Re: Historical digression : 1776 and all that
Cheryl Singhal (csinghal@CAPACCESS.ORG)
Fri, 20 Aug 1999 16:31:14 -0400
On Fri, 20 Aug 1999, Ian N Ford wrote:
> British Empire, starting with Somerset's Case in 1772 which outlawed
> slavery in the British Isles. American slave owners certainly did not
> consider that " all men were are created equal ... with right to life,
> liberty and the pursuit of happiness " applied to their black
> compatriots. Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire in
> 1806. It was to take a Civil War to convince the " freedom loving "
> Americans to do likewise.
Ahem. Importation of slaves was made illegal in the US around 1820. It
took so long partly due to the opposition of the Southern colonies, but
also partly due to the New England Ship owners who were making a pretty
penny as middlemen. It finally occurred to the Southerners that natural
increase would provide a fairly constant -- and less expensive -- source of
replacements; only when the cash-cow died did New England become concerned
about abolition.
>
> I sometimes wonder if the history taught in US schools doesn't gloss
> over some of these issues, preferring to over-simplify the issue as the
US History is taught as any other subject is taught: subject to local
jurisdictional approval. Thus, those in the Border States (Maryland,
West Virginia, and Kentucky) get a fairly balanced picture of the War
Between the States because most of the teachers had an ancestor on each
side. The American Revolution is seen quite differently in Virginia
Schools than in, say, Louisiana schools.
> the American kids who attend English schools have been surprised by the
> often sympathetic way that we view the " little storm in a teacup " in
> Boston.
Errr -- most of that war was fought in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania
and the Carolinas. Boston had the teaparty, but the middle colonies got
the clean-up detail. :)
A History professor I knew once commented: the only reason in the
world the Americans won that war was because England had been tactless
enough to win her last war with France. France therefore was ripe for
revenge and seized the chance to annoy England by supporting the
Colonists. We'd have lost the War of 1812 if England hadn't been more
worried about Napoleon.
Cheryl
