before I start on the actual subject, I'd like to talk about why I think it's so important.
Ever since I was really, really young I've been taught about History, my father's an African and World History professor yada yada yada. All that boring stuff.
So my opinion has always been different, that's what happens when you're taught by your parents and more or less left to fend for your self in the education field instead of going to a school.
So I was taught all these things which I will point out in a few, and I started to realize with time, that, yes, the fireworks are pretty and the grill is bomb, but, Independence Day was never really quite as Independent as people back then, and today think.
So the Congress met in Philly, in 1776, July 1st. But Independence was declared the day after, July 2nd, 1776, not, on July 4 as many believe. But, something big did happen on the fourth; on July 4th, 1776, Congress approved. If Congress hadn't approved, we wouldn't have gained Independence, not at that moment in time at least, and that is why July,4th is celebrated as Independence day and not July, 2nd.
However, that wasn't the end of the battle. You might have noticed that I haven't mentioned the Declaration, that's because it hasn't been signed yet.
The Declaration wasn't signed until August of 1776, almost an entire month later.
Now, whether you didn't know all of this, and your rubbing your chin and nodding at your phone, or, your all like, bitch, I knew that, this next part is what I want you to hear.
So, in the war and before the war, there were African slaves in America. Obviously. And the slaves were kind of torn. Britain owned America, they were the bosses, which meant that they had the right to permit slaves to chose to fight with the enemy: them. They were asked to help, but they weren't forced quite as much which won over a lot of them.
But here's what I want to point out.
Yes, technically, Europeans were the ones who enslaved them, and America was still connected to Great Britain, but through a slaves eyes it was different. America was trying to gain independence, but if they won, black slaves would still be slaves. Nothing would change for them so why help?
Britain was offering them freedom. They were bribing them and a whole lot of slaves were more than happy to except their bribe.
I mean, I'd do the same thing.
There were also slaves who fought with America. Some of them had a mind set of, 'oh, I'm American too' and some of them had other reasons I'm not quite sure of. But there were slaves on both sides.
Like I said before, the slaves who fought with Britain knew that they would still be slaves if America won, and as we all know, America did win, and as so many of them feared, they were still slaves.
Independence Day isn't really when America gained entire Independence.
America, even when we became Thirteen colonies and gained Independence from Britain, after all the struggle and war and death, still couldn't understand what it felt like for those slaves to be property.
They now felt and breathed freedom, but, couldn't understand how black slaves could also yearn for it.
Or just didn't understand that they were human beings who also deserved freedom whether their cotton fields needed picking or not.
So it gets me thinking, would the world have come out better if the war went the other way? We're all proud of our countries, and we should be, every place in the world has done extraordinary things for the greater good. But we can't just justify something because our ancestors were from here.
Would they really have set us free? Or were they simply using us?
Britain was desperate. So I'm not sure but I've never believed that everyone who promised a slave freedom in that war was being honest. There were good people, it's just there were a lot of bad ones too. After all, if Britain had won, they'd want to keep America calm and freeing their slaves definitely would not have helped with that.
So in whole, for Blacks, Independence Day really isn't and never was
Independence day. I'd like Emancipation Day, how 'bout that?
https://en.Wikipedia.com
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