One presidential candidate recently speculated that he was so good at “the art of the deal” that he might have negotiated a deal that would have prevented the civil war.

Such arrogant boasting overlooks an essential historical fact:  in the first century of the United States, there were a number of “deals” that prevented a civil war. But these were only “deals” among people of European ancestry.

People of African ancestry were never included in the negotiation of these “deals”. Indeed, the kidnapping and enslavement of people of African ancestry was the price paid for preventing a civil war between people of European ancestry!

As sketched throughout my book Visions of America (first published in 2004), the first of these “deals” was made in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention. For example, the slave trade was extended until at least 1807. People of color were counted as 3/5s of a person.

As I wrote in 2004:

“. . . America did not keep faith with African-Americans.

One tale from around the time when Washington was President captures the frustration and anger of those African-Americans whose patriotism was betrayed. It took place in Boston, a city that prided itself on being the birthplace of freedom.

In Boston, it was common to harass African-Americans at all times, and especially on holidays.

One African-American wrote: “How, at such times, we are shamefully abused, and that to such a degree, that we may truly be said to carry our life in our hands, and the arrows of death are flying about our heads.”

During one such Boston riot, a group of whites attacked a group of African-Americans in front of the home of Colonel Middleton, an African-American veteran of the Revolutionary War. “The old soldier stuck a musket out of his door and threatened to kill any white man who approached.”

Fortunately, a white neighbor convinced the whites to disperse. (Perhaps the musket also helped to convince the whites that it was time to go.) The neighbor  begged Colonel Middleton to put away his gun.

“Colonel Middleton stood silent for a moment.”

Perhaps he remembered the suffering he endured to win freedom from tyranny.

Perhaps he wondered why he had bothered to risk his life for racists who were hypocritical enough to claim that they believed that each person has the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

“Then he turned and tottered off, dropping his gun and weeping as he went.”

We should all weep with Colonel Middleton.

Because we must record with shame that America broke faith with African-Americans, who had hoped that the Declaration of Independence meant what it said—that all people have the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In 1853, near the end of her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriett Beecher Stowe warned about the evil and futility of negotiating “deals” that enabled slavery and racism to continue. As I wrote in 2004:

Most Americans in the 1850s could not imagine the disaster that awaited them within a few years. But Harriett Beecher Stowe sounded a warning.

At the end of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she reminded the church that, according to the Bible, Christ “shall break in pieces the oppressor.” And she warned Americans that these are “dread words for a nation bearing in her bosom so mighty an injustice.”

* * * *

Harriett Beecher Stowe rejected the compromises (such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850) that politicians crafted to save the Union for white people at the expense of black people.

She accurately foresaw that the Union could not be saved “by combining together, to protect injustice and cruelty, and making a common capital of sin.”

The Union could only be saved “by repentance, justice and mercy.”

Therefore, Harriett Beecher Stowe ended Uncle Tom’s Cabin with a prophecy of doom: if America did not take the path of “repentance, justice, and mercy,” there was no doubt that “injustice and cruelty” in America would bring “the wrath of Almighty God!”

Tragically, her prophecy of doom for America came true.

And so, we always need to remember this wisdom:

WHENEVER and WHEREVER injustice and cruelty exist, they must be overcome.

No “deal” ever replaces the need for repentance, justice, and mercy.

Not in our individual lives. Not in our families. Not in our churches. Not in our businesses. Not in our politics. Not in America. And not in our civilizations.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What injustices and cruelties exist today?

What are you doing to overcome these injustices and cruelties?

What the consequences likely to be if these injustices and cruelties continue?

READ MORE

For related thoughts, please read my blogs “How Do We Build a Civilization That Is Good—That Is Very Good?”, “Racism Is America Gone Astray”, “The 500-Year Marathon To Overcome Racism”, and “Nationalism Is Patriotism Gone Astray”.

The citations for the materials in this blog are the applicable endnotes in my book Visions of America, especially materials found in Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America, by Lerone Bennett, Jr. (1993).