James Blount was born a slave on a Louisiana cotton plantation in the summer of 1860. His mother and elder brother were also enslaved on the same plantation, and his black family could trace their ancestry to the same sugar plantation for five generations. Following the start of the Civil War in 1861, his family fled to New York to escape the chaos of the conflict and his beloved brother would enlist and serve in the Union Army. His brother would die in the war, leaving James and his mother heartbroken. As a result, his mother would also die due to related trauma. James would be the first, enslaved member of his family to receive his legal freedom, citizenship, and right to vote with the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments, in 1868 and 1870 respectively. In 1898, James who was now 38 years old, was enjoying his role as the preacher at the Royal African Methodist Church in Brooklyn, New York. James, on good days, identified as a Republican and was a civil rights activist fighting against systemic racism.
As a result of his and his family’s enslavement, James opposed the United States acquisition of Spanish territory in the Pacific and did not support the annexation of the Philippines. America’s conquest of non-white territories was done by subjugating these …show more content…
He did not want Cubans and Filipinos to be oppressed, simply because they were not Anglo-Saxon. He quickly understood that while the Cubans and Filipinos fought to acquire their freedom from the Spanish, under the governance the United States they would also not be given that independence. Under the governance and control of the United States, Filipinos, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans alike would continue to be subjected. Why transfer the nations of Cuba and the Philippines from one unjust, imperialist nation to another racist, imperialist