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https://www.businessinsider.com/what-it-takes-to-be-middle-class-middle-income-wealth-2024-5

"If we admit that we're very class-based — which we really are — that reveals the uncomfortable truth that we're not as democratic as we like to pretend to be, which is the heart and soul of this country," he said. "If we're not truly democracy, then what are we? That's the whole justification for creating this country."

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[-] quarrk@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago

I ended up finding this article about the fate of African Americans after the Yorktown Treaty. Interesting stuff.

Most historians who cover Yorktown are content to celebrate Washington’s military genius. The blinders imposed by the lingering effects of American exceptionalism deter them from grappling with issues that would complicate the traditional triumphalist narrative. A clear-eyed look at the sources—including those recorded by British and German participants—reveals that for the 200,000 African Americans who composed 40 percent of the Old Dominion’s population, freedom wore a red coat, not blue, in 1781.

In the leadup to the War of Independence, prominent white colonists feared that British authorities would liberate their enslaved persons in retaliation for rebellion. The African American population certainly hoped that would be the case. After conversing with two Blacks in service to a Pennsylvania family fleeing the Redcoats’ advance on Philadelphia, Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, a Lutheran minister, confided to his diary on September 20, 1777: “They secretly wished that the British army might win, for then all Negro slaves will gain their freedom. It is said that this sentiment is almost universal among the Negroes in America.”

[-] Tom742@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

The book Settlers is always highly recommended and it delves into this event a little, a good companion piece could be The 1619 Project as well!

this post was submitted on 19 May 2024
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