kimilseung

In the US Constitution, slaves counted as 3/5ths of a person.
This was a compromise agreement, The North didn't want slaves counted at all, the South wanted everyone counted, slave or not. The issue was over seats in the House of Representatives.

"All men are created equal" words from the Declaration of Independance,, attributed to Jefferson, he owned lots of slaves, so I doubt it had anything to do with any anti-slavery positions.

dave_j

A consumate politician then, one who defines his own words to suit himself. 'ALL' don't mean all when 'MEN' don't mean men. Likewise 'EQUAL' don't mean equal when 'black equality' ain't the same as 'white equality', but of course he don't mention that cos the words on their ownsome sound nice and that makes him look good.

What a slimey s**t, and they all fell for it, just as well.

kimilseung

I recently read the book "Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates" by Brian Kilmeade, a Fox news host. It concerns the war between the US and Tripoli, who were capturing and slaving the crews of US shipping. This around 1800-1812, partly under the Jefferson presidency. On this slavery the author comments, "humiliating - especially for men and women from a country established upon the idea of personal liberty", this at a height of Southern slavery. The books intention is to portray Jefferson as a liberator of slaves, a vanquisher of slavers. Only once does the book mention slavery in the US, and that is just in passing, one of Washington's slaves washes the clothes of his child's teacher.
There is absolutely no sense of irony nor even apparent awareness of the absurdity of the books position. There is no more acknowledgment of American slavery being a blight on freedom today than there was 250 years ago among vast swathes of the US population.

dave_j

How true. Slavery is alive and well in many societies. At least in the US in Jefferson's day we can recognise it as such, today we are chained by the mortgage, by the credit card and the need to provide for our families. We are bound in slavery to whatever financial house that owns our debt. Are we any better off by thinking ourselves free?

Ah what thought arise after a glass or two of wine.

Shard

Ah, ok.