Early Hawaiians lived freely.
They caught fish, grew their food and gave a portion to the king. It was a pure and simple way of life.
Slavery was unknown to them.
Hawaiians didn’t own slaves, only rich white men did and most of them lived in the Old South. They were racists who owned people and rebelled against their own country.
Nowadays, the horrid subject is rising again.
They are pulling down statues of slave owners. Should we do this? They are a part of our history and maybe we should think twice about destroying statues.
Let us view what those racist rebels did.
Our forefathers lived peacefully, but sadly the country’s economy rested on the backs of slaves. Many thought it was wrong, but the practice continued.
Soon rich plantation owners felt oppressed and wanted to secede and create their own country. One by one, states began to break away.
They wanted to be free to live their own way. If they owned slaves, it was their business, not that of some pompous people far to the north.
They drew up a constitution, formed a government, and raised an army to revolt against their own country, the benevolent nation that had nourished them for years. When the mother country marched on them to keep the country together, they fired back and raged a war that lasted years.
Brothers fighting brothers, tearing the nation apart.
The leader of the rebel army was a slave-owning racist. He had a plantation in Virginia and owned 312 slaves. He was a noble man leading a noble cause but he symbolized slavery, so cannot be forgiven.
There were 13 states that seceded, they fashioned a flag with 13 stars and carried it into battle. Their flag waved above almost a million slaves.
The war lasted years, when it was over the mother country lost and retreated back to Britain.
It was called the Revolutionary War.
The British bowed to the 13 states that had seceded, now calling themselves the United States of America.
The rebel leader who led the revolt was George Washington. One of his fellow conspirators, Thomas Jefferson, owned 600 slaves. Both men treated their enslaved people terribly. It was disgraceful what they did.
For the next 60 years, our country founded on freedom, had 11 presidents who owned slaves. President Ulysses S. Grant, who led our country in the fight against slavery, had a slave.
The Pilgrims on the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock with 12 slaves on board. They prayed to Jesus every day.
When you’re tearing down monuments to racist slave holders better start with Plymouth Rock, then the Washington Monument and move on to presidents Jefferson and Grant. Half of Mt. Rushmore will have to go.
Robert E. Lee is way down on the list.
Dennis Gregory is a writer, artist, singer, teacher and Kailua-Kona resident who mixes truth, humor and aloha in his biweekly column. He can be reached at makewavess@yahoo.com.