Culture and Life

by Rob Gowland

The glorious fourth

The 4th of July was, as ever, the occasion for patriotic US citizens to 
parade around in front of statues and pictures of George Washington, the 
"father of his country". And let's face it, there can be few patriots 
anywhere who can match the fervour of patriots from the US of A.

But while schoolchildren all over the US were being encouraged to recite 
eulogies to Washington — "first in war, first in peace, first in the 
hearts of his countrymen" is a popular refrain — the reality of George 
Washington was being carefully hidden away.

The American Revolution was inspired by the same ideals of liberty, 
equality and brotherhood that inspired the French Revolution. Both 
revolutions encouraged the common man and woman to believe that a radically 
new and better life was about to begin for them.

But the dreams of the masses, of the artisans, farmers and other battlers 
were not shared by the rising class of merchants, bankers, professional men 
and rich landowners who controlled the leadership of the revolutionary 
movement.

This new class needed the support of the masses to achieve their goal, 
which in France was to replace the rule of the old feudal aristocracy with 
their own class rule, and in America to throw off the yolk of a British 
colonial regime so that they could rule themselves.

Although the common people in both France and America displayed great 
courage in their armed struggle for the revolutionary cause, their gains 
were kept to the minimum.

When the leaders of the American Revolution spoke of representative 
government and the rights of man they did not mean for everyone. The US 
Declaration of Independence of 1776 was an all-embracing document, from 
which the subsequent French Revolution took inspiration.

But by the time the US Constitution was drafted in 1787, the rights it was 
drawn up to protect were limited to those of white, male property owners.

The writing had been on the wall even as the Declaration was drafted. The 
original provisions that would have made slavery untenable had to be 
dropped before the colonies where slavery predominated would join the 
revolutionary push.

George Washington himself was not only a wealthy landowner but also a slave 
owner. He lived in Philadelphia, where the permanent holding of slaves was 
prohibited.

But Washington worked his plantation in Virginia with slaves, and contrived 
to keep eight slaves for his personal convenience in Philadelphia by the 
simple expedient of periodically sending them back to the plantation so 
that they could not be counted as "permanent residents" of Phily.

Far from being a beacon of freedom, the newly independent USA with its 
shiny new Constitution — a much-amended document that US patriots 
curiously believe to be the envy of the world — continued to participate 
in and foster the slave trade until 1808.

In the first US census, in 1790, there were almost 700,000 slaves in the 
country, out of a total population of less than four million.

The Liberty Bell, the symbol behind the slogan "let freedom ring", was 
actually brought to the US in a ship owned by a consortium of American 
slave traders.

All US schoolchildren learn the story of Washington crossing the Delaware 
during the Revolutionary Wars, but only a few children of colour learn 
about the slave ships that regularly docked at Phildelphia's Delaware 
wharves to discharge their human cargo.

Washington became the USA's first President and raised revenue through a 
tax on the import of slaves.

In 1793, President Washington signed a treaty with the Indian nations of 
the eastern seaboard, the Seneca, Mohawk, Iroquois and Delaware people.

The Indians thought the treaty would protect their lands and the plants and 
game they depended on for food and clothing from further encroachment by 
European settlement. The Whites saw it as guaranteeing they would not get 
tomahawked as they fenced Indian land for their own farms.

As soon as the inevitable conflict arose, only a year after the treaty was 
signed, Washington sent General Anthony Wayne to crush the Indians. Eight 
of their chiefs lie buried in the cemetery of Philadelphia's St Peter's 
Episcopal Church, their people massacred or scattered.

US authorities have made a great effort to promote "historic" Philadelphia: 
Washington's residence, the building where the Constitution was drafted, as 
well as new museums like the Liberty Bell Centre and the National 
Constitution Centre.

But sites dedicated to the history of Black America do not figure 
prominently in the guided tours around Phily's Independence Park. This 
year, in the week leading up to July 4, there were protest demonstrations 
in Philadelphia demanding that recognition be given to the African-American 
history of the USA.

One demonstration took the form of a tour of sites associated with the 
city' s Black history: among them the sites of slave auctions, Independence 
Hall, constructed by the labour of enslaved Africans, and the Mother Bethel 
African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The church was founded in 1787 by the Reverend Richard Allen and stands on 
the oldest parcel of land continuously owned by African Americans in the 
US.

Not far away an unmarked grave contains the remains of Samuel Fraunces, 
known as "Black Sam". One of the 50,000 or so free Africans in the American 
colonies, Fraunces was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and ironically 
became steward of Washington's house.

The most telling irony, however, is that the National Constitution Centre, 
a new building, was built by a construction firm that excluded Black 
workers.

The American Revolution has a way to go yet.