i don't think it's weird at all? the founders -- even the ones who owned slaves -- were all very uncomfortable w/slavery, but they convinced themselves that it would "wither away" naturally if the slave trade were banned so they wouldn't actually have to abolish ithttps://twitter.com/HeerJeet/status/1467597465792745483 …
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it's only when it's very clear that slavery turns out to be economically self-sustaining that you start getting respectable and semi-respectable people making positive defenses of it that culminates in the civil war
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Josh Fruhlinger Retweeted
"uncomfortable" in the sense that you won't find the "intellecutals" of the founding generation -- jefferson, madison, etc. -- going to bat for slavery as something good in and of itself. obviously they were comfortable enough to keep owning people https://twitter.com/Chakraborty_UNC/status/1467599485094277121 …
Josh Fruhlinger added,
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the founders had this whole ideal of a nation of yeoman farmers encapsulating republican ideals, and obviously living like an ancient despot surrounded by slaves didn't fit that model. their discomfort was mostly that slavery was morally and politically degrading to white pople
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but starting in the 1830s, you DO start to get people saying "yes, slavery is good, actually, it's going to last forever and we're going to keep doing it." that's an important shift! almost like intellectual trends often follow economic interests but who am i to say
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What I would add though is they were even more uncomfortable with the idea of a multi-racial democracy. That's very clear in Jefferson.
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