http://counterpunch.com/katz12242010.htmlExposing America's Greatest Crime
Before Christmas emerged as a commercial success it led a checkered social life. In the 13 colonies far from a Silent Night, Holy Night it was known as a heavy drinking, brawling festival, a raucous blend of July 4th and New Years Eve.
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In 1834, African American and white men and women members of William Lloyd Garrison’s newly formed Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society saw Christmas as an opportunity to expose a hypocritical republic that proclaimed liberty yet held millions of African men, women and children captive as slaves. Women assumed the lead, boldly defying a society that denied them a public voice or political opinions. To finance the abolition cause, these women organized Christmas bazaars that sold donated gifts, and trumpeted anti-slavery messages.
Because women were prominent, the media labeled abolitionist gatherings “promiscuous assemblies” and denounced male supporters as “Aunt Nancy men.” Even in the face of physical attacks sanctioned by the northern media, anti-slavery men and women persisted. After some meetings women linked arms, black and white, and surrounded their men to protect them from angry mobs.
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The women who conducted Christmas fairs also tried to float experimental attractive symbols and language. They first adopted the evergreen shrub. To penetrate the Northern conscience they compared the common practice of whipping children — beginning to gain widespread disapproval — to the brutal whipping of enslaved men, women and children the media hid from public view.
Women also used turned the holiday into a generous, gift-giving Christmas that rewarded children. Their emphasis on children asked Americans to grant that enslaved people, who had even fewer rights than children, deserved Christian care and generosity. This strategy was also designed to challenge slaveholder propaganda portraying enslaved adults as children. At least one early Massachusetts anti-slavery fair featured an interracial childrens chorus known as “the Boston Garrison Juvenile Choir” which sang such popular holiday songs as “The Sugar Plums.”
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To expose the country’s greatest crime, challenge its largest vested interest and persuade fellow citizens their cause was righteous, a daring interracial band of women transformed an antisocial and rowdy festival into a humane holiday that promoted freedom for all. Shining light on the sins of human bondage and demanding emancipation on Christmas and the other 364 days, these pioneer women agitators beat hard on closed doors. Eventually their crusade not only liberated their southern brothers and sisters but gave birth to a movement that freed all women in the United States. These women gave American democracy, gave all of us, a Christmas gift that never stops giving.
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woman power - never underestimate it
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