stage fright

pandora's box

bust

Like thousands of others, Isaac Newton [1642-1726/7] lost much of his fortune by speculating on the South Sea Company, which had been granted a monopoly to supply African slaves to the islands in the "South Seas" and South America.

 

on the Mall

just business

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."

- Abraham Lincoln [1809-1865] in a letter to Horace Greeley [1811-1872], August 22, 1862.

Not Static

Founding Father Benjamin Franklin [1706-1790] owned at least one slave and ran advertisements to sell slaves in his newspapers, but ultimately funded schools for freed slaves.

John Adams [1735-1826] was the only founder who never had slaves, which was then common in Massachusetts. Alexander Hamilton [1755-1804] is thought to have had slaves in the West Indies. James Madison [1751-1836] occasionally condemned the institution of slavery and opposed the international slave trade, but he also vehemently opposed any attempts to restrict its domestic expansion. Madison did not free his slaves during his lifetime or in his will.

George Washington [1732-1799] married into wealth and a continuing income stream derived from at least one hundred slaves. Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826] maintained slaves to his death even though he wrote that all men are created equal. 

Franklin was the truly Enlightened one as he changed his positions throughout his life like a tax accountant he recorded in ledgers his failings and his "corrections," perhaps because he was a generation older and more inclined to reflection. He gave away part of his fortune to have all religions represented in Philadelphia - 35 representatives from Islam to Judaism to various Christian sects attended his funeral. He could have been wealthier than Washington but he didn't patent many of his inventions including his stove as he wanted the masses to afford it and stay warm. But he was alienated from wife for 14 years and didn't attend her funeral, and his son William Franklin [1730-11813] who remained a staunch Loyalist and died in London.

opposed to Confederate monuments

“I think it wise not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.”

- Robert E. Lee, 1869 [1807-1870]

13rh

13th Amendment: Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.

Barbary Pirates

In 1631, North African pirates raided an Irish village and more than a 100 men became enslaved. Some never set foot on land again, rowing until they expired.

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli ...
- Marine's Hymn

abolitionist

"To love the religion of Jesus is to hate the religion of slave masters."
- Frederick Douglass

suffragist

"The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation."
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Founding Father

Benjamin Franklin owned 2 slaves and advertised the sale of slaves in his New-England Courant.

money

By the time of the American Civil War, there were 4 million enslaved people.

quaked in the presence of god

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”
- John Greenleaf Whittier

help

Seven American Presidents had slaves in the White House.

sugar

In the 18th century the total value of Jamaican sugarcane exports exceeded what the American colonies produced, which is why the British didn't put up more of a fight to retain the colonies.

Black Leonardo

"Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible."
- George Washington Carver

Flaws

"An entirely virtuous person is not interesting."
- David McCullough

as a jockey examines a horse

"In the American south, only 4% of slaves lived to be 60."
- Ken Burns

Albemarle

"I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.“

– Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]