AOC Gets Schooled After Totally Botching History of Slavery, Forced To Walk Back Statements
Yesterday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the bizarre case for Washington D.C. statehood because, according to her, residents don’t have “the right to vote.”
That’s a lie, of course, and people let her know it.
“DC was the 1st territory in the United States to free the enslaved,” AOC tweeted.
“It’s where Black Americans fled the tyranny of slavery & towards greater freedom, to DC. Yet today it’s where 2nd class citizenship reigns, and the right to vote is denied,” she continued.
“It’s time to recognize DC statehood.”
DC was the 1st territory in the United States to free the enslaved.
It’s where Black Americans fled the tyranny of slavery & towards greater freedom, to DC. Yet today it’s where 2nd class citizenship reigns, and the right to vote is denied.
It’s time to recognize DC statehood. twitter.com/fenitn/status/…
10.5K people are talking about this
Then, this morning, AOC was forced to defend A SECOND LIE that had nothing to do with statehood. Remember, she also claimed in that original tweet that DC was the first territory in the United States to free slaves.
That’s false. The Northwest Ordinance banned slavery in all territory belonging to the United States in 1787.
The Northwest Territory would become the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin (all free states).
From the Northwest Ordinance:
Art. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided, always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.
This act was passed by Congress, making it–and NOT DC–“the 1st territory in the United States to free the enslaved.”
But AOC double-downed on her lie when she tweeted out this message this morning:
“The right is pushing back on this. To clarify in 280 chars, DC was the first area where enslaved people were freed by the US government,” she tweeted.
“It was enacted by the Compensation Emancipation Act of 1862.”
The right is pushing back on this. To clarify in 280 chars, DC was the first area where enslaved people were freed by the US government.It was enacted by the Compensation Emancipation Act of 1862. https://t.co/plbSr7WCkw /2— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 20, 2019
Then, she immediately followed that message up with yet A THIRD AND A FOURTH LIE:
“(Certain localities and municipalities did pursue abolition earlier, but none were federally recognized.)”
(Certain localities and municipalities did pursue abolition earlier, but none were federally recognized.)— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 20, 2019
The first part of that statement about “certain localities and municipalities” is wrong because it wasn’t local communities and “municipalities” that “pursued” abolition.
Ummmm, they’re called STATES, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. And they didn’t just pursue abolition, but actually accomplished it. And long before 1862.
At the beginning of the American Revolution, all 13 of the original states had slavery under their laws (this was because they were still ruled by Great Britain). But by the end of the American Founding period, 8 of those 13 states had proceeded to abolish slavery either immediately or gradually.
And the abolition laws in all 8 of those states were “federally recognized,” contrary to AOC’s false claims.
I’m not even counting all of the future free states that came out of Louisiana Purchase territory, where slavery was prohibited in most of it by an act of Congress called the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
By 1862, the tens of thousands of free American blacks living in the north were either former slaves or the descendants of slaves.
So, if you’re keeping track, that’s FOUR MONSTROUS LIES about the history of American slavery from a sitting Congresswoman and the leader of the extreme left-wing of her political party.
Time to go back to school, kiddo.
