Proud Pa wrote: The point is the same. Yes, some folks were
beginning to question it, mostly in Europe and New England, but
the overwhelming majority of Americans, Northern and Southern,
viewed blacks as inferior beings and viewed slavery as little
more than a necessary evil, and were perfectly content to let it
exist in the South until it threatened to hinder the advancement
of white settlers looking to head west. Even the most die-hard
abolitionists didn't think blacks should be treated as equals.
"when was it ever known that liberation from bondage was
accompanied by recognition of political equality?" -William
Lloyd Garrison The issue of slavery in this country, of course,
is long, complicated, embarrassing, hypocritical and involved.
It's also difficult to remove a 19th century viewpoint and
criticize it in the 21st century. We are still dealing with with
issues of race to this day. Being imperfect humans, I suspect
most likely we always will. We can see now that Garrison was
clearly (and ironically) wro