| анон-анон пишет: |
| Вообще наоборот, сколько я помню, все основные документы составили северяне, которые были против рабства, но они выиграли в гражданском конфликте у южан, которые были рабовладельцами |
Это сказка, в которую американцы верили много лет, да и сейчас очень многие верят.
Though the Declaration of Independence states all men are created equal, one-fifth of the population were enslaved people, and one-third of the Declaration’s signers were personally enslavers. The final document does not mention slavery and, through its silence, condones enslavement, but the first draft includes a condemnation of slavery. These words, removed before it was finalized, underscored the contradiction between the founding fathers’ beliefs and actions.
Perhaps the most scrutinized of the Founding Fathers with respect to slavery was Thomas Jefferson. The same man who wrote the very words “all men are created equal,” in the Declaration of Independence owned hundreds of slaves all his life. He also may have fathered children with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. Despite this, he still wrote how he believed slavery to be a political and moral evil and how he wished to have the institution abolished. Jefferson felt powerless to change the situation and summed it up near the end of his life as “we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.” Despite his wish to end slavery, Jefferson never personally freed his slaves. When he died in 1826, his estate was in so much debt that his slaves were sold off to the highest bidder.
