The more things change…
Many of you may know that the famous abolitionist (and one-time slave) Frederick Douglass is buried here in Rochester in Mt. Hope cemetery. Many of you may also have heard the horror stories of how Frederick Douglass was treated while he was a slave and of how he ultimately escaped slavery.
What you may not know is that Donald Rumsfeld now owns the property on which Frederick Douglass and countless other slaves were brutally tortured. Here’s a piece by Amy Goodman on this topic:
Frederick Douglass, the renowned abolitionist, began life as a slave on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. When his owner had trouble with the young, unruly slave, Douglass was sent to Edward Covey, a notorious “slave breaker.” Covey’s plantation, where physical and psychological torture were standard, was called Mount Misery. Douglass eventually fought back, escaped to the North and went on to change the world. Today Mount Misery is owned by Donald Rumsfeld, the outgoing secretary of defense.
I’m not sure “ironic” is the right word to describe the fact that a brutal torture camp is now owned by the architect of the Bush administration’s despicable new torture policy. A more accurate word might be “sad”.
There’s a message here: Frederick Douglass was a remarkable and humane man who was treated terribly by a society that we now regard as ignorant and backwards. Recently, there have been high-profile cases of innocent men who were abducted and tortured by American intelligence services. What will future generations think of us?
No comments yet.