re: #133 MurphyB

“What’s the difference between not honoring a right and taking it away to the slave or the woman?”

It means that you can mistreat me, abuse me, do all sorts of horrible things to me but you cannot remove my rights from me. They were placed in me by God. You can dishonor my rights you cannot take them. I can justly fight back and defeat you if I possessed the power and strength.

In the time of Kings, they were seen to have divine rights and their subject were possessions or chattel with no rights. The founders changed all that.

I’ve got news for you. Many Americans did not see slaves as possessing inalienable rights. Indeed, many saw slavery as a positive good for an inferior race that could justly be deprived of any rights. That attitude was not placed on the path to extinction until the Union enacted the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments after crushing the armies that attempted to defend slavery during the Civil War.