Woke Culture and Slavery

The two may have more in common than you think.

“Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those that don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone.” - Elon Musk

“The cause of the great War of the Rebellion against the United States will have to be attributed to slavery.” - Ulysses S. Grant

People forget that many New England towns, like Haverhill, Lawrence, and Lowell, were tied at the hip to the South and their supply of cotton. These towns and the financiers of Boston and elsewhere were willing to look away from the evils of slavery because their livelihoods depended on it.

This all changed on the 7th of May, 1850 - when Daniel Webster delivered his speech announcing the Great Compromise. That compromise allowed California to enter as a “free state,” New Mexico and Utah to decide slavery by popular sovereignty, and for the Federal Government to assume $10 million in debt from Texas in exchange for Texas relinquishing all claims to the New Mexico territory.

Lost in the main points of the Great Compromise of 1850 was the federal requirements of the Fugitive Slave Act. These laws affirmed the property rights of slave owners in the South for “property” that had been on the books. Southern slave owners enlisted Federal marshals and judges to compel the return of slaves who had fled over the state borders into “free” states. If those in the North went against the law - they could be put into jail.

Suddenly those in the North were no longer willing to turn a blind eye to slavery. They were willing to turn a blind eye but not to actively participate in the evil - which the Fugitive Slave Act now demanded of them.

Likewise, when mostly college students started using preferred pronouns and requiring others to abide by their decisions - many turned blind eyes to the practice which most considered silly. But when preferred pronouns became compelled speech seemingly overnight - things changed.

Current and former college students could call people “Nazis” with impunity but if a member of the real word used the wrong pronouns or deadnamed someone - they could lose their jobs or be kicked out of their hard earned spot in college and then be mob ostracized. Suddenly the word “cancelled” came into national prominence.

Thomas Sowell may have put it best when he said, “There seems to be a growing number of people who think that the world should adjust to them, while they don’t have to show any consideration to anyone.” People became fed up with the entitled, and the cancellers. Suddenly, if you noticed, those who dared put preferred pronouns in their Zoom profiles became less and less (mostly among University or State organizations).

Reminder that the pre-Civil War abolitionists were a tiny fraction of the population and were not apolitical in the least. They were very vocal in only caring about ending slavery. As abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison put it, “If the States cannot survive the anti-slavery agitation, then let the States perish.”

Northerners who supported the Fugitive Slave Act were described as “crampers and perverters of individual integrity.” The same could be said today of supporters of woke culture and preferred pronouns. People of the day could be said to have been “radicalized by events.” As true then as it is now.

Reminder that nobody had the right to impose the institution of slavery upon another free person just as no one has the right to impose their religion upon another. We would not accept a version of Christianity or Islam imposed upon us - so why would we be forced to accept versions of woke culture?

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