Tea at Trianon: Slavery in New York

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Slavery in New York

A reader sent me a site worth exploring about the enslaved African-Americans at Philipsburg Manor in Westchester County, New York. It was as unpleasant as slavery anywhere else; it just ended sooner. I remember visiting the Manor as a child but I do not remember being told that slaves ran the place for over a hundred years. (Warning: a musical site.) Share

2 comments:

May said...: A national crime and disgrace, wherever it was.

As it happens, I have just recently started reading the last version of THE LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, which I can warmly recommend to anyone interested in the problem of American slavery. It can be downloaded from Google, here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=fFTcLFXId-wC&dq=life%20and%20times%20of%20frederick%20douglass&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false

Thank God that is over, but now we have abortion! From the frying pan into the fire.; August 9, 2011 at 2:17:00 PM EDT
May said...: PS: I have a new v-log where I am trying to gather the pro-life testimonials which I find to be most powerful. You are welcome to visit, of course:

prolifetestimonials.blogspot.com; August 10, 2011 at 7:07:00 PM EDT