Happy Independence day 2020

244 years ago today, a document was signed that would change the world. To end slavery, to create a melting pot, to fight for freedom, a group of brave men signed their death warrant and sent it off to their executioner.
So begins the American experiment.
Don't forget history, and don't let it die.
Stars and Stripes forever.

Comments

[DaymanHS]

You know I am picturing her with some guns and stepping over trump after seeing this.

Another reason why I love Applejack so much

[KorenCZ11]

5301230
Over Trump? More like at his side. For all his faults, that man stands for America.

[PaulAsaran]

Applejack: "Why the hay am I wearin' this getup? I can't buck apples in this thing! It's so impractical!"

Rarity: "Shut up and keep posing for me, darling."

Rainbow Dash: "Posing for us."

Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie: "What she said."

derpicdn.net/img/2020/2/22/2280524/large.jpg

[Trick Question]

Just for historical accuracy, the document was not signed with the intention of ending slavery. Of those who signed it, around 80% of them were slaveowners.

[KorenCZ11]

5301366
Being a slave owner didn't imply that they didn't think it wasn't wrong at the time, it was a cultural thing. See the words of Thomas Jefferson himself in 1784

I think a change already perceptible, since the origin of the present revolution. The spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust, his condition mollifying, the way I hope preparing, under the auspices of heaven, for a total emancipation, and that this is disposed, in the order of events, to be with the consent of the masters, rather than by their extirpation.

The thing that makes that sentiment most untrue is the most famous line in the declaration,

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.

This was something Jefferson wrote while he owned 200 slaves.

He (The British King) has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of a CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.

So yes, they had slaves. But they also saw it as a cruel practice that should've ended when the US won independence, but never had the power to get rid of it all together as the new country was forming.

[DaymanHS]

Yeah.....

Still aj should is the real miss América

[Trick Question]

5301404
It is generally agreed by historians that Jefferson repeatedly raped one of his slaves and kept six of his own children she birthed as slaves. He literally enslaved his own kids.

That's not "a cultural thing". I don't care what society you're in, that behavior is effing abominable, and trying to excuse it is not okay.

[KorenCZ11]

5301468
Are good men capable of bad actions?
Have you ever done anything unforgivable in your life?
Not being aware of what the times were like when the times were happening is being ignorant of history. Trying to bring your moral standing to a time you didn't live in is ignorant and painting with a broad brush.
Did he do a bad thing? Probably, he was, all things considered, just a guy. He wasn't special because he was a person, he was special because he made history.

[Trick Question]

5301476

Have you ever done anything unforgivable in your life?

I've never raped a woman and enslaved her children. Your defense of this is sick.

[KorenCZ11]

5301489
Acting as the moral abiter of dead men is sick. How can you go around saying you're so much better when you have not only not lived a full life, but live your life standing on the accomplishments of the man you judge? You didn't fight a war, you didn't lay your life on the line for a dream and you didn't help build the most moral society to ever exist that you reap the benefits of.
Who are you to judge?
I never said he didn't do something wrong. Ignoring all his accomplishments because he did one, or even a whole host of things wrong, it's just plain stupid.

[Trick Question]

5301508
I didn't say he didn't also do good things; of course he did. Then again, I'm sure Hitler did some good things, but I don't admire him because the awful things he did were so much worse.

People in general should not be put up on pedestals, and when those people have done truly atrocious things, those things should be called out. You don't have the luxury of celebrating the good and pretending the bad doesn't exist. Doing that is a whitewash of history, and it's wrong.

[KorenCZ11]

5301543
Don't talk to me about whitewashing history. Nobody said what he did wasn't gross, what I am saying is that the good far outweighs the bad, and once again, he was just a guy. Whitewashing history is saying any good thing he did is wiped away by one bad thing. That's disgusting, and most of all, ignorant.

We wouldn't even know what he did with or to his slaves if he wasn't the founder of the greatest nation in the world, and we wouldn't care at all if he was never here to set the ground work to make things right on this issue in the first place.

Jefferson deserves a pedestal because he built it himself. You wouldn't have the luxury to talk about him the way you do without the sacrifices he made to make sure you have these freedoms to begin with.