Radio Renaissance - Jared Taylor - Were The Founding Fathers 'Racist'? — Illustrated Aired: 2021-05-12 Duration: 08:52 === Convenient Myths Forgotten (02:19) === [00:00:06] Hello, I'm Jared Taylor with American Renaissance. [00:00:10] Most people think that the United States was, from the very beginning, dedicated to the idea of racial equality. [00:00:17] Yes, they say there was slavery and segregation, but we were always working to fulfill the promise of all men are created equal. [00:00:26] Of course, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote those words, was a slaveholder who didn't think the races were equal at all. [00:00:32] But that phrase from the Declaration of Independence will haunt his memory forever. [00:00:37] Not many people know that in 1776, there were black slaves in all 13 colonies and in the entire New World, from Canada to the tip of South America. [00:00:50] In 1770, 40% of the white households in Manhattan owned slaves, and there were more slaves in the colony of New York than in Georgia. [00:01:01] Nine of the first eleven presidents were slaveholders. [00:01:04] The two exceptions were John Adams and John Quincy Adams. [00:01:08] Jefferson thought slavery was a bad thing and that slaves would eventually be freed, but he wanted freed slaves sent back to Africa. [00:01:17] There's a quotation from him on the wall of the Jefferson Memorial that goes like this: Jefferson didn't stop there, adding, [00:01:33] That part has been conveniently forgotten. [00:01:43] He wanted blacks deported and separated from whites so that they would be, and I quote, James Madison agreed. [00:01:53] He wanted the U.S. government to buy up every slave and deport them. [00:01:58] After he served as president, He ran the American Colonization Society, which was set up to send blacks back to Africa. [00:02:06] At the inaugural meeting of the Society, Henry Clay explained its purpose, quote,"to rid our country of a useless and pernicious, if not dangerous, portion of the population." Some of the most famous early Americans were not just members of the Colonization Society, === Founders' Racial Bias (06:00) === [00:02:24] they were officers. [00:02:26] Besides Madison, there were Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, Stephen Douglas, William Seward, Francis Scott Key, Winfield Scott, and John Marshall. [00:02:38] James Monroe worked so hard to help freed American slaves leave the country and establish Liberia that grateful Liberians named their capital Monrovia in his memory. [00:02:50] The Founders wanted blacks out and whites in. [00:02:54] After the U.S. Constitution was ratified, The very first United States Congress had to decide who could be an American. [00:03:02] They passed a law that said only, quote, free white persons could be citizens of the new country. [00:03:09] Blacks couldn't be citizens even if they had been living in the colonies for generations. [00:03:15] It took an amendment to the Constitution in 1868 for blacks to become citizens. [00:03:21] And American Indians didn't finally become U.S. citizens until 1924. [00:03:26] From colonial times on, there was strong opposition to mixed-race marriage. [00:03:32] Massachusetts prohibited miscegenation from 1705 to 1843 and repealed the ban only because people thought it wasn't needed. [00:03:42] They thought the idea of mixing was so repellent that no one would do it even if it were legal. [00:03:49] Of the 50 United States, 44 at one time had laws prohibiting interracial marriage. [00:03:56] White people did not want blacks to vote. [00:03:59] In 1855 there were 31 states in the Union but blacks could vote only in four. [00:04:05] All of them were in New England and together they had only four percent of the total black population of the country. [00:04:12] The federal government made sure that blacks couldn't vote in the territories. [00:04:16] When Oregon joined the Union in 1859 Its constitution stated that no black person could come live in or even visit the state. [00:04:27] But Abraham Lincoln, the great emancipator, didn't he believe in racial equality? [00:04:32] No. During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, he said this:"I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors out of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people." There is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. [00:05:00] Lincoln agreed with Jefferson. [00:05:02] He wanted to free the slaves and then deport them. [00:05:06] In 1862, Lincoln had the Civil War on his hands. [00:05:10] But he was so worried about what to do with free blacks that he named a Commissioner on Immigration and sent him off to look for countries that would take in the blacks he wanted to be rid of. [00:05:22] He also sent a message to Congress calling for free blacks to be deported. [00:05:28] U.S. presidents usually say only bland, non-controversial things. [00:05:34] Well, this is what some of them said about race. [00:05:38] James Garfield wrote: I have a strong feeling of repugnance when I think of the Negro being made our political equal and I would be so glad if they could be colonized, sent to heaven, or got rid of in any decent way. [00:05:55] Theodore Roosevelt wrote that he had, quote, not been able to think out any solution to the terrible problem offered by the presence of the Negro on this continent. [00:06:05] As for Indians, he said,"I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't inquire too closely into the health of the tenth." William Howard Taft once told a group of black college students, [00:06:24] "Your race is adapted to be a race of farmers, first, last, and for all times." Warren Harding thought the races would always be separate. [00:06:36] This is not a question of social equality, but a question of recognizing a fundamental, eternal, inescapable difference. [00:06:46] Harry Truman wrote, I am strongly of the opinion that Negroes ought to be in Africa, yellow men in Asia, and white men in Europe and America. [00:06:56] He also referred to the black servants in the White House as, quote, an army of coons. [00:07:02] Dwight Eisenhower told Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren he understood why Southerners wanted segregated schools. [00:07:10] They didn't want, quote, their sweet little girls to sit in schools alongside some big black box. [00:07:17] He said that what he regretted most about his eight years as president was sending federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce school integration. [00:07:28] It's not until John Kennedy... [00:07:30] Elected in 1960, that we have a president with views on race that just might be considered acceptable today. [00:07:38] Because now, of course, we are supposed to think that race doesn't even exist. [00:07:43] And, even if it did, it would be immoral to base any decision on race. [00:07:50] As I think I've made clear, this is a very recent way of thinking. [00:07:55] From colonial times right up through the mid-20th century, virtually all white people believed race was an essential part of the American identity. === America's Diverse Future (00:55) === [00:08:05] They understood that people of different races are different and build different kinds of societies. [00:08:11] They thought only Europeans would make the United States the kind of country that they would want to pass on to their children. [00:08:20] So, there are two views. [00:08:23] There is the consensus on race that lasted for more than 300 years. [00:08:27] And there's today's view that races are perfectly equal and interchangeable and that America can become black, Hispanic, Asian, Muslim, Hindu, anything at all. [00:08:39] And not only will it be still America, it'll be better than ever. [00:08:44] Well, which view is correct? [00:08:46] Just look around. [00:08:48] Read the news. [00:08:49] I think you'll find the answer.