Basil--
I am not suggesting that slavery is wrong because "everyone
knows it wrong." Nor am I suggesting that slavery is wrong
only by "today's standards."
Rather, I am suggesting that slavery is wrong because it
violates the most fundamental values on which our country
was founded. The founders recognized this at the time, but
believed that slavery was a "necessary evil." Thinkers like
John C. Calhoun, and in Virginia Thornton Stringfellow,
transformed the argument in the 1830s to argue that slavery
was a "positive good." The "positive good" argument was
explicitly racist and self-serving. It was also an
important source of southern paternalism.
The existence of slavery elsewhere in the world is
irrelevant to the argument I am advancing. Likewise, the
fact that the slaves who wound up in America were captured
and sold into slavery by other African peoples is
irrelevant. What matters is that our nation is founded on a
set of ideals, and that slavery violated those ideals.
Our nation is not held together by bonds of religion,
ethnicity, or tribalism. What holds us together as a people
is our commitment to the values and aspirations established
in the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of
Confederation, the North West Ordinances, and the
Constitution of the United States. If you open the volumes
of the US Code, you will find these four documents preceding
the law, under the heading "Organic Laws of the United
States of America." Slavery is evil because it contradicts
the values of our founding.
To say this is not to say that slavery is wrong for other
reasons. Slavery is an abomination for a host of reasons.
But it is to say that anyone who is committed to the
fundamental values of the United States is, and was, deeply
wrong to condone or apologize for slavery.
All best,
Kevin
---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 14:10:16 EST
>From: Basil Forest <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Slave Narrative for WPA Project
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>I don't think anyone has suggested that Black slavery in
the South was an
>acceptable institution by today's standards. Clearly, it
is not, at least in
>this country, although it still does exist in Africa and
portions of the
>Islamic world. However, I also have never supported
the "everyone knows" school
>of history which takes as Gospel whatever the majority, and
usually most
>vocal, historians believe to be true. Historical "truth"
should always be
>reexamined and tested based on the most current evidence.
There is clearly first
>hand evidence in these interviews that at least some of the
former Black slaves
>preferred their pre-war conditions to those they lived in
after the war, for
>whatever reason. I find it interesting that in spite of
their 'testimony"
>that this was the case many want to deny it for some
reason, or find a reason
>to discredit their perspectives in order to make them seem
illegitimate. I
>find this very presumptuous, and demeaning of these brave
people who lived
>through the slavery period and knew what they were talking
about.....unlike
>anyone in this forum. I, for one, take people at their
word unless there is
>verifiable evidence to the contrary. I don't see that
here. If you read these
>narratives you will see that when the interviewee decided
it was time for the
>interviewer to leave, they typically told them so and that
was the end of the
>interview. No one was holding a gun to their head as far
as I can tell.
>
>So, I take it that only one person in the forum actually
teaches that there
>may be another side to the treatment of American slaves in
the South?
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Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University
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