Since the discussion has once again turned to slavery and emancipation in the USA, I have a question for those resident scholars who are conversant with the published and unpublished documents on the subject:

Has anyone read _Slave Nation  How Slavery United the Colonies & Sparked the American Revolution_?  What are your comments on this book by Alfred W. Blumrosen & Ruth G. Blumrosen?

As to the "evil" at the core of Virginia--- I would respond that slavery was the entire nation's problem-burden-moral morass, not just Virginia's or the South's.  Too little focus is given to the motivations and 'enabling' activities-behaviors of Northern colonies-states in maintaining the peculiar institution.

Maybe I did not learn the names of large scale Southern emancipators in school, but I was taught that there was controversy over slavery in the discussion and writing and passing of the Declaration and the Constitution, that the country would most likely not have become 'united' without the legality of slavery in the Constitution, that there were emancipations by slave-owners through the years, that many non-slave owners because of their beliefs moved west or northwest to leave the slave-holding areas, and that a balance of power between regions was necessary to hold our government intact.  

I look forward to your comments.

Joan Logan Brooks
a Southside Virginian through 11 proven generations

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