{"id":131156,"date":"2016-07-28T21:44:07","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T03:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/28\/on-bill-oreillys-slavery-apologetics.html"},"modified":"2016-07-28T21:44:07","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T03:44:07","slug":"on-bill-oreillys-slavery-apologetics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/28\/on-bill-oreillys-slavery-apologetics.html","title":{"rendered":"On Bill O'Reilly's Slavery Apologetics"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of an O'Reilly Factor,<\/i> 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.<\/p>\n

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, <\/p>\n

'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.'<\/i><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A Smithsonian article [http:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/white-house-was-fact-built-slaves-180959916\/<\/a>] 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:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

'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<\/i> 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.'<\/i> [http:\/\/founders.archives.gov\/documents\/Adams\/99-03-02-0799<\/a>]<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nHow Abigail Adams Proves Bill O’Reilly Wrong About Slavery<\/a><\/span>
\nThe 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.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “On Bill O'Reilly's Slavery Apologetics”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21159,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/09\/david-barton-is-a-dolt-unfounded-fathers-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":131156,"position":0},"title":"David Barton is a Dolt (Unfounded Fathers Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 9-Jun-11 2:05am","format":false,"excerpt":"Right Wing Watch highlights two bits of historic revisionism by pseudo-historian preacher David Barton, in which he informs us (a) the Founding Fathers were all anti-evolution, and (b) the Founding Fathers were so anti-slavery that was the reason they declared independence. Let's start with that first claim: Barton vaguely hand-waves\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dolts"","block_context":{"text":"Dolts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/dolts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1761,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/02\/lines_in_the_du.html","url_meta":{"origin":131156,"position":1},"title":"Lines in the dust","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-May-02 6:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"I heard an NPR article this morning about insurance companies in California which, as required by law, have released whatever documentation they have about how their companies were involved in...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130706,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/19\/a-horrifying-competition-of-evils.html","url_meta":{"origin":131156,"position":2},"title":"A horrifying competition of evils","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 19-May-16 10:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Very interesting and moving article about the Whitney Plantation slavery museum in Louisiana and the horrible story it tells about the black slaves who worked -- and suffered and were tortured and died -- on the site.Which then, in the comments, gets into a one-upsmanship argument about whether American slavery\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128453,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/28\/words-mean-things-civil-war-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":131156,"position":3},"title":"Words Mean Things (Civil War Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-Oct-15 5:02am","format":false,"excerpt":"Language evolves and changes. Words get worn down over time, or drift and find new meanings. Old word stop meaning what they used to. Or sometimes our understanding of words changes, and what was acceptable becomes fraught, for reasons serious or silly.That said, I'm always a bit leery of intentional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2012,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/03\/26\/unsuitable.html","url_meta":{"origin":131156,"position":4},"title":"Unsuitable","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 26-Mar-02 6:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A class action suit has been filed in Boston against three large corporations for their connection to slavery in the 19th Century and earlier. The suit reads, in part, \"The...","rel":"","context":"In "ZT & PC"","block_context":{"text":"ZT & PC","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/zt-pc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135234,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/31\/compromising-compromise-lessons-history.html","url_meta":{"origin":131156,"position":5},"title":"Compromising compromise and the lessons of history","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 31-Oct-17 4:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Which just goes to show that even the \"adult in the room\" can say some doltish things. Now, I like to think of myself as a reasonable, get-along sort of guy, and I'm often able to find room to compromise between what I want and what others want. Not always\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/John-Kelly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}