RE: Thomas Jefferson
February 29, 2016 at 12:27 am
(This post was last modified: February 29, 2016 at 12:30 am by TheRocketSurgeon.)
That might be a bit of a stretch, regarding Jefferson and Washington... given that they were wealthy (at least for part of their lives) plantation owners in Virginia, both of them held radical views for their time, despite also holding slaves. Washington wrote extensively on the problems, both personal and economic, of maintaining the slavery system; he simply didn't see a way they could compensate people who'd invested large amounts of capital in their chattel-workers, in such a way that they could free the slaves without crashing the economy. However, Washington also lamented that the system did not allow flexibility-- you could not move individual workers around (or sell them) without breaking up families, to the moral detriment of the owner as well as to the morale blow it dealt to the workers, meaning you could not switch to a new crop easily (say, following land exhaustion or blight) because your workers only knew how to grow the previous one, and you couldn't just hire new wage-workers who knew the task for which they were being hired.
Jefferson, according to monticello.org, was quite racist (he believed that racial separation was necessary and that peaceful coexistence was impossible, and referred to the African race as "children"), but he was also fiercely opposed to the practice of slavery:
Throughout his entire life, Thomas Jefferson was a consistent opponent of slavery. Calling it a “moral depravity” and a “hideous blot,” he believed that slavery presented the greatest threat to the survival of the new American nation. Jefferson also thought that slavery was contrary to the laws of nature, which decreed that everyone had a right to personal liberty. [...]
At the time of the American Revolution, Jefferson was actively involved in legislation that he hoped would result in slavery’s abolition. In 1778, he drafted a Virginia law that prohibited the importation of enslaved Africans. In 1784, he proposed an ordinance that would ban slavery in the Northwest territories. But Jefferson always maintained that the decision to emancipate slaves would have to be part of a democratic process; abolition would be stymied until slaveowners consented to free their human property together in a large-scale act of emancipation. To Jefferson, it was anti-democratic and contrary to the principles of the American Revolution for the federal government to enact abolition or for only a few planters to free their slaves.
[Internal citations omitted.] Reference: https://www.monticello.org/site/plantati...nd-slavery
There is no possible way you can justify the statement, "They fought a war to ensure slavery in America."
Jefferson, according to monticello.org, was quite racist (he believed that racial separation was necessary and that peaceful coexistence was impossible, and referred to the African race as "children"), but he was also fiercely opposed to the practice of slavery:
Throughout his entire life, Thomas Jefferson was a consistent opponent of slavery. Calling it a “moral depravity” and a “hideous blot,” he believed that slavery presented the greatest threat to the survival of the new American nation. Jefferson also thought that slavery was contrary to the laws of nature, which decreed that everyone had a right to personal liberty. [...]
At the time of the American Revolution, Jefferson was actively involved in legislation that he hoped would result in slavery’s abolition. In 1778, he drafted a Virginia law that prohibited the importation of enslaved Africans. In 1784, he proposed an ordinance that would ban slavery in the Northwest territories. But Jefferson always maintained that the decision to emancipate slaves would have to be part of a democratic process; abolition would be stymied until slaveowners consented to free their human property together in a large-scale act of emancipation. To Jefferson, it was anti-democratic and contrary to the principles of the American Revolution for the federal government to enact abolition or for only a few planters to free their slaves.
[Internal citations omitted.] Reference: https://www.monticello.org/site/plantati...nd-slavery
There is no possible way you can justify the statement, "They fought a war to ensure slavery in America."
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
