Independence Day 0
When I was in elementary school studying Virginia history (mumble) years agom in third grade, 1619 was taught as the “Red Letter Year” because of three events:
- The arrival of the first English women to the Virginia colony.
- The first sitting of the House of Burgesses, the Virginia colony’s legislature.
- The first arrival of Africans to be sold as slaves (at a spot not far from where I type this).
The legacy of the last item on that list continues to exact its toll, as the stain of America’s original sin of chattel slavery and the myth of racial superiority fabricated to justify it continue to pollute our polity.
One of my local broadcast stations has compiled a report which I think is worthy of attention, for it addresses events that many want to pretend didn’t happen.
You can ignore history or you can lie about it–many do every day–but you can’t make it unhappen, you can’t make it go away.
