Tea at Trianon: Dr. William Allen Corrects the Narrative

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

Friday, July 28, 2023

Dr. William Allen Corrects the Narrative

From The Blaze:

Dr. William Allen, a descendant of slaves, squashed the narrative that Florida is trying to whitewash the horrors of American chattel slavery. Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris ignited a firestorm against Florida's new curriculum standards on black history. She accused Florida of trying to "gaslight" students by teaching them "that enslaved people benefited from slavery," characterizing such instruction as "propaganda." But not so fast, says Allen, a scholar of political science and former chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Allen, who helped craft the new standards, said Harris' claims about the curriculum, which have been repeatedly ad nauseam by Democrats and the mainstream media, are "categorically false."
"It was never said that slavery was beneficial to Africans. What was said — and anyone who reads this will see this with clarity — it is the case that Africans proved resourceful, resilient, and adaptive, and were able to develop skills and aptitudes, which served to their benefit, both while enslaved and after enslavement," Allen told ABC News. Regarding the standards, Allen said he is "quite confident in their validity, their historical accuracy, and their motivations and intent." (Read more.)