Slavery and Its Opponents at America’s Founding

Acclaimed historian Sean Wilentz reconsiders the Founders’ debates over slavery and the Constitution as described in his new book, No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding.
Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

[@Vik-wy3it]

The fight for abolishing slavery, and ultimately arguing that every human being has the right to not be owned as property to another human being, was a moral fight. It was a fight within humanity to decide good over bad, or bad over good. Good prevailed in this fight, and people are still having trouble seeing it. This is the cause of all modern racism, prejudice, oppression, and hatred - all of which were effectively ruled by the United States as bad in that fight.

[@rodwallace6237]

2:46

[@62wyo]

Founding fathers that owned slaves were hypocritical and owning others were and is wrong! Those that owned slaves did beat slaves, I am not going to say some got beat more and/or worse beating a slave or human being is wrong!

[@TheBatman777]

“Some did”. Most did not own slaves and fought against it.

[@kendallandrews8691]

@@TheBatman777 Do you know how many of those who signed the constitution owned slaves? 41 of the 56 signers of the declaration of independence owned slaves. I would imagine for the Constitution it would be a similar ratio.

[@venomsnake64]

@@kendallandrews8691 Do you know that the founding fathers also questioned slavery and did not believe it was necessary but because of the South's feudal economy they compromised rather than abolishing it all together. Was this a mistake? Yes, eventually this struggle came back to bite America in the ass with the Civil War but guess who won that war? Oh yeah, the North did and eventually abolished slavery. Yes, if Lincoln could have created a peaceful union with slaves he would have done so but he knew that abolishing slavery and freeing every man in the U.S was the only way to go. Yes, Jim Crow oppressed black people even further but black Americans banded together with other minorities (Chicanos) to fight for their rights. Best of all, they were all American. There is not one country you can tell me that had a perfect history with only peace because in order to become great you must first struggle and as a nation we struggled but we overcame every struggle and we were one of the first nations to do so and progress quickly. With each generation the founding fathers hoped to get closer to the promise that they had in mind when creating the constitution. America was not founded on slavery, it was founded on the promise for freedom.

[@kendallandrews8691]

@@venomsnake64 America certainly wasn't founded on the promise of freedom for Black Americans. The fact that it took a bloody war that killed at least 620,000 (if not more) shows the country failed on this regard. France and Britain both outlawed slavery far more peacefully. Yes, other countries certainly have issues, but that doesn't mean America didn't fail on this issue.

[@venomsnake64]

@@kendallandrews8691 I believe that because our founding fathers and our constitution was inspired by enlightenment ideals and christian ideals, though not a christian institution, means that the promise of freedom was there. It is true that it took us a lot more death and a lot more time to obtain that freedom for black Americans but the fact still remains that we have made progress and have gotten closer to that promise of freedom. Judging the morals and actions of the past with our modern morals is like judging a sinner while you yourself have sinned. Comparing one nation with geographical and cultural differences in the same regard as another is logically flawed. But yes, America was founded on the principle of freedom for all and not slavery for all or else we would either still have it or have struggled for longer to abolish it.

[@nickhomyak6128]

Yes but there is property substituted, property is man's disenthrallment of humans from nature; therefore there is property in man; as corporate power, earth and all thing in it are property and men subject to it!

[@eatfrenchtoast]

Im a little confused how Philadelphia was the home of freedom when India outlawed slavery 500 years prior. Haiti fought a boody war to outlaw it here in the Americas decades before. Catholics outlawed it 100 years before. What is he saying?

[@websitemartian]

1776, constitution, bill of rights. did india have anything like that? no.

[@TheBatman777]

Very insightful. Christianity and the enlightenment led to the antislavery idea that was new.

[@eatfrenchtoast]

Thats bull revisionism.

[@williamcoleman419]

Perhaps this man is disoriented, or has a twisted understanding of our Constitution.

[@brenee1498]

Do explain for the viewers!!!

[@-dash]

yikes