Nevermind the others listed in this thread, anytime someone says “no one from that time knew it was wrong”, evoking the name of John Brown — a white abolitionist — should immediately end that discussion right there - ThreadSky

jongraywb.bsky.social • 190 days ago

Nevermind the others listed in this thread, anytime someone says “no one from that time knew it was wrong”, evoking the name of John Brown — a white abolitionist — should immediately end that discussion right there

Reposted from Boze the Library Owl

people say “you have to judge slaveholders by the morality of their own time, no one knew it was wrong” and then you read about some Quaker named, like, Mr. End-Slavery-Now who was also a feminist and a vegetarian and advocated the overthrow of capitalism.

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jongraywb.bsky.social•190 days ago

👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

danacorn.bsky.social•190 days ago

For that matter, slavery was hotly debated at the constitutional convention. Plenty of people already thought it was wrong then.

So yeah.

jessdee.bsky.social•190 days ago

There existed in this country abolitionists since damn near the beginning that slavery was a thing in this country. The Quakers presented a petition to ban slavery in 1688, and Thomas Paine advocated for abolition in 1775 extremely famously at the time. People knew.

jessdee.bsky.social•190 days ago

People who say "don't judge people based on their historical whatever" are just a) ignorant of history and b) projecting; worried about the things that *they're* ignorant about *right now* that they don't want to be judged on. And they make these arguments instead of getting educated.

write-or-die.bsky.social•190 days ago

It's like nuance and context are just optional. 😭

tenpointone.bsky.social•190 days ago

And slavery still exists today so at what point did “society” decide it was bad?

chrislaumanson.bsky.social•190 days ago

I imagine the discussion would immediately end with the still-marching soul of John Brown throttling the ever-loving shit out the person from the beyond

sensualkazoo.bsky.social•190 days ago

There were always people who saw it for the evil it was, even if you don't include the opinions on the matter of the enslaved. Benjamin Lay predates brown by more than a century and was driven to a lifelong dedication to abolition by the treatment of slaves he witnessed in barbados.

sensualkazoo.bsky.social•190 days ago

Thomas Paine is another who comes to mind.

conkles.bsky.social•190 days ago

Also I'm sure the people who were enslaved had thoughts on the morality of those enslaving them.

karlrolson.com•190 days ago

I like how this loops back into Bluesky's current safety failures. There's no "this is new ground" for this. People know what does & doesn't work in social, & silence in the wake of failure is a co-sign of that decision, just via the childish cowardice of not claiming it for fear of direct response.

brainchild129.bsky.social•190 days ago

John Brown lived for abolition, fought for abolition, and died for abolition, and even his enemies respected his bravery.

rine.bsky.social•189 days ago

Hell, he had several sons who died for abolition with him, he lost several homes and had to move multiple times because he put abolition above his personal businesses.

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