History as a Cudgel

National Public Radio (NPR) uses taxpayer funds to produce essays and radio shows that purport to provide historical insight but really support a fringe political agenda. An excellent example is a piece published on July 19, 2022 titled Denmark Vesey is honored. His slave revolt was thwarted and he was executed.”

It is not clear when or where Denmark was born but he was likely a slave in the Caribbean and was sold to Joseph Vesey of South Carolina in 1771 when he was a teen. He bought his freedom in 1799 after winning a lottery and set up shop as a carpenter. By all accounts he was successful and respected in freedom for more than 20 years but was not able to win freedom for one of his wives or his children.

Denmark was tried and convicted of conspiring to instigate a slave rebellion that according to the NPR article “would go down on the anniversary of the French Revolution, July 14, 1822, and involve thousands killing slaveholders, freeing people and fleeing to Haiti.” However, word of the plan got out and Denmark was tried and hanged.

So, what is wrong with the article?

• “Denmark Vesey’s story was long left out of schoolbooks in South Carolina by those who argued the Civil War was over state’s rights, not slavery.”
• “Vesey’s narrative was initially controlled by slaveholders fearful of another planned revolt.”
• “Dozens of states have introduced legislation or passed laws that prohibit schools from teaching about race or racism…And, last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Rove (sic) v. Wade has prompted some state bans on abortions.”

Newspapers at the time carried the story even in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. The court requested full documentation of the event and trial which survives even today. There is no evidence of a conspiracy by anyone to keep Denmark out of “schoolbooks” in South Carolina. States have not introduced or passed laws to prohibit teaching about race or racism and what does abortion have to do with Denmark Vesey!

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog