America Didn’t “End” Slavery After the Civil War -- We Simply
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One of the most enduring myths we love here in America is that
we ended our involvement with slavery after the Civil War. While
our Founders – people like Thomas Jefferson, who wrote “all men
are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence but owned
slaves himself – were tarnished, morally imperfect hypocrites,
in our modern era, we tell ourselves, we’ve risen above that. We
are pure! We’re no longer tainted by slavery! If only it were
true. The recent fires that killed 112 workers in Bangladeshi
sweat shops making garments for Wal-Mart and other American
retailers show how we, today, are frankly more hypocritical and
dishonest about slavery than was Jefferson himself. As are those
Libertarians who argue that the Bangladeshis were “willing
workers,” when poverty is so severe in that country that
working, chained into a firetrap factory, is essential to
survival itself. To call t