Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar: A Vicious Life of White Supremacy

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Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar: A Vicious Life of White Supremacy – Ed Sebesta 2/25/2020 INTRODUCTION: Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar worked for white supremacy throughout his entire life and in many diverse ways brought murder, mayhem, threats or oppression to a wide range of peoples both in the present territory of the United States and to Latin America. This paper attempts to give a summary of his monstrous career. Additional primary materials and links to sources will be provided online at http://templeofdemocracy.com/lamar-street.html. In regards to sources, I have adopted a practice not to correct spellings. Many 19th century spellings were different from the 20th and 21st century, and I will not undertake an etymological investigation as to whether the word was misspelled at the time it was written or typeset. Further, the understanding of the text is not impaired and the needless and numerous insertions of “[sic]” is avoided. I have chosen to use the term “Native Americans.” In my readings over the years I have come across “Indians,” “Amerindians,” “Native Americans,” and “Indigenous,” and “First Nations.” Clearly Native Americans are not Indians and the geographical mistakes of Christopher Columbus need not be perpetuated. “Native Americans” could be faulted in that projected onto Indigenous identity is a term invented by an Italian cartographer. However, it is a term understood by enough of the public as to not require explanation and it does in its name make it clear that these are indigenous people in the United States of America. However, my choice is not meant to be an instruction as to what terminology use, though the author would never use “Indian.” The author had to write this paper and chose a term. Also, though it is likely many readers would know that Comanche and Cherokee are references to Native American groups, there will not be a presumption that every group mentioned will be known by every reader as being Native Americans and hence they will be designated as such in the text. Quotations of primary materials will be lengthy. A few quoted sentences would in most cases summarize the point Lamar was making, but longer quotes allow the reader to perceive the tone or tenor of the presentation or of the writing and in Lamar’s case learn of his arrogance. Another reason for lengthy quotations is that defenders of white supremacists in history often make the claim that the one or two sentences you might quote are taken out of context or are in some way unrepresentative of what the person said or meant. The lengthy quote refutes this defense and show that the person really meant it.


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