Sunday, August 20, 2006

A short lesson on the Civil War, its aftermath

Jules Wagman in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reviews The American Civil War: A Hands-on History by Christopher J. Olsen
In Chapter 3, "The Proslavery Arguments and Sectional Conflict," Olsen quotes from a speech to the U.S. Senate in 1858 by South Carolina Sen. James Henry Hammond: "In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life . . . Fortunately for the South, she has found a race adapted to that purpose at her hand. A race inferior to her own, but eminently qualified in temper, in vigor, in docility, in capacity to stand the climate, to answer all her purposes. We use them for our purpose and call them slaves . . ."

Slaves did the jobs that Americans wouldn't do?

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