If you were enslaved during the 18th century, would you consider the Founding Fathers any differently than an Auschwitz inmate would consider Eichmann or Hitler? Most of the Founding Fathers were enslavers. Hamilton, who claimed to be against slavery, married into a slave-holding family and bought slaves himself. Even the minority who never owned slaves, were complicit in our American Holocaust and signed the Declaration of Independence, a document that did not condemn slavery, did not protect the rights of women, and infamously ends with a racist reference regarding "merciless Indian savages." Taking place in 1796, it is a time when America is in the midst of a great partisan divide not unlike our own. A time when "fake news" first becomes ascendant and, through the secret bidding of Hamilton and Jefferson, the "scandal-monger" is created, emboldening both sides with talk of secession and civil war. I can't breathe is also a love story imbued with a dark comedic sensibility that buoys the lovers as they navigate the cruel waves of their storm tossed world. A tale of enslavers and rebels. It will challenge what we think we know and what we pretend to forget.
If you were enslaved during the 18th century, would you consider the Founding Fathers any differently than an Auschwitz inmate would consider Eichmann or Hitler? Most of the Founding Fathers were enslavers. Hamilton, who claimed to be against slavery, married into a slave-holding family and bought slaves himself. Even the minority who never owned slaves, were complicit in our American Holocaust and signed the Declaration of Independence, a document that did not condemn slavery, did not protect the rights of women, and infamously ends with a racist reference regarding "merciless Indian savages." Taking place in 1796, it is a time when America is in the midst of a great partisan divide not unlike our own. A time when "fake news" first becomes ascendant and, through the secret bidding of Hamilton and Jefferson, the "scandal-monger" is created, emboldening both sides with talk of secession and civil war. I can't breathe is also a love story imbued with a dark comedic sensibility that buoys the lovers as they navigate the cruel waves of their storm tossed world. A tale of enslavers and rebels. It will challenge what we think we know and what we pretend to forget.
