AMERICA: A divided nation

The apologists are dividing our nation. They emphasize that in 1619, Dutch sea-merchants docked at Jamestown, Va., with 20 black men, held as America’s first black slaves. They charge that Jamestown was founded by wealthy Englishmen who exploited these people. That was 401 years ago when slavery was common in the western hemisphere. Society has moved on; so, why are these organizations fanning the flames of racism?

In the 1500s, Spaniards established sugar plantations in Cuba and other Caribbean Islands. They solicited Portuguese sea-merchants to recruit men from West Africa. Black Africans were deceived by their own Black countrymen, believing that they were headed for a better life. Instead, they were chained in holds of ships where many died. Those who survived were auctioned off as slaves in the world market.

The 1619 movement vilifies our founding fathers; many of whom mortgaged all of their personal wealth and signed the Declaration of Independence, knowing that if they failed, they would lose everything and be tried for treason, a sentence of death.

Ask your library for Willard’s United States 1492-1867, a rare book used in schools in the 1870s. You will learn what our founding fathers sacrificed for our nation. We should thank God for the men who assembled our Constitution and Bill of Rights, which have served our nation well.

The apologists are winning. We used to be one nation under God. Now we are classified as Americans; a divided nation running away from God.

LEONARD BRANT

Post Falls