Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Reparations Task Force is considering an estimated $569 Billion to be paid by the state for reparations (that’s two and a half times California’s current state budget which already is running a deficit), to give to black-Americans living in California for past discriminatory practices and slavery, despite that California was never a slave state, the Globe has reported.
Some of the recent proposals are cash payouts of $350,000 to every African American, and $250,000 for every black-owned business to help close the “racial wealth gap,” which is actually a social justice grievance, and not slavery.
Perhaps even more egregious than this pay-out proposal is the big lie about California’s history; California was part of the Union, not the Confederate, and wasn’t a slave owning state.
As History.com reports:
As one of only two states in the entire Western United States, California could scarcely have been more isolated at the start of the Civil War. No transcontinental railroad or telegraph yet connected it to the rest of the country, and no battles would be fought there. Nonetheless, California proved pivotal to the Union war effort, propping up the economy with its vast gold reserves, raising huge sums for military medical assistance, and providing a high number of troops per capita.
A friend reminded me that a nearby town in Amador County, Northern California played a part in helping defeat the Confederate.
The Old Abe Cannon in Volcano, California has been there since the Civil War. It was smuggled there to protect Volcano because the gold from Volcano was a large funding source for the North in the War, he said.
He noted that is is incredibly frustrating that California, and Amador County, helped fund the fight against slavery but somehow we are now going to pay reparations?
Here is what Western Mining History says about the Old Abe Canon:
During the Civil War, Volcano’s gold served the Union – the Volcano Blues smuggled the cannon “Old Abe” to intimidate rebel sympathizers. The cannon was cast by Cyrus Alger & Co. in Boston in 1837 and is the first of two 6-pounders made on the same day to be stamped with serial number 4. The cannon was never fired. The other cannon still survives at Shiloh Battlefield and is called “Shiloh Sam.” Abe is the only cannon of that age in the U.S. still on a nineteenth century wooden carriage, and has had an interesting history all on its own.
History.com reports some California white residents continued to illegally enslave Black people there, even as a movement arose to ban African Americans from the state altogether.
“Pro-slavery Democrats, known locally as the Chivalry, or “Chivs,” were particularly prominent in Southern California and were led by Senator William M. Gwin, who owned hundreds of slaves back in his former home state of Mississippi. In 1859, the Chiv-dominated state legislature even passed a bill that would have split California in two, with the southern half open to slavery. (The U.S. Congress never entertained the plan, thereby killing it.)”
California state residents responded with aplomb to a federal call for troops in the summer of 1861, immediately forming two cavalry and five infantry regiments. By the end of the Civil War, some 17,000 Californians, many of them veterans of the Gold Rush, would serve as Union soldiers out of a total population of less than 400,000.
Wikipedia also has an historical account of the Old Abe Canon under the Volcano, California page:
During the Civil War, Volcano’s gold served the Union. The “Volcano Blues” smuggled the 800 lb cannon “Old Abe,” into the town by hearse, to intimidate rebel sympathizers. “Old Abe” was only fired once during the Civil War. The Confederate faction known as Knights of the Golden Circle owned many of the Main Street businesses. “Old Abe” was fired down Main Street causing windows to break in all the shops that had not been warned – the ones sympathetic to the South.
The Library of Congress has the photo of the Old Abe Canon.
Interestingly, the already low black population of 5.5% in California has actually declined – blacks are also fleeing the state, and in particular, fleeing California’s hellish big cities.
According to California history, Southern California Democrats should be responsible for any reparations, if indeed any payout is authorized.
History matters, and California’s history is quite rich.
Source: California Reparations Plan is Rooted in Stupidity and Historical Lies – California Globe