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? ><BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free >email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at >http://www.aol.com. > >To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions >at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D. Department of History James Madison University To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html