Thread by @Such

There’s been a lot of talk especially of late about how Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party gave slaves their freedom in America.

They didn’t.

The slaves freed themselves.

THREAD, for this "Independence Day"

There’s a reason Black Americans celebrate Juneteenth and not Jubilee, the day the Emancipation Proclamation became effective. Its bland words “thence forward and forever free” applied ONLY to territories beyond federal authority and EXEMPTED loyal states. It freed not one slave.

Freedom was eventually codified into law with the 13th Amendment (with that ocean-sized loophole that’s exploited even now, see @13THFilm). But neither Lincoln nor his words were responsible for the end of slavery. His goal and priority was and always had been to save the Union.

He made that abundantly clear in Aug. 1862: "If I could save the union without freeing any slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.” Read that again.

Meanwhile slaves were risking their lives for freedom, abandoning their owners, coming uninvited into Union lines BEFORE the proclamation.

A basic-math 💡went off in Union army leaders’ heads: 1 freed slave = 1 less for them, 1 more for us. And up it went the chain of command.

That 💡 culminated in the emancipation proclamation. It was a shrewd political move, a necessary essential wartime measure to cripple the Confederacy’s ability to fight. Up til then the south was kicking the north’s ass and it was meant to tip the balance of power.

It did.

Slaves seized the opportunity like their lives depended on it, fled the south in droves, WEAKENING its economy while simultaneously BOOSTING Union ranks. Over 200,000 slaves enlisted, fundamentally transforming the war from Lincoln’s battle for the Union into a war for freedom.

"But Lincoln!" whitewashed history insists. Lincoln actually revoked field emancipations in MO and SC for fear of what loyal slave states, those that didn’t secede, would do. In the 1st draft, he affirmed his support for colonizing freed slaves “upon this continent or elsewhere.”

It's also important to frame his political need for freedom within this:

“I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black race. I am not nor ever have been in favor making voters or jurors of Negroes.."

"nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and ..."

“political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they remain together there must be a position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

Read that again.

How is this relevant today, Sway? On July 4, 1776 another proclamation declared “all men are created equal” but Lincoln, the white man crowned champion of Black freedom, savior of slaves, believed Black people to be anything but. An equality that eludes us today, centuries later.

America has never recognized the humanity of Black lives unless and until it’s politically expedient. Black lives brought here in chains and discarded as pawns in power games of chess, in a country hellbent on keeping us oppressed while revering our oppressors. To this day. 2020.

So don’t talk to me today or ANY day about thanking white men for saving Black lives. Or giving them credit for selective “independence” at best. Or that today is about celebrating “our ideals”. Equality of Black life should be a reality, not an IDEAL. 244 years later, it's not.

So today I instead choose to remember and honor the slaves who took their destiny into their own hands and seized their freedom with sheer, relentless tenacity 157 years ago.

And I honor all the Black people STILL doing it, today.

We will free ourselves too.

We will win.