Slavery and the American Founding

<p> Since 1776, the Founding generation has been portrayed as creators of a new world where liberty and freedom were the inherent birthright of all peoples. The Founders, although brilliant, were nonetheless human and fashioned a country conceived in liberty and freedom for themselves. The enslaved, women, and other minorities were not part of the original Founding documents. "All men created equal" was a political statement, not some ethereal message of Enlightenment understanding.</p><p> This book demonstrates that to understand the American Founding is to understand the totality of America. The American Founding and the so-called compromises forged by state delegates to ensure national unity, despite existing alternatives that could have rejected enslavement, defined the period from 1765 to 1800 and planted the seeds for a horrific civil war. Two of the most debated words from the Age of Enlightenment--freedom and liberty--not only made America independent but also made it dependent on an execrable system rejected by most of the European thinkers who inspired the uprising against Britain.</p>