The third in a series of Learning Letters to the congregation of the First Unitarian Church of Hamilton from Rev. Victoria Ingram.
Why We Must Know Our History
“Studying history will sometimes make you uncomfortable. Sometimes studying history will make you feel deeply upset. Sometimes studying history will make you feel extremely angry. If studying history always makes you feel proud and happy, you probably aren’t studying history.”
Tweet from Librarianshipwreck, September 17, 2020
Perhaps you remember hearing stories about your family’s past from an older aunt or family member when you were a child. Perhaps you’ve searched an online database to find out the origin of your family name or to locate a long-lost relative. Perhaps you’ve made a trip to the place where your family came from to find out about your heritage. Maybe you’ve done none of these things, but you’ve been curious about how you got to be you.
Our individual lives are the result of hundreds and thousands of choices, frustrations, traumas. and opportunities encountered by our ancestors. When you think of the odds, it is a miracle that any of us – as we are – are even alive at all. And yet, here we are, living lives and facing our own choices and frustrations, traumas, and opportunities.
At some level, we all know that the past informs how we live our lives in the now. We believe that if we better understand the past, we may be able to use that understanding to live better into our future. We accept this on a personal level, and we believe that it is true for our society, our nation, and our world, as well. So, we study history – or what is recorded of it, what is remembered and shared.
Being familiar with our own history helps us make more responsible and conscious choices for responsibly living into our future. When we understand what has influenced and led us to be where we are today, we can use that information to explore our options and elect to take a particular course of action to better create the future we desire.
UUs and The History of Slavery
We may hope that our embrace of the Seven Principles (first drafted in the early 1960s), or our historic professions of love for all of humanity (from our Christian roots), would mean that Unitarianism and Universalism were consistently faith traditions that abhorred the institution of slavery and worked tirelessly to see it abolished in Canada and the United States.
If so, your study of the history of our denominations would leave you disappointed. Unitarians, especially, have a more ambiguous relationship with the abolition movement. Universalists were more consistently identified as being for abolition and issued their first antislavery resolution in 1790. At their 1841 Anti-Slavery Convention, they declared slavery inconsistent with Universalism.
Unitarian responses to slavery were more varied, with some Unitarians being slave owners or business people who benefitted from the slave trade and feared the economic impact of a loss of slavery on their own interests. Historian Conrad Wright tells us that Unitarians fell into one of three categories in relationship to slavery: 1) those who wished for the immediate cessation of slavery, 2) those who sought a gradual end to slavery, and 3) those who opposed slavery on moral grounds, but resisted making a political commitment to end it. (Tapestry of Faith: UU History/Faith Like a River/Slavery and Antislavery)
Canada, as an extension of British rule, saw the termination of the slave trade in 1803, and of slavery with the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. This finally freed slaves held in British colonies (including Canada).
It was Unitarian US President Millard Fillmore who signed into law the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. While Fillmore expressed a personal disgust for slavery, he felt the act was necessary to maintain law and order in the United States. The Act put Northern US Unitarians and Universalists, as well as the people of Canada, in the horrific role of potential “enforcers” of deeply troubling legislation against persons of colour.
Since Canada had officially ended slavery, our nation came to be seen as a possible refuge for escaping slaves from the US South, and the Underground Railroad assisted over 700,000 of them to move north in an effort to escape.
But what none of these Acts – in the US or Canada – did was eliminate racism, white supremacy, violence, or disparity of economic well-being, education, or treatment before the law.
What Do We Do Now?
Studying our UU history may make us disgusted, angry, or sad. Perhaps as white UUs we even experience a sense of guilt and shame at the actions of our ancestors – those of our family or of our faith traditions. Why didn’t they do more? Why have they left it for us to do the work?
No one living now is responsible for the actions of their ancestors – we do not get credit for their sterling accomplishments, nor must we take the rap for their mistakes. We are responsible for what we choose to do and how we choose to behave in our lifetimes. Again, those wise words of Maya Angelou come to mind – We do the best we can, until we know better. When we know better, we do better. We are responsible for learning and reflecting and considering and feeling our anger and discomfort and our disgust and then, DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Primarily, changing our thinking, or behavior, our engagement, our interactions to be less oppressive and more anti-racist.
As we learn more about the systemic impacts of white supremacy, the inequities and blind-spots of ourselves, our culture, our society, the lived experience of our neighbours who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (as well as those in the 2 Spirit, LGBTQ+ community) we must take more conscious and purposeful actions to make manifest the Beloved Community we aspire to in our Seven Principles.
What do YOU do now? How will you make your life more of a testament to your faith and values?
You have all heard me say that one of my favorite “faith reflection” questions is: If you were on trial for being a Unitarian Universalist, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
I consider that question against each of the pillars of our values – the Seven Principles. Have my actions shown me to be a person who honours the worth and dignity of EVERY person? Have I treated people fairly and kindly? Have I kept an open mind and open heart and allowed myself to learn and experience new things and have I had new insights and understanding of the world around me? Have I loved and encouraged my fellow creatures in their lives? Have I helped make the world more peaceful, fair, and free today? Have I done my best to care lovingly for my Earthly home?
Unitarian Universalism is an action-based faith. It isn’t enough to believe something – we value deeds, not simply creeds. So, what we do now is learn our history, learn from our history, experience our reactions and feelings, and use that experience to inspire and propel ourselves toward taking actions that heal the world. Will we always get it right? No. Will our actions always be perfectly aligned with our values? Probably not. But, we make the effort and we start anew and renewed in our faith commitment every day.
It’s a lot to ask. But the world needs nothing less.
With love,
Rev. Victoria
RESOURCES:
February is BLACK HISTORY MONTH.
- The Government of Canada has a rich set of resources for exploring Canada’s Black history. You can find many interesting articles and updates at their website:
www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/black-history-month.html - Want something to share with the younger folks in your life? Try this website:
www.canadianhistoryforkids.com/canadian-history-for-kids-black-history-canada/
Member Nancy Willson recommends the following book:
- The Skin We’re In: A year of Black resistance and power by Desmond Cole, Penguin Random House, 2020.
For more about UU History, check out the following resources, all at www.uua.org
- Tapestry of Faith: Faith Like a River – A Program on UU History for Adults
- Conrad Wright Lecture: Unitarians, Universalists, and Slavery, by Christopher Cameron