What’s in the Hopper??

The injustice that African Americans have received in the US preoccupies me! I pretty much research, read and write nonstop, and I have completed two books in addition to Forbidden, Forgotten, Formidable: Blacks in America’s Wars.

The first in order of importance (to me) is a book for youth, African Americans in American History, which includes everything influential individuals ignored about slavery and the Civil War. A lot of what we learned was pure mythology. Until recent times, white Americans made up the majority of the population, and blacks were treated as second-class citizens – apartheid. Another reason Blacks were seldom mentioned is that much of “Black history” is embarrassing to many “white” people.

African Americans were in North America before Anglo Saxons. They arrived with the Spanish at an unsuccessful settlement near Charleston, South Carolina in 1526. Africans, both free and enslaved, were part of the first permanent Spanish settlement in North America, St. Augustine, established in 1565 in today’s Florida.

Slaves were inventoried like cattle and horses

Colonial planters in Virginia soon developed the myth of white supremacy, the “reason” both chattel slavery and later Jim Crow segregation were justified. Chattel means property — a slave had the same legal status as an ox, pig, or horse, and owners were taxed on the age and number of the slaves they owned.

Legally, the US Constitution counted enslaved individuals as three-fifths of a person, magnifying the South’s power in Congress. The Constitution refers to slaves three times without using the word “slave,” indicating that the “peculiar institution” was an embarrassment. Moreover, the international slave trade was banned in 1808. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop illegal importation of slaves and it led to the evil of slave breeding. Even worse, many slave owners, overseers, and other whites had children with their female slaves; those children became slaves as well.

My other study, African Americans in American History, 1526 – Present, has grown to 700 pages, so I’ve divided it into two volumes, from colonial times to the start of the twentieth century, and from the start of WW I continuing to the present. This book has five Appendices: the Final Report of the UN Committee that examined the state of race relations in the US in 2016; an illicit lynching near Culpepper, Virginia in 1932; a roster of roughly 150 prominent African Americans who made major contributions to the United States, with a link to Oxford University’s online catalog of more than 5,500 African Americans who have made major contributions in every field of human endeavor; a listing of more than 400 Black generals and admirals; and police killings of unarmed blacks, describing each circumstance.

aerial photography of water beside forest during golden hour
Photo by Sindre Strøm on Pexels.com

I’m looking for a publisher for both…

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Gene Betit

Retired intel analyst with Ph. D. in Soviet Area Studies from Georgetown, love to write. Two Defense Intelligence Agency studies, over ten magazine articles on Soviet military and strategic capabilities. Current publications include War's Cost: The Hites' Civil War, Manhattan's Walloon Settlers, Collective Amnesia: American Apartheid, and Forbidden, Forgotten, Formidable: Blacks in America's Wars.

3 Comments

  1. Jeanne Benedict on February 18, 2022 at 7:29 am

    You’ve been a pretty busy fella! Your passion to bring a compilation of injustices to the forefront is commendable. Looking forward to reading the end result.

    • Gene Betit on February 18, 2022 at 8:23 am

      When you get to be 77 you realize that there is no time to waste! Besides, I have really gotten into this and find it enjoyable. I don’t golf and COPD has hampered my love for fishing, so this keeps me entertained…

  2. Gene Betit on May 20, 2023 at 7:19 am

    Stackpole Press renamed the book Unsung Patriots: African Americans in America’s Wars, a distinct improvement. The book came out this march, and you can buy it through genebetit.com for $25, including postage.

    Even if you are particularly interested in military subjects, the book demonstrates the damage our racism and bigotry caused us. It hit African Americans hard, but in retrospect, it probably damaged “White” America more.

    I put “White” in parentheses because everyone except Ango Saxons had to endure a kind of low wage apprenticeship before they were finally accepted as “White.”

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