I don’t really think the percentage is that important. The important part is it was allowed. The country went through all the trouble of making a foundational document that said all men are created equal, and then said “except in some states, where you can be property”.
The country went through all the trouble of making a foundational document that said all men are created equal, and then said “except in some states, where you can be property”.
At the time the Constitution of the United States was ratified and became our instrument of Government, slavery was legal in all 13 states.
Yes it was allowed but from the start slavery was never universally popular. Most of Americas first 90 years was spent limiting slavery. American Quakers provided the religious under pinning for Wilberforce’s fight against slavery in England.. The Anti slavery movement culminated in the civil war.
The country went through all the trouble of making a foundational document that said all men are created equal, and then said “except in some states, where you can be property”.
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Just yesterday I was telling my daughter about this - that many of the states wanted to get rid of slavery from the very beginning. But then the southern states wouldn’t have joined the nation. So they made compromises.
I know a lawyer that was involved in a huge corporate lawsuit. When he got home after the months-long meetings in D.C. and a solution had been worked out he said “Oh, it was okay I guess. We both agreed on the compromise that was arrived at. But, I don’t know, it seems like such a ....
compromise.”