Buttigieg: America's Founders didn't know slavery was bad

[JLW]

The founding fathers all knew that slavery was an abhorrent institution, kept it anyway then enshrined it in the Constitution that a slave was 3/5ths a human being. Only makes this all the more shameful IMHO. Obviously there was opposition, but to make the Union succeed they had to make concessions to the Slave Power, as the south would be known in the coming decades. The Country paid for this original sin in the Civil War.

The 3/5th clause was created to keep the south from gaining a greater representation in the house and to stop the expansion
of slavery in the west.

This is true. However, no matter the purpose behind the clause, which I can understand the logic why the northern states would seek to insert it, it still relegated slaves to less than a human being.

 

[basquebromance]

what the hell is Buttgeek doing?

Biden's the frontrunner, and he's in the mayor's centrist lane. Pete needs to hit Creepy Joe HARD!

HAAAAAAAAARD!

 

[bigrebnc1775]

The founding fathers all knew that slavery was an abhorrent institution, kept it anyway then enshrined it in the Constitution that a slave was 3/5ths a human being. Only makes this all the more shameful IMHO. Obviously there was opposition, but to make the Union succeed they had to make concessions to the Slave Power, as the south would be known in the coming decades. The Country paid for this original sin in the Civil War.

The 3/5th clause was created to keep the south from gaining a greater representation in the house and to stop the expansion
of slavery in the west.

This is true. However, no matter the purpose behind the clause, which I can understand the logic why the northern states would seek to insert it, it still relegated slaves to less than a human being.

It may by today's standards be dehumanize a human being but it prevented the south from expanding the slavery vote.

 

[ScorpioRising007]

I could see his statement generating a lot of controversy, but he’s right it sense that morality for the masses can evolve and devolve throughout the course of time. That’s why when you judge people in the past you have to be cognizant of what the standards were at the time and put that into context.

In a way I agree with that statement. During my grandma's generation it was perfectly acceptable to call blacks by the "N" word. My grandma said back then they used the word freely and didn't find it offensive back then. There also were things that were just a part of everyday life that no one thought she said back then as being wrong, such as blacks not being allowed to use the public swimming pool, or go in restaurant downtown, or be in a checkout line ahead of the whites.

It is like how today for many Americans it seems perfectly acceptable to treat minimum wage and low wage earners like shit to the point they can't even afford basic rent, health/ dental/ vision care and minimum living standards. This is what is acceptable in today's society but in the future after more socialism, lower cost housing being implemented, minimum wages being increased, medicare for all, and a universal basic income this standard will become the new standard low wage earners live by. Then people will look back 50 years from now and say what were we thinking treating low wage earners like shit back then and why was it so acceptable back then?

 

[2aguy]

One by one, the Democrat candidates reveal their undeniable stupidity.

Buttigieg: America's Founders didn't know slavery was bad - WND

Is he really that wrong?

While there might have been some that viewed it as bad, clearly the majority had no issues with it.

Nobody was forced to be a slave owner, they did it by choice.

Did the citizens of the southern states think it was bad when they went to war to protect the right to own slaves?

Even on this very forum we have people that argue the slaves were better off as slaves in America than as free people in Africa.

He is completely wrong...he doesn't know what he is talking about....

Pete Buttigieg's Comments on Slavery Show the Failure of Our Educational System

If Buttigieg had received anything resembling a decent education, he would have learned about a fellow named Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States. Jefferson was a slaveholder, and that is likely to be all that young Mayor Pete was taught about him. But reality is seldom simple and cut-and-dried. As president in 1807, Jefferson promoted the Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves, which outlawed the importation of slaves after January 1, 1808. Jefferson hoped that it would lead to the outlawing of slavery altogether, as he stated in his annual message to Congress on December 2, 1806: “I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country, have long been eager to proscribe.”

Hmm. That doesn’t sound as if Jefferson “did not understand that slavery was a bad thing.” But taking a strict constructionist view of Buttigieg’s statement, Jefferson was a key Founding Father, but he was not a primary architect of the Constitution. The “Father of the Constitution” was another dead white male Mayor Pete may or may not have heard of: James Madison, who earned that nickname by being the principal architect of both the Constitution as it was originally written and the Bill of Rights (that’s the first ten amendments to the Constitution, Pete). Madison (yes, another slave owner) supported the prohibition on the importation of slaves, but was impatient with the delay of getting it going.

“It were doubtless to be wished,” Madison wrote in 1788, “that the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves had not been postponed until the year 1808, or rather that it had been suffered to have immediate operation.” He explained that “it ought to be considered as a great point gained in favor of humanity, that a period of twenty years may terminate forever, within these States, a traffic which has so long and so loudly upbraided the barbarism of modern policy; that within that period, it will receive a considerable discouragement from the federal government, and may be totally abolished, by a concurrence of the few States which continue the unnatural traffic, in the prohibitory example which has been given by so great a majority of the Union. Happy would it be for the unfortunate Africans, if an equal prospect lay before them of being redeemed from the oppressions of their European brethren!”

Once again, this sounds as if James Madison understood perfectly well that slavery was a bad thing. To be sure, there were some among the Founding Fathers who didn’t understand that, and anti-slavery forces at the Constitutional Convention had to make the hard choice between accepting slavery, hoping to end it in the near future, and dividing the United Colonies into two or more states, which would weaken them all. They chose the former, but that doesn’t mean that Jefferson, Madison, and many others, notably the irascible and fantastic John Adams, didn’t understand the evil of slavery.

 

[2aguy]

One by one, the Democrat candidates reveal their undeniable stupidity.

Buttigieg: America's Founders didn't know slavery was bad - WND

Is he really that wrong?

While there might have been some that viewed it as bad, clearly the majority had no issues with it.

Nobody was forced to be a slave owner, they did it by choice.

Did the citizens of the southern states think it was bad when they went to war to protect the right to own slaves?

Even on this very forum we have people that argue the slaves were better off as slaves in America than as free people in Africa.

Yes...he is wrong and either ignorant of actual history or lying....

Europeans and Africans created slavery in this land before the United States was created, and the indians here also practiced slavery before the Europeans arrived.....and the Founders fought over the issue as they created this country....

Ted Cruz Demolishes Mayor Pete's Malicious Lie About the Founders and Slavery

Ted Cruz rebuked Buttigieg by posting a string of direct quotes from the Founders.

"Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude & I am utterly averse to the admission of slavery into the Missouri Territories. It being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law," Cruz quoted from John Adams, a Founding Father and the second president.

"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature," he quoted from Benjamin Franklin, who was a member of an abolitionist society. "Neither my tongue, nor my pen, nor purse shall be wanting to promote the abolition of what to me appears so inconsistent with humanity and Christianity."
---

"Who talks most about freedom and equality? Is it not those who hold a bill of Rights in one hand and a whip for affrighted slaves in the other?" Cruz quoted from Alexander Hamilton, an abolitionist and the first secretary of the Treasury.

"It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished," John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote. "The honor of the States as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. ... To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused."
-----

The Northwest Ordinance, one of the very first laws passed under both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, explicitly excluded slavery from the Northwest Territory, which would become the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and part of Minnesota. This set the precedent that slavery would not be allowed to expand into federal territories, setting the stage for a debate that would escalate into the Civil War.

The Founders compromised on banning the slave trade, restricting Congress from doing so until 1808 — in order to appease the southern states. Yet Congress did indeed ban the slave trade as soon as possible.

 

[2aguy]

One by one, the Democrat candidates reveal their undeniable stupidity.

Buttigieg: America's Founders didn't know slavery was bad - WND

What a stupid thing to say. Slavery was one of the most controversial issue at the Constitutional Convention, and the compromises reached in the Constitution - counting slaves as three fifths of a white person and banning the importation of slaves while allowing the domestic market for slaves to continue unabated - clearly shows many of the founders understood how evil slavery was. That the principles of civil rights were laid out in the Bill of Rights, passed right after the Constitution was signed, but were not applied to black people is further proof Buttigieg is just an ignorant bullshitter.

How can not applying civil rights to black people prove that people thought slavery was wrong?

While there were some that spoke out against it, many that did continued to own slaves even as they said it was a bad thing to do...making their words ring very hollow indeed.

He belongs to the political party that owned the slaves, fought to expand slavery into new states, fought to re-open the slave trade with Africa and the democrat party started the Civil War to keep their slaves....he belongs to the political party whose members started the ku klux klan and lynching of free Black slaves and their republican allies........he belongs to the political party that fought against every Civil Rights act up to the last ones because LBJ realized they couldn't keep Blacks from voting, so they better sign on at the end to keep power...

That is the political party this moron belongs to while he lectures Americans about the founding...he is a moron.

 

[2aguy]

One by one, the Democrat candidates reveal their undeniable stupidity.

Buttigieg: America's Founders didn't know slavery was bad - WND

What a stupid thing to say. Slavery was one of the most controversial issue at the Constitutional Convention, and the compromises reached in the Constitution - counting slaves as three fifths of a white person and banning the importation of slaves while allowing the domestic market for slaves to continue unabated - clearly shows many of the founders understood how evil slavery was. That the principles of civil rights were laid out in the Bill of Rights, passed right after the Constitution was signed, but were not applied to black people is further proof Buttigieg is just an ignorant bullshitter.

How can not applying civil rights to black people prove that people thought slavery was wrong?

While there were some that spoke out against it, many that did continued to own slaves even as they said it was a bad thing to do...making their words ring very hollow indeed.

No......they all grew up in a society that had slaves in a world that had slavery....they were unique in that they argued against the reality of slavery long before the rest of the world caught up..........our country was created stating that all men are created equal, endowed by God with inalienable Rights..........that is what they created living in a world where slavery was normal.

They changed that and the world with the founding of this country......

 

[Shawnee_b]

what the hell is Buttgeek doing?

Biden's the frontrunner, and he's in the mayor's centrist lane. Pete needs to hit Creepy Joe HARD!

HAAAAAAAAARD!

What, in the ass? Both would like that. You too I bet.

 

[Osiris-ODS]

Or for that matter imagine how differently America looks without the slaves at the beginning.

Speak to me not of Heaven, for I am not there.

A woman asked a Zen monk: "What happens after death?" He answered: "How should I know? I´m not dead yet"

 

[OldLady]

One by one, the Democrat candidates reveal their undeniable stupidity.

Buttigieg: America's Founders didn't know slavery was bad - WND

What a stupid thing to say. Slavery was one of the most controversial issue at the Constitutional Convention, and the compromises reached in the Constitution - counting slaves as three fifths of a white person and banning the importation of slaves while allowing the domestic market for slaves to continue unabated - clearly shows many of the founders understood how evil slavery was. That the principles of civil rights were laid out in the Bill of Rights, passed right after the Constitution was signed, but were not applied to black people is further proof Buttigieg is just an ignorant bullshitter.

I think it might be going too far to say they thought it was evil, but they certainly saw the hypocrisy involved when they were standing firm on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

 

[whitehall]

It's true. America's founders were British citizens and the U.K. considered Africans to be a sub-species of humanity along with the Irish and Asian Indians and just about every other non-Brit. It's convenient for race mongers today to blame the four years of the Confederacy for slavery but the flag that flew off slave ships for the other 196 years was mainly the Union Jack.

 

[OldLady]

One by one, the Democrat candidates reveal their undeniable stupidity.

Buttigieg: America's Founders didn't know slavery was bad - WND

Is he really that wrong?

While there might have been some that viewed it as bad, clearly the majority had no issues with it.

Nobody was forced to be a slave owner, they did it by choice.

Did the citizens of the southern states think it was bad when they went to war to protect the right to own slaves?

Even on this very forum we have people that argue the slaves were better off as slaves in America than as free people in Africa.

He is completely wrong...he doesn't know what he is talking about....

Pete Buttigieg's Comments on Slavery Show the Failure of Our Educational System

If Buttigieg had received anything resembling a decent education, he would have learned about a fellow named Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States. Jefferson was a slaveholder, and that is likely to be all that young Mayor Pete was taught about him. But reality is seldom simple and cut-and-dried. As president in 1807, Jefferson promoted the Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves, which outlawed the importation of slaves after January 1, 1808. Jefferson hoped that it would lead to the outlawing of slavery altogether, as he stated in his annual message to Congress on December 2, 1806: “I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country, have long been eager to proscribe.”

Hmm. That doesn’t sound as if Jefferson “did not understand that slavery was a bad thing.” But taking a strict constructionist view of Buttigieg’s statement, Jefferson was a key Founding Father, but he was not a primary architect of the Constitution. The “Father of the Constitution” was another dead white male Mayor Pete may or may not have heard of: James Madison, who earned that nickname by being the principal architect of both the Constitution as it was originally written and the Bill of Rights (that’s the first ten amendments to the Constitution, Pete). Madison (yes, another slave owner) supported the prohibition on the importation of slaves, but was impatient with the delay of getting it going.

“It were doubtless to be wished,” Madison wrote in 1788, “that the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves had not been postponed until the year 1808, or rather that it had been suffered to have immediate operation.” He explained that “it ought to be considered as a great point gained in favor of humanity, that a period of twenty years may terminate forever, within these States, a traffic which has so long and so loudly upbraided the barbarism of modern policy; that within that period, it will receive a considerable discouragement from the federal government, and may be totally abolished, by a concurrence of the few States which continue the unnatural traffic, in the prohibitory example which has been given by so great a majority of the Union. Happy would it be for the unfortunate Africans, if an equal prospect lay before them of being redeemed from the oppressions of their European brethren!”

Once again, this sounds as if James Madison understood perfectly well that slavery was a bad thing. To be sure, there were some among the Founding Fathers who didn’t understand that, and anti-slavery forces at the Constitutional Convention had to make the hard choice between accepting slavery, hoping to end it in the near future, and dividing the United Colonies into two or more states, which would weaken them all. They chose the former, but that doesn’t mean that Jefferson, Madison, and many others, notably the irascible and fantastic John Adams, didn’t understand the evil of slavery.

Jefferson never freed his hundreds of slaves, even in his Will. Does that sound like someone who thought slavery was "bad?" He knew it was ethically wrong in a free society, but he also believed that blacks were subhuman, and he profited greatly from their forced labor.

Slavery at Monticello FAQs - Property

 

[LaDairis]

And when they bust the Biden clan for bilking the US taxpayer via kickback of US foreign aid, the response will be


Joe Biden didn't know getting kickbacks off US foreign aid was "bad." He thought it was GOOD!!!!

 

[toomuchtime_]

One by one, the Democrat candidates reveal their undeniable stupidity.

Buttigieg: America's Founders didn't know slavery was bad - WND

What a stupid thing to say. Slavery was one of the most controversial issue at the Constitutional Convention, and the compromises reached in the Constitution - counting slaves as three fifths of a white person and banning the importation of slaves while allowing the domestic market for slaves to continue unabated - clearly shows many of the founders understood how evil slavery was. That the principles of civil rights were laid out in the Bill of Rights, passed right after the Constitution was signed, but were not applied to black people is further proof Buttigieg is just an ignorant bullshitter.

I think it might be going too far to say they thought it was evil, but they certainly saw the hypocrisy involved when they were standing firm on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

No, at the Constitutional Convention, many delegates called it evil, but in the end, they decided to do what they had to do to form the Union rather than do what they knew was right.