When the issue of racial injustice in America comes up, I've seen this point made by political pundits such as Ben Shapiro. While this illustrates that the notion that America was built on slavery is a grievous oversimplification, I would also contend that Reconstruction would have had to been seen through to completion with African Americans equal before the law, holding the same number of political appointments (relative to their population) as white Americans as well as the same GDP per capita. I do tend to think we have an overly linear view of the historic struggle for equality but the thing is preventing people from being barred from voting or holding office in the US based on race; things we usually associate with the Civil Rights Movement were engraved in the constitution in 1870 with the passing of the 15th amendment and during and the first Civil Rights Act that guaranteed equality before the law was passed in 1866. And there were Black Politicians being elected to positions of office. Furthermore, there was a move to give the freedmen an economic base by transferring ownership of the plantations to them (the 40 acres and a mule were meant to be enacted where Sherman torched the plantations) which was rescinded by Andrew Johnson. But while progress had been made, Reconstruction ended before equality was achieved and through a combination of voter disenfranchisement and terrorism, the antebellum social order was restored.
And if you're going to bring up quotes by people who were viewed as forward thinking for their time from the 1850s opposing equality as an argument that white supremacy was too engrained in the American psyche for equality to have been achieved the Civil war changed a lot, including the hearts and minds of many; before the war John Brown was seen as a lunatic by the Union and by the end he was seen as a martyr. #BlackLivesMatter
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I think a good comparison is how witnessing the horrors of Nazi Germany made the "greatest generation" question the racist ideas that they had been brought up with, laying the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement.
America was not built on slavery and the claim that it was is idiotically proposed by people who never studied history, don't know anything about the US and only wish to sow racial division and hate against the US.
Name one nation, one group in the entire world that did not have slavery of some kind. You can't. Now name the first nation to openly declare it as immoral? USA. Name the first nation to start banning it. USA. Name the only country in history to fight a war to end slavery when all other nations fought wars to create it. USA. Not only did we do this we did it a century before africa, the middle east, and asia would do it. We started it before Europe and if we take into account outside colonies, we where the first nation in general to out law slavery (as many european nations had banned slavery in their home nations by the time of the civil war, almost all of them had still allowed slavery in their colonies elsewhere).
So its not even an argument, we did more to end slavery then any other nations from an objective stand point, took part in slavery the least amount of time of any nation (about 80 years), we fought one of our bloodiest wars to end it (seconded only by WWII), and ended it while the rest of the world still practiced it. Their is no debate here.
Sin being a spiritual concept I'll consider this only in spiritual terms. The God of Abraham doesn't accept blood sacrifice for the remittance of sin. The only exception was Jesus because he was a special case.
Also many biblical scholars have been troubled by the fact that there's no positive mention of America in biblical prophecy. There's some very apocalyptic mentions of a great nation that made all of the sea fairing merchants rich... being wiped out in 1 day tho. It's a done deal. Every country will be judged for its actions one day. It doesn't matter how many chickens, goats or humans you sacrifice. Not going to make one bit of difference.
The civil war or far more accurately the war between the states had nothing to do with slavery. It was100% over taxes. The North wanted to sell their manufactured products to the South but the South could get better prices by trading with France, England, etc.
Therefore, having a larger population to prevent that, the North voted onerous taxes on products the South imported. Therefore, per the constitution and agreement stipulated when they became states 11 of the southern states seceded. They only wanted to be left alone. However, that evil Lincoln, one of the most vicious psychopaths that ever lived, invaded the South, committed numerous war crimes, and murdered millions of innocent Southerners.
Of course, the winners write history. The North doesn't want the people to know they violated the constitution and committed horrible war crimes by murdered millions over taxes so they invented the fantasy that the war was to eliminate slavery.
Keep in mind that slavery was an institution set up in America by the British in the colonial days. There WERE a lot of white men who died for the North in an effort to end slavery, but blacks today take no notice of this. They just grumble about 'the evil white man'.
It makes no sense to claim that "America redeemed it's sins", as America is not a person and therefore it cannot do anything a person can do.
To say that "America redeemed it's sins" is just as ridiculous as saying that it built a machine, killed a duck, or smiled at someone. It goes against the axioms of existence, identity and causality.
Yes because many people died in one of if not the bloodiest war in US history because they wanted to get rid of slavery among many other issues. They were that sick of the confederates' shit to put simply. If people getting brutally killed in an effort to get rid of it, in which they eventually did, didn't get rid of the sin, it sounds disrespectful to those who were killed fighting for abolition and I'm not sure what else would if human lives weren't enough.
It hasn't redeemed it's sin of slavery through the civil war, slavery wasn't considered a sin in most places when america suffered the civil war. It was, like Britain, a forefather when it comes to ending slavery.
Home > Society & Politics > Questions > What do you think of the argument that America redeemed its' sin of slavery through the blood shed during the Civil War?
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