[Vermont Lt]

I guess I went to a different school. We learned about the history of slavery back in the 1960s.

Honestly, I don’t know why we keep beating these dead horses. The only good answers are: Slavery is and was bad. We stopped it, at a significant cost to our country. It’s been 160 years and it’s time we focused on getting everyone moving forward.

A lot of these “facts” sound like excuses. There are no excuses to be made.

[TexasFreeper2009]

except for the fact, that without slavery there would of been no economic incentive to keep defeated tribe members alive. So every descendant of slaves today owes their entire family lines life to the practice. Now they just slaughter them, is that really better?

[bobrlbob]

Slavery is still a problem.

[bobrlbob]

Slavery is still a problem.

[enumerated]

That’s easy for you to say if you identify with the North and have no problem with the way history has portrayed the American South.

Some of us do have a problem with it, and welcome an essay that exposes many of the worst stereotypes. Slavery is an abomination and there’s no excusing it - but why not have an honest history? Why not put America’s role in it in its proper perspective?

And why put the word “facts” in quotes? If you doubt something he says is true, why not challenge it directly?

[dfwgator]

Or as I say, “I never owned any slaves, and you never picked any cotton.”

[PeaRidge]

The institution of slavery was brought to the shores of the Colonies by Europeans; it was first legalized in the New England states; it was supported by the US Congress; the Southern states engaged in only a minor role of participation in the slave trade; in large part because of favorable living conditions-food and work, and freedom from disease-the population of Negroes in the South grew more rapidly than in other areas.

By 1860, one quarter of the population of slaves in the South had risen to skilled-professional positions, and most were prospering. Slavery did limit opportunities for jobs, education, and travel, but it was not the system of total injustice, hangings, and frequent beatings depicted by some.

In direct opposition to his modern reputation, at the time President Lincoln took office in 1861, he endorsed legalized slavery.