All Men Are Created Equal

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Preamble to The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

What powerful, inspiring words with which to start "a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

You may recognize that second quote as being from our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, who spoke them 87 years later --- "four score and seven years," with one score understood in the parlance of the era to equal twenty --- on November 19, 1863, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, following the largest battle ever fought on American soil.
51,000 men died in that battle fought by 165,000 Americans, family against family and sometimes brother against brother, which subsequently brought an end to slavery.

The underlying truths of those italicized quotes could not perpetually co-exist with the institution of slavery, which is the antithesis of freedom.  As Lincoln went on to say at Gettysburg, "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure."

The Gettysburg Address is only 270 words long and should be read by every American.  I think we were required to memorize it around fifth or sixth grade.  I know much of it by heart to this day.

Despite our grand opening statement as a nation, a compromise was made to allow slavery in order to muster a sufficient shared mutual defense against the British Red Coats, the most powerful military on earth at the time, and other European nations who would have loved to reap the benefits of ruling America's New World.

As I would think everyone knows by this point, the southern states had become agricultural powerhouses utilizing slaves to perform back-straining labor to bring in crops that could be exported to Europe for less than Europeans could produce them, even after transportation costs.

The incontrovertible fact that the United States still remains an agricultural powerhouse 154 years after the end of slavery, and that we still can grow and transport crops for lower prices than Europe or even China can produce them shows the underlying fallacy of that southern premise.  While it could be argued the technology we now have only made that possible after the demise of slavery, as the Greek philosopher Plato said, "Necessity is the mother of invention."

It is obvious to me that no person kept in literal or figurative chains and forced to work for the exclusive benefit of a ruling class would ever produce as much as free people pursuing their own self interests.  I don't accept slavery apologist descriptions of it being a benevolent institution that provided food and shelter to people who couldn't otherwise provide for themselves.

While plantation owners may have seen slave labor as an easy, legal solution at the time, in fact it has led to problems since its inception that have morphed into distinctly different but still significant problems today.  Too many ancestors of slaves continue to languish as impoverished, fatherless families in crime-ridden, inner-city neighborhoods, never fully assimilated into the most economically successful culture in history, dependent on government hand-outs.  It's not unlike what slave owners provided but without the requirement of labor on the "new plantation." I can't help wondering how the descendants of slaves would have fared if instead of being brought in chains that they or others had been lured by promises of the freedoms and opportunities of our remarkable country?

In recent decades, such promises augmented by free government giveaways have attracted far more "volunteers" than slave ships ever brought involuntarily.  I guess future generations will have the answer to that question based on the illegal immigration explosion of the last fifty years.

After all, it is estimated we currently have over 26 million undocumented aliens in our country, predominantly people of color who are trumpeted by self-serving politicians, celebrities and media as "doing  the jobs Americans won't do," which I would modify with the words "at wages too low to support lifestyles to which US citizens have become accustomed."  In other words, slave labor, and that doesn't count Documented Seasonal Migrant Agricultural Workers brought in legally to pick crops or do other field work as needed at state-required minimum wages.

Just to be clear, the United States did not invent slavery, which has been around throughout history.

When a tribe, city-state or nation lost a battle, their people could be executed or imprisoned, with the latter being more expensive in the long run, requiring limited resources to feed, clothe and house the prisoners.

Alternatively, the victors could put those prisoners in service to their tribe, city-state or nation as slaves.

Sometimes, families sold children into slavery, as you may recall from the Biblical story of Joseph and his multi-colored coat. You can further read about Moses leading enslaved Jews out of Egypt in the Book of Exodus. The Holy Bible also tells of Jews being taken involuntarily into exile by the Babylonians.

Greeks also had slaves, and they were themselves eventually enslaved by the Spartans and Romans.  The Romans also took Central Europeans as slaves, and in fact people from those captured regions are still called "Slavic." 

Note that none of those involve people with black skin, but of course there was also slavery in Africa, where tribes captured other tribes. Arabs and eventually Europeans became deeply involved in slave trades.  Slavery in Africa and Asia continues to this day, though for some reason that doesn't receive as many headlines as slavery that ended over 150 years ago in Western Civilization.

The first indentured servants brought to the Americas were actually Irish Redlegs, but their fair skin wasn't suitable for the sunny climate, and soon better acclimated African slaves replaced them in the fields.  You may also not realize that far more African slaves were brought to the Caribbean and South America than the 14 British colonies.

It's surprising to learn that only about 480,000 slaves --- less than 6% of those brought across the sea to the Western Hemisphere --- came to America north of Mexico.  By comparison, we currently have over a million undocumented aliens a year plus another million legal immigrants voluntarily entering our country each year.

Admittedly, the United States was slower to ban slavery than our European counterparts who actually introduced the practice to our colonies along with the better angels of Western Civilization.



It has been noted that while slavery existed throughout human history, only Western Civilization ended it voluntarily.

Something that few people seem to know these days is that the United States Congress passed The Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves in 1807.  It was signed into law by our third President, Thomas Jefferson, who also happened to be the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.

Had that legislation been accompanied by a total ban of slavery or at least a "sunset clause" whereby it ended with that final generation of slaves, then we may have a different view of history today.

Instead, slavery was allowed to be perpetuated by forcing children of slaves to be slaves themselves.  With legal importation of slaves prohibited --- though limited illegal smuggling of slaves did continue by what we today would call "coyotes" --- children of slaves remained in bondage.  The inevitable result was separating families to trade the children of slaves, which cannot be seen as anything but abhorrent, especially as a parent who understands what it is to want a better life for your children.

It was the fear that children of slaves would not be allowed their full rights and privileges of citizenship after the Civil War that brought about the 14th Amendment, stating anyone born on United States soil is automatically a U.S. citizen. That Constitutional principal has been abused in recent years to allow such absurd practices as birth tourism, whereby pregnant women come to the U.S. just to have babies so that they can claim citizenship for their child and subsequently use that "anchor baby" to bring an extended family into our country.


However, that's getting ahead of ourselves.  The arguments over whether slavery should be allowed in new states and what effect that would have on slave states brought about the first rumblings of secession by the south.

And you know what comes next, right?

Republican Abraham Lincoln became our 16th President by promising to end slavery, a cause that most of the country was so strongly behind that they were willing to fight a war.

No.  That's a myth, albeit one that is at least an empowering belief that makes us feel noble.

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation did not come until January 1, 1863, over 2 1/2 years after the first shots were fired in the Civil War.

Lincoln was against the expansion of slavery into new states, that is true.  It is also true that the first Republican Presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, did run as an abolitionist in 1856, but he lost rather badly, because most of the country was more concerned with their own life struggles than the fate of slaves.

When Lincoln became President, he appointed General Fremont head of Union Forces in the West.  On August 30, 1861, without consulting the President, Fremont issued an emancipation proclamation of his own for Missouri, which was in open rebellion, teetering on the edge of becoming a Confederate state.  Fremont believed this would tilt the state conflict in favor of Union forces.

Nonetheless, Missouri was admitted as the twelfth Confederate State of America on November 28,1861, but the state government that approved that was forced into exile, settling in Marshall, Texas.  Throughout the war, Missouri was claimed by both the Union and the Confederate States of America, so Fremont's gambit didn't completely succeed or fail.

West Virginia split off from its former state of Virginia rather than be part of the eighth Confederate State.  Virginia seceded a month after the CSA attack on Fort Sumter, which officially kicked off the Civil War on April 12, 1861.

Virginia's secession forced General Robert E. Lee, who opposed secession and denounced it as a betrayal to our Founding Fathers, to choose between his beloved nation for which he had fought his entire life and his home state.  He chose to fight for his state, despite his moral qualms.

Robert E. Lee was the field General who suffered defeat at Gettysburg and eventually surrendered at  Appomattox a year and a half later.  As was the fate for most southerners, the Civil War cost Lee everything he had built in his lifetime, including his home across the Potomac River from Washington D.C.  The federal government confiscated his family estate called Arlington and transformed to be our country's most prominent National Cemetery.

While Virginia, along with Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee, didn't secede until a month after Lincoln took office in 1861, seven states seceded before Lincoln had a chance to hang his stovetop hat in the White House in Washington, D.C.: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.

Obviously, Honest Abe did not have time to address Congress as President, much less get them to pass a law prohibiting slavery or even proclaim an Executive Order for such that would have undoubtedly been challenged in Court.

From the outset, Abraham Lincoln had one primary goal: preserve the Union.

Alabama seceded on January 11, 1861, two months before Lincoln assumed office.  Montgomery soon became the first capital of the Confederacy.

The First White House of the Confederacy is located across from the Alabama State Capitol.

Alabama obviously was not on the bubble regarding the issue of secession like Border States, including Delaware and Maryland which stayed in the Union.

Alabama was all in from the get-go.

Because of that, you may assume that most white people in Alabama must have been slave owners.

According to the United States Census of 1860, only 6% of Alabamians owned slaves, which happens to be the average for the Confederate States of America as a whole.  South Carolina, the first state to secede, had 9%, but no others more than 7%.

Why would they possibly secede to form a new nation, much less withstand four years of brutal fighting over a questionable cause like slavery in which so few people had a direct vested interest?

If you visit Alabama, you may find some answers for yourself.  Allow a day to visit the beautiful, well-curated Museum of Alabama, which covers not just the Civil War but all aspects of Alabama history with an even-handed approach. Admission is free.

The First White House of the Confederacy, which displays elegant furnishings of the era, is right next door and also offers free admission.

33 days after Virginia joined the CSA, the capital was moved to Richmond, VA, in recognition of that state's historic, political and economic significance.  Virginia had been the home of Thomas Jefferson.

In essence, Alabama was like a jilted lover tossed aside for a sexier Siren.

Why did Alabama remain intransigent to the bitter end against Lincoln's efforts to bring the Confederate States of America back into the greater United States?



1860 United States Census for What Became CSA

State	Total population	Total number of slaves	Total number of households	Total free population	Total number[315] slaveholders	% of Free population owning slaves[316]	Slaves as % of population	Total free colored
Alabama	964,201	435,080	96,603	529,121	33,730	6%	45%	2,690
Arkansas	435,450	111,115	57,244	324,335	11,481	4%	26%	144
Florida	140,424	61,745	15,090	78,679	5,152	7%	44%	932
Georgia	1,057,286	462,198	109,919	595,088	41,084	7%	44%	3,500
Louisiana	708,002	331,726	74,725	376,276	22,033	6%	47%	18,647
Mississippi	791,305	436,631	63,015	354,674	30,943	9%	55%	773
North Carolina	992,622	331,059	125,090	661,563	34,658	5%	33%	30,463
South Carolina	703,708	402,406	58,642	301,302	26,701	9%	57%	9,914
Tennessee	1,109,801	275,719	149,335	834,082	36,844	4%	25%	7,300
Texas	604,215	182,566	76,781	421,649	21,878	5%	30%	355
Virginia	1,596,318	490,865	201,523	1,105,453	52,128	5%	31%	58,042
Total	9,103,332	3,521,110	1,027,967	5,582,222	316,632	6%	39%	132,760