Blacked Out: The Untold First Civil Rights Battle

This Black Woman Just Ruined My Idea of America

Elizabeth Freeman, aka Mum Betts, took her white master to court and won, 1781, effectively ending slavery in Massachusetts, as it was believed to be “the first instance of the practical application of the declaration in the Massachusetts Bill of Rights, that ‘all men are born free and equal.’” [her identity is disguised to protect her from abuse and internet right wing trolls so she can rest in the peace she won.]

No, I’m not kidding. In a few short days, my basic idea of America was ruined. I had a myth about American found on equality, with liberty and justice for all. That kind of thing.

Tomorrow my daughter is taking her history test in middle school on the American Revolution, so I’m not talking or interfering with her until after when I interview here to find out what she learned. Given that we live in Texas, I’m not crossing my fingers.

Texas was a country founded by open white supremacy, the only country I know of in the modern Era founded exclusively on the right to own slaves and make an entire race legally separate, unequal, and enslaved. These white slave owning Texans who rebelled from Mexico, that were about to free its slaves by central law, thus had no freed black living its boarders, legally outlawing them, “correcting” the mistake of the Southern American states in the neighboring country, The United States, whose states had plenty of Freed black Americans. Even in Mississippi there was a rich black plantation owner who had slaves. The new country of Texas made everything easier: no need to show papers, only skin color. If you’re black, you’re a slave, and eligible for harassment when seen on the road by a white. The Texas founders, compared to America…