I understand your point of view and I've thought that myself. However, back then black people were not considered people. Like it wasn't in white people's heads that these people they were torturing were people just like them...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I know that they didn't consider black people, people, but i consider hypocritical because everyone knows now that it doesn't matter what race you are, you're a person and deserve equal rights.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

People didn't really grasp concepts like that then. Even now, there is sexism and racism. They just didn't understand. Luckily, we realized how wrong that was eventually. Beeteedubs, your "hypocritical" founding fathers gave you the right to call them hypocrites without getting shot at. Actually, 50 years ago, you probably would've gotten shot for treason.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Although Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, while he was writing the Declaration of Independence (or the constitution, dont hate me, i cant remember) he brought up the topic of slavery. He said something about freedom for all, including slaves, but he had to leave that out in the final draft, since the others beleived it would cause too much tension between the colonies/states in the north and south. the south thrived on slave labor, without slaves they probably wouldn't agree to the D.o.I. and the revolutionists needed as much support as possible from the colonies. Long story short, some of the founding fathers disagred with slavery, but kept it for the unity of the colonies.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I agree. In fact, many of the founding fathers truly believed that slavery would die out on its own soon after. It was in decline after the Declaration was written and each slave was worth only around 40 dollars apiece when cotton was picked by hand because it took so long to separate the fibers from the seeds. However, with the invention of the cotton gin, the demand for slaves rose to run the cotton gins. Separating cotton was much, much faster and the price of a slave rose to around 800 dollars or more and slavery, especially in the South, became a crucial part of the economy. Slavery was worse than ever and by that time, all the founding fathers were gone and could not do anything about it.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I think some of you, and not just you, are getting away from what I meant. All I was saying was that they owned slaves and said they weren't going to be slaves to England, and while they were discussing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they were being served by slaves. I didn't mean that slavery was their fault or that they were bad people, all I was saying was that in the example given, they were hypocritical, and it seems like a lot of you don't get that.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

it was originall life liberty and the pursuit of property.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yes, and did you know that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, so he's still kinda hypocritical.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

(Cody White..........): Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, and what does that have to do with what I'm saying?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

That was kind of the norm back then. Plus, the slave needed a home, and no homes were furnished for them. Kind of like their pay for a home. They were against slavery during the conventions, but it was too much trouble to get freedom papers for all of them, and keep them all from from hunters (who would tear up freedom papers anyway, then sell them again) so they made use of them without any abuse. Plus, they had to wait for the law to change so they could free them appropriately. Get your facts straight please, not everything is so simple.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The point I'm making is not what you're saying. IM saying that the founding fathers owned slaves while they spoke about not being slaves to England. And you're making it seem like slaves didn't mind being slaves. Did they get a place to sleep? Yes. What were the conditions like most of the time? At least 30 people cramped into a small attic or basement. But does that have anything to do with what I was saying? NO!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I didn't say they enjoyed being slaves, in fact I didn't at at all say anything about their living quarters or state of mind. All I'm saying is that if the fathers released their slaves even with freedom papers, more than half of them would end up lynched, resold, raped, or exiled. Also, the fathers didn't mean that they were physical working slaves for England, but slaves to the tyrannical rule, religious persecution, and trade restrictions of England. So in essence, NO they fathers were not hypocrites. But the fact that they owned slaves was ironic.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I know they weren't physical slaves, and you don't think slaves in America were under a sort of tyrant, the majority of them you treated horribly. In that sense they are hypocrites. AND im saying that maybe not back then they were hypocrites, but with today's standards, they definitely were.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Then yes, TODAY they would be hypocrites. Back then they weren't.

by Anonymous 13 years ago