Question Home

Position:Home>History> Do you find it hard to look up to americas founding father when you know most of


Question: Do you find it hard to look up to americas founding father when you know most of them had slaves!?
I do, I like to tell myself it was politics and the soulth would have never signed the declaration if the northern founding fathers didn't have slaves!. But thats probably not true!. The man that wrote all men are created equal had slaves what heck is up with that!? What do you think!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
no!.!.!. it was the times!.!.!.!.!. look to the bible and the 'founding fathers' there!.!.!. they , too, had slaves!.!.!.!. of conquered tribes!.!.!.!. can we fault them, too!?!.!.!.!.look to the tribes of people who BECAME slaves!.!.!. they conquered and made slaves of other tribes, as well!.!.!.!.!. just because WE have seen the light of freedom , it's not how things have been in the past!.!.!. not their faults or ours!.!.!. let it go!.!.!.!. it's NOW that matters!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

They were living in different circumstances!. We don't have the luxury to judge their way of lives or any historical figure's life with our contemporary standards!. It would be absurd and futile!.
We should bear in mind that slavery was introduced in America nearly two centuries before the Founding Fathers!. Majority of them were opposed to slavery!. In the years following America's separation from the Great Britain, many of the Fathers freed their slaves!. Like George Washington!. John Adams opposed slavery his entire life!. Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush founded the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery in 1774!.

"The inconsistency of the institution of slavery with the principles of the Declaration of Independence was seen and lamented," John Quincy Adams readily admitted in 1837!. Nevertheless, he argued:

"no charge of insincerity or hypocrisy can be fairly laid to their charge!. Never from their lips was heard one syllable of attempt to justify the institution of slavery!. They universally considered it as a reproach fastened upon them by the unnatural step-mother country and they saw that before the principles of the Declaration of Independence slavery, in common with every mode of oppression, was destined sooner or later to be banished from the earth!."Www@QuestionHome@Com

We must still give them credit for the foresight that they did have and for the creation of the U!.S!. To have slaves or to believe in slavery was the way of the world then!. That still does not make it right, but the documents, writings, and thoughts that came from the founding fathers are still alive and well today!.!.!.so they must have had strong and far reaching ideas, even if some were still in theory only!. They gave us the ideals that you and I now posses!. Do not feel guilty for the past actions of others that you had no dealings with, instead be active to change the world you live in today with the ideas of the founding fathers!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

what the hell are you talking about,man!!!!!!!!Www@QuestionHome@Com