Thread by @etotheipie

This is a statement from two of the people who wrote Florida's new education standards on slavery. In it they give several names of people to exemplify slaves who learned skills they applied later in life.

Let's go through the supposed truth of this list one by one.

https://twitter.com/AlexLanfran/status/1682124147101507594

The first name is Ned Cobb, who was listed as a blacksmith.

Ned Cobb was a tenant farmer and activist who born in 1885, 20 years after the emancipation of slaves.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Cobb

The second name is Henry Blair, also listed as a blacksmith.

There is no evidence Henry Blair was ever enslaved, and the fact he could register patents is evidence he was not in fact ever enslaved.

blackpast.org/african-americ…

The third name is Lewis Latimer, also listed as a blacksmith.

Lewis' parents escaped slavery, obtained their freedom in Massachusetts, and eventually Lewis was born, a free man in free Massachusetts.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_How…

The fourth name is John Henry, also listed as a blacksmith.

Detailed facts about the real John Henry are disputed, and his status is principally a folk hero.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henr…

The fifth name is James Forten, listed as a shoemaker.

James was a free-born African American and a sail-maker, not shoemaker.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_For…

The sixth name is Paul Cuffe, listed as a shoemaker.

Paul was also born free, and was a whaler.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cuffe

The seventh name is Betty Washington Lewis, listed as a shoemaker.

Betty was the free white sister of George Washington, the first President of the United States, and slave owner.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Was…

The eighth name is Jupiter Hammon, listed as a fishing and shipping industry worker.

Jupiter is the FIRST name in the list so far who was actually a slave—all his life—and was a writer and poet. If he worked in that industry, it was in that capacity.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_H…

The ninth name is John Chavis, listed as a fishing and shipping industry worker.

John Chavis was free from birth, never enslaved, and worked as a minister and teacher.

blackpast.org/african-americ…

The tenth name is William Whipper, also listed as a fishing and industry worker.

William was born to an enslaved mother and her owner, but was born in 1804 in Pennsylvania, where the existing law made him free at birth. He was a businessman.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_W…

Existing Pennsylvania law at the time, "An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery", passed in 1780 and making all persons born in Pennsylvania free.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Act_fo…

The 11th name is Crispus Attucks, also listed as a fishing or shipping industry worker.

Crispus was indeed a slave, and became a sailor after escaping slavery, but he was born inland in Massachusetts, and his slaver's work was cattle.

crispusattucksmuseum.org/biography/

The 12th name is Elizabeth Keckley, listed as a seamstress.

Elizabeth was indeed a slave, and learned how to be a seamstress while a slave. But it was her enslaved mother who taught her how to do that, while her slavers raped her.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth…

The whole list is ridiculous, but this one is breaking me.

The 13th name is James Thomas, listed as a tailor.

This is a little more complicated. James was born a slave, and had his freedom bought by his mother at age 6. But Tennessee law stipulated he would remain legally a slave until he left the state.

He worked as an apprentice >>

at a barbershop owned by another slave, and eventually opened his own barbershop. He worked as a barber, eventually gained his real freedom, and then in his later years he was a real estate investor. He was not a tailor.

blackpast.org/african-americ…

The 14th name is Marietta Carter, listed as a tailor.

I cannot find any information on who this person was, there are literally no hits.

The 15th name is Betsey Stockton, listed as a teacher.

Betsey was born a slave, yes, and became an indentured servant around when she was became a teenager, to the same person. She probably did become literate while enslaved/in indentured servitude. However, she became a >>

teacher while on a missionary trip of her own after she was a fully free person.

slavery.princeton.edu/stories/betsey…

The 16th name is Booker T. Washington, listed as a teacher.

Booker was born in 1856, nine years before the emancipation of slaves, and was illiterate through the entirety of his enslavement. He taught himself to read.

https://twitter.com/Ed_Baptist/status/1682754607645093890?s=20

So taking stock @AlexLanfran, of all of the bull shit ("truth") you helped spread, of the 16 names in that statement:

– 9 were never enslaved
– 9 are listed in the wrong industry
– 13/14 didn't learn their skills by being slaves
– 1 was the white sister of George Washington

@AlexLanfran There is in fact abundant evidence in their life stories, in fact, that new skills were much more readily acquired as they got their freedom.

How you @AlexLanfran, or any of your fellow ghouls, look at yourself in the mirror when you wake up in the morning, I don't know.

I made a table summarizing the results.

@BostechLegal (I tried skimming the first to see if I could find Betty Washington Lewis. No luck, as you might imagine.)

@BostechLegal The first book has been scanned (but not fully digitized) and is available online here:



It's hard to check it manually for each person though, I relied on Google results.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/…

@OllieMcClellan @specter177 Unless I *really* missed any sarcasm you were laying down lol

@lookbryand They offered it to substantiate this piece:

"Instruction includes the trades of slaves (e.g., musicians, healers, blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, weavers, tailors, sawyers, hostlers, silversmiths, cobblers, wheelwrights, wigmakers, milliners, painters, coopers)."

@lookbryand This is from your source, thank you.

Now, what exactly will appear in any textbooks or instruction, I do not know. I hope it's not any of the things in their statement. But it is not very encouraging when these two try to speak up and make fools of themselves.

@CPodiumcafe @nhannahjones In any case, most of the people on the list were (1) never slaves, and (2) not brought over from Africa, but were born in America.

POSSIBLE CORRECTION:

Like I said, John Henry is not a very well known historical figure, if not just a mere legend. However, if prison records Scott Nelson is correct about his findings of records, Henry might have been born in New Jersey, and been worked as a prison laborer.

Supposedly he was born in 1848, which would have placed his birth about 44 years after the passage of the 1804 Gradual Abolition Act, which held that if he was born to an enslaved mother, he would be free upon reaching 21 years of age. But it seems unlikely his mother would >>

be a slave and of child-bearing age, given how long that act had been in place. So, if John Henry existed and was born in New Jersey in 1848, he was probably a free man from birth, barring some other circumstance like parents being fugitive slaves—and in any case, he would be >>

enslaved in name only, not actually learning any skills through slavery.

So, we're going to adjust John Henry's information to "not ever enslaved" and "did not learn skills from slavery". At the same time, he may have only been on the railroads because of prison labor.

Sorry, that was a garbled sentence. Should read:

However, if Scott Nelson is correct about his findings of prison records, ...

As I think about it, the 13th Amendment carves out an exception for slavery specifically for punishment for crime, so maybe this is walking it back too far. Truth will be somewhere in the middle.