Oregon Was Founded As a Racist Utopia
The question of whether Oregon should allow slavery dates back to at least the 1840s
- The majority of Oregonians
- which is to say the territory’s new white residents
- who were systematically and sometimes violently oppressing its Native peoples
- opposed slavery
- But they also didn’t want to live anywhere near anyone, who wasn’t white.
- Even before it was a state, those in power in Oregon
- were trying to keep out non-white people.
In the summer of 1844, for example, the Legislative Committee passed a provision:
- that said - any free blacks, who were in the state
--- would be subject to flogging, if they didn’t leave within 2 years
--- The floggings were supposed to continue every 6 months,
--- until they left the territory
- That provision was revised in December of 1845 - to remove the flogging part
--- Instead, free blacks, who remained would be offered up “publicly for hire”
- to any white person who would remove them from the territory
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http://gizmodo.com/oregon-was-founded-as-a-racist-utopia-1539567040