In our wallets and purses we carry pictures of men who kept children from going to school. These men, who we honor, refused to allow Christians to read their Bibles and stopped them from attending the church of their choice. These men, who we celebrate, refused to allow men and women the Christian right of legal marriage.

Men in our wallets took children away from their parents, and adults away from their families and then refused to let them ever get back together. These men, who we call heroes, demanded that people work for them without pay and then had them whipped if they disobeyed.

Men in our purses complained that the King of England was treating them badly. They said they had a right to take up arms against him. They called the king a "tyrant" for taxing their tea while they themselves claimed to "own" other human beings. They said the king had no right to tax them "without representation," while they demanded their "right" to buy, sell, and abuse people, and to deny freedom to others.

Men in our wallets wrote and signed beautiful documents declaring the "God given" rights of man. They boldly declared that "all men are Created equal" while they, themselves, forcibly held people in life-long bondage with no hope of freedom. Men in our purses wrote a beautiful "Bill of Rights" and then proceeded to deny those rights to one out of every five Americans.

Men in my wallet confuse me. How did they proclaim freedom and hold others in bondage. Historian John Hope Franklin wrote: "One may well be saddened by the thought that the author of the Declaration of Independence and the commander of the Revolutionary Army and so many heroes of the Revolution were slaveholders. Even more disheartening, if such is possible, is that those same leaders and heroes were not greatly affected by the philosophy of freedom which they espoused." Slaveholder Thomas Jefferson, however, had thought about it some. He wrote "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that his justice cannot sleep forever." Yet he continued to own, dominate, and control about 130 people until at his death those 130 human beings were sold to the highest bidders to pay off Jefferson's personal debts.

Today we honor the founders of our country with their pictures on our money. These men produced a system of government that has brought genuine freedom to millions, yet many of them, themselves practiced the worst kind of cruelty and seemed to hardly notice it. There's is a dual legacy--one of freedom and the other of cruelty and torture.

"Slaveholding has been justly designated as the sum of all villiany. It has the violence of robbery, the blood and cruelty of piracy, it has the offensive and brutal lusts of polygamy, with agravations that neither one of these crimes dreamed of." --Owen Lovejoy -- brother of Elijah Lovejoy who was murdered by a pro-slavery mob in Illinois. (See earlier post.)

Twenty year-old William Simms was being held captive against his will. Although he had never committed a crime or been in a military setting, he was being forced to do hard labor with six other captives.

The people holding them prisoner and making them work were led by a woman named Mrs. Mason. One of the captives overheard one of their captors say: "When this job is done, I'll destroy that breed o' dogs." So William Simms and the six others decided their best chance for survival was to attempt an escape. They knew that if they were recaptured they would either be killed or tortured.

The seven fled on foot, leaving on a Saturday night and following a mountain range that they knew led to the border and to their freedom. They traveled only at night, lying up in the woods during the day. The weather was cold and wet and there was some snow.

Their meager provisions quickly gave out and after several days they were nearly starving. William Simms later said he was so exhausted that he had to crawl on his hands and knees to relieve his feet. Four of them were caught, but Simms and two others made it to freedom in 1858 with help from the Underground Railroad.

William Simms later married and settled in South Danby, New York, where he rented land and farmed. He is remembered because a fifteen year-old white boy, Arthur Charles Howland, who lived on a neighboring farm, interviewed him and took notes about Simms' escape from slavery. Those notes are posted on the internet at www.rootsweb.com/~nytompki/tsimm.htm

I was moved by William Simms' story. We share the same last name and it is possible that I am related to him. I am descended from four Northern Irish Simms brothers who initially settled in North Carolina in the 1780's. "William" is a common name in our family tree. William Simms escaped from slavery on a farm in Virginia.

Simms' story is just one of the many thousands of American heroes who risked their lives in attempts to escape from being held as human property. Many were killed. Many were tortured. Many were "sold down the river." And many, like Simms, made their escape. But they all took heroic action in the name of freedom.

Has anyone better lived out Patrick Henry's cry; "Give me liberty or give me death," than America's runaway slaves? Frederic Douglas, perhaps the most famous runaway slave; Said: "In coming to the fixed determination to run away from slavery, we did more than Patrick Henry. With us it was a doubtful liberty at most, and almost certain death if we failed." Harrett Tubman said: "There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other."

Throughout our history, many Americans have risked much for freedom--the Founding Fathers, Patriots, Abolitionists, Underground Railroad Conductors, the men and women of our Armed Forces--all stood up courageously for the cause of individual liberty. There are many monuments and memorials to them in our country. But where are the monuments to the great courage and heroism of America's runaway slaves?

Thank you, William Simms, for your brave stand for freedom! Sincerely, Steve Simms.

Millions of people around the world have seen the stunning and horrifying images of whipping and torture in the movie, The Passion of The Christ. It is deeply moving to see what Jesus was put through in Jerusalem--even though Pilate declared "I find no fault in him."

It is heart rending to see an innocent person viciously whipped. Jesus said: "What you do to the least of these, my brothers, you do unto me." Who are "the least" in American history? Wouldn't that be the slaves who had no legal rights and were bought and sold like animals? According to Jesus, what was done to the slaves, was done to the Christ. Jesus was whipped in America.

In 1848 Frederic Douglas, a runaway slave, said: "I am afraid you do not understand the awful character of the lashes given to slaves. A human being in a perfect state of nudity, tied hand and foot to a stake, and a strong man standing behind with a heavy whip, knotted at the end, each blow cutting into the flesh, and leaving the warm blood dripping to the feet." Jesus was whipped in America.

John Fee, a white Kentuckian, wrote: "Let me say, the torture of the body is terribly cruel, and yet it is the smallest part of the crime of human slavery. I have seen women tied to a tree or timber and whipped with cow-hides on their bare bodies until their shrieks would seem to rend the very heavens." Jesus was whipped in America.

Absalom Jones, a founder of the AME Church, said in the late 1700's: "Our God has seen masters, and mistresses, educated in fashionable life, sometimes take the instruments of torture into their own hands, and deaf to the cries and shrieks of their agonizing slaves, exceed even their overseers in cruelty." Jesus was whipped in America.

American poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, wrote about slavery in 1845: "Woe to him who crushes the soul with chain and rod, and herds with lower natures, the awesome form of God." Jesus was whipped in America.

Francis Fredric, himself once given 107 lashes, wrote in 1863. "I saw a slave flogged (for running away) in the presence of all the slaves assembled from the neighboring plantations. His body was frightfully lacerated. I went to see him two or three weeks after the flogging. When they were anointing his back, his screams were awful. He died soon afterward--a tall, fine young fellow, six feet high, in the prime of life, thus brutally murdered." Jesus was whipped in America.

Many want the story of the American Passion (of both black Americans and the original Americans) left untold. The violence we have done to Jesus--"to the least of these"--to those who have done us no wrong--is easier denied than faced. It is very humbling to realize the evil and the cruelty that was committed by our forefathers right here on American soil as they proclaimed "liberty and justice for all". Lord, have mercy on us.

How many times have you heard the Lee Greenwood song that declares: "I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died to give that right to me." In reality, however, we Americans have forgotten many men and women who died to make us free.

Take Elijah Lovejoy for instance. He was a Presbyterian minister who published a religious newspaper called The St. Louis Observer. After seeing Francis J. McIntosh, a slave, burned at the stake; Lovejoy began to write editorials against slavery. His press was wrecked by a mob in July 1836, so he moved to Alton, Illinois. There he continued writing and publishing against slavery even though his press was destroyed three more times. On November 7, 1837 Elijah Lovejoy and twenty of his friends were guarding a new press. That night they were attacked by a pro-slavery mob and Elijah Lovejoy died for American freedom--killed by a shotgun blast.

How about Nat Turner. He was being held in lifelong bondage in Southhampton County, Virginia. After much prayer, Turner made the courageous decision to fight for his freedom. On the morning of August 21, 1831, Turner and six followers began to attack slaveholders and to liberate their fellow slaves. After 40 hours Turner and his growing band of freedom fighters were attacked by an army of 3000 soldiers and more than 200 brave black Americans were killed. Turner escaped but was later captured and hanged--dying to give that right (freedom) to us all. His death was a turning point in our history and helped fuel the antislavery movement.

What about the hundreds, if not thousands of Americans who were killed running away from lifelong bondage. The Underground Railroad highlights runaway slave successes, but what about all those who were killed while fleeing, or tortured to death when recaptured? Has our nation not forgotten the runaways who died for freedom? Is there even one monument to them anywhere in our country?

And what about all the heroic Americans who dared to stand up to Jim Crow? Think of the courage it took to cross the racial line in the South before the 1960's. From the 1880's to the 1950's, more than four thousand Americans died for freedom as they stood up for their rights and were lynched by their fellow Americans. Surely those brave souls shouldn't be forgotten.

Many made the ultimate sacrifice in the Civil Rights movement--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, some of the freedom riders, even children in churches. Their sacrifices probably brought even more freedom to America than all of our modern wars.

And of course there is John Brown who unfortunately is portrayed by many history writers to have been a "mad" man. He had spent his life attempting to help liberate the three million Americans who were being held in life long bondage. After years of struggle he gave up on peaceful methods, and like President Bush, decided to use violence as a tool of liberation. He and a small group of both black and white followers attacked an arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Virginia hoping to create an armed resistance to slavery. His attempt failed and he was hanged. Lydia Marie Child, an abolitionist and womens rights activist of the times, said: "John Brown is a hero; he has done a noble deed. I am an Abolitionist. I have been so for thirty years. I think slavery is a sin, and John Brown a saint."

Also, thousands of American Indians fought and died bravely for freedom over a period of several hundred years. Their courageous efforts to obtain freedom for their families and tribes should be remembered.

I am proud to be an American. I want to remember those who have died for freedom, not only on foreign soil; but also those who died for "liberty and justice for all" right here in the USA.