"Virginia had actually voted to ban slavery early in the century, but the government of “Good Queen Anne” overruled the act because of the royal treasury’s dependence on revenues from British slave traders.  At the time, only 25,000 slaves had arrived in Virginia, and an outright ban might have permitted most, if not all, to sail home to Africa, thus aborting the growth of slavery in America.  In the next half century, however, Virginia’s many appeals to end slave importations brought nothing but rejections from the three Georges who mounted the British throne in succession.  By 1770, more Africans had crossed the Atlantic – albeit involuntarily – than Europeans, and Virginia’s slave population grew almost eightfold, to nearly 190,000, the equivalent of 20 percent of the white population.  The slavery issue had grown insoluble.”  -Harlow Unger, Lion of Liberty (Patrick Henry biography)

 

I've decided to not celebrate Juneteenth:  I'm celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day instead.

 

“only the wise man knows who are worthy to be loved.”  - Antisthenes, disciple of Socrates