Now That’s a Really Bad Idea!
JANUARY 7 IS THE 260TH ANNIVERSARY of one of the early successful acts of violent resistance by American colonists to British rule in North America.
The British were trying to enforce the Stamp Act, which had only been in effect for nine weeks. The Stamp Act required colonists to buy tax stamps, printed paper similar to postage stamps, and paste them on most legal documents, as well as on newspapers and pamphlets. The stamps were not cheap, costing the equivalent of 45 cents in today’s dollars.
The Stamp Act and the stamps needed to enforce it were enormously unpopular in the 13 colonies for two reasons. The stamps, which were only required in North America, were the product of Parliament in London, an elected legislative body that did not include a single representative of the North American colonies. Second, the money that was supposed to be paid for the stamps was going to be used to pay for the supplies and salaries of the British Army units stationed in North America. The colonists were already taxing themselves to pay the cost of maintaining colonial militias; if England wanted to have its own troops in North America, then England could pay for them.
As soon as the first shipment of tax stamps arrived in New York Harbor from England, the harborside streets were full of angry demonstrators, who swore they would not allow a single tax stamp to be unloaded. The mob was so threatening that the colonial governor delayed bringing the stamps ashore until after midnight, when the protesters were few, and only when a large squad of Redcoats was on hand to deliver them to Fort George, where they would have an armed guard at all times.
Another flaw in the plan to raise money with tax stamps became apparent on January 7, 1766, when the governor tried to ship a supply of the stamps to the colonial office in New London, Connecticut. The governor attempted to secretly load the shipment aboard the merchant ship Polly, but the word got out, so before the Polly could get anywhere near New London, she was boarded by several boatloads of armed Sons of Liberty volunteers, who held the Polly’s crew at bay while they dumped the entire shipment into the ocean.
The Stamp Act was a complete fiasco, which not only failed to raise any money, but also gave the colonists the incentive to hold their first-ever gathering of elected representatives from the North American colonies. When the so-called Stamp Act Congress met in Manhattan, representatives of nine of the 13 colonies devised a unified plan to resist British taxation.
Thanks to the organized resistance to the Stamp Act, the authority of the colonial administration was diminished and the power of the colonists enhanced. On February 21, 1766, less than four months after the hated Stamp Act went into effect, Parliament voted to repeal it. https://xxxxxx.org/2022-12-11/class-conflict-between-elites-and-workers-goes-back-americas-founding
A Big Rebellion Ends Badly
JANUARY 8 IS THE 215TH ANNIVERSARY of the beginning of the German Coast Uprising, the largest-ever rebellion of enslaved workers in North America.
The area that was known as the German Coast was a stretch of farmland on the west bank of the Mississippi River about 25 miles up-river from New Orleans. Most of the area’s original European settlers had emigrated from Germany, hence the area’s name.
In addition to sugar-cane, the plantations of the German Coast catered to the population of New Orleans, growing vegetables, fruit and tobacco, and raising cattle, sheep, poultry and eggs. In January 1811, according to the testimony a slave-owning planter, two enslaved workers named Quamana and Harry and a free African-American named Charles Deslondes led a revolt during which they killed the son of their White owner and free person of color who worked as an overseer.
After taking over one plantation, the rebels began to march toward New Orleans carrying improvised weapons. On the way to New Orleans, more enslaved people joined them, until there were some 500 insurgents in the group, which killed one more White planter on the way.
Residents of the city got news of the approach of the insurgents and prepared to do battle with them. U.S. Army Brigadier-General and commander of local military forces Wade Hampton, along with 40 U.S. Army troops, plus U.S. Navy Commodore John Shaw and 50 Navy sailors formed the core of New Orleans defenders along with several hundred armed civilians.
Before the rebels reached New Orleans, the soldiers, sailors and militia headed north to meet them. When the forces met, the much better armed group quickly routed the rebels, killing about 50 of them and capturing another 50. The men who were thought to be the leaders of the rebellion were summarily executed, and the remainder were marched to New Orleans.
Scores of the rebels had managed to escape into the countryside, but many of them were eventually captured and imprisoned. The prisoners were put on trial, and the vast majority of them were condemned to death and executed. The number of those executed is estimated to have been about 100. https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/andry-s-rebellion-1811/
May Your Song Always Be Sung (1941)
JANUARY 9 IS THE 85TH BIRTHDAY of Joan Baez, who occupies a place of honor in my musical pantheon because she has provided the soundtrack for much of my life.
Happy birthday, Joan, and thank you for persisting in your career of perceptive and beautiful work.
I’m not competent to write intelligently about an artist like Joan, so here are some words she recently wrote herself, quoted from her website: “In these terrible times I have felt as paralyzed, frustrated, outraged, and heartbroken as anyone reading this. We of like mind long for ways to be effective against tyranny. In my travels what I hear most is, “I am overwhelmed. What can I do?”
“It is hard to grasp the U.S. Administration’s obsession with deportation, and its cruelty towards our immigrant communities, including the flagrant violation of so many innocent hard-working peoples’ constitutional rights.
“It is difficult to comprehend that we are living in a country where people can be snatched off the streets and disappeared into jails in remote parts of this country, as well as boarded onto planes and banished to El Salvador, South Sudan, and who knows where else. Gone without a trace and with no accountability. Leaving families and loved ones, often children, behind, some in grave danger themselves of expulsion and deportation, but also frequently deprived of the primary breadwinner in the family, facing an uncertain and terrifying future.
“At a time when voices are being ignored, quelled and silenced, ours must resound with the message to those in power that we DO care about the human beings who are suffering under their edicts, decrees, and capricious commands. Empathy is a strength, not a weakness.” To view Joan Baez’ website, visit http://www.joanbaez.com/
Revolutions Don’t Make Themselves (1776)
JANUARY 10 IS THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY of the publication of Tom Paine’s revolutionary pamphlet, Common Sense, Addressed to the Inhabitants of America.
Common Sense sets the standard for effective political advocacy. Published during the very early stages of the Revolutionary War, it is a masterpiece of popular, persuasive, prose, which deserves a great deal of credit for turning the tide of colonial opinion solidly in favor of independence. https://www.ueunion.org/es/ue-news-feature/2012/tom-paine-and-the-4th-of-july-the-worker-who-helped-make-a-revolution
Not the Best Way To Defend Democracy (1956)
JANUARY 11 IS THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY of a disturbing moment in the early stages of the U.S. war against Vietnam.
The President of South Vietnam, Ngô Đình Diệm–who was, according to many major figures in U.S. political circles, the George Washington of Asia–issued Ordinance No. 6, which provides that:
“Until the complete restoration of security those persons who are considered as dangerous to national defense and public security may, by an order of the President of the Republic acting upon recommendations by the Minister of the Interior, be detained in a prison camp, forced to reside at a specific locality, banished from a certain residence or locality or subject to administrative supervision.”
Under the state of emergency that prevailed then in South Vietnam, which suspended the right of habeas corpus, Ordinance No. 6 was not exactly the kind of legal provision that a defender of democratic values would support. https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/0852d0b4-fd2c-42f8-bfa0-331c6130b4f2/diem-regime-and-us-misperceptions-lesson-plan-ken-burns-lynn-novick-the-vietnam-war/
Hard to Believe It, But Genocide Is Against the Law (1951)
JANUARY 12 IS THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY of the day the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide went into effect.
The Convention defines genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group.
One of the first accusations of genocide submitted to the UN after the Convention entered into force concerned the treatment of Black Americans. In December 1951 the Civil Rights Congress submitted a 237-page petition, entitled “We Charge Genocide”, arguing that the U.S. had been and continued to be responsible for hundreds of wrongful deaths, both legal and extra-legal, as well as many other genocidal acts.
To read the Civil Rights Congress petition “We Charge Genocide”, visit https://www.google.com/books/edition/We_Charge_Genocide/dSNYAAAAMAAJ?hl=en
Whistle, Blow My Blues Away (1968)
JANUARY 13 IS THE 58TH ANNIVERSARY of Johnny Cash’s live performance, backed by June Carter, Carl Perkins and the Tennessee Three, at Folsom State Prison in California. The recording of that performance, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, was released five months later. Cash opened the show with Folsom Prison Blues, which is also the first cut on the album. You can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/AeZRYhLDLeU?si=AUPqsPYVDUPBozfX
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