The Founding Fathers Were Progressive

[rsacamano]

[stonecutter357]

1. #facknews ! the founding fathers were slave owners ....

[sandensea]

3. They were progressive - for their time

Keep in mind that feudalism, despotism and absolute monarchy, were the order of the day in the 18th century - and indeed for most of human history.

The Founding Fathers, for all their own shortcomings, created nothing less than a blueprint for modern democracy - one which, its faults and glaring omissions notwithstanding, inspired what eventually became modern states all over the world.

Very much a work in progress, no denying that. And as Trump proves, a work in progress here in the U.S. as well.

[markpkessinger]

4. Yet isn't it interesting . . .

. . . that the "conservative" British whom these "progressive" founding fathers rebelled against managed to outlaw slavery in Britain nearly 30 years prior to the U.S.?

The problem with claims that the founding fathers were "progressive" is that applying the term "progressive" is itself anachronistic when speaking of the American Revolution.

The late historian Howard Zinn got it right when he said that the American Revolution wasn't really a revolution at all, but was rather an insurgency -- of one group of aristocrats against another.

[sandensea]

5. That it was.

The much-lauded Boston Tea Party, just to cite one example, was largely instigated by none other than John Hancock - who was anxious to keep his monopoly on tea imports.

The tax was little more than a pretext, obscuring the fact that the new sources were much cheaper than Hancock's very costly ones.

There's no question though that our Constitution, and its Bill of Rights, was one of the most humanist such codes enacted anywhere up to that point.

It did exclude many - notably slaves and to some extent women - and, then as now, its reach was patchy. But nevertheless.

As for the British, they outlawed in 1807, which was very laudable for the time - but only on paper. Slavery and servitude were rampant in most of their colonies, and indeed in many of those now nations even today.

[stonecutter357]

2. How do you get a way with spamming DU ?