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If you feel that the ideals of the document outweigh the argument that it still allowed black people to stay in chains, and that it lead to the creation of the greatest nation the world has ever seen, go for it. I 100% agree with you.
HOWEVER, that does not change the fact that black people would have to wait another 100 years to be free. Calling me or my post idotic when my post is nothing but factual simply shows that you cannot carry on a civilized conversation.
Feeling the need to state an obvious fact is idiotic.
They actually came to blows at the convention over the issue, which, at the time, was worldwide. It's the current look back judgement that's ridiculous.
In 200 years, people will look at those who drove gas powered vehicles in 2016 and be aghast. There were alternatives... FACT is it's cheaper today.
The representative made a perfectly reasonable argument. The bill she was responding to proposed that all school children recite a part of the Declaration ("all men are created equally") every day. She accurately pointed out that the Declaration did not mean that literally, as African-Americans were excluded. Roger Taney made this point in the Dred Scott decision. The Declaration was written by a slave owner with over a hundred slaves at the time. It took a war followed by a hundred years of legal discrimination for the "all men are created equally" thing to apply universally to black people in America, and she was entirely justified in pointing that out.
She did not say the Declaration was racist, she was responding to the hypocrisy of the bill for a large part of her constituency. Only a revisionist who wants to whitewash history would fail to see that.
The document was good, the people who didn't fight for it weren't so good. You have to fight for your freedoms, government tries to take them away. How many examples do we need before it sinks in?
That is what should be taught.
Like this:
"The British actively recruited slaves belonging to Patriot masters and, consequently, more blacks fought for the Crown."
"Had George Washington been less ambivalent, more blacks might have participated on the Patriot side than with the Loyalists. When he took command of the Continental Army in 1775, Washington barred the further recruitment of black soldiers, despite the fact that they had fought side by side with their white counterparts at the battles of Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill."
Now we are getting at the crux of slavery: expense.
Most plantations used indentured servants but their genetics led to short life span. Cost vs benefit. Ultimately, and why the south vs the north, turned to the African slave trade was climatic.
Race wasn't the issue. Africans and Arabs controlled the slave trade from the seller side. The slave issue on this side of the world was genetic.
Now we are getting at the crux of slavery: expense.
Most plantations used indentured servants but their genetics led to short life span. Cost vs benefit. Ultimately, and why the south vs the north, turned to the African slave trade was climatic.
Race wasn't the issue. Africans and Arabs controlled the slave trade from the seller side. The slave issue on this side of the world was genetic.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
How is a slave owner able to pen these words in good conscience?
The answer is racism. Some men are not truly men. They are inferior beings that must be "protected". They must have their basic needs provided for. Of course in order to be able to do that they must be made to work.
Women didn't get the vote until 1920. Is the DOI sexist, too?
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