Task force will study slaves' role in building of Capitol

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- The US Capitol was built with the labor of slaves who cut the logs, laid the stones, and baked the bricks. Two centuries later, Congress has decided the world should know about this.

Congressional leaders yesterday announced the creation of a task force to study the history of slave labor in the construction of the Capitol and suggest how it can best be commemorated.

Historians say slaves were the largest labor pool when Congress in 1790 decided to create a new capital along the Potomac, surrounded by the slave-owning states of Maryland and Virginia.

Over the next decade, local farmers rented out their slaves for an average of $55 a year to help build the Capitol, the White House, the Treasury Department, and the streets laid out by city planner Pierre L'Enfant.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/06/01/task_force_will_study_slaves_role_in_building_of_capitol/

snip>
"It is our hope that the work of the task force will shed light on this part of our history, the building of our nation's greatest symbol of democracy," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Democratic leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid said in a joint statement.
...
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, an Arkansas Democrat and task force member, said lawmakers learned of the use of slaves after researchers in the late 1990s found documents of Treasury Department payments to slave owners. She said apparently more than 400 slaves were hired out.

In 2000, Lincoln and former Sen. Spencer Abraham, Michigan Republican, and Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, and former Rep. J.C. Watts, an Oklahoma Republican, pushed through legislation to form a task force. Lincoln said changes in control of the Senate delayed implementation until now.

Lewis and Watts will co-chair the panel.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1117625415149830.xml&coll=2

[fertilizeonarbusto]

1. That's depressing

and sobering.

[kcwayne]

2. The irony escapes most Americans to this day

that the "greatest symbol to democracy and freedom in the history of the world" was built by slaves.

[rodeodance]

3. as were the monuments of Europe--and the pyrimids ect ect

[kcwayne]

6. Yes, but those monuments are not professed to be symbols of

liberty, so they lack the irony of the US Capitol.

[RethugAssKicker]

8. The pyramids were not built by slaves!!

There were whole citites built to house the workers who built the pyramids. These were skilled craftsmen. Many of their notes,, etc. are still around today.

[Rose Siding]

11. Hey, cool!

I sincerely had accepted the Hollywood version :blush:

http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/070391.html

Who Built the Pyramids?
Not slaves. archeaologist Mark Lehner digging deeper, discovers a city of privileged workers.
snip>
The question of who labored to build them, and why, has long been part of their fascination. Rooted firmly in the popular imagination is the idea that the pyramids were built by slaves serving a merciless pharaoh. This notion of a vast slave class in Egypt originated in Judeo-Christian tradition and has been popularized by Hollywood productions like Cecil B. De Mille’s The Ten Commandments, in which a captive people labor in the scorching sun beneath the whips of pharaoh’s overseers. But graffiti from inside the Giza monuments themselves have long suggested something very different.....

[Nihil]

9. ?

Which European monuments from 1776 onwards were built by slaves?
(No real significance to the date but want to exclude the ancient stone
circles and other edifices of debatable construction.)

As someone stated above, the pyramids weren't built by slaves either.

So ... want to try again?

(Edited for typo and less confrontational question :) )

[wallwriter]

28. Sunshine is the best disinfectant

I'm all for such a Task Force. I am an architectural historian, so, not only does it mean more work for people like me, but it confirms one of my essential beliefs. As long as you believe in the constant quest for social justice in the present, there is no injustice of the past that you can't face up to.

The dream of America is not that it was perfectly executed when it was founded, but rather that it implied a system that could be refined to a greater level of justice than even its originators were able to achieve.

[fasttense]

4. A sad fact of history. n/t

[Redstone]

5. Oh, Christ, another Task Force...

and how many of our tax dollars are they going to spend on this?

Can't they just cut to the chase, and since they KNOW there were slaves used to build the building, just have a plaque or statue or whatever made NOW, without spending several hundred thousand dollars that could be used to feed hungry children on all the investigations and research and reports and meetings and other various bullshit?

What am I, nuts? Thinking that anyone in the government would do anyting the easy (and less expensive) way?

Redstone

[Lars39]

15. I'd rather know who the slaves were and what their lives were like,

and feed the hungry children from our bloated military budget.

[Redstone]

19. It would be nice if things could work that way.

I'd certainly agree with doing the research and publication under those terms.

Actually I just thought of another way...I bet $100 that if the government wanted to make the effort, they'd be able to get some corporation or other to sponsor the research. I bet if it was publicized, they'd have companies falling all over each other to gain such valuable PR as would result from such sponsorship.

Redstone

[Lars39]

20. Wonder what kind of slant would come out of that?

Yea, I'm cynical. :)

[Redstone]

21. Well, we all have good reason to be cynical these days, yes?

Redstone

[noiretextatique]

24. you would think so

i read a story on DU not too long ago about a museum down south doing a live exhibit of life in the ante-bellum south. the actors they hired to play slaves had complain to them about how the slaves lives were depicted before they decided to do some actual research on the actual lives of slaves, instead of putting forth the fantasies concoted by those who created on the project. amazing isn't it? and this was a museum. i thought that was just amazing...

[Obamarama]

7. Capitol's landscape architect was rabidly anti-slavery....

My great-great grandfather was Frederic Law Olmsted, known as the father of landscape architecture in the U.S. He landscaped the U.S. Capitol grounds.

Because of the personal family connection, maybe it's interesting to me only, but I think it's an interesting contrast that a key individual in the development Capitol, was rabidly anti-slavery.

Here's a link to his work "A Journey In The Seabord States" which assessed slavery conditions in the mid-1850s South.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[OKthatsIT]

12. wow..you're a real freak....did you know you landed on Earth?

Hey dude...maybe you havent been told this, but this is 2005 and WE ARE the USA. We have a unique and abusive history that we'd like to expose, to teach our children just how inhumane humanity is capable of, so we wont revisit that ignorant and hateful world we came from.

Its one of the most important aspects of our country's evolution. WE, The People will prevail in EQUALITY and FACE OUR EVIL PAST, for our childrens sake.

[Lars39]

13. That is interesting, KzooDem!

Is there a link?
I thought I'd remembered his name from somewhere else; didn't FLO
also landscaped Biltmore Estate? Do you have a way with plants? :hi:

[Obamarama]

17. Here's the link (DUH!) :-)

Seems I forgot to add it to my original post! Oops....

Here's a link to his anti-slavery work:
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1851-1875/olmsted/jourxx.htm

Yes, he is responsible for many significant early landscapes across the country, not just Central Park. Here's a list of many of them:
http://fredericklawolmsted.com/workframe.htm

And I am able to report that "the way with plants" is definitely not genetic. If so, it's a recessive gene and it's hidden deep within my DNA!

[Lars39]

18. Thanks!

I've don't have a plant gene, either, I can only keep one plant alive at a time. :)

[noiretextatique]

26. fascinating...thanks, KzooDem eom

[Lisa]

22. interesting!

And your ancestor had a tremendous influence on urban planning -- back in the day, a city wasn't viewed as a serious contender until it had a public park or garden designed by FLO or one of his pupils. The parks turned out to be great investments -- today they are centerpieces, tourist attractions, and focal points for everything from festivals to protest meetings. I actually refer to some of his work in a landscape architecture course I teach -- I'll be sure to mention your info about his anti-slavery beliefs.

Seattle, for example:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/115362_olmsted02.shtml

[Obamarama]

27. He also co-founded The Nation magazine in 1865

Thought that might be of interest to you since you teach about FLO. Is your class part of an LA program, or is it a non-professional tract class on LA?

Yes, his influence on urban planning was strong. He actually designed the very first planned communities in the country.

If I had been so fortunate to inherit HALF of his genius, I'd be a lucky man!

[applegrove]

14. Is there a memorial to slaves on the mall yet? Just asking!! n/t

[Barkley]

16. Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol Dome was cast by a slave

Phillip Reid.


Unfortunately, the frescos inside the Capital Dome's depicting American History show nothing about slavery or ANY Black people.

E Pluribus Unum...

Thanks so much for posting this article Rose Siding.

[Lisa]

23. this came up briefly during an episode of the West Wing ...

They're going through the White House grounds on the way to the residence, and someone (probably Bartlet, given his fixation with history and social justice) mentions that the place was built by slaves -- and that someone had found the recipts for the work. ("The slaves were paid?" "No, the owners were.")

[noiretextatique]

25. hmmm...interesting

i can't wait for the report.