On Jun 12, 2007, at 12:15 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Much more difficult is to ask ourselves, "what would have to be true 
> about the society in which I live, that *I* might behave as Patrick 
> Henry behaved?"  What has to be so, about the world in which I live, 
> that *I* might be complicit in evil?  Acknowledging evil, and then 
> failing to confront it, is a rather human thing to do.  The harder 
> task in front of us, it seems to me, is to understand the 
> humanity--the essential "like me-ness"--of men like Rutledge, or 
> Pinckney.  And, in as much as *those* men were far more typical of the 
> enfranchised men of the south who exercised citizenship in the period, 
> in understanding the Rutledges and Pinckneys, we come close to 
> understanding the society in which most slaves lived their lives.

This is an extremely important and penetrating insight, I think, and 
goes to the heart of whether and how the study of history can be truly 
valuable.  Thanks, Kevin.

--Jurretta Heckscher