I have stated many times that the Second Amendment to the Constitution is the most twisted sentence in the Constitution. It is just one sentence. Most people call it “the right to bear arms”. Well, it does say that but that is not all that it says. But, most people including many in our courts just skip over the first part of the sentence and pretend it does not exist. The Amendment reads “ A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”. You see just one sentence that has been twisted into what we have today. It is such a big topic that this will probably take a couple of postings to cover.
Why are the Bill of Rights amendments, as they are called, added to the Constitution and not in the main document? They are put there as a series of compromises to the original Constitution so it would be ratified by all the States. To say that the founding fathers put it there is a false statement in my opinion. The writers of the Constitution did not include it in the original document. Five States ratified the Constitution without any amendments. I know that there are many people that say it was put there so States could rebel against the tyrannical federal government. I have seen there are historians that do believe that and what were they protecting themselves, from the tyrannical government imposing? James Madison wrote that a militia could stand up to the Federal Army. They had just created the government so I can’t believe that it was to destroy what they just created. What was James Madison and slave owner afraid of what the federal government would do? What issue divided the nation even back then that some States would be afraid would force them to do away with? Could that issue have been slavery?
At the time of the writing of the Constitution the country was divided by the major issue of slavery. Do you know that when the Preamble to the Constitution was written many of the framers of the Constitution did not believe that slaves were people so when they wrote “We The People” so boldly they are not talking about Black people. Black people were property not people. Even free Blacks were not considered free people. “We the People” really did mean we the White people. The Constitution established a Federal Army but did not mention anything on the State level. Before the establishment of a Continental Army during the Revolution we only had militias. To defeat the British we needed to create an actual army that was regulated and trained, not just a bunch of farmers running around with guns. So the Constitution established that. A militia was not very good for the general defense of an opposing trained army. Do you know what militias were good at? They were good at enforcing slavery. As I have researched this I have come across militias that were called Slave Patrol Militias. They were very common among the slave states and in a few of them they are mandatory. Google that and see what you come up with. Patrick Henry stated very bluntly that a State militia was needed to stop an insurrection of slaves. He did not believe that Congress would come to their aid if there was a slave revolt.
In 1780 there were more slaves in South Carolina than White people. It is hard to fathom that that over half the population was made up of slaves. The population of all the blacks in the slave states was between 30 and 40 percent during the first 5 censuses from 1780 to 1820. The only ways to control that many people had to have been by force and I am sure it was. These Slave Patrol Militias did regular inspections of all the plantations so they could put down a disturbance before one even started. There were no police force, what they were dependant on was a local militia sanctioned by the State to put down an insurrection of slaves. Slave Patrol Militias were like the first police force of the south. Were there insurrections by slaves, the answer would be yes. One was Virginia in 1831 led by a slave named Nat Turner. To think that blacks were just willing slaves is well, just a lie. I have put a link to American Slave Insurrections that documents many of them.
So far in my research I see that the Second Amendment was more meant for a well regulated local militia than it is was for people to carry arms. It has also reinforced my attitude that it really is a very racist amendment to the Constitution. Could the Slave Patrol Militias be the early version of what will become our Police Departments? I would bet that would vary from one section of the country to another. It is a very interesting debate. I will continue this with my next post.
I have posted some links to articles that I found interesting on the subject.
Second
Amendment
Second Amendment Annotated
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
infringed.
The Second Amendment Was Ratified to Preserve Slavery (truthout.org)
Slave, Free Black, and White Population, 1780-1830 (umbc.edu)
Slave Insurrections - Gateway Arch National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
American Slave Insurrections - American Renaissance (amren.com)
History of Police in the US: How Policing Has Evolved Since the 1600s (insider.com)
Indeed. I hope it is ok for me to quote you...will give credit
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