At the end of an O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly offered some commentary on Michelle Obama's moving speech about how she was living in a White House that had been built by slaves.
After noting, pedantically, that construction of the White House — first occupied by John and Abigail Adams — had involved not just black slaves, but free blacks and whites, he noted,
'Slaves that worked there were well-fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government, which stopped hiring slave labor in 1802. […] So, Michelle Obama is essentially correct in citing slaves as builders of the White House, but there were others working as well.'
It's just an off-hand comment, but it's kind of a dickish dismissal of what chattel slavery was about. Being just "well fed" and having "decent lodging" — even if one assumes that's accurate — hardly makes slavery of human beings any less appalling. That some of the folk building the White House were something other than black slaves doesn't make Obama's comment any less poignant or meaningful.
A Smithsonian article [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/white-house-was-fact-built-slaves-180959916/] details more about the role of slaves in the building of the White House as well as many other DC landmarks. But Abigail Adam — one of those first inhabitants, watching black slaves still laboring in and around the White House — had her own commentary:
Two of our hardy N England men would do as much work in a day as the whole 12, but it is true Republicanism that drive the Slaves half fed, and destitute of cloathing, … to labour, whilst the owner waches about Idle, tho his one Slave is all the property he can boast.
'The effects of Slavery are visible every where; and I have amused myself from day to day in looking at the labour of 12 negroes from my window, who are employd with four small Horse Carts to remove some dirt in front of the house. the four carts are all loaded at the same time, and whilst four carry this rubish about half a mile, the remaining eight rest upon their Shovels, Two of our hardy N England men would do as much work in a day as the whole 12, but it is true Republicanism that drive the Slaves half fed, and destitute of cloathing, or fit for [Mayfa<i>]re, to labour, whilst the owner waches about Idle, tho his one Slave is all the property he can boast, Such is the case of many of the inhabitants of this place.' [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0799]
I'm sure Bill would never actually defend the institution of human slavery, but by blurring its horrors and profound inhumanity in the offhand pursuit of trying to minimize the impact of the First Lady's speech, he lends comfort and support to those who try to pretend that this awful part of American history was, maybe, not really so bad.
How Abigail Adams Proves Bill O’Reilly Wrong About Slavery
The Fox host’s insistence that black laborers building the White House were “well-fed and had decent lodgings” fits into a long history of insisting the “peculiar institution” wasn’t so bad.
Those wanting to rewrite history have only selfish goals in mind