Jeffersons Pillow The Founding Fathers and the Issue of Black Patriotism
Jefferson’s Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism. ... By: Kristian Chervenock As the title suggests, Jefferson’s Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism, is both a brief history of the role of four of the Founding Fathers: George Washington, George Mason, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and a personal essay that addresses the modern dilemma of being a patriotic black American. ... First, on the issue of black patriotism, Wilkins questions if a black man can truly call himself an American, contented to claim his “American Heritage” even though the very founding of this country was developed on the enslavement and commodity of his African ancestry? ... Each of these men were instrumental in founding a nation based on liberty and equality yet each believed passionately in his right to own other people. ... Through Wilkins’ own family history and a recounting of blacks who even in slavery acted like free men, Wilkins shows that the black contribution was indispensable to the founding of America. ... Roger Wilkins argues that the Founding Fathers, like all of us, were only human. ... The first several chapters of Jefferson’s Pillow set out to demythologize four Virginian founders- Washington, Mason, Jefferson and Madison and their conflicted attitudes toward race. ... With rhetoric echoing freedom and equality with each stroke of his pen, Jefferson’s ideologies were seemingly strictly professional and political, for once at home he seemed to cherish his pillow and the many comforts slavery provided. The issue of Sally Hemmings, life-long servant to Jefferson, is addressed by Wilkins. ... Wilkins notes the schizophrenia of the Founding Fathers on the subject of slavery. ... Jefferson’s Pillow is also about the hopes of opportunity that were squelched after the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, Reconstruction and most recently by former President George H. ... ” That same President, as explained by Wilkins, also promoted a tax bill that further perpetuated the legacy of slavery resulting in a lack of opportunity, broken homes and communities, broken schools and a residue of disdain for the poorest of black people (p. ... In his introduction Roger Wilkins explores how the institution of slavery existed in a nation that was allegedly founded on the premise that “all men are created equal” and what, if anything, four of our Founding Fathers did to eradicate slavery or facilitate its growth.