[Ads-l] "slave"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Wed Aug 31 18:13:23 UTC 2016


I believe Snopes and some of the historians have dropped the ball on this.

Have they any understanding, themselves, of what the song and its third
stanza are about?

Don't they know (Duhhh...Why should they?) that "hirelings and slaves" was
a political idiom of the period meaning, essentially, "contemptible
mercenaries and gutless lackeys."

ECCO, ?1747: "Their Senators shall be Fools and Debauchees, Hirelings and
Slaves."

1748: "And dare the Hireling slave recommend the suppressing of our JUST
and LEGAL LIBERTY?"

Etc.

JL

On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 1:12 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> This piece has been widely circulated over the last few days:
>
> https://theintercept.com/2016/08/28/colin-kaepernick-is-
> righter-than-you-know-the-national-anthem-is-a-celebration-of-slavery/
>
> Snopes investigates:
>
> http://www.snopes.com/2016/08/29/star-spangled-banner-and-slavery/
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 12:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> wrote:
>
> > I stand corrected.
> >
> > I was too flabbergasted/dismayed/etc. to choose a more historically
> precise
> > term, something I'm pedantically inclined to do at all times.
> >
> > Google shows that Blake is not alone in his belief.
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 11:57 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > > On Aug 31, 2016, at 11:02 AM, Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Sali,
> > > >
> > > > Do you consider 1814, when "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written, as
> > > being during the colonial period of the US?  A very Anglo-philic
> stance,
> > > just what the British were still believing then?  :-)  I would say
> there
> > > were "enslaved African-Americans" in 1814.
> > > >
> > > > Joel
> > >
> > > Maybe it depends on whether to be an "X-American" you have to be an
> > > American citizens.  As late as the Dred Scott decision (1850s?) it was
> > > clear that legally slaves (or "enslaved persons") were not citizens,
> and
> > > thus perhaps on that basis were not (African-)Americans.  On the other
> > > hand, they would have been considered American slaves, where "American"
> > is
> > > more of a place name than nationality.  This is all pretty hindsighty,
> of
> > > course.
> > >
> > > LH
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >      From: Salikoko S. Mufwene <s-mufwene at UCHICAGO.EDU>
> > > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > > > Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 9:51 AM
> > > > Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "slave"
> > > >
> > > > Just a minor correction, JL. From a historical perspective, there
> were
> > > > enslaved Africans, not enslaved African Americans during the colonial
> > > > history of the US or of the 13 English colonies. During that time the
> > > > class of Americans was very restricted, even some Europeans did not
> > > > count as Americans.
> > > >
> > > > Sali.
> > > >
> > > > On 8/31/2016 7:06 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > > >> Former tennis star James Blake has explained to CNN that "The
> > > Star-Spangled
> > > >> Banner" is "a song that advocates the killing of slaves."
> > > >>
> > > >> The "hireling and slave" in the song, of course, are not enslaved
> > > >> African-Americans but redcoats, Hessian mercenaries, and cringing
> > > Tories.
> > > >>
> > > >> Proof? Read the lyrics.
> > > >>
> > > >> Of course, as D----d T---p has demonstrated, words don't mean much
> > > anymore.
> > > >>
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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