Slavery

I meant to write this blog a long time ago but just did not have enough time to get to it. Last Thursday night I read Morgan’s chapter “Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox”. However it was Harry Potter night so everything got kind of chaotic later. It was a good discussion the next day in class, talking about house elves and slavery. Morgan stated a paradox in America history showed slavery and freedom co-existed in colonial America. To eliminate the paradox we have to assume that the founding fathers were hypocrites. They believed in freedom and self-government but many of them were slaveholders themselves. Jefferson, who wrote “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence, owned more than 100 slaves. More and more indentured servants became free and these freemen were mostly unable to afford land. And these freemen threatened the colonialists’ property rights after the Bacon’s rebellion. African Americans replaced the indentured servants because they were unable to claim rights to the English and they could not carry arms. And when the number of slaves was more than the indentured servants, the freemen were less threatening. These freemen were later aspired to become slaveholders, and sought for more “freedom” by showing others that they owned slaves. “The rights of Englishmen were preserved by destroying the rights of Africans” as Morgan wrote in his chapter. American slavery is the foundation of America freedom and democracy.

Above is what I gained from the reading and in-class discussion about some logistics knowledge. I wonder what were the founding fathers and the slaveholders thinking when they seemed just to automatically divide the human race to two separate categories. I don’t believe that color was the only issue. If we don’t have African Americans as slaves, we would still have White slaves in our history. The Africans just happened to unluckily step on the land that was deprived of cheap or free labor. All men are created equal; however, how do we justify and define equal? The equality of having the same opportunity to pursue freedom? The same financial background and the same chances to reach a financial state? Or everyone should just have the same of everything- much like communism or socialism? We all use others to gain something we would like, both consciously and unconsciously in different ways. It is impossible for one man to claim that he is free without having people who are not free to compare with him. Once someone asked me weather I considered that I had freedoms or not. I answered immediately without even thinking that of course I had freedoms. “But you lived in a country that is totally manipulated by the government and has no human rights.” He considered himself free by comparing the situation in China to the situation in the United States, and came in conclusion that Chinese are enslaved by the government and the socialist/ communist party and the United States is a free and ideal country. I do not agree with him but at the same time I don’t disagree completely. I compared myself too, with other people around the world. For me, freedom is a term that can go further and further into definition depends on the person who defining it and using it.