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To: x; BroJoeK; rockrr; HandyDandy; DiogenesLamp

“Your argument is pretty bizarre. You’re saying, if I understand you, that Jefferson would have referred to Tory activities as “treasonable insurrections,” rather than “domestic insurrections.”

Let’s cut out the middle man and let you read the words Jefferson recommended to Congress in his early draft:

“He has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture & confiscation of property.”

Now, you tell me: did Jefferson recommend the words “treasonable insurrections” or not?

And if he did recommend the term “treasonable insurrections”, was his reference to “fellow citizens” pointed at the merciless Indian savages, slaves, or loyalists?”


458 posted on 12/12/2017 6:17:55 PM PST by jeffersondem
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To: jeffersondem; BroJoeK; rockrr
Now, you tell me: did Jefferson recommend the words “treasonable insurrections” or not?

In that one deleted case, yes, but it wasn't like he would always call Tory actions "treasonable insurrections" and not "domestic insurrections." It wasn't like he would always use the phrase "domestic insurrections" only to refer to slave revolts.

I don’t understand how acknowledging the differences supports your claim that “you only see what you thing supports your own case.(sic)”

Sic you, sic boy. You said the article I cited supports your point of view. It doesn't. The author literally said that the phrase in the declaration didn't just refer to slave rebellions but also to Tory activities, and you missed that, thinking that his article supported your own opinion. You read enough to confirm your own prejudices and then stopped. You're right that Garry Wills disagrees with your point of view, but I never thought much of his books on earlier US history (though some of his others may have value).

I have to wonder why you keep banging on and on about this one point. Some New Englanders owned slaves, but most of the farmers fighting outside Boston didn't own slaves. Nor did the Continental troops fighting around New York and later Philadelphia. I don't see any evidence that wealthy Northerners were terrified that the British were going to take their slaves away. And at this early stage of the war, Carolinians were more frightened of Tory bands, than of slave uprisings. That would change as the war went on, but the idea that there was widespread fear of British-inspired slave revolts may be more a product of modern left-wing cherry picking, than an accurate reflection of the public mood in 1776.

460 posted on 12/13/2017 2:23:14 PM PST by x
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