The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on July 09, 2025, 11:45:56 am ---I'm afraid I had to read FRiend Lee's post a couple of times before it got through my thick skull that she meant going back in time to George Washington, not Abraham Lincoln returning to Washington. D.C.
--- End quote ---
Ohhh, I misread it, too. Then I googled it and found that there've been at least a few (probably false) claims that Lincoln's wife had slaves and he sold them at some point, though perhaps not until she died. That doesn't sound very Lincolnesque to me. Especially because even in some cases presidents who owned slaves freed them rather than profited on their sale. Still, freeing them suggests that they knew in their heart of hearts that slavery was wrong but were too used to having the help while they were alive.
It's amazing how hypocritical some of the Founders were. What??! National leaders are never hypocritical, are they?? :laugh:
But that they could live with statements like "all men are created equal" while also owning humans suggests to me that they had completely accepted the idea that Black people were inferior beings and not entitled to the same rights and freedoms, that slavery was their proper role in life. We're just lucky that they stated the noble sentiment in vague language, rather than "all land-owning white males were created equal," or things like the Civil Rights Act would have been even more difficult to get through.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on July 11, 2025, 05:29:02 pm ---Ohhh, I misread it, too. Then I googled it and found that there've been at least a few (probably false) claims that Lincoln's wife had slaves and he sold them at some point, though perhaps not until she died. That doesn't sound very Lincolnesque to me. Especially because even in some cases presidents who owned slaves freed them rather than profited on their sale. Still, freeing them suggests that they knew in their heart of hearts that slavery was wrong but were too used to having the help while they were alive.
--- End quote ---
Do you mean "Washington" here?
Jeff Wrangler:
If you haven't read the one-page appreciation of the article about the Scopes trial in the July 21 issue, I recommend you do.
Spoiler Alert: This shocked me; I had no idea. The charge against John Scopes for teaching evolution was essentially a put-up job.
Front-Ranger:
Finally I've started receiving my issues again. "The Case for Lunch" by Lauren Collins in the July 28th issue is just delightful. Here's a snippet: "Jonathan Nunn observed in the magazine Vittles, writing that the Yellow Bittern was 'a rich text, even before you get into the important matter of whether the food was any good.'"
Jeff Wrangler:
I can hardly believe this, but I'm actually caught up on all the issues I've received. I guess it's July 28 that hadn't yet arrived before I left this morning for a week at the house, so I'm sure I'll be behind again by the time I get home next week. :-\
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