(CW: dot gov link lol) From George Washington to Anthony Whitting, 16 December 1792

archived version

1792 is 16 years after 1776, I assume he’s not president at this time. That’s what George Washington seceded from Britain for, so he could obsess over measuring wheat and telling his underlings to kill all but 1 or 2 of the Africans’ dogs—shit he probably coulda done either way. But now he answers to nobody

But anyway, I really saw this pbs article which tells similar dog stories about founding father slavers, but incredibly refers to the enslaved Africans as “African Americans”.

In what sense were Africans held captive in the US in 1792 “Americans”? I understand it’s a common way to refer to people in the contemporary US, but it’s fucking crazy to project that term into the past like that IMO. Extremely powerful ideology

  • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Fun fact, Washington was a notoriously bad farmer whose farm had to be bailed out by rich friends multiple times. It probably would have helped if he let the slaves keep their dogs, because the dogs would scare off the wolves that keep eating his sheep.

  • a_fanonist_hexagon [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It was actually in the middle of his presidency (1789-1797). Washington was first president under the constitution but there were others under the Articles of Confederation

    • Multihedra [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Thank you! Despite living here, I’ve internalized roughly 0% of US history .

      I forgot it was all fucked up and weirdly timed. That makes the letter way funnier imo

      • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
        ·
        2 years ago

        It takes a while to build a government.

        1776 was just the formal start of the American Revolution, 1783 was when they secured control over their territory through Britain's surrender and the recognition of the new country by the European powers.

        The Constitutional Convention was in 1787, and Washington didn't take office til 1789 (same year as the French Revolution).

      • Ho_Chi_Chungus [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        It's almost funny how early American history is so thoroughly mythologized that even Americans very well versed in history seem to blank on the details

  • Dolores [love/loves]
    ·
    2 years ago

    In what sense were Africans held captive in the US in 1792 “Americans”?

    there'd been slaves in the US since 1619, so many people had been born in bondage in america.

    idk on the one hand taking a modern term to the past is a bit haram but on the other connecting the history with the living descendants is a point when the effects of what is talked about are still going on

  • RATMachinespirit [he/him,they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    “For it is astonish”?! I’m a fucking dipshit that can’t even get a short story under his belt and even I know to write better than this. Get an editor mr. Never won a field battle.

  • emizeko [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    this guy was the largest landowner in the USA and rich as fuck and he's still obsessing over some lost sheep to the point of hanging dogs

  • LeninWalksTheWorld [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    In what sense were Africans held captive in the US in 1792 “Americans”

    According to Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), not at all. Black people were not citizens and thus had no protections or rights under the law. They were explicitly defined at not American: "Persons of African descent cannot be and were never intended to be citizens under the U.S. Constitution"

    Taney supported his ruling with an extended survey of American state and local laws from the time of the Constitution's drafting in 1787 that purported to show that a "perpetual and impassable barrier was intended to be erected between the white race and the one which they had reduced to slavery"