Twelve Years a Slave refers to both a powerful historical memoir and its acclaimed film adaptation. The memoir itself was written in 1853 by Solomon Northup, a free Black man from New York, who was kidnapped in Washington D.C. in 1841 and sold into slavery in Louisiana. He spent 12 years enslaved on plantations before being rescued in 1853. His detailed firsthand account became one of the most important slave narratives, providing unprecedented insight into the brutality of slavery from someone who had experienced both freedom and bondage. The film was made in 2013 by director Steve McQueen, who adapted it into a film that won Best Picture at the Oscars that year. The film is notable for its unflinching portrayal of slavery’s violence and dehumanization as McQueen didn’t soften the brutality for audiences. The contrast between Northup’s educated, cultured background and his forced existence as enslaved property made for psychological torment of maintaining hope while watching years pass. Northup’s narrative was crucial to the abolitionist movement, offering educated Northern audiences direct testimony about slavery’s realities from someone they could relate to … a free, literate man unjustly enslaved. I feel as though America has been enslaved by Donald Trump over the past ten years.
This morning I read a long piece in the New York Times about the analysis of Mount Rushmore and its ability to accommodate one of the longstanding and openly stated goals of Donald Trump, to have his 60 foot high facial portrait added in granite to the monument in South Dakota. How one starts such a conversation is difficult, with so many thoughts striving to take precedence around a topic that should not be started as it has been, conducted in the manner in which it is being considered and focused on the primary issues that it occupies. But there it was, a thorough analysis, not of the merits of the endeavor or the justifiability of the honor, but rather the geological possibility of making it all happen. I understand that the New York Times likes to cover a very broad range of topics and retains domain experts in many, many disciplines in order to develop and lay out great stories in vast and diverse arenas, but the wasted energy of this particular initiative is astounding. Since the monument was finished in 1941 with its four portraits of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt (Teddy), 84 years have passed and that has given historians lots of time to refine and consider their lists of the best presidents of our nation…as to whether the faces emblazoned on Mount Rushmore by sculptor Gutzon Borglum were appropriate.
Gutzon Borglum made the final decision on which four presidents to carve into Mount Rushmore, but the selection process started with Doane Robinson, a South Dakota historian, who wanted to create a massive carving to attract tourists to the Black Hills. He originally envisioned western heroes like Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea, Buffalo Bill, or Red Cloud. Borglum convinced him that presidents would have broader national appeal and attract federal funding. He chose Washington for founding the nation, Jefferson for expanding it (the Louisiana Purchase), Lincoln for preserving it (the Civil War and ending slavery), and Theodore Roosevelt for developing it (the Panama Canal, conservation and National Park system, as well as other progressive reforms). Teddy Roosevelt’s inclusion raised eyebrows as he’d only been dead about 8 years when selected for the memorial in 1927, and many felt it was premature to rank him among the greatest presidents. Some historians suggest Borglum, who was friends with TR, let personal admiration influence the choice. The irony about all of this debate was that the monument was carved into the Black Hills, land sacred to the Lakota Sioux and taken from them in violation of treaties. Many Native Americans view it as a desecration, given the tragedy of events that happened nearby (just 120 miles away). What seems especially ironic is that Lincoln, who ended slavery in America is honored in a place where native Americans were so desecrated. And, of course, both Washington and Jefferson were both significant slave owners. And then there is the issue of Teddy Roosevelt.
TR’s beliefs about American expansion and racial hierarchy were profoundly discriminatory, even by early 1900s standards. TR didn’t just believe in Manifest Destiny (the 1840s idea that Americans were destined to expand across the continent), he extended it globally with overtly racist justifications. He believed in Anglo-Saxon racial superiority and that “civilized” races had a duty to dominate “backward” peoples. He wrote that the conquest of Native Americans was justified, saying “the most ultimately righteous of all wars is a war with savages”. He called the near-extermination of Native Americans “as ultimately beneficial as it was inevitable”. He praised the settler violence that cleared the continent and said, “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every ten are”. TR was an unapologetic white supremacist and imperialist whose policies caused immense suffering. This and the Washington/Jefferson legacies around slavery cause many to view the Mount Rushmore monument as a symbol of conquest rather than democracy.
If we consider the events at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, it was a tragic chapter in Native American history. The Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890 (135 years ago today), was when the U.S. 7th Cavalry (the same regiment that Custer led to its demise in 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn) killed approximately 300 Lakota Sioux, including many women and children, at Wounded Knee Creek. What precipitated it was the Ghost Dance movement that had spread among Plains tribes, a spiritual revival promising the return of traditional life and the disappearance of white settlers. The U.S. government feared it was a precursor to armed resistance. Lakota Chief Sitting Bull was killed during his arrest on December 15, 1890 and Chief Big Foot’s band fled, trying to reach the Pine Ridge Reservation to the Southwest. The massacre is considered the end of the Indian Wars era and symbolizes the brutal conclusion of Native American armed resistance to U.S. expansion.
There is often a philosophical debate about which atrocity was greater, American slavery or American native genocide, an almost obscene ranking since both were catastrophic atrocities that fundamentally shaped America. Slavery was an intentional dehumanization of people who were treated as property and whose families were systematically destroyed and culture deliberately erased. 12+ million Africans were forcibly transported, with millions more born into slavery in America. The Native American genocide was the near-total destruction of a population that collapsed from 15 million pre-contact to ~250,000 by 1900 (94-98% decline). This “Cultural Annihilation” eliminated entire nations, languages, and ways of life permanently. The goal was often complete removal or extermination, not exploitation. But let’s not forget that human nature can be brutally insidious. Many tribes, particularly the “Five Civilized Tribes,” enslaved Black people. After removal to Oklahoma, some Native Americans continued slaveholding. And Black people with Native ancestry faced both systems of oppression. Slavery was an engine of torture operating for centuries. The Native American genocide was arguably the most successful elimination of peoples in human history. Both required sustained, systemic cruelty. Both built American wealth and power. Both remain unresolved.
What an appropriate debate we are having over putting Donald Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore. Forget all the geology. As they say, where there is a will there is a way. The bigger question we Americans should all be asking ourselves in our reflective sense of greatness, is why do we feel it is desirable to honor in granite, men who favor conquest rather than democracy, strength over mercy. In ancient Egypt, such an imbalance of power would have been allowed to erode away over the millennia. Perhaps we need to let the wind and rain of South Dakota take what’s left of that Black Hills butte and allow it to wash away in disgrace.