Be prepared. To change the name of your city or town. Every name is under suspicion.
Recently a fancy commission in Austin, Texas declared the name of the city needs to be changed. Because Stephen Austin had ties to slavery. The declaration includes streets, parks and etceteras. No more Confederate Avenue or Plantation Road or Dixie Drive.
Oh dear. My fellow American, will you please consider the name of your city or town. You may be offending someone. If so, you may have to re-name your place.
Let us start with Jamestown, NY. That name may seem innocuous to you. But let us peek at an unsavory piece of history. The city was named for James Prendergast. Yes, THAT man! Why, he is on record as having owned at least three slaves.
Meanwhile, Utica, NY was named after a Phoenician city. Them Phoenicians, they traded in slaves. By the thousands.
Don’t let Syracuse off the hook. It is named after a Sicilian city that was re-constructed at various times by…wait for it…slaves!
There are 27 cities and towns named Bristol in the U.S. For now. Maybe they will all change their names when we remind their residents of the Bristol they are named for. Bristol, England was a major slave-trading port. Slaves for the new world were one of the most important commodities in trade by Bristol businessmen. There are estimates that only half the slaves they shipped survived. Because the greedy traders
jammed so many chained slaves into the airless bowels of their ships.
New York State is disgracefully named after York, England. (A place where an entire community of Jews was massacred. Where now stands Clifford Tower. My grandmother was a Clifford. So I suppose we are implicated in some way.) York too was a major center for slavery. Many of its most prominent families owned thousands of them on plantations.
We have many Manchesters in the U.S. Including, of course, Manchester, Vt. They are named after Manchester, England. Much of this city’s industry was built on cotton. Manchester thrived on cotton, picked by…of course…slaves!
You can understand why names connected with slavery upset many people. The reality is that most of our names upset somebody. Many a Native American resents how conquerors stole the names of Sioux Falls and Chautauqua for their settlements.
Atheists and non-Catholics may well be offended by locations named after saints and angels and Christ. There are three-thousand in the U.S. They are everywhere! Beyond them we have universities, neighborhoods, suburbs, hospitals, hotels, rivers, mountains, hills, schools and whatevers named for such. Even saloons! And booze! The list of streets with names that have religious connections is endless.
If you don’t think this is such a big deal, consider how upset these folks get at the sight of a Christmas tree in a public square. Or, indeed, the utterance of “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holiday”. How many court cases have they instigated because a kid dressed up like an angel for a pageant?
I reckon places like Christmas Knob, NY, Christian
County, Ill and Holy Ghost Drive in North Carolina are doomed. As are half the place names in California and Florida. Every other place is named for a saint.
You may feel your location is safe. But don’t be too sure. As jazz musician Fats Waller used to say, “One never knows, do one?” Do you think Salem, Mass would face no threat? Well, sure, what is wrong with the name Salem? Did you know that it is short for Jerusalem? Did you?
How about all those towns and streets named after Confederate heroes? If the statues of them have to fall, you should expect the names must go as well.
What is one of the most prominent symbols in Louisiana and New Orleans? Why, the good ol’ fleur-de-lis. Abominable! That was the symbol that was once used to mark slaves. Stand by to rip up thousands of miles of carpets and wallpaper.
Maybe we should re-name with numbers. Numbers are safe. You live in 3765? Nice town. I used to live in the next town on the road. Yup good ol’ 3666. Wait a minute. Isn’t 666 the number of the devil? Here we go again.
How about letters? You cannot offend with letters, can you? I live in the city of XCD in the state of MMYC. Yeah, letters might work. If we don’t mind offending our Chinese immigrants.
We got troubles! Right here in BBCD city! Holy Toledo!
Ooops.
From Tom…as in Morgan.
Find Tom on Facebook. You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com.