re: #152 sliv_the_eli

There were those among the founders of this nation who did not personally profit from slavery, did not own slaves and were not in favor of slavery, but who, faced with the choice of insisting on the abolition of slavery and having the new country torn apart or continuing the practice of slavery in an agrarian south that was dependent on slave labor, made a Faustian bargain and begat an imperfect nation that was not true to its founding ideals.

They can be criticized for their choice, but to paint them all as having been motivated by personal greed and/or racism in the matter is somewhat of an oversimplification.

Of course, they weren’t all slaveholders…I spoke way too broadly. But the barb from Rock was directed at the ones who were and the others who acquiesced to slavery.