American Slavery - American Freedom

Résumé : The simultaneous development of slavery and freedom is the central paradox of American history. The key to an understanding of it lies in Edmund S. Morgan's story of colonial Virginia, the largest and most influential of the colonies. In the American Revolution, Virginians were the most eloquent spokesmen for freedom and equality. George Washington, a Virginian, led Americans in battle against British oppresion. Thomas Jefferson, another Virginian, led them in declaring independence. Virginians drafted not only the Declaration, but the Constitution and its first ten amendments as well. Virginians were elected to the presidency of the United States under that Constitution for thirty-two of the first thirty-six years of its existence. 'They were all slaveholders.' At the time of the Revolution, Virginians held fully 40 percent of all slaves in America. So it is in Virginia that we must begin our understanding of the strange marriage of slavery and freedom.