T
theCardinalbird
Guest
The founding fathers of America, like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington “evil men” because they owned Black slaves?? No. They were simply men of their time who happened to own American plantations; and American plantations were worked by Black slaves --a situation that developed (in the late medieval / Renaissance period) hundreds of years before Jefferson or Washington were born, and which they simply inherited. So, their ownership of slaves was VERY different from a situation in which they directly invented the keeping of slaves or that of a modern-day White businessman who starts enslaving Blacks today. The idea that tribal people from West Africa have, or should have, the same rights to liberty and freedom in Western Civilization as a White plantation owner had not yet developed; nor COULD it develop until the period of the so-called Enlightenment, when philosophers began to question the idea of social class among White Europeans (the idea that a White European peasant could possibly be “equal” to a White European aristocrat --a VERY new idea in the late 1600’s / early 1700’s). It was only once the idea of social equality among White Europeans developed that the idea of social equality among all mankind could be considered or believed.
And this took a very long time indeed. In the days of Augustine, even the notion that slavery should not exist at all was nowhere close to being realized. Augustine (a Roman aristocrat who lived in N. Africa during the 4th Century) took slavery as a given --a simple fact of life, which it was. During the time he lived, he could not realistically imagine a world in which all slaves would (or should) be free or that all classes of men should be considered “equals.” As a Roman in the ROMAN Empire, he did not consider himself “equal” to subject peoples like the Carthaginians or native Berbers in his home province of North Africa. Rather, as a Roman, he was their societal superior; and, even more so, superior to the so-called “barbarians” (Germans, Celts, and Slavs) who lived north of the Roman Empire, and who comprised most of the slaves who Augustine would have encountered (side-by-side with ethnic Romans, Greeks, and Carthaginians who had committed crimes or fallen on hard times, and found themselves reduced to slavery). This was simply the world that Augustine lived in; and his hope (if you read him thoroughly) …which was the only sensible and realistic thing he could hope for …was that this present world (with all its injustices and imperfections …including slavery) would soon pass away and be replaced by the Heavenly Kingdom of God, when Christ returns in glory.
cont’d
And this took a very long time indeed. In the days of Augustine, even the notion that slavery should not exist at all was nowhere close to being realized. Augustine (a Roman aristocrat who lived in N. Africa during the 4th Century) took slavery as a given --a simple fact of life, which it was. During the time he lived, he could not realistically imagine a world in which all slaves would (or should) be free or that all classes of men should be considered “equals.” As a Roman in the ROMAN Empire, he did not consider himself “equal” to subject peoples like the Carthaginians or native Berbers in his home province of North Africa. Rather, as a Roman, he was their societal superior; and, even more so, superior to the so-called “barbarians” (Germans, Celts, and Slavs) who lived north of the Roman Empire, and who comprised most of the slaves who Augustine would have encountered (side-by-side with ethnic Romans, Greeks, and Carthaginians who had committed crimes or fallen on hard times, and found themselves reduced to slavery). This was simply the world that Augustine lived in; and his hope (if you read him thoroughly) …which was the only sensible and realistic thing he could hope for …was that this present world (with all its injustices and imperfections …including slavery) would soon pass away and be replaced by the Heavenly Kingdom of God, when Christ returns in glory.
cont’d
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keep up.