Posted on 09/27/2010 1:08:10 PM PDT by Slyscribe
While this doesnt rate on a scale of White House problems, it is nonetheless remarkable how rudely and inaccurately WhiteHouse.gov treats the 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant.
Here is the assessment:
When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.investors.com ...
Well, actually, no.
The British didn't start moving in on Kenya for another 20 years or so and didn't finish the process till right around 1900.
One of the unmentioned aspects of the horrible colonization of Africa (the root cause of all its problem, you know) is that in most areas it was very brief. In almost all of the continent it was much less than 100 years, and in much of it the colonizers were in control for little more than 50 years.
I recently ordered a copy of Grant’s Memoirs. A little known fact about Grant was that he actually had a pretty workable plan for the newly freed slaves. He wanted to give each able body 20 to 40 acres and a mule in the (now) Dominican Republic...but don’t jump to conclusions.
His logic was that as newly freed slaves with no experience except agrarian work, they would basically still be at the mercy of the landowners. However, if they had a ‘choice’ they would have a card to play when it came to negotiating terms/wages with landowners. Some would take the 40 acres but many would just use the bargaining power to get better treatment. Of course the plan never came to fruition and many southern blacks became sharecroppers living under Jim Crowe laws (barely a step above slavery).
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