It was a bit shorter than our normal seminars, but here's the transcript...
· Katherine – Not talking about Jefferson because he was a slave owner – do you think he was a bad man because he didn’t do anything about it, even though he knew it was wrong?
· Angie – not a bad man, but not a huge president?
o All presidents owned slaves?
o How can you say people aren’t poets if they are not allowed to read
o A man of limited character
· Regina – he was good – when he was Prez,, everyone had slaves around him
o Even if he tried to change it, it wouldn’t have done any good
o Depends how you looks at it
· Justin – not a bad man but made a bad choice
o He should have
· Katherine – example – now our time was considered using phone and texting – if it was considered bad, then if you said not to do it, people would think you were crazy
o It is what’s in your time period
· Justin – not supposed to text in class, but people still do
· Angie – what if he added it to Declaration of Independence (“All Men Are Created Equal”!)
o Would slaves have gotten freedom earlier? Would it all have stopped?
· Regina – already said all men are created equal – people would have hated him if he said slaves were equal
· Justin – disagree – if you’re the President and you believe in something, you should go for it, even if it doesn’t end up well
o If you reflect afterwards, things look different
· Katherine – if he tried to make it part of it, they would have denied it
· Angie – African-Americans were oppressed then
o During Civil Rights, there were educated African-Americans
· Andrew – would have led to an earlier segregation – would have happened in a different time period
· Regina – people owned slaves – wouldn’t have worked
· Justin – shouldn’t TJ have tried since he had a black mistress
· Angie – want liberty but are doing nothing for Native Americans or African Americans
· Katherine – TJ expected the next generation to make justice for all – happened the way he wanted it to?
o It took them a few generations to get what they wanted, get educated, etc. – “ready for freedom”
· Regina – expecting too much from a single man
o When he wrote “all men were created equal,” he wasn’t talking about slaves
· Andrew – slaves were considered property, so they weren’t included
· Angie –no freedom for women, even though there were many educated women
o Compared to women of France
o Says “all MEN” are created equal
· Randy – QUESTION – Why didn’t the Presidents before Lincoln do anything about slavery?
· Andrew – was considered natural to own slaves
· Katherine – he would make any choice that would help him save the Union