TIL: 1/4th of all US presidents were slaveowners
TIL: 1/4th of all US presidents were slaveowners
11 comments
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Grant's story on that is pretty interesting actually.
https://acwm.org/blog/myths-misunderstandings-grant-slaveholder/
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That was a really good article.
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Are we not counting trump's sex slaves? And why?
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The way things are going, that percentage is likely to go up.
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Are we not counting trump's under aged sex slaves? And why?
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11 comments
1/4 of Presidents lived in a time and society where owning slaves was accepted.
Not nearly the same degree as slavery, but I see a lot of reaction stuff to comedy and movies from the 70s and 80s and younger people are shocked at some things that were typical back then. Doesn't mean anyone is wrong either way, times just change. Obviously slavery is wrong, but the period of time always needs to be considered when making judgements. Would have any of those Presidents made it into office, or even been not run out of town if they had been full on abolitionists? It's a lot like our current time where we can't seem to have candidates that push for extreme changes because they wouldn't get support, even if it would help most of the voters.
Abolitionism is as old as (edit: chattel) slavery itself. They owned those slaves and inflicted unspeakable horrors on them despite no shortage of people telling them that's wrong; it's not like "black people are people too" was such a foreign thought to them.
Wikipedia disagrees with it being that old. It's a product of the Enlightenment but even then took time to grow into a large movement.