Whenever things slow down for Donald Trump, whenever he suffers a wound, he tweets MAGA or if he is particularly dyspeptic, he starts belching about the latest imagined or real rape or murder of a white woman by a dark skin, Spanish speaking nogoodnick, MS 13 illegal immigrant who has slipped across the border to seek out a white woman to rape.
As others have observed, had the victim been a woman of color, there would be no story.
In this, Trump is one of a long line of racist demagogues stretching back to the American Revolution.
Reading, "The Men Who Lost America" a surprisingly engrossing account of the British generals and politicians (who were often one in the same), the king among them, I came across the story of Jane McCrea.
Jane McCrea was the bethrothed of a loyalist American soldier, on her way with General John Burgoyne, as he wended his way down from Canada with a British army, accompanied by allied American Indian warriors and somewhere between 500 and 2000 camp followers, women and children, among whom was Burgoyne's mistress.
(To digress: Burgoyne was much in love with his wife, 20 years his junior, but, apparently, while on assignment in the colonies, it was not remarkable for officers to take on a mistress, often the wife of another soldier, either loyal or Royal, who was occupied elsewhere. (Burr in "Hamilton" is carrying on with the wife of a British officer stationed in Georgia.) Apparently, what happened in camp, stayed in camp, in America.)
To return to the story of the unfortunate Ms. McCrea: during the trek south, two Indians argued over who was going to be the bodyguard of Ms. McCrea and apparently the disagreement got out of hand and one Brave ended the argument by bringing his tomahawk down through the skull and brains of Ms. McCrea. If I can't get paid to guard her, then neither will you. So there.
The incident became a cause celebre. It was reported back in England, bloviated about in Parliament and it make every newspaper in America,
The event fed into the contention of the colonists that the king and his men were bringing savages to bear, savages and German mercenaries, which meant the king regarded the colonists as foreign, not British subjects and far from protecting the British colonists, was subjugating and murdering them. "I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love." It even made it into the Declaration of Independence as one of the many depredations Jefferson attributes the king,
"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."
So there was the Trumpian racial thing, as General Horatio Gates of the Continental Army said, "That the famous lieutenant-general Burgoyne, in whom the fine gentleman is united with the scholar and soldier, should hire the savages of America to scalp Europeans and the descendants of Europeans."
Gates further embellished, just as Trump has, Trump who always speaks of "beautiful children" or "beautiful women" murdered or raped. He would not be as offended, presumably, if the woman raped were ugly or the child dark,
"A young lady lovely to sight, of virtuous character and amiable disposition...scalped, mangled in the most shocking manner...dressed to meet her promised husband."
A Trump before his time, Gates was.
It didn't matter this was a loyalist woman on her way to meet a loyalist man who was fighting against Gates and the Revolution. In fact, it may have played better that way: Look what happens when you make your loyalty to the British who consider us just chattel.
It's reassuring to see Trump is nothing so new. Just an new refrain of a very old song.
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| Save Our Beautiful White Women |
As others have observed, had the victim been a woman of color, there would be no story.
In this, Trump is one of a long line of racist demagogues stretching back to the American Revolution.
Reading, "The Men Who Lost America" a surprisingly engrossing account of the British generals and politicians (who were often one in the same), the king among them, I came across the story of Jane McCrea.
Jane McCrea was the bethrothed of a loyalist American soldier, on her way with General John Burgoyne, as he wended his way down from Canada with a British army, accompanied by allied American Indian warriors and somewhere between 500 and 2000 camp followers, women and children, among whom was Burgoyne's mistress.
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| Burgoyne |
(To digress: Burgoyne was much in love with his wife, 20 years his junior, but, apparently, while on assignment in the colonies, it was not remarkable for officers to take on a mistress, often the wife of another soldier, either loyal or Royal, who was occupied elsewhere. (Burr in "Hamilton" is carrying on with the wife of a British officer stationed in Georgia.) Apparently, what happened in camp, stayed in camp, in America.)
To return to the story of the unfortunate Ms. McCrea: during the trek south, two Indians argued over who was going to be the bodyguard of Ms. McCrea and apparently the disagreement got out of hand and one Brave ended the argument by bringing his tomahawk down through the skull and brains of Ms. McCrea. If I can't get paid to guard her, then neither will you. So there.
The incident became a cause celebre. It was reported back in England, bloviated about in Parliament and it make every newspaper in America,
The event fed into the contention of the colonists that the king and his men were bringing savages to bear, savages and German mercenaries, which meant the king regarded the colonists as foreign, not British subjects and far from protecting the British colonists, was subjugating and murdering them. "I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love." It even made it into the Declaration of Independence as one of the many depredations Jefferson attributes the king,
"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."
 |
| Gen, Horatio Gates |
So there was the Trumpian racial thing, as General Horatio Gates of the Continental Army said, "That the famous lieutenant-general Burgoyne, in whom the fine gentleman is united with the scholar and soldier, should hire the savages of America to scalp Europeans and the descendants of Europeans."
Gates further embellished, just as Trump has, Trump who always speaks of "beautiful children" or "beautiful women" murdered or raped. He would not be as offended, presumably, if the woman raped were ugly or the child dark,
 |
| Painting by Vanderlyn |
"A young lady lovely to sight, of virtuous character and amiable disposition...scalped, mangled in the most shocking manner...dressed to meet her promised husband."
A Trump before his time, Gates was.
It didn't matter this was a loyalist woman on her way to meet a loyalist man who was fighting against Gates and the Revolution. In fact, it may have played better that way: Look what happens when you make your loyalty to the British who consider us just chattel.
It's reassuring to see Trump is nothing so new. Just an new refrain of a very old song.
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