Also, the part where you refused point blank to condemn the transatlantic slave trade or support its violent overthrow, which makes your position as a moral authority deeply questionable in my opinion.
This is a stupid thing to say.
No, ^^that^^ is a stupid thing to say.
Undoubtedly there were those who were willing to accept as moral and just to treat certain peoples like trainable livestock with a bonus, never discussed in polite company, of being able to ‘breed’ the women at will and so ‘grow’ your holdings. Laws and religion worked together to normalize this and to see it as ‘God’s will.’ I understand and accept that there were those who did not question this system but accepted it as right.
But clearly, there were many even in the deep south and even in slave holding families who disagreed, who recognized the barbarity, the inhumanity, the absolute moral wrong. Some few slave holders freed their slaves upon their own death —which begs the question of why they waited until they could no longer benefit. Was it because they felt they could best protect the enslaved while living but had grave concerns about their fate after the ‘master’ died? Or because they could not figure out a way to maintain their wealth and free slaves?
There was a very concerted effort to keep people enslaved, culturally, legally, and using religion. It was forbidden for slaves to read or write but some learned anyway, sometimes with the help and encouragement t of the master or family. Sometimes it was done in secret. Some tried to be kind and allowed slaves to choose to marry and to earn their own money. But they were still slaves, still beholden to someone else’s goodwill and permission and confined to whatever rules were laid out. Punishment would mean beatings, being sold, being separated from family, even infant children. And of course this is a very dispassionate, sanitized version of a horrible, barbaric, unjustifiable, unjustifiable practice.
That some people of the day chose not to look too closely at what was happening is doubtless true. But it is beyond reprehensible for people today to look at such a systemic violation of human rights and all tenets of decent society as anything less that abhorrent and unforgivable.
I
