Character is all.

[kentuck]

[empedocles]

1. For some, character is not essential at all

[Montelimar]

2. I guess "moral character"

didn't apply to purchasing and owning human beings back then.

At least he waited to die before he actually freed his slaves /sarcasm.

[kentuck]

3. It is easy to look back in history and declare we would have done differently.

Martin Luther King, Jr., reminded us that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

[Montelimar]

4. wrong is wrong

regardless of historical timeline. It has ALWAYS been morally repugnant to own human beings.

The USA was intended for the "landed gentry" class of the white race ONLY. Period. Full Stop. It was not intended for:

1. Women
2. Blacks
3. Browns
4. Natives
5. Poor white folk who traded their labor for money, those who owned NO LAND.

ALL wealthy white male property owners were created equal in the founders' eyes. Not the rest of us.

They never got over it. We're still feeling the effects today.

[kentuck]

5. It was the original sin of America.

But America was not the only country that had slavery. However, America was the only country that fought a Civil War over it and took over a hundred years to come to any terms with it.

I would argue that good people with character got us to where we are today, or it could be much worse.

[GeorgeGist]

6. Too bad George fell short.