Fox News host O'Reilly defends use of slaves to build White House as mentioned by Michelle Obama, cl

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Fox News host O'Reilly defends use of slaves to build White House as mentioned by Michelle Obama, claims they were 'well-fed and had decent lodging'


Bill O'Reilly defends use of White House slaves mentioned by Michelle Obama, says they were ‘well-fed and had decent lodging’
BYNICOLE HENSLEY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 5:56 AM

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reflecting on the past eight years living at the White Houseas its first African-American family, inspired O'Reilly's fact-finding mission.

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"I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves," Obama said. "I watch my daughters — two beautiful, intelligent, black young women — playing with their dogs on the White House lawn."

An early drawing of the White House, which has been the residence of every president since John Adams in 1800.
(LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/CORBIS/VCG VIA GETTY IMAGES)
The claim drove O’Reilly to clarify the history behind the White House’s construction.

"Slaves did participate in the construction of the White House," said O’Reilly, noting that the federal government made nearly 400 payments to slave masters in the construction of the executive mansion.


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"In addition, free blacks, white and immigrants also worked on the massive building," he said. "Michelle Obama is essentially correct in citing slaves as builders of the White House, but there were others working as well."

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His history lesson mirrorsWhite House Historical Association findingsthat acknowledge the use of slaves as carpenters and stone masons in building the President's home, but its records make no reference to how the slaves were treated.

First Lady Michelle Obama highlights the fact that she wakes up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.
(J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP)
The slaves worked on other early federal facilities in D.C., including in the U.S. Capitol. Washington commissioners intended to import workers from Europe, but they failed to recruit enough personnel.

The association stated that slaves were trained to quarry and cut rough stone in Aquia, Va., which was then laid by Scottish masons. Historians also noted that "the slaves joined a workforce that included local white laborers and artisans from Maryland and Virginia, as well as immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, and other European nations."

The National Archives are home to payroll documents, including this page from December 1794, that detail the use of slave labor in the construction of the White House.
(NATIONAL ARCHIVES)
As President Obama took office in 2009, National Archives researcher Reginald Washington pored over historical documents detailing the extent of slave labor at the White House.

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Slave owners provided clothing and blankets while city commissions supplied food and housing for slaves, but those living quarters were "not much more than huts,"Washington explained to NPR.

Washington learned that slaves were listed by first name only and earned lower wages than white workers, according to old Treasury recordshoused at the National Archives. However, the slaves' earnings were claimed by their masters.

 

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It doesn’t matter how the White House builders were fed, Bill O’Reilly — they were still slaves

Leonard Greene
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 4:37 PM

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Question for ousted Fox News chairman Roger Ailes: Can you take Bill O’Reilly with you?

Because while I have heard some insanely stupid things in my lifetime, O’Reilly's assertion Tuesday night that the slaves who built the White House were "well fed and had decent lodgings” has to be worth some sort of prize.

Unless there was surveillance footage of the actual construction, or a supervisor with a cellphone video of the workers on the job, we have no idea exactly how they were treated.

But we do know this, and everybody can say it with me:

Bill O'Reilly defends use of White House slaves

THEY. WERE. SLAVES.

Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly trivialized America’s original sin while fact-checking First Lady Michelle Obama.
(BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS)
That means they were brought to America against their will, or born in cruel captivity.

That means they worked like cattle all hours of the day and night without pay or respect to make their owners rich.

That means they were bred like race horses to create more workers for landowners who wouldn't dream of actually paying someone to pick their cotton or haul their tobacco.

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That means they were mothers who were sold away from their sons and daughters or husbands permanently separated from their wives, or children mercilessly robbed of their futures.



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Highlights from the 2016 Democratic National Convention
That means they were property, pure and simple, and no amount of good eats could take away from that.

O’Reilly, a Fox News anchor and friend of Donald Trump, trivialized America’s original sin while fact-checking First Lady Michelle Obama, who mentioned White House slave labor in an electrifying Democratic National Convention speech on Monday.

"I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves," Obama said.

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"I watch my daughters — two beautiful, intelligent, black young women — playing with their dogs on the White House lawn."

Obama mentioned White House slave labor on Monday in an electrifying Democratic National Convention speech.
(LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS)
O’Reilly, of course, couldn’t just take Obama at her word. Dedicated journalist that he is, he had to check it out for himself.

"Slaves did participate in the construction of the White House," said O’Reilly, adding that the federal government made nearly 400 payments to slave masters in the construction of the executive mansion.

"In addition, free blacks, white and immigrants also worked on the massive building," he said. "Michelle Obama is essentially correct in citing slaves as builders of the White House, but there were others working as well."

But the slaves who did work there, O’Reilly said, “were well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government.”

Donald Trump is a good friend of O’Reilly.
(Elsa/Getty Images)
Thanks, America.

President John Adams and his family took residence in 1801. Despite the slaves’ hard work on the White House — and much of the nation’s capital — nearly 65 years would pass before emancipation.

At least they got to eat and sleep.

 

[MASTERBAKER]

Bill O'Reilly thinks slaves were 'well fed'. So will he eat like one for a week?
Michael W Twitty
Forget that the enslaved workers were dehumanized property. Apparently a nourishing diet was all that mattered. Well, even that was denied them



‘I can whip him up a batch of trough mush to go with his southern fried crow.’ Photograph: Richard Drew/AP
Wednesday 27 July 2016 16.31 EDT Last modified on Wednesday 27 July 2016 16.44 EDT

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When Michelle Obama told the Democratic convention “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves”, the backlash was as immediate and swift. Some denied enslaved blacks – our mutual ancestors – built the White House or accused Obama of exaggerating. Others expressed outrage that the first lady brought up slavery at all. Fox News talk show host Bill O’Reilly took a kinder approach: he acknowledged this shameful history, but with a twist of the knife.

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“Slaves that worked there were well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government, which stopped hiring slave labor in 1802. However, the feds did not forbid subcontractors from using slave labor. So, Michelle Obama is essentially correct in citing slaves as builders of the White House, but there were others working as well,” said O’Reilly.

Forget that the enslaved workers were chattel, dehumanized property with no rights to person, self-determination or respect for their familial bonds: at least they were “well fed”, O’Reilly seems to be saying. But that’s not the only troubling thing about his comments. O’Reilly was also suggesting that enslaved people had a balanced diet. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Food rations given to the enslaved were weekly, monthly or rarely, daily disbursements of nourishment, and they were often inadequate. Enslaved life was always colloquial to its environs and discretionary to the personal choices of slave holders and the enslaved, thus “typical” rations for an enslaved person are not easily encapsulated by one account. But records show they often failed to adequately meet their dietary and nutritional needs. Even those working at the White House were badly mistreated. Another first lady, Abigail Adams, herself described slaves at the residence as “half fed and destitute of clothing”.

In 1732, William Hugh Grove recorded that enslaved workers were allotted a peck of corn per week. (A peck is equal to the dry measure of two gallons.) By the 19th century rations are described as being disbursed on a weekly basis. Weekends and Mondays are frequently mentioned as the days when enslaved people were given their most meager allowances.

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Age, gender and status all determined how much or how little food a person was allotted. Harriet Jacobs remembered that in eastern North Carolina; “(t)hree pounds of meat, a peck of corn and perhaps a dozen herrings were allowed each man. Women received a pound and a half of meat, a peck of corn and the same number of herring.”

While prized or skilled workers may have received more food, enslaved women, in turn, received reduced rations during pregnancy. Elderly men too old to work might be completely denied an allowance; and children were largely fed on mush that was filled with parasites and chips of wood.

For some, the myths about rations have fueled the notion that being enslaved was preferable to being white, poor, free and without support. Frederick Law Olmstead, who worked as a journalist in the 1850s, stated: “I think the slaves generally (no one denies there are exceptions) have plenty to eat; probably are fed better than the proletarian class of any other part of the world.”

Tobias Boudinot, who wrote about the conditions of slaves in the south, reported: “The slaves down the Mississippi, are half-starved, the boats, when they stop at night, are constantly boarded by slaves, begging for something to eat.’’ Reverend Horace Moulton, who also offered testimony about slavery, stated: “As a general thing on the plantations, the slaves suffer extremely for the want of food.’’ And Lillian Clarke of Virginia noted that her Aunt Lucinda received “one salt herrin’ fish up on a shelf fer her to eat. Mind you, dats all po’ Cinda got fer all day long. No ain’t giveno bread with hit. She had to eate dat or nothin’.”

As standardized as the ration system became, it was not a guaranteed source of food. Rations were used, as any other necessity or reward during enslavement, as a means of control. Rations did not always include protein. As one planter said: “Meat, when given, is only by way of indulgence or favor.’’ Certain foods were dangled before enslaved workers as treats rather than allowances which they had a right to by law or custom.

Let me challenge Bill O’Reilly to eat like an enslaved black person for a week if he feels they were so “well fed”. I’ve eaten the dry, crumbly half-burned ashcake, rusty salted meat and plain mush and hominy. Even with molasses, they’re far from good eating. That diet damned generations to impaired health and assumptions that people of color needed less nourishment than others. If O’Reilly is so convinced that our ancestors were well fed he should let me whip him up a batch of trough mush to go with his southern fried crow.