پنجشنبه ۲۲ شهریور ۰۳ | ۱۹:۱۵ ۱۰ بازديد
26
It’s hard to understand that not everyone has always felt this way.
But the sad fact is that slavery has existed in many times and
places, including in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, in Africa, in
parts of Europe during the Middle Ages, and elsewhere. It’s been
only in the last 250 years, really, that a growing number of people
have come to believe that slavery is unacceptable. And even when
many people finally began to believe that slavery was wrong, few
were ready to do anything to get rid of it.
The first chapter explained how a number of slaveholders, moved
by the words of the Declaration of Independence, freed their
slaves. In the early 1800s, however, few slave owners were willing
to do so. And while many people in the North didn’t want to see
slavery spread any farther, very few raised their voices against it
where it already existed. That is why Congress believed that, in
passing the Missouri Compromise, they had ended the argument
about slavery once and for all.
But by the 1820s a small number of Americans began to speak
out against slavery in general. Some searched for practical ways
to end the practice. Some simply tried to persuade owners to
treat their slaves more like human beings than like property.
Others hoped to get more owners to agree that after they died,
their slaves would become free. Still others believed that slavery
might be ended gradually by paying owners who agreed to give
up their slaves. Ending slavery in this way would take many, many
years. Most politicians agreed that the states controlled whether
there was slavery in the South. They believed that Congres
It’s hard to understand that not everyone has always felt this way.
But the sad fact is that slavery has existed in many times and
places, including in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, in Africa, in
parts of Europe during the Middle Ages, and elsewhere. It’s been
only in the last 250 years, really, that a growing number of people
have come to believe that slavery is unacceptable. And even when
many people finally began to believe that slavery was wrong, few
were ready to do anything to get rid of it.
The first chapter explained how a number of slaveholders, moved
by the words of the Declaration of Independence, freed their
slaves. In the early 1800s, however, few slave owners were willing
to do so. And while many people in the North didn’t want to see
slavery spread any farther, very few raised their voices against it
where it already existed. That is why Congress believed that, in
passing the Missouri Compromise, they had ended the argument
about slavery once and for all.
But by the 1820s a small number of Americans began to speak
out against slavery in general. Some searched for practical ways
to end the practice. Some simply tried to persuade owners to
treat their slaves more like human beings than like property.
Others hoped to get more owners to agree that after they died,
their slaves would become free. Still others believed that slavery
might be ended gradually by paying owners who agreed to give
up their slaves. Ending slavery in this way would take many, many
years. Most politicians agreed that the states controlled whether
there was slavery in the South. They believed that Congres
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