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LIBERTY OR DEATH
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet,
As to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God.
I know not what course others may take; but as for me,
Give me liberty or give me death!
This is a portrait of Patrick Henry. Those are his words above the portrait. He spoke them in an old church in Richmond, Virginia, a mile or two away from where SurfingtheSpectacle resides. Henry was an orator, a statesman, a patriot who spoke of freedom with tremendous passion.
It was the age enlightenment, of reason, of revolt. With the French Revolution and the American Revolution, ideas of freedom, equality and brotherhood spread through the land. These kind of grand notions might get a man thinking.
Especially if he were a slave.
Gabriel was a slave. In the year of 1776, he was born as someone else's property. But he made sure he died his own man. No one ever made a portrait of him.
Gabriel wanted liberty; they gave him death. It was early October when they hanged him. You can go to the place he was killed. It's now a parking lot.
The story goes that Gabriel had worked as a blacksmith, and his master hired him out from time to time. This gave him some mobility. He could talk and drink with Richmond's slaves, free negroes and working class whites. They all wanted change. There was talk of injustice, of revolution. Ten years before in Haiti, the rule of the slave masters had been overturned. Why couldn't it happen here?
Now was their time. Gabriel was strong, educated, persuasive. A natural leader. He slowly hatched a plan, gathered his forces and amassed weapons. His hope was to take over the city in bloody fashion, kidnap the Governor of Virginia and begin to negotiate a new order of racial and economic equality.
In 1800, he led what is considered the first major slave rebellion in American history. Thousands of slaves were in on the plan. But the night of the revolt, a ferocious storm ensued, washing out roads and bridges. The plan was delayed a day, but in that time, all was lost. It's said that two slaves informed on the rest, and the state militia came together to hunt down all the leaders of the rebellion.
This is a portrait of James Monroe. Before he became the 5th American president, he was the Governor of Virginia. He was the one that called out the militia to quash the slave revolt. When Gabriel was in chains, Monroe questioned him.
It must have been extremely awkward for many of the founding fathers, daring to fight for liberty, expressing it in the most eloquent and forceful ways, and then going home to their estates and their family wealth, all of it utterly dependent upon slave labor. Yes, extremely awkward.
According to Governor Monroe, the interrogation proved uneventful. Gabriel "resolved to say but little on the subject of the conspiracy." Nor did his companions betray a word about the rebellion. The accused slaves carried themselves with a dignity that white observers found frightening.
One of the accused made these remarks during the trial:
"I have nothing more to offer than what General Washington would have had to offer, had he been taken by the British and put to trial by them. I have adventured my life in endeavouring to obtain the liberty of my countrymen, and am a willing sacrifice to their cause. And I beg, as a favour, that I may be immediately led to execution. I know that you have pre-determined to shed my blood, why then all this mockery of a trial?"
On October 10, 1800, Gabriel and other slaves were hanged in the city gallows.
A week before the execution, very close by in Southhampton, Virginia, a boy was born into the world. He was black, a slave. He would also have something to say about liberty and death.
His name was Nat Turner.
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REMEMBER.
Meat Knows Best.
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Our Patriotism “Our patriotism is that of the man who loves a woman with open eyes. He is enchanted by her beauty, yet he sees her faults. So we, too, who know America, love her beauty, her richness, her great possibilities; we love her mountains, her canyons, her forests, her Niagara, and her deserts—above all do we love the people that have produced her wealth, her artists who have created beauty, her great apostles who dream and work for liberty—but with the same passionate emotion we hate her superficiality, her cant, her corruption, her mad, unscrupulous worship at the alter of the Golden Calf."
(Emma Goldman, Anarchist, Feminist, during her July 1917 espionage trial for actively opposing the military draft)
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Do Something Amazing
The American Air Force offers some bitching ideas on how you can make your mark in the world!
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Shut Up. Be Happy.
Your neighborhood watch officer will be by to collect urine samples in the morning. Jello Biafra with a timely announcement. Image by Winston Smith.
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The War Machine
Just how mechanical is our culture and its industry of war? Click here to see artist Deven Langston's award-winning interactive animation The War Machine.
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To the Glory of a Nation
It's essential that we continue building powerful monuments to our greatest leaders. History demands that their triumphs are never forgotten.
Packard Jennings is one artist that knows his duty. He has created a grand proposal for a monument he calls 2nd Labor of Dick Cheney, and we can only pray for its full funding and construction. Click here for a stirring video of the prototype.
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The Door
"When one is in prison, the most important thing is the door."
(Robert Bresson, French Filmmaker)
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  PARIS BEGINS IT ALL
banksy, hilton, celebrity, fakery, guerilla art, profound vacancy, destroy
  UPON TAKING THE PHOTOGRAPHS BACK OUT
blue, blue, blue, blue sky, september 11th   WE AS HUMANS
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william blake, leduff, storyteller, detroit, charon, body snatcher, 14 bucks  THAT WHICH OFFENDS
michael dickinson, rude, madman, torture, eggs, bush, photomontage   LIBERTY OR DEATH
patrick henry, gabriel, slaves, rebellion, how awkward, freedom, death   CHILDREN'S GUIDE TO TERRORISM archie campbell,
warning to children, arabian, delight   THE GLORY OF ART
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mughal emperor, saira wasim, pakistan, buffoon, boys, politics, missiles  AS IF WE COUNT
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Mr. Vonnegut has left
the room and may not
be back shortly  THAT WHICH ENTERTAINS
torture, Battle of Algiers, dark ages, filmmaker, 24, agony and amusement  THE MEASURE OF WOMEN
body, size, control, fear, engineering, dolls, violence, war, length of history  THE WALLS OF THE WORLD
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dark mysteries, dream visions, avatar, courage, clarity, guiding muse  THE NEXT GREAT SPECIES
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Hirst, skull, profit, homeless, Eqbal, dignity, portraits, street stories,   OUR FRIEND IS DEAD
stopping to move forward, endless mystery, foolishness & wisdom
  THE OLD DOG BEGINS TO BITE Botero, enormous, mythic, Columbia, pleasant, murder, prison, memory  OUR STRANGE DREAMS aching manifestations, desires, justice, brazen truth, book 'em Danno   WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW future glory, lightning from heaven, eternal trust, always with you  THE MAN WHO MADE THE MOUSETRAP machine gun, invention, Hiram Maxim, knighthood, thanks!  THE GIFT OF THE HEART AK-47, Valentine, sweet Kalashnikov, sacred and cheap, kiss, true love  OUR TWILIGHT ZONE
Saudi Executioner, TV talk show, insanity, modesty, brain matter, normal  THAT WHICH IS FASHIONABLE stylish, taser, objet d'art, writhing, music, pain, beauty, failure  BEHOLD THE MAN prison torture interview etchings stories catastrophe shame complicity  THE NEW WORLD garbage Texas dead zone plastics poison nature survival fittest nature!  EXCLUSIVE ADS FROM MCCAIN CAMPAIGN! Britney Hitler Lenin Manson Farrakhan Satan  THE DREAM DEPICTED Guernica decimation dream of flight aerial slaughter civilized incineration
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