Abolitionism, Past & Present

Slavery has taken many forms throughout history. It is only in the past 200 years or so of human history that any kind of movement to abolish its practice has been made. Ancient empires were built on slavery. Colonial expansion by great political powers included explicit and implicit slavery. Here in the United States, we learned little of the history of slavery or the abolitionist movement in school. I remember it being mentioned in the events leading to the Civil War, but other than mention of a few names, the subject was little covered in the rush to get to the deified Abraham Lincoln.

As I write this, I am watching the PBS program American Experience: The Abolitionists. This three-part documentary is a good overview of several major players in the abolitionist movement, and details their trials and tribulations as they struggled to bring the deep injustice of slavery to the attention of the American public. Angelina Grimké was disowned by her aristocratic slaveholding high-society family. William Lloyd Garrison was attacked by a mob, and his partner's house was burnt to the ground while the fire department conspicuously stood idly by. Escaped slave Ferderick Douglass was forced to flee to Britain to avoid the bounty placed on his head by his former master. While the North was considered "free," it was not free from racism, and southern slavery fueled northern industry. Slavery and racial inequality were the norm, and most refused to consider any other possibility for society and the economy. The Underground Railroad was still entirely illegal, and those caught aiding runaway slaves were branded criminals and punished severely. Many juries would refuse to convict those so charged, but many others were not so fortunate.

The documentary remains hagiographic toward the State, though. Even the Civil War, now hailed as a holy crusade to end slavery, was first waged only to retain the Slave States in the Union and ensure their tax revenue and economic productivity would be retained. Turning it into an abolitionist mission was a public relations maneuver more than a principled stand for equality, and the hypocrisy of consctipted soldiers fighting to retain tax revenue is patently absurd.

Chattel slavery formally ended after the war, but the fight to abolish usurped authority over individual eights is not over. We do not have plantation owners claiming ownership over African-Americans, but we have politicians claiming ownership over us. In fact, this form of slavery is far more insidious, because the myth of democracy enshrines this slavery and assures the slave that he is in fact the master. In reality, slavery has been turned into a free range form, with national borders as the plantation boundaries. As experienced by some black slaves in the antebellum era, we are free to earn our living as we see fit, provided we give whatever is demanded by our would-be masters. We cannot travel or engage in trade without permission unless we risk being caught running afoul of various "laws." The State may be different from a plantation in size and in scale, but not in form. Its root principle is that men cannot be allowed to own their lives, and must be managed by their betters for the profit of the aristocracy. And we who would abolish the State suffer the same incredulity and hatred as did those who sought to abolish the "peculiar institution" of the Antebellum South.

This comparison may seem absurdly excessive, or as a martyrdom complex, but I ask you, what can you do within the law without begging for permission and paying a fee? You cannot own property, sell goods, travel, or otherwise exercise your natural rights to life, liberty, and peoperty without risking reprisals in the form of theft, kidnapping, or murder under color of law. The United States has the higest per capita prison population in the world, the majority of whom are in cages not for trespassing against the rights of others, but for breaking a political dictate imposed under false authority. If this seems to be overwrought hsyteria, remember that you will never feel the chains if you do not move enough to rattle them.

Waging war as a modern John Brown does not address the problem. We are waging a war of ideas, and a war it truly is, but flawed ideas rather than the men who espouse them are our foe. Violence is the core of the State, and using violence to attack the State strengthens it. We need to be guerrilla warriors of subversive thought, finding those who are seeking liberty, and undermining the institutions that empower our enemy.

Cryptocurrency is one such tool perfect for our cause, because it allows us to undermjne the government's money and begin to starve it of its stolen tax revenue. Anyone who advocates taxation and regulation of crypto is a traitor to our cause, but all we need to do is denounce them and skirt their efforts. Slavery must not be allowed to intrude on this new frontier any more than chattel slavery could be allowed to bleed into the prairie territories of the United States.

Always be aware of the true nature of politics. It is a shackel, not a key. Always seek others who hunger for freedom. We cannot convert the authoritarian, but we can find those who feel the chafing invisible chains of usurped authority. We cannot change the minds if those who benefit from political plunder, but we can sometimes open the eyes of those who are being plundered. Our mission of liberty is not an easy one, and popular opinion may never be on our side, but we must always hold aloft the beacon of liberty, equality, and respect for our fellow man.

Apologies for typos and formatting errors. Again, this has been composed on my phone.