Nikole Hannah-Jones, founder of the historically inaccurate 1619 Project that disputes the fact that America was founded in 1776, is not quite finished with distorting the past to serve a radical left view that reflects abject contempt for the United States.
Then again, when gifted a Pulitzer Prize for serving up racially-motivated indoctrination designed to divide and destroy, the motivation is high to stay on course. The end goal continues to be reparations, it would seem, but a messy obstacle here is the white descendants of those who fought for the Union in the Civil War. Why should they have to pay for the sins of the past with their tax dollars?
Well, it seems Hannah-Jones has a ready solution to this conundrum. According to the New York Times Magazine racial injustice reporter, “the North did not fight the Civil War to end slavery.”
The remarkable comment that sullies the deaths of 360,222 Union soldiers was part of a Twitter thread that began with Hannah-Jones sharing a passage from the 1619 Project that denigrates white Americans.
“Black people posed a danger to the country’s idea of itself; they held up a mirror into which the nation preferred not to peer. So the inhumanity visited on Black people by every generation of white America justified the inhumanity of the past and the inequality of the present.”
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) May 21, 2022
When a social media user pointed out that the country “fought its bloodiest war” to free blacks from enslavement, Hannah-Jones begged to differ:
1) The North did not fight the Civil War to end slavery. 2) Love how you erase Haiti. 3) Every other country ended slavery without needing to fight a war and we were third to last in our hemisphere to abolish slavery. Next.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) May 22, 2022
When called out for trying to have it both ways, she doubled down on the claim to say the North’s lone goal was to preserve the Union.
How silly. The South fought to preserve slavery, the North fought to preserve the Union. Basic history.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) May 23, 2022
And tripled down:
So a single song is evidence for you? There’s plenty of actual evidence, including Lincoln’s own words, his writings, the response of many white people to the war. But sure: The Battle Hymn.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) May 23, 2022
Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story from Twitter:
Just going to point out that this NHJ tweet is indistinguishable from a neo-confederate talking point from about 20 years ago. pic.twitter.com/378gWDiIz1
— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) May 22, 2022
That’s your opinion, but it isn’t historical fact: https://t.co/VGGcVZXIjq
— Mikael Covey (@LitUpMagazine1) May 23, 2022
I look forward to watching the field defend her after she says that Lincoln actually just wanted to overturn the banking system.
— Carl Paulus (@CarlPaulus) May 22, 2022
Journalist and black nationalist/supremacist believes the U.S. did not fight the Civil War to free the slaves. This is ahistorical. There are mountains of evidence (letters from the soldiers) that speak about the desire to end slavery. https://t.co/WhHzSH57nN
— Joe Mendi (@JoeMendi2) May 23, 2022
She says we didn’t fight a Civil War to end slavery, and follows it up saying we fought a war to end slavery…all in the same damn tweet. Impressive. https://t.co/rwyakRoEJE
— I wanna be sedated (@The_Squibb) May 22, 2022
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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