TIME FOR A HISTORY LESSON, Y’ALL. (a thread)
As I mentioned previously, today should be a national holiday.
Everyone knows the Battle Hymn of the Republic. We’re all taught it in school. What they rarely tell you is that the song uses the melody of “John Brown’s Body.” (1/9) https://twitter.com/haymarketbooks/status/1317091160188399620
As I mentioned previously, today should be a national holiday.
Everyone knows the Battle Hymn of the Republic. We’re all taught it in school. What they rarely tell you is that the song uses the melody of “John Brown’s Body.” (1/9) https://twitter.com/haymarketbooks/status/1317091160188399620
The whole reason the the Battle Hymn of the Republic exists is because the lyrics of “John Brown’s Body” MADE WHITE PEOPLE UNCOMFORTABLE.
John Brown raided Harper’s Ferry (the biggest goddamned armory in the country) with only *nineteen men.* (2/9)
John Brown raided Harper’s Ferry (the biggest goddamned armory in the country) with only *nineteen men.* (2/9)
James McBride would compare that to you taking down the Pentagon with less than 100 of your friends. It’s what split Virginia in two and started the Civil War.
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: If not for the Civil War, slavery would not have been abolished. (3/9)
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: If not for the Civil War, slavery would not have been abolished. (3/9)
Not when the entire economy of the South was built upon it. Look around now, here in 2020 as people still place the economy above human lives. If that’s the case when it comes free American citizens, do you really think that they’d be singing a different tune about SLAVES? (4/9)
(That was a rhetorical question.)
Both John Brown’s father and grandfather were also abolitionists, with his grandfather having objected to the now-famous documents written by the Founding Fathers because of how their wording only applied to the freedoms of white men. (5/9)
Both John Brown’s father and grandfather were also abolitionists, with his grandfather having objected to the now-famous documents written by the Founding Fathers because of how their wording only applied to the freedoms of white men. (5/9)
The lyrics of “John Brown’s Body” contain a stanza in which they say they’ll hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree. That name Ring a bell? It should. Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederacy. (6/9)
So many places and things today are still named for Jefferson Davis, and so few are named for John Brown. Everything named after Jefferson Davis should be renamed for John Brown.
John Brown was once asked why he would put himself and his sons in mortal danger... (7/9)
John Brown was once asked why he would put himself and his sons in mortal danger... (7/9)
... and he replied that one day America would be ashamed of slavery, but history would never be ashamed of his sons.
John Brown was a bigger American hero than any of the Founding Fathers because every last one of them were slaveowners. (8/9)
John Brown was a bigger American hero than any of the Founding Fathers because every last one of them were slaveowners. (8/9)
His last words were literally, “This is a beautiful country.”
His soul is marching on.
/end
His soul is marching on.
/end