Shadow of Power by Steve Martini Read Free Book Online Page B

identifies ‘Indians.’
    “It identifies ‘those bound to service for a term of years,’ indentured servants and debtors working off their debts.
    “And then, last and certainly least, the clause identifies ‘three-fifths of all other persons’ then remaining in the new United States of America.”
    Scarborough allows this to settle for a moment.
    “Now, who do you think these ‘other persons’ were? Who could they so conveniently and easily carve up into three-fifths of a human being, like a turkey on a platter?
    “Who could it possibly be that these enlightened men of the founding generation were talking about?”
    “African slaves!” The words are shouted by someone out in the audience.
    “That’s right, African slaves. ‘Other people’ who weren’t treated as people at all, because they were owned by white Americans as property,traded and sold like animals. They were being counted as three-fifths of a human being not so that they could vote for members of Congress but so that their owners, their white masters, could have the power of this franchise added to their own. White slave owners could increase the power of their own vote by buying more slaves. This was the incentive, the inducement carved into the cornerstone of the Constitution at the nation’s founding—AND THESE WORDS ARE STILL THERE!” Scarborough pounds on the podium with this, his theme. “Read the book,” he says.
    The chant of “Take it out…Take it out…Take it out” starts to rumble through the audience.
    He may be a writer, but Scarborough knows how to work an audience. He is a firebrand. Whether you like him or not, I would be willing to take bets that at this moment he is not pretending. This is an issue in which he clearly believes. He allows the chant to continue for twenty or thirty seconds before he cuts it off with his hands in the air.
    “Read Article One, Section Nine, of the Constitution, where it says, ‘The migration or importation of SUCH PERSONS’”—he holds up his hand and shakes his finger to emphasize the words—“would not be prohibited by Congress but by the various states then existing. Were they talking about people who wanted to migrate here from Norway or France? NO! So who were they talking about?”
    “African slaves!” Now it comes back automatically from the audience, more voices and much louder.
    “Yes! They were talking about African slaves, using nice words like ‘imported,’ as if they were fine wine or cheese—human beings dragged here in chains, all at the will of the various states.
    “Do you believe that these words should be removed from the Constitution and thrown into the dustbin of history?”
    “YES!” A crushing chorus from the audience.
    “WHEN?”
    “NOW!” This is even louder. The speakers from the set we are watching vibrate under the strain.
    “Everywhere you look, they concealed the dirty deal by avoiding the words. They wanted to traffic in SLAVES, all right, but they certainly didn’t want to say it, not so that the whole world and posterity would seeit in print. And if the avoidance of language is not evidence of their guilt, then I will produce it,” he says.
    “The founders will tell you that they tried to end slavery but they were not able. STICK AROUND,” bellows Scarborough, “because I will tell you the truth. The sequel to this book”—he holds up Perpetual Slaves —“Volume Two, will end the myth of American history once and for all. I will tell you what really happened, why they avoided the words. What propelled their fear, their trepidation? You won’t find it in any history book,” he says. “So don’t bother looking.
    “We are talking about a continuing national insult to more than twelve percent of the nation’s population, more than thirty-five million people, and about the absolute stone silence of the country’s leaders on this point. They run for office. They’re out there now on the stump, but ask them about this and they