All Posts Tagged With: "abolitionism"
Abolitionist Sisters
Sarah and Angelina Grimké were born into good fortune. Their father, John Grimké, had been a lieutenant colonel in the Revolutionary War and speaker in the South Carolina House of Representatives before becoming a plantation owner and judge on the state Supreme Court. The girls could look forward to a life of ease. In front [...]
25May2011 | John Blundell | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Question of Slavery
Slavery can neither fully explain nor ultimately justify the American Civil War. This realization is unfortunately obscured because most scholars and buffs alike have usually sought a single cause for those four years of soul-wrenching conflict. The early nationalist interpretation, put forward by historian James Ford Rhodes, blamed one factor and one factor only: slavery. [...]
23Mar2011 | Jeffrey Rogers Hummel | 21 comments | ContinuedAmerica’s Turning Point
The Civil War represents the simultaneous culmination and repudiation of the American Revolution. Four successive ideological surges had previously defined American politics: the radical republican movement that had spearheaded the revolution itself; the subsequent Jeffersonian movement that had arisen in reaction to the Federalist State; the Jacksonian movement that followed the War of 1812; and [...]
23Mar2011 | Jeffrey Rogers Hummel | 22 comments | ContinuedWhat’s Wrong with Reparations for Slavery
There has been much debate recently about reparations for slavery. According to its proponents, the federal government should award Americans of African descent financial damages solely because slavery, as an institution, existed in the United States from the founding until almost a century later. Three principal arguments are offered: (1) The legacy of slavery has [...]
30Jun2010 | Stefan Spath | 16 comments | ContinuedTen Reasons Not to Abolish Slavery
Slavery existed for thousands of years, in all sorts of societies and all parts of the world. To imagine human social life without it required an extraordinary effort. Yet, from time to time, eccentrics emerged to oppose it, most of them arguing that slavery is a moral monstrosity and therefore people should get rid of [...]
18Nov2009 | Robert Higgs | 98 comments | ContinuedA Student’s Essay That Changed the World
As a former university professor, I read thousands of student-authored essays through the years—sometimes joyously, but probably just as often, painfully. Occasionally, the process of researching and writing exerted significant influence over a student’s future interests, thinking, and perhaps even behavior. But of all the student essays ever written anywhere, I doubt that any had [...]
1May2005 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedAn Inspiration for All Time
Most lovers of liberty want to be optimists. All that has to happen for liberty to be widely embraced is for people to open their minds and shed the baggage of the socialist impulse. Simple enough, right? No. It isn’t simple at all, and that’s why too many lovers of liberty fall into the pessimism [...]
1Dec2002 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedIdeas and the Abolition of Slavery
The history of slavery is a subject of great interest to contemporary historians. The intense interest it evokes today is partly a consequence of one huge reality: slavery has been a feature of almost every historical epoch except for the last 200 years. So the big question is, Why and how did an institution so [...]
1Dec2002 | Stephen Davies | 1 comment | ContinuedIndividualist Feminism: The Lost Tradition
Women are, and should be treated as, the equals of men. For many, that sentiment forms the core of feminist theory and policy. But historically, there has been substantial disagreement within the feminist movement over the meaning of the term equality. Does it mean: equality under existing laws; equality under laws more just than existing [...]
1Aug1998 | Wendy McElroy | 1 comment | Continued-
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