Hamilton Square in the Carrollton section of New Orleans was established as a public space way back in 1833. The Square is one of several streets and squares in the area named for prominent Americans like Alexander Hamilton.
In 1902 Hamilton Square’s name was changed from that of an anti-slavery Federalist to that of a pro-slavery Confederate. The Square is now called Palmer Park. Its namesake, B. M. Palmer, was a Presbyterian pastor whose Thanksgiving 1860 sermon was notorious for the boost it gave to Secession. Here is some of what Palmer said in his sermon calling for Secession:
“If then the South is such a people, what, at this juncture, is their providential trust? I answer, that it is to conserve and to perpetuate the institution of domestic slavery as now existing…Without, therefore, determining the question of duty for future generations, I simply say, that for us, as now situated, the duty is plain of conserving and transmitting the system of slavery, with the freest scope for its natural development and extension.”
In his sermon Palmer explained the centrality of slavery to the Southern White cause:
“Need I pause to show how this system of servitude underlies and supports our material interests; that our wealth consists in our lands and in the serfs who till them; that from the nature of our products they can only be cultivated by labor which must be controlled in order to be certain; that any other than a tropical race must faint and wither beneath a tropical sun? Need I pause to show how this system is interwoven with our entire social fabric; that these slaves form parts of our households, even as our children; and that, too, through a relationship recognized and sanctioned in the Scriptures of God even as the other? Must I pause to show how it has fashioned our modes of life, and determined all our habits of thought and feeling, and moulded the very type of our civilization? How then can the hand of violence be laid upon it without involving our existence…”
The Reverend claimed that blacks need slavery:
“This duty is bound upon us again as the constituted guardians of the slaves themselves.Our lot is not more implicated in theirs, than their lot in ours; in our mutual relations we survive or perish together. The worst foes of the black race are those who have intemeddled on their behalf. We know better than others that every attribute of their character fits them for dependence and servitude. By nature the most affectionate and loyal of all races beneath the sun, they are also the most helpless; and no calamity can befall them greater than the loss of that protection they enjoy under this patriarchal system. Indeed, the experiment has been grandly tried of precipitating them upon freedom which they know not how to enjoy; and the dismal results are before us in statistics that astonish the world. With the fairest portions of the earth in their possession and with the advantage of a long discipline as cultivators of the soil, their constitutional indolence has converted the most beautiful islands of the sea into a howling waste. It is not too much to say that if the South should, at this moment, surrender every slave, the wisdom of the entire world, united in solemn council, could not solve the question of their disposal. Their transportation to Africa, even if it were feasible, would be but the most refined cruelty; they must perish with starvation before they could have time to relapse into their primitive barbarism. Their residence here, in the presence of the vigorous Saxon race, would be but the signal for their rapid extermination before they had time to waste away through listlessness, filth and vice. Freedom would be their doom; and equally from both they call upon us, their providential guardians, to be protected.”
Palmer said that Southern whites must be willing to die not only to preserve slavery but to have the right to take slaves wherever they wanted, even into the “Free States” of the North which had outlawed slavery a generation earlier.
“This argument, then, which sweeps over the entire circle of our relations, touches the four cardinal points of duty to ourselves, to our slaves, to the world, and to Almighty God. It establishes the nature and solemnity of our present trust, to preserve and transmit our existing system of domestic servitude, with the right, unchallenged by man, to go and root itself wherever Providence and nature may carry it. This trust we will discharge in the face of the worst possible peril. Though war be the aggregation of all evils, yet should the madness of the hour appeal to the arbitration of the sword, we will not shrink even from the baptism of fire. If modern crusaders stand in serried ranks upon some plain of Esdraelon, there shall we be in defence of our trust. Not till the last man has fallen behind the last rampart, shall it drop from our hands; and then only in surrender to the God who gave it.”
Here is the whole Thanksgiving 1860 sermon.
Here is more on the use of the park during the Jim Crow Era to reinforce segregation and white supremacy.
When you hear someone say that changing the name of a school named after a Confederate is “changing history,” remember that “changing history” has a long history.
NOTE: The park has been renamed as Marsalis Unity Park.
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Outstanding work, Pat.
Thanks Andy.
This must be put in context of Northern solutions to Slavery. Colonization to Africa was the overwhelmingly popular solution. The GOP Racial plan for America is clearly stated in US Congressional Joint Sub-committee decree of July 16 1862. Only Northern Europeans were welcome.
Karl, a few observations
Northern solutions to Slavery might not have been always adequate. But they did NOT create the problem. The Planter Aristocracy of the South did. When you create a problem you lose the right to criticize how it is solved.
Saying how awful the North was does not erase the fact that the South was worse. As the bear parable teaches us, all the North had to do was to outrun the other guy.
And when you start the “poor me” song and dance that too many Lost Cause are so fond of, think of how many of the South’s woes come from bad decisions. The South did not HAVE to base its economy on a main commodity. Nothing prevented it from diversifying and industrializing the way the North did. Economists nowadays tell you over and over that overdependence on a commodity is a BAD IDEA. Also, it was not the North that made the South not invest in public education. It was the planter class decision that wanted to keep both blacks and poor whites illiterate.
So, please, before you start talking about your heritage study it. What were your ancestors? Were they smallholders? Could they read or write? Or were part of the large contingent of landless whites who had to hire out their labor cheaply and had to move over and over in what was the gig economy of the day? Did they finally get land thanks to the Homestead Act and Reconsturction? (The Planter Aristocracy fought the Homestead Act, and it could only be passed when the Souther Senator and Representatives were not sitting)
Serioulsy, go study your family history, and then tell us who your ancestors were, and how they made a living.
Excellent response. And although Lincoln at one time thought colonization of U.S. blacks to Africa was the best solution, after actually speaking with African-Americans and seriously considering their views — which were predominantly in opposition to colonization, arguing that whatever its multiple problems, the U.S. was their homeland, not Africa — Lincoln dropped all talk of colonization and never again suggested it as a solution. Lincoln was willing and able to change his mind when presented with good reasons to do so.
Lincoln had a capacity for growth.
I am sure I am doing something wrong but when I click on the link nothing happens! What dumb mistake am I making?
Bob, I tested the links and they all worked. I am not sure what the problem is.
Brilliant, Patrick — and so timely. Thank you.
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