A Nation of Candor? The conversation Eric Holder doesn’t want us to have about race

City Journal ^ | 4 April 2012 | Harry Stein

[Right Wing Assault]

As long as we’re talking about a race conversation, I’d love to hear what Van Jones has to say. Commies have interesting takes on a lot of subjects.

[Cheburashka]

Illinois Constitution of 1818.

Adopted at Kaskaskia in convention, August 26, 1818.

ART. VI.
1. Neither slavery or involuntary servitude shall hereafter be introduced into this state, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; nor shall any male person, arrived at the age of 21 years, nor female person arrived at the age of 18 years, be held to serve any person as a servant, under any indenture hereafter made, unless such person shall enter into such indenture while in a state of perfect freedom, and on condition of a bona-fide consideration received or to be received for their service. Nor shall any indenture of any negro or mulatto, hereafter made and executed out of this state, or if made in this state, where the term of service exceeds one year, be of the least validity, except those given in cases of apprenticeship.

[sergeantdave]

“They have become what they despise, their mantra a tragic twist on George Wallace’s as he stood in the schoolhouse door: “Racism now, racism tomorrow, racism forever!”

Excellent article. The author nails these racists.

[Cheburashka]

Champaign, founded in 1855.

Joliet, founded 1837, as the village of Juliet, as in "Romeo and..." Sounds Shakespearean, not French.

Des Plaines, founded in 1859 as the Town of Rand, name changed in 1869 to Des Plaines.

Your post does not seem to have a great deal of accuracy in this area of the origin of "French" towns in Illinois, perhaps you should review your source for any black code, perhaps it is just as faulty. I've never head of it, but will be happy to have any ignorance on my part corrected by accurate information.

[Carry_Okie]

This was a very good piece. Thank you.

[mrsmel]

Same here. "NFS"- describes the syptom exactly. Blacks will never let go of the victim role, because it's the only way they can retain power. Decades of affrmative action, quotas, lowered standards, and "hush-hushing" the reality of crime rates, icluding black-on-white, are showing that only way to have "equality" in this country will be to have an equality to the lowest common denominator. There's not a single city or nation under black government which can show a civilised succesful society and economy. Not even South Africa which had first-world infrastructures in place when handed over to black rule, and which is now falling apart and irregularly run. They didn't even have to build their own, just maintain what they inherited from whites, and they still couldn't keep it going!

[lentulusgracchus]

However, my point is that none of my family participated in slavery or holding slaves.

Neither did mine. I think a grand total of four or five of my direct ancestors were alive and in-country in 1861, and they all lived in Northern States. One of them served in the Union Navy during that war, briefly, before he came home with tuberculosis he contracted while working in a Boston shipyard before he enlisted (those workers barracked together in crowded conditions and contagions spread wildly out of control).

It is a staple of the ACW threads to try to inculpate every Southerner who ever lived for having personally benefited from slavery. To this end, statistics are brought forward and argued. The counter is to point out that the history of slavery is not a regional history of the South.

[lentulusgracchus]

Here is a source for information about slavery in Illinois in 1810; at that time Illinois was still a territory. You can see that USG was enumerating slaves and slaveholders in Illinois as late as 1830. The numbern of slaves was never great.

Census Records for Illinois Territory.

The State of Illinois also has census data on slaves:

Illinois State Archives, Data on Servitude.

The Illinois Black Code law was fetched by a FReeper in a discussion about such codes (and black internal migrations postwar) in a 2004 or 2005 ACW thread here on FR. If I have time, I'll go look for it. Too bad our FReepmail is purged periodically, we had a lot of internal discussions about sources.

[lentulusgracchus]

Thanks for the quote.

Key words, "introduced" and "hereafter".

The rest of Article VI of the Illinois 1818 Constitution:

2. No person bound to labor in any other state, shall be hired to labor in this state, except within the tract reserved for the salt works near Shawneetown; nor even at that place for a longer period than one year at any one time; nor shall it be a llowed there after the year 1825: any violation of this article shall effect the emancipation of such person from his obligation to service.
3. Each and every person who has been bound to service by contract or indenture in virtue of the law of Illinois territory heretofore existing, and in conformity to the provisions of the same, without fraud or collusion, shall be held to a specific performance of their contracts or indentures; and such negroes and mulattoes as have been registered in conformity with the aforesaid laws, shall serve out the time appointed by said laws: Provided however, that the children hereafter born of such person , negroes or mulattoes, shall become free, the males at the age of 21 years, the females at the age of 18 years. Each and every child born of indentured parents, shall be entered with the clerk of the county in which they reside, by their owners, within s ix months after the birth of said child.

[lentulusgracchus]

"The Illinois Black Code of 1853 extended a complete prohibition against black immigration into the state."

Source: Wiki article. (Still under construction, w/ comment called for.)

Metasearch using Ask.com, Dogpile, or similar, and try "Illinois Black Code" as the search key; you'll get abundant returns from various articles both scholarly and general press articles (one about the history of Illinois race politics from the beginnings to Obama).

[lentulusgracchus]

Ping to my last, I meant to include you.

[lentulusgracchus]

Your post does not seem to have a great deal of accuracy in this area of the origin of "French" towns in Illinois

Okay, you didn't like my post, then try these guys':

"The Time of the French in Illinois" (Article).

Metasearch key "French Settlements Illinois" will bring you a number of such articles.

[Cheburashka]

Okay, you didn't like my post, then try these guys’:

---

My likes or dislikes are not relevant - the three settlements you cited were not French in origin - that's a simple fact. That there were French settlements during the time of French rule in the geographical area that eventually became the State of Illinois is true and not the issue I was raising.