Sunday, June 11, 2006
Nineteenth century comparisons
"Team of Rivals; the political genius of Abraham Lincoln" is our book club selection for September, so I've been listening to it on CD while I walk. Right now (disc 2) the author is building the backgrounds of Salmon P. Chase, William H. Seward, and Edward Bates, all Lincoln's opponents in the 1860 election and all appointed to his cabinet.
Slavery was the devisive issue of that century up through the end of the Civil War (but it still haunts us today). As I was listening to the different points of view on slavery and its merits and evils I was struck by the similarities to the illegal immigrants issue. For instance, there were Christians who believed it was evil, but in the longer course would work for good if the slaves left their pagan ways and cultures. Even slavers believed they were rescuing them from a worse fate. Then there were those who favored gradual emancipation, so that some slaves became free over their life times--New York giving up slavery completely by the late 1820s by this method. Others thought it an economic necessity for some states, but didn't want to see it expand to the newer territories. Others could see no way the country could survive without the labor of slaves.
I'm sure someone more erudite and scholarly has already assembled these ideas with footnotes, but they are just my Sunday afternoon, after-the-walk thoughts.
Slavery was the devisive issue of that century up through the end of the Civil War (but it still haunts us today). As I was listening to the different points of view on slavery and its merits and evils I was struck by the similarities to the illegal immigrants issue. For instance, there were Christians who believed it was evil, but in the longer course would work for good if the slaves left their pagan ways and cultures. Even slavers believed they were rescuing them from a worse fate. Then there were those who favored gradual emancipation, so that some slaves became free over their life times--New York giving up slavery completely by the late 1820s by this method. Others thought it an economic necessity for some states, but didn't want to see it expand to the newer territories. Others could see no way the country could survive without the labor of slaves.
I'm sure someone more erudite and scholarly has already assembled these ideas with footnotes, but they are just my Sunday afternoon, after-the-walk thoughts.
# posted by Norma : 6/11/2006 03:54:00 PM
