Posted on 05/01/2016 7:27:57 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Link to April thread.
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My Chandler forebears were in Fort Scott during this time period. Within the next year or so, four adult family members would be dead. I still don’t know how they died, but hope to trace it down at some point. It was a very violent place during this time period, but the whole territory was at times also swept by epidemics.
https://www.nps.gov/resources/story.htm?id=193
In preparation of our “We The People” national competition, I read “Arguing About Slavery” by William Lee Miller, “Who Freed the Slaves” by Leonard Richards and “Lincoln and the 13th Amendment” by Christian Samito. I learned a whole lot more about the political dimensions of the abolition movement than I ever knew. We had an Emancipation Proclamation/13th Amendment question, so it was sort of important to catch up on this.
“In preparation of our ‘We The People’ national competition...”
What did I miss?
Lawrence, Kansas was sacked on May 21, 1856.
Here’s a little information I’ve found on it.
Way to go, Fishers!
The Chicopee, Mass. Weekly Journal
May 3, 1856
To the People of Massachusetts – 2
Political – 2
Massacre of Americans at Panama – 2
Chicopee News – 2
Whaddya know, Denver East also placed.
It’s interesting how fast the country went from shall we allow slavery in the territories to shall we abolish it altogether?
Oh yes, very live. Each unit presents a four-minute paper, then is questioned for six minutes by a panel of judges in rounds one and two. For nationals, the judges include college history professors, law school professors and state supreme court justices. If you make the Top 10, round three, the final day of hearings, is ten minutes of follow up and the hearings are conducted in the Congressional hearing rooms in the Rayburn office building across from the U. S. Capitol.
It’s a pretty cool experience for the kids. And for the adult coaches, too.
That does sound really cool. It certainly is an area that needs more teaching in the schools.
Every high school student should have some level of this program. The four kids I coached want to major in military science, chemical engineering, pharmacology and genetics. No lawyers. But you should have heard them quote de Toqueville, Federalist 78 and Chevron Deference when they delivered their paper on judicial review.
Having read “Arguing About Slavery,” which discussed John Quincy Adams’ fight against the “gag rule,” I have come to appreciate just how corrosive the “peculiar institution” was to our nation. The slave owners in the deep south, and the slave traders, all knew at some level that slavery was morally indefensible. But they made too much money from it. So they had to silence any voice of opposition to it. Even to raise the question. I believe it was part of a process of denial.
The other argument I have seen a lot is that Lincoln and the dastardly Republicans want to deprive the slavers of their "property," which is a gross violation of their constitutional rights.
I have read a couple of attempts to construct a Bible based argument for slavery, but its just a mishmash that makes no sense at all.
I agree, the entire system had to corrode the values of that society.
Least we somehow imagine that was a bygone era with no relevance for us today, let us remember these Southerners were just Democrats doing what Democrats naturally do: imposing their version of political correctness and restricting abolitionists' "hate speech" against slavery within the "safe zone" of the US Congress.
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It is sometimes alleged the Bible condones slavery, but that is a misreading.
In fact, the Bible adamantly opposes slavery for God's people, meaning in the Old Testament, the Jews.
Exodus tells us of God's freeing all Jews from slavery, and Jeremiah 34 tells us that Jews keeping Jewish slaves was the reason God destroyed the Kingdom of Judah (586 BC).
Non-Jewish slaves were to be treated justly.
Non-Jewish fugitives from slavery were to be protected, not returned.
In the New Testament Paul treats the word "slave" metaphorically, speaking of "slaves to sin", "slaves to righteousness" and "slaves to God".
Speaking more practically he says, if you are a slave, be a good slave and if a master, then treat your slave as a member of your own family.
But God is all about freeing His people from human slavery.
We see it in Exodus, in Old Testament laws and in the destruction of Judah.
The New Testament tells us that Christians are also His people, and so we can say they must not be held as, or hold other Christians as, slaves; certainly not as permanent, inheritable slaves, i.e., "property".
Yes, Bible based arguments can be made for temporary debt-slaves or indentured servants (basically contracts to pay off debts) but not for holding captive Africans as "property", especially after they converted to Christianity and so became, also, God's people.
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