedom.
Seriously, he wrote that ON PAPER.
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So Congress passed the 14th Amendment and forever defined citizenship. And, for good measure, they added:
"And if your lil' white friends ever think about another insurrection..."
And this is why Congress should officially declare Jan. 6 as an insurrection.
Then, anyone involved would be banned from office.
But this is America, where white insurrectionists like @RepMTG and @tedcruz are always pardoned. Amnesty is for white people.
Please don't tell this story to your kids unless you want them arrested for spreading CRT.
And now you know why Juneteenth happened so late.
They were on CPT...
Caucasian People's Time
Happy Juneteenth!
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Michael Harriot: Yall wanna hear how the fear of Black ppl's freedom led to... (Original Post)
Nevilledog
Jun 2022
OP
JoeOtterbein
(7,699 posts)1. K n R ! Thanks for posting!
Excellent thread!
blogslug
(37,981 posts)2. recommended
SunImp
(2,223 posts)3. Good read