Does President Trump really want to erase “Peter” from our history?

Does President Trump really want to erase “Peter” from our history?

The president’s purging of DEI knows no bounds. The National Park Service is slated to remove dozens of photographs of slavery including the famous one of “Peter”, the slave with the scarred back. Trump’s executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” ordered the Interior Department to purge historic sites of any content that “Inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” The order accused the Biden administration of indulging a “corrosive ideology” that sought to cast the U.S. as “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.” But wasn’t slavery “oppressive ideology”. Wasn’t the slavery part of America “racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed”? Hasn’t America struggled to redeem itself from those evils. I know that there are some who are “bitter clingers” to the racist, sexist narrative claiming systemic racism. But as I wrote for the Liberty Fund, I beg to differ.

https://oll.libertyfund.org/publications/liberty-matters/systemic-racism-in-education-and-health-care#post_823

For those who do not know this history, “Peter” (who later took the name Gordon) was an escaped slave in Louisiana whose scarred back increased the opposition to slavery in 1863. The website History says that “By the time Peter had made it to a Union encampment in Baton Rouge in March 1863, he had been through hell. Bloodhounds had chased him. He had been pursued for miles, had run barefoot through creeks and across fields. He had survived, if barely. When he reached the soldiers, Peter’s clothing was ragged and soaked with mud and sweat. But his 10-day ordeal was nothing compared to what he had already been through. During Peter’s enslavement on John and Bridget Lyons’ Louisiana plantation, Peter endured not just the indignity of slavery, but a brutal whipping that nearly took his life. And when he joined the Union Army after his escape from slavery, Peter exposed his scars during a medical examination.”

https://www.history.com/articles/whipped-peter-slavery-photo-scourged-back-real-story-civil-war

The purging of Peter’s photograph is a mistake of monumental proportions. Peter’s scars were only revealed when he enlisted in the Union Army. Peter’s story motivated free blacks to enlist in the Union army. He should be memorialized by the administration rather than erased by it. Juxtaposed to his picture with the scars of slavery is him in a Union uniform. Is this the same man? Is this the same poor man scarred by the whip? Yes but look at him standing proud in his uniform that symbolizes his freedom. Is he bitter and if he is, is his bitterness superseded by his pride? “Peter” is a triumph of overcoming the horrors of slavery and triumph over adversity. Is Trump also going to eradicate the 100,000 blacks who served in the Union army as well? Think of the courage of Peter and his fellows who took up arms to fight for their freedom against white confederates who loathed their being in the Union Army. Is Trump going to ignore their bravery? Is he going to purge Fort Pillow from the history books? Is he going to eradicate their role in the defeat of John Bell Hood at Nashville? Is he going to ban the movie “Glory”?

Pardon me, but this is outrageous. Peter and those like him should serve as a model of Americancourage and grit. Trying to erase him from our history is a slap in the face for all of us who love this country and every black who has ever served or is now serving in our country’s military.