These statements are gut wrenching and somber of the horrible ways in which we treat each other based on the social construct that is race. We have much work to do as a nation and as a people to give Black people in this country the reckoning they have long deserved for all of the pain and dehumanization we have put them through in the course of our history. Ms. Hamer's testimony, along with so many other stories, told and untold, makes me see how fundamental it is for our democracy and our humanity that we repent and rectify this ugly stain in order to make things better for each other and for future generations. It is time to end this war!

This is a hauntingly familiar story to what is occurring with the police departments and police brutality nowadays. It is clear that the Police Force that serves and protects does so only if you are not Black.

What a remarkable and brave woman who stood her ground for what she believed in!

In 1962! This Jim Crow South tale of what blacks faced to claim their rights as citizens is such a stain on our American History. The fact that freed slaves were still experiencing this level of dehumanization decades after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865 is heartbreaking and disgusting.

This quote along with the rest of Nat turner's confession sounds almost like he may be a psychiatric patient with schizophrenia or some other mental disorder where he may be experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations.

I can't help but be somewhat suspicious of Nat Turner's lawyer and how accurate the following confession may be

I believe this is our primary duty as citizens or inhabitants of an area- to contribute to your small pocket of the world in order to make it better for future generations. To stand up against power and authority for the pursuit of what is right/moral/ethical/just. I believe that many Americans (myself included) have been reminded of the importance and the value of this role that belongs to them in recent events.

This seems so simple and obviously, the right thing to do and yet, almost 100 years later, while we have improved the quality of life for most, veterans are still not comprehensively taken care of and a quality education and healthcare is not accessible readily to all.

I am convinced the founding fathers' words was the height of a supreme gaslighting on the American people to keep the illusion of the American Dream alive within the measure and limits set by this oligarchy as long as the masses served them.

Interesting how this topic is still true and extremely relevant almost 100 years later with billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk achieving immense fortunes while poverty remains alive and well.

Long highlights the misrepresentation and oppression of the American people by the corporate oligarchy which one can say is still alive and well in this country.

Actually, this is Keynesian economics, where to help recover from a recession that may last a long time, higher government spending is encouraged to jump start a failing economy.

By asking Blacks to forego asking for these rights, I wholeheartedly agree with DuBois that Washington seems to be gaslighting his own people in order to satisfy his government cronies. Education is power that no one can take away from an individual.

Exactly, to fund the robber barons of the Gilded Age- the new slavery. Ask yourself, why wouldn't you want other people to aspire to the higher aims of life? Because that would make them powerful and cause a potential shift in power in the opposite direction.

I could not agree more with W.E.B. DuBois about the submissive undertones of Washington's message on how Blacks should achieve social equality and civil rights.

This sounds like Washington is a lobbyist for the American Government and the old establishment of the South, slavery, and racism.

Booker T Washington's gradualistic perspective on how newly freed slaves were to adapt to life seems to be appropriate for the times considering how turbulent they were, but it also seems to enable and continue the story and the image of Blacks as less than or average compared to their fellow citizens. I can see why he may have believed in this approach to integration of former slaves into society, but I think it may have set a dangerous precedent also in delaying the atonement and reckoning of the stain of slavery on our country's history by minimizing the fact that we enslaved humans. Frankly, I think its dehumanizing.

Edwards use of Sodom, the cautionary tale of the consequences of sin is the final push in his fire and brimstone speech.

Edwards states that we are all damned to hell, even if we are good and moral. The only way to escape hell is to be repentant every day for our sins and to be at the mercy of God's hand. I wonder what Edwards would say to the idea that Hell is not a real place and the Devil does not exist, that we as humans, create and live in our Hell depending on the choices we make and the life we build.

Edwards uses the Old Testament because they feed his argument of a wrathful and angry God vs the New Testament which depicts God as merciful and loving.

This seems like an interesting interpretation and one may say, tactic, to instill fear and control people by making humans see themselves as worthless bugs and a pawn in a celestial game.