Title: My Reeducation
Tags:
Blog Entry: I'm back from my long hiatus. I apologize for not letting any of you know, it wasn't intended to be THAT long of a break. Apologies aside, I have written much about my frustration with public schooling, and liberalism in general these past few months. It's too rich really. I'm in the dawn my senior year I can guarantee you that all of my teachers with the exception of drama and english teacher claimed right off the bat that they would mold us into "more informed voters". We all know what that means. With the exception of my abysmal environmental class (tune in for next blog), International Business has been by far the most interesting. Today we were given a whirlwind (and by whirlwind I mean 5 minute long) history of the United States economy explained much in this fashion: "For the first 210 years of United States history, our economy was largely built on slavery. Even in the north there were a lot of slaves. After the civil war and the abolishment of slavery, manufacturing took off, a flood of immagrents came, and with alien technology we began to ranch unicorns." Ok, I COULD be wrong about that last bit, but you get the picture. If we accept this preposition than we implicitely admit two things. 1. Americans of Northern European decsent were somehow lazy, and didn't want to work. They let slaves work while they ate bon bons and watched Daves of Our Lives. 2. The success of the United States is not based on the hard work and principle of free men, but rather men in forced labor and bondage. 3. Those who lived in the Northern States relied on slavery just as much as the south did. What we are left with is a collection of giant lies, that run antithetical to the American Dream. To understand the truth of the early American economy one must go back to the colonial era. The North was largely colonized by family farmers, businessmen, and fishermen seeking spiritual liberty. This economy being based on the family unit was largely self sufficient; the number of women equaled the number of men and therefore the labor basically replenished itself with each successive generation. In essense they had little use of slaves, and when labor was needed in factories later on, what labor we needed was supplemented by European immagrents NOT SLAVES. Now there were a few slaves in the north, but not "a lot". New York Wheat Farms, and Horse Ranches in Rhode Island made use of slaves from time to time. Wealthy families at would at time use slaves as household servants. This however was not to a great extent. My home state of NY was the worst northern offender with a percentage of our population comprising slaves to slightly greater than 10%. The North as a whole was less than 5% slave for most of it's history. One cannot attribute the success of the northern economy to slavery before or after the civil war. When one faces the facts, the northern economy was one based in fish, essential agriculture (food), shipping, and manufactured goods. These colonies were not built on the backs of slaves, but hard workers and entreprenuers who wanted to build themselves a better life...and succeeded because liberty allowed them to do so. The south is a different story. I am most certainly not a slavery denier. At slavery's height, 40% of the south was in bondage. A national crime indeed. But we cannot say that the southern economy was built COMPLETELY on the backs of slaves either. Slavery, for a time, dipped in importance up until 1793 when Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, which allowed a man in hours to harvest an amount of cotton that would take days. Cotton would never have become king if Eli Whitney hadn't come up with this contraption, it was your classic story of the American entrepreneur revolutionizing his world, simply because he was allowed to turn a great profit by taking a risk. It did have the unfortunate result of precipitating a surge in the slave population, but one cannot deny that even the southern economy had it's moments of greatness spawned by freedom. Finally, immigration. The principles of God given rights, limited government, and ultimitely freedom were made the pillars of our government after the Revolution. Freedom and opportunity given by the instituting of these principles gave way to a flood of immigrants who fell into our workforce and formed the core of our endeavors in manufacturing. This is essentially what gave the North the advantage of numbers, and massly produced technology during the Civil War. If it were true that what would become the Union used slaves on some grand economic scale, then the civil war could have gone the other way (thanks to the early superior generalship of the south), or never have occured at all. The job of a teacher is to teach about their subject warts and all. But regaurding the history of the United States and Christian church, there are far too many warts being applied. The great national crime of the US was slavery, but it was not built on this crime, it was built on principles most public school teachers either simply do not like, or shamefully remain ignorant of. Unfortunately, the preeminence and exaggeration of our national crimes (long ago repented for) remain successful in dissuading students from embracing the principles that have made our country great.
VIEW FULL VERSION: Link