On Sep 10, 11:57*am, Tim Daneliuk wrote:
Fred the Red Shirt wrote:



On Sep 10, 10:26 am, Tim Daneliuk wrote:
...

As a matter of law, you're absolutely right. *To remove the evil of slavery,
we had to sacrifice limited government, the rule of law, the Constitution,
and, arguably, our future. *Perhaps this is our divine punishment for
ever trading in humans.

Slavery has been aptly referred to as the original sin of the
United States.

...

Well, in a sense I agree. *But let's not forget that the US - indeed
all the Western powers of that day - hardly invented slavery. *More to
the point, the slaves they bought were enslaved by, um, *Africans*.
Further to the point, it was the West - animated by the Enlightenment
ideas and driven by *religious* conscience *that gave up slavery in
less than 3 centuries* whereas it has been going on for millenia before.

Slavery was not a single institution. There was a substantial
difference between the Roman concept of slavery which held
that one became a slave through the fortunes of war, and the
English view of genetic inferiority, that held that slaves were
property.

Through most of history a slave was a sort of second class
citizen.

Also you should be aware that several of the ostensibly Christian
Churches in the antebellum US split into separate abolitionist
and pro-slavery branches. Some ostensibly Christian churches
adopted the doctrine that Africans had no souls.

No one should form an attitude about 'Christianity' and slavery
without first reading what Frederick Douglass himself wrote
about it..

Immediately after the Revolutionary war several colonies
abolished slavery, others, like Virginia came close. So
slavery was not, by any means, a generally accepted
practice at the birth of the US.

--

FF