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COLONIAL EXPERIENCE                                   O'DELL
The paradox this presents is one of a nation being born in the fires of an anti-colonial revolution while at the same time consolidating its state power and sovereignty on the basis of preserving the slavery variety of colonialism. In short, the new American Republic did not completely uproot its won colonial heritage. In this way the new American power structure became the colonialists, replacing the British colonial overlords in this part of the New World, and proceeded in the business of colonizing the Indian population in the West, taking over a "share" of the African slave trade and spreading the plantation slave economy across the Southwest. This paradox in its particular form of slavery continued to shape the development of the American nation up until the period of the Civil War revolution and Reconstruction (1861-1876). The defeat of Reconstruction further confirms the colonial-captive position of the black population in America. To demonstrate this, one needs only to examine honestly the mechanisms by which Reconstruction was overthrown and the new totalitarianism established. These mechanisms compare favorably with what the European colonialists (particularly the British, French, Belgian and German) were doing on the African continent during the same period, the last quarter of the 19th century.

the mechanisms of colonial rule
Informed opinion in our Freedom Movement today generally concedes that our struggle is taking up where the first attempt at Reconstruction left off. The fact that the Reconstruction revolution was not completed means that neither of the two great social revolution which shaped the history of the American nation was ever completed. In both instances the basic polarization of unequal status between the white and black populations of America remain unchanged. Given the class structure of the country, capital accumulation as a motive and primary consideration of American national development was always stronger than any humanist appeals to conscience. The exploitation which slavery made possible was primary means of capital accumulation.
In the case of the overthrow of Reconstruction, too little attention has been given to the world context within which this took place. Yet this indispensable to a definitive picture of what really happened to us; the real meaning of that nightmare of terror and disillusionment which followed the betrayal of Reconstruction and has been called the "nadir."
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