Roger O Green

V is for a Virginia Slave Law

Based on the age of Blair Underwood’s ancestor, and the age of the slaves, it was believed that the slaves were likely his parents or other relatives.

The one television program the Daughter and I watch together is an NBC show called Who Do You Think You Are? It involves stars looking back at their genealogy. An episode we saw recently featured actor Blair Underwood, which I hope you can find here or here or here at the third notch 21 minutes in, with him walking down the steps.

What Underwood discovers is that one of his ancestors at the end of the 18th century, Samuel Scott, actually owns property in Virginia. He is distressed, though, to discover that Scott also owns two slaves! Well, until the researcher he is with explains to him the Virginia Slave Law of 1806 [Shepherd, Statutes at Large, III, 252; passed January 25, 1806]: “The General Assembly moved to remove the free Negro population from Virginia with a law that stated that all emancipated slaves, freed after May 1, 1806, who remained in the Commonwealth more than a year, would forfeit his right to freedom and be sold by the Overseers of the Poor for the benefit of the parish. Families wishing to stay were to petition the legislature through the local county court.”

This was known as a manumission law by which someone who was a free black could be enslaved, or re-enslaved. Based on the age of Scott, the ancestor, and the age of the slaves, it was believed that the slaves were likely his parents or other relatives, protected by the “peculiar institution” rather than being forced to leave the state, or worse.
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It appears that modern-day Virginia is now involved with a new Jim Crow attitude:

Virginia knows it has DNA evidence that may prove the innocence of dozens of men convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. Men just like [Bennett] Barbour. So why won’t the state say who they are?

“Bennett Barbour was convicted in 1978 of a rape he didn’t commit…The Commonwealth of Virginia learned that Bennett Barbour was innocent nearly two years ago when DNA testing cleared him of the crime. Virginia authorities, however, never informed Barbour of his innocence.” An irritating story.

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

Descent into Madness Meme

If I slept well, I almost never remember my dreams. If I had off-and-on sleep, I remember my dreams.

There was a two-part Madness meme on Sunday Stealing: Part 1 and Part 2. I’ve eliminated questions I didn’t feel like answering, such as “Have you ever licked the back of a CD to try to get it to work?”

2. What’s the largest age difference between yourself and someone you’ve dated?

16.5 years.

3. Ever been in a car wreck?

Two, one that sent me to the hospital.

4. Were you popular in high school?

Not initially. I was in a group of outsiders that opposed the war in Vietnam in 1968. But by 1970, I was student government president, my friend Carol was VP, and the mood of the school, the community, and the country had changed.

5. Have you ever been on a blind date?

No.

7. Do you have any friends that you’ve known for 10 years or more?

I have friends I have known for 50 years, including the aforementioned Carol.

13. Have you ever had a crush on a teacher?

12th grade English.

17. What would your last meal be before getting executed?

Lobster and steak.

20. Beer, wine or hard liquor?

Hardly any at all these days. That said, not beer, because I never acquired a taste for it. White wine over red, because the red gives me wicked headaches. A number of hard liquor items, but NOT Scotch or vermouth.

21. Do you have any phobias?

Yes.

28. What do you do as soon as you walk in the house?

Take off my shoes.

29. Do you like horror or comedy?

There’s enough horror in the world.

31. Where do you want to live when you are old?

In a walkable community, with a grocery store, drug store, and movie theater nearby. Someplace with good mass transit to the educational facilities in the region.

34. What did you dream of last night?

If I slept well, I almost never remember my dreams. If I had off-and-on sleep, I remember my dreams, but it gets so mixed up with my awake consciousness, I quickly forget.

35. What is your favorite sport to watch?

I like watching football, and especially baseball because I can read the newspaper at the same time. Whereas basketball requires far more concentration than I have time for.

36. Are you named after anyone?

No.

40. Do you sing in the shower?

Not consciously. Which is to say: probably.

43. Would you ever get plastic surgery?

Only if I had had a terrible scarring accident or illness. Not for general aging.

Obviously, I need a couple of Madness songs:
Our House
It Must Be Love
One Step Beyond

Everyone else has a great Ray Bradbury story

My wife decided to re-read Fahrenheit 451 because she thought it was getting to be too close to prophecy.

Someone who knew Ray Bradbury, the writer who died last week, noted in Salon magazine: “Ray was the last living member of a “BACH” quartet — writers who transformed science fiction from a pulp magazine ghetto into a genre for hardcover bestsellers[, along with] Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke, and Robert Heinlein…”

My buddy Steve Bissette “heard the news of his passing as I drove… Instantly, a flood of memories—entire passages of Bradbury short stories I first read when I was 11 and 12, his novels, the movies from his tales—rushed through, and I had to turn off the radio to let them come. Ray made us all one of his ‘book people’ from FAHRENHEIT 451, I reckon… all I know is he changed my life, and (along with Lovecraft) instilled the desire to write, which I do every single day of my life.” He shared a link: Ray Bradbury- Story of a Writer (1963); “Bradbury in his prime—and when all the world, it seemed, was his oyster. The man until his death, and that is something more for all of us to aspire to.”

Here’s a story of Ray Bradbury spending three hours slathering the 15-year-old Mark Evanier with advice about writing. Neil Gaiman shares the story of an aspiring writer of age 11 or 12, getting the same kind of time and advice from Ray.

You can watch an hour of Bradbury addressing (mostly) new writers at the Sixth Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea in February of 2001. Or read tweets by celebrities.

And what do I have? Just a bunch of Bradbury-penned old episodes of Alfred Hitchcock, plus a classic Twilight Zone episode, which I saw before I even knew his name, and reading a bunch of his short stories, often seeing them adapted into other media.

Plus this: my wife decided to re-read Fahrenheit 451 because she thought it was getting to be too close to prophesy. She borrowed a book from a teaching colleague. But just before she finished it, she dropped the book into a mud puddle. So, separately, she and I bought replacement copies. We kept the one; seems like a book we ought to have on the shelf.

Scott Walker, Gray Davis: The Recall Question

Let me tell you a secret: I was not happy about the Wisconsin recall vote that attempted, unsuccessfully, to get rid of Governor Scott Walker. I’m not referring to the OUTCOME of the vote; I’m talking about having the vote in the first place. Walker was duly elected in 2010 for a four-year term and started fulfilling his campaign pledge to make draconian cuts to the budget and state personnel. Just a year into his term, a movement to unseat him began.

It reminded me of the California recall of Governor Gray Davis (pictured) in 2003, mere months after he was re-elected in 2002, tied to an electricity price crisis manipulated in part by the failed business, Enron. Davis was replaced by some actor from Austria.

It is said that the idea of recall is “pure democracy”, with the people able to right wrongs. Then why does it feel so undemocratic to me?

There has been a lot of talk about what the Wisconsin vote MEANS. It may not MEAN anything. “Folks were polled at 60 percent voting against this recall because they think leadership change ought to occur via regular elections and not recalls and that a majority of those polled voted against recall while still expressing supports for unions.”

It seems to me that one should limit the recall to an official who has committed a grievous crime or betrayed the office in some way. New York, which not have the recall option, managed to get rid of its governor, Eliot Spitzer, through threats of legal action after his prostitution addiction came to light.

And the propositions that are allowed on the ballot in California seem to contradict each other every other year, making it an even more difficult state to govern.

The Wisconsin situation does show, yet again, how much money controls politics more than ever before, and that is most unhealthy for democracy, as the person in this video suggests.

But what say you?

Geek Confessional

Obsessions with vampires, zombies, LOLcats, Facebook games such as Castleville, which female celebrities are pregnant or just had a baby…

Jaquandor addresses: “What is something you absolutely hate or love or just don’t get, or maybe it’s something you have never even seen or read. What is your deepest, darkest geek confession?”

The breakdown:

Something I hate that everybody else loves.

Does EVERYBODY love ANYTHING anymore? I mean someone is watching those Real Housewives shows, and I despise their very existence, but they are quite avoidable.

The closest thing, I suppose, to the nature of the question is The Big Bang Theory. I watched it, didn’t HATE it, but didn’t find it particularly funny either. And I am convinced it was the laugh track. When I’m not chuckling, and “they” are, it’s quite telling to me.

Something I love that everybody else hates.

Watches. Something that has only one function – to tell time. Actually, I don’t have one presently – it died – but I’m in the market for one.

Physical music. Everything is downloaded or in “the cloud”, whatever that is. I still like the tactile sense. I like reading the liner notes.

Physical books. I tell you that, with some reference books, I can find reliable information a lot faster than by Googling it. (Note the term “reliable.”)

Bicycles. Some drivers are just hostile to the notion of sharing the road.

Something I don’t get that everyone else seems to:

Obsessions with vampires, zombies, LOLcats, Facebook games such as Castleville, in which female celebrities are pregnant or just had a baby (and they keep track of their children’s names), or how quickly they’ve gotten rid of their baby fat. (Look at the most popular baby names, and you’ll find lots of kids of celebrities with those names – but don’t ask me which celebs.)

Something that you would think I’m familiar with and yet am not:

I suppose I should go with the big one: Harry Potter. Never read one book; didn’t even start one, only to give up. Did see the first movie, and thought it was OK, but never went beyond that.

Any number of TV shows: Mad Men, The Sopranos (I’ve seen maybe six minutes of it), Breaking Bad, The Wire…the list goes on and on.

Music by The Decemberists, Florence + the Machine, pretty much all of the 21st-century music, though I actually have a Black Keys album. There was a category on current pop music on the last JEOPARDY! Teen Tournament and I went 0 for 5.