Sunday, July 5, 2020

Honor Revolutionaries Without Slaves

Seven of the original writers and signers of the Declaration of Independence were not slave owners.  Let's honor them.  John Adams, Samuel Adams, Oliver Ellsworth, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Treat Paine, Thomas Paine and Roger Sherman.  They hailed from Massachusetts, Connecticut,  New York, and Pennsylvania.

Others of these patriots later engaged with anti-slavery societies, including Ben Franklin and John Jay.

Of note, our First President, George Washington, freed his slaves as an act of conscience.

I have for most of my life, applied the 80/20 % rule to my analysis of things.  Here again, about 20% of the creators of our country did the right thing about the issue of slavery in their lives.  Same was true of the supporters of the Revolution.....supported by about 20% of the Colony's populace.

The other 80% pursued their own self-interest agendas while the 20% did the hard work of creating the great American Experiment, risking alienation and rejection by the majority.

Maybe the current Revolution in the streets to do the right thing vis a vis racism and the need for systemic change and reform is inspired by our tradition of Revolution and attempts to perfect this Union that started in 1776.  The current polling in support of the change being advocated in the streets seems to suggest my 80/20% rule of thumb might well be grossly understated and wrong.  Let us hope so for the sake of the continuation of our Experiment toward a real democracy.