On The Black Top: The Founding Fathers Views on Slavery
Carl Mack: from facebook
Before I get started class, just a something to make you go hmmmmmm. Did you know that 12 U.S. Presidents were slave owners & 8 of them owned slaves while serving? Hmmmm my azz, SHYT!!! WTF!!! Now for today’s lesson.
The founding principles of our new Nation was founded upon the concept of freedom, inalienable rights, equality and a g…overnment of the people. Given the ill-fated turn away from these principles, I’ve often wondered, what were the thoughts of the Founding Fathers on the peculiar institution, slavery. Did they participate in slavery? Were they pro-slavery or anti-slavery?
Ironically, some of the most interesting insight came from a known racist name Alexander Stephens, the Vice-President of The Confederacy. His thoughts were expressed in a speech we will visit later entitled, The Cornerstone Speech, where he said: “…The prevailing ideas entertained by him (Thomas Jefferson) and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away….”
So even to this known HATER of Blacks, a man who strongly believed in slavery, he makes some interesting assertions. He says the Founding Fathers knew slavery was wrong, it was an “evil they knew not well how to deal with”. Let’s take a look at some of their views.
Thomas Jefferson a Slave Owner:
“My doubts (about Blacks) were the results of personal observation on the limited sphere of my
own State, where the opportunities for the development of their genius were not
favorable, and those of exercising it still less so. I expressed them, therefore, with
great hesitation; but, whatever be their degree of talent, it is no measure of their
rights.”
Here Jefferson talks about God’s wrath regarding slavery! he wrote, “…And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis,-a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?-that they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep for ever; that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events….”
John Adams NOT a Slave Owner
“I have, through my whole life, held the practice of slavery in such abhorrence, that I have never owned a negro or any other slave: though I have lived for many years in times when the practice was not disgraceful; when the best men in my vicinity though it not inconsistent with their character; and when it has
cost me thousands of dollars for the labor and subsistence of free men, which I might have saved by the purchase of negroes at times when they were very cheap.”
Ben Franklin a Slave Owner
“Attention to emancipate black people, it is therefore to be hoped, will become a branch of our national police; but, as far as we contribute to promote this emancipation, so far that attention is evidently a serious duty incumbent on us, and which we mean to discharge to the best of our judgment and abilities.”
John Jay a Slave Owner
“It is much to wished that slavery may be abolished. The honor of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.”
President George Washington a Slave Owner
“I hope it will not be conceived from these observations that it is my wish to hold the unhappy people, who are the subject of this letter, in slavery. I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see some plan adopted for the abolition of it: but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which this can be accomplished, and that is by legislative authority; and this, as far as my suffrage will go shall never be wanting.”
George Mason a Slave Owner
“Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. [Slaves] bring the judgment of heaven on a Country. As nations can not [sic] be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes & effects[,] providence punishes national sins, by national calamities.”
Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, 41 were slave owners. These men are praised for being insightful visionaries for our Nation. Literally, the framework they architected is still working, so we are dealing dummies. So how could they frame The Equality of Man; how could they speak with such a conviction against slavery, and own a MAN? Here comes that word again…HYPOCRISY!
I know this is crazy, but what we must understand and take away from this knowledge is this: As hypocritical as this Nation has been, our Ancestor fought and died to make those FOUNDING PRINCIPLES apply to ALL. I agree, America ain’t as STRAIGHT as we want her to be, BUT BECA– USE of our collective historical battles for JUSTICE, OUR Nation ain’t as TWISTED as she use to be either! Our HEROS & SHEROS didn’t have a tenth of what we got today, and yet, they did an incredible job of bringing us through a stormy past. So I’ll be damned if I give up now on OUR Nation. Trust me, knowledge of our experience has shifted my mindset from acting like a Visitor to acting like a OWNER!
In the lovable words of Homer Hodge: “Tell it like it I-T is!”