“Bottom line: in the years between 1776 and 1787 slave ownership fell 2/3 among Northern delegates and 16% among Southern delegates, about 30% overall. So, you simply cannot dispute the fact that our Founders opposed slavery in theory in 1776 and by 1787 had begun putting their anti-slavery theory into practice, even in the South. That is a far cry from Fire Eater attitudes in 1860.”
So much for the vaunted 1832 demarcation.
Regardless, there does seem to be in Puritan minds two epochs: the golden era of slavery when northern and southern gentlemen talked the pious precept, and manageable narrative, of universal equality for slaves and the merciless Indian savages while engaged in the noble use of labor bound to service to grow food and fiber - and later the bad epoch when southerners used labor bound to service to grow food and fiber.
TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS!, the man said.
jeffersondem:
"So much for the vaunted 1832 demarcation." Noooo… 1787 "demarcates" the time when most Northerners began opposing slavery in practice as well as theory.
1832 "demarcates" the time when most Southerners abandoned their pretenses of opposing slavery, even in theory.
jeffersondem: "Regardless, there does seem to be in Puritan minds two epochs: the golden era of slavery when northern and southern gentlemen talked the pious precept..."
The "pius precept" as expressed by Thomas Jefferson that, "all men are created equal."
jeffersondem: "...and later the bad epoch when southerners used labor bound to service to grow food and fiber.
TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS!, the man said."
Before 1832 Southern leaders like Thomas Jefferson not only preached equality but practiced it politically, in the form of restrictions on the slave trade and abolition in Northwest Territories.
In 1832 the Richmond Enquirer called slavery,
"the greatest evil, which can scourge our land"
After 1832 Southerners dropped their pretenses of opposing slavery and by 1856 that same
Richmond Enquirer was singing:
"Democratic liberty exists solely because we have slaves . . . freedom is not possible without slavery"
TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS!, the man said. ![]()