"All we want is make us free."~ The Armistad Revolt

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the day President Abraham Lincoln (R. IL) signed the Emancipation Proclamation as our  nation approached the third year of the War between the States.

The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

So, I'm sitting here 150 years later wondering how the party that freed the slaves turned into the party that is trying to bring back slavery?   The answer can be found in the graphic below. 

 

 See the areas in red?  These are the states that are covered by the Emancipation Proclamation.  Slave holding states not covered are in blue.  Is it a coincidence the states responsible for putting the most Tea Party representatives in the house are all members of the former Confederacy?  I think NOT.  

The goals, methods and passions of the Tea Party in the House are all characteristic of the radical southern right.

The mainstream media have completely missed the story, by portraying the Tea Party movement in ideological rather than regional terms. Whether by accident or design, the public faces of the Tea Party in the House are Midwesterners — Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann and Joe Walsh of Illinois. But while there may be Tea Party sympathizers throughout the country, in the House of Representatives the Tea Party faction that has used the debt ceiling issue to plunge the nation into crisis is overwhelmingly Southern in its origins:

From the Armistad Revolt, the the Emancipation Proclamation, to now,  all we want is make us free.

John Quincy Adams: [to the Court] This man is black. We can all see that. But, can we also see as easily, that which is equally true? That he is the only true hero in this room. Now, if he were white, he wouldn't be standing before this court fighting for his life. If he were white and his enslavers were British, he wouldn't be standing, so heavy the weight of the medals and honors we would bestow upon him. Songs would be written about him. The great authors of our times would fill books about him. His story would be told and retold, in our classrooms. Our children, because we would make sure of it, would know his name as well as they know Patrick Henry's. Yet, if the South is right, what are we to do with that embarrassing, annoying document, The Declaration of Independence? What of its conceits? "All men created equal," "inalienable rights," "life, liberty," and so on and so forth? What on Earth are we to do with this? I have a modest suggestion.
[tears papers in half]

Welcome to 2013!