The Original Cassius Marcellus Clay From 1810 - 1903A number of years ago an excellent miniseries, "Roots" jolted our senses as it examined the hotly controversial issue of slavery and man's inhumanity to man. It stirred a Pandora's box of emotions within us some deeply hidden which forced us to deal with them in the glaring light of reality. "Roots" became one of the most successful and heralded film productions of our time. This is the rest of the story. Cassius Marcellus Clay was a mass of contradictions. On one hand Marcellus Clay was a brawling, idealist yet on the other he was a poet and a towering intellectual, steadfastly with unwavering courageousness in his ideals. Like all heroes, Clay was in the right place at the right time. . . and he did changed the course of history! As the story goes The heirs of those Southern aristocrats who owned slaves have heard the story passed down from their forefathers that Clay was nothing more than a madman hell-bent on destroying their Southern lifestyle, his family, and the Union. Was Cassius Marcellus Clay, A Madman Or Prophet?Indeed, not. Clay wasn't perfect at all, nor was he a prophet in the true sense of the word. He had his faults, including that of being a pragmatists. There are those who will find some of his statements offensive. Statements like, For better or worse, the black people are among us, we must educate them, for one day they will be a part of our governing society. This, however, was a very bold statement in its day and one that was not taken too well by the social elite, who owned slaves. Cassius Clay, was a highly educated yet extremely sensitive intellectual white man who happened to grow up with a black slave as his very best friend. He taught George how to play chess and was sincere in his beliefs that blacks should be educated, even at a college level. Cassius Clay knew that slavery was immoral and against God's commandments. But he was also shrewd enough to realise that telling the rich plantation owners that they were sinners wasn't going to help change anything. Cassius Clay Knew Slavery Was Immoral Against God's CommandmentsInstead, he evolved a plan which would put an end to slavery and give the black man the opportunity to be educated. Cassius Clay knew that slavery was immoral and against God's commandments, but he was also shrewd enough to realise that telling the rich plantation owners that they were sinners wasn't going to help change anything. Instead, he evolved a plan which would put an end to slavery and give the black man the opportunity to be educated. He determined that the first step was to use his wealth and social position to get himself elected to the Kentucky legislature, which he did before he was 25 years old. Clay strategy accepted the fact that he could never get the 7% of the southern population that owned slaves to change their minds and directed his energies instead to the 93% of the white working class people that were classed as poor white trash as a result of having to compete with this almost free slave labour. They Sought To Silence The Mind Of Cassius M. Clay. The white working class was in bondage to slavery just like the blacks and Clay knew that as voters they had the power to put an end to this ugly disease that was stifling the South. Cassius Clay using his newspaper, The True American, sought to inform this vast majority of the population of the terrible financial burdens they were suffering due to having to compete with slave labour. Using logic, reasoning, and financial issues as his weapons, Cassius Marcellus Clay made great strides against incalculable odds. Long before the Civil War even begun, he had already caused laws to be passed in his home state of Kentucky which placed a moratorium on any new slave being brought into the state and prohibited further transfers or trading outside the state. Cassius Marcellus Clay used his intellect, his wealth, and his influence to sell a nation on the concept that slavery was not only an economic suicide, against God's commandments and it was morally wrong. |
They Fatally Poisoned His SonTo his rich neighbours and detractors Cassius Marcellus Clay was indeed a lunatic, traitor, and a madman, and they sought every opportunity they could to silence his scorching brainpower. Cassius Marcellus Clay was the almost constant target of attack including assignation attempts upon himself and kidnapping attempts upon his children. One of his young son, his namesake, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jnr. was fatally poisoned in an effort to coerce Clay into silence. Marcellus Clay, a man who made it known in his inscriptions that he would die before he would compromise his conscience, he would not be silenced nor would he give up the fight! | |
