On reading some of the WPA narratives of former slaves who recalled their enslaved lives fondly, I thought of the people in the Soviet Union who, after its break-up and the end of the communist regime, were devastated and wanted to go back to the way things had been.  It was difficult for some of them to know how to live within the new "freedom."  Surely, it would be hard to adjust to being responsible for everything after living your entire life as the property/ward of the master/state.  If your master had not been cruel, it may not have seemed so bad when you looked back with the perspective of trying to make it in a difficult, racist world. 

--
Melinda C. P. Skinner
Richmond, VA


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Henry Wiencek <[log in to unmask]>
> Kevin, thank you for your reply. For me, George Washington remains the
> exemplar, the maximum leader. The more you study him, in almost any aspect,
> the more you have to admire him. In researching Washington as an
> emancipator, I was astonished to find how deeply biographers and historians
> had buried that aspect of his life and career. It just didn't fit with the
> received wisdom that slavery was "just the accepted system," unchallenged, a
> venerable practice enshrined in law, sanctioned by the Bible, and carried
> out as much as possible on a humane basis. Washington's views and actions
> don't fit that grid at all--"they don't compute." We like to think that
> "they didn't know any better; we can't judge them." But if you look at what
> Washington did and contended against, you find that he was not fighting
> against ignorance and indifference, but against profit. The modern analogy I
> use is: getting Thomas Jefferson to give up slavery is like getting Dick
> Cheney to quit pumping oil.
> 
> Henry Wiencek