Plog Number 90
Uncle Tan
Hello Ploggers. I hope you all are well. It is the night before the election and I am 😥 nervously trying to not watch the news. So I have decided to write my plog about anything but the election. I have always studied African American history and now I am re-studying World War II. Re-learning the history of Hitler, Mussolini, Putin and others is so on point with what is happening in our country modern day. The three just mentioned were all elected by their citizens.
I want to tell you about my uncle Tan. He is an Uncle that I never met before. He died years ago. If I had to guess, I would say he died somewhere between 1919 and 1940. He was on my Mother’s side of the family and his story is one that my Mother told us about many times over the years. The story of Uncle Tan came back to me after watching the movie Till. My Uncle Tan lived in Mississippi somewhere around Kosiesko County which is where my mother was from. Uncle Tan did something to get the murderous attention of the white people in the town. It could have been over 💵 money, a woman or just looking the wrong person in the 👀 eye. Nevertheless, they chased him down in the woods and he ended up in a 🌊 pond. He was able to escape them by a fluke. There was a stump sticking out of the water. The hunters mistook the 🌳 stump for Uncle Tan. They shot at the stump and left him for dead. Somehow Uncle Tan managed to stay hidden while the hunters thought they shot him. Somehow I imagine that it was a foggy night and that made the visibility poor. So Uncle Tan survived that night but died later from the Pneumonia he caught from being in what must have been really cold water. He must have been in there for a long time, waiting for the hunters to leave. Either way the poor man died hiding in freezing cold water.
I was thinking about stories like this. I am sure that many black people were hunted and killed in the south in situations just like my Uncle Tan’s. I am willing to bet that many black families have heard stories like my Uncle's from their elders. It is impossible to count the number of deaths because, quite frankly “nobody was 🔢 counting or cared”. In fact it is impossible to count 📝 the number of black lives that were lost in the Middle Passage, Slave Trade, Slavery and Jim Crow periods. Sometimes I am amazed that we, as a race survived at all. Killing black people who were considered chattel and a fraction of a person was not a big deal. There was absolutely no 🚔penalty for killing us. We were being killed by a large and varied group of white people. It was not just a beef with another group, it was legalized 🔪 slaughter. In those days, burial ⚰️rules were more lax and you could put a body anywhere you chose. Many hung from trees for long periods.
I have been thinking about history a lot recently. I have spent time being scared to death that we will end up ignorantly repeating it. Our history in the world and this country is grim and bloody. Our current level of knowledge, caring and participating in the legal process is apathetic. I mean voting. That goes for some, not all of us. But it applies to enough of us that it is a big problem. Heaven help us all. Going backwards is not an option for Black Americans or Women or anyone who had to fight for their rights. Did you know that at least two states (Oregon and Louisiana) had slavery on the ballot in the election we just had 11/8/2022? The slavery is in regard to prisoners rights, but the issue is still forcing people to work for free. Federal and State legislators have had to vote on the legality of Birth Control. Let that sink in, Birth Control legal or illegal. The prospect of birth control being illegal is worth fighting against. We have a big fight on our hands. The fight has only just begun. I am confident that we as Americans, black, white, female, male and everyone in between will stand 💪 up for ourselves. I will fight for my Uncle Tan. He and legions of other unnamed black men and women were hunted and killed with no 🚔 retribution. This post is dedicated to those souls. History has to be remembered or else repeated. The struggles should never be forgotten. RECLAIM!
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