By Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly, aka “Dr. CBS,” re-posted from her Substack newsletter. This month, in the lead-up to the celebration of 250 years of “independence,” Dr. CBS has been posting excerpts from a revolutionary thinker from the Black radical tradition every single day. She calls it the “This is America” project.

We must be clear about the difference between radicalism and reaction, revolution and counterrevolution. Let’s talk about it.

I’m Dr. CBS and we have just three days left of of my “This is America” project!

Today we’re thinking with the people’s historian Dr. Gerald Horne’s and his magisterial work, The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of United States of America, published in 2014.

Let’s start with our bar”:

Defenders of the so-called Confederate States of America were far from bonkers when they argued passionately that their revolt was consistent with the animating and driving spirit of 1776. Slavery fueled a rising capitalism. However, ironically, breaking the bonds of slavery was necessary if capitalism was to realize its full potential, not least since enslaved Africans were fiercely determined to destroy the wealth they were creating, along with the lords of the lash. Contradictorily, slavery was both a boost for nascent capitalism and ultimately a fetter on its productive force. More than this, chattel slavery grounded in racist chauvinism—of a uniquely republican and toxic type—was one of the more profound human rights violations of the previous millennium. To the extent that 1776 gave such slavery a renewed lease on life, it was truly a lineal ancestor of 1861 and, thus, a counter-revolution of slavery.”

And our excerpt:

“To the extent that 1776 led to the resultant U.S., which came to captain the African Slave Trade—as London moved in an opposing direction toward a revolutionary abolition of this form of property—the much-celebrated revolt of the North American settlers can fairly be said to have eventuated as a counter-revolution of slavery. To the extent that the tumultuous events leading to 1776 tracked the accelerated decline of the Royal African Company of the sceptered isle and the rise of newly empowered slave traders in the new republic, 1776 can fairly be said to have eventuated as a counter-revolution of slavery. Defenders of the so-called Confederate States of America were far from bonkers when they argued passionately that their revolt was consistent with the animating and driving spirit of 1776. Slavery fueled a rising capitalism. However, ironically, breaking the bonds of slavery was necessary if capitalism was to realize its full potential, not least since enslaved Africans were fiercely determined to destroy the wealth they were creating, along with the lords of the lash. Contradictorily, slavery was both a boost for nascent capitalism and ultimately a fetter on its productive force. More than this, chattel slavery grounded in racist chauvinism—of a uniquely republican and toxic type—was one of the more profound human rights violations of the previous millennium. To the extent that 1776 gave such slavery a renewed lease on life, it was truly a lineal ancestor of 1861 and, thus, a counter-revolution of slavery.” (pp. x-xi)

The Counterrevolution of 1776 was actually the inspiration for this project insofar as its objective is to correct the mythology about the American revolution, namely that is was a revolution at all. It’s objective to preserve slavery made it a backward, reactionary war, but because the victors—the white supremacist patriarchal ruling class—gets to narrate the history, we’ve been bamboozled into believing the hype. Thank God for the Haitian Revolution. Here are three takeaways from Gerald Horne’s brilliant work:

1) The United States likes to position the American Revolution as a beacon of freedom and liberty. However, what type of “freedom” is built on slavery, genocide, dispossession, and plunder? Is “liberty” that reduces land to property, people to labor, and natural resources to private wealth worthy of praise? Should the biggest purveyor of violence, ecological destruction, and human misery on the planet really be admired? It’s no wonder those who excuse slavers, venerate settlers, and revere warmakers prefer mythology over history and consider critical thinking an existential threat.

2) On June 26, the octogenarian-in-chief identified the spread of Communism, but not Fascism, as the greatest threat to this country. A few days later, former president Barack Obama stated that George Washington and his compatriots were flawed geniuses worthy of admiration despite their slaveholding and disenfranchisement. Then, just yesterday, the longest reigning member on the current Supreme Court argued that President Trump’s jingoistic attempt to restrict birthright citizenship reflected the true spirit of the 14^th Amendment, the cornerstone of U.S. citizenship. These examples convey just how easy is for powerful people to trick us into legitimizing the horrors of this country. On this logic, an Executive Branch doing everything in its power to pauperize everyone who is not a rich white male, a Legislative Branch that serves billionaire monopolists, and a corrupt Judicial Branch that is accountable only to their own class interests, in other words, an entire government that despises the masses, is moving us toward a more perfect union. Yea alright.

3) From the Alien and Sedition Acts to NSPM-7, true radicals and revolutionaries have been condemned, criminalized, harassed, and humiliated by the heirs to the counterrevolution of 1776. This “revolting spawn,” to use Dr. Horne’s terminology, props up the duopoly as if it is democracy, pimp votes and call it politics, construe exploitation as equality of opportunity, and confuse a sick society with civilization. All that is great about this settler colony derives from those who’ve risked life and limb to expose the reality of this hellscape.