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Slavery
Oct 21, 2010 16:34:51 GMT -5
Post by Carly on Oct 21, 2010 16:34:51 GMT -5
During the Slave act of 1793 Canada was the first place under the British Empire to ban slavery. But to be able to do this they had to agree with the legislation that no slaves at that present time would be allowed to be set free, it would be illegal from that point on to purchase or sell slaves. Now I believe that slavery is wrong, yes, but the point I don’t understand is that if it was illegal to have slaves, why wouldn’t the current ones be set free? It was illegal was it not? Saying they couldn’t not be set free at the time the act was set in place is also say someone made a huge thanksgiving supper but they find out someone is allergic to ONE thing on that table so now the entire family can not eat. Now, also the point that Upper Canada got mad that they made themselves a new law to reinstate the slave acts for them. So I’m asking this was it so hard for people to do things on their own? We people really that lazy back then to do their own work? ???
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Slavery
Oct 25, 2010 15:30:30 GMT -5
Post by Mr. Delainey on Oct 25, 2010 15:30:30 GMT -5
You raise a good question, i.e. If slavery was illegal then why allow slaves to be kept?
Well, the trouble Simcoe had was he was trying to pass an anti-slavery law in a society that had existing slaves. Slave owners would resist any attempt at such a law being passed because they'd stand to lose their slaves (that much makes sense I think).
For Simcoe to receive the necessary support to pass this law he had to reach a compromise, i.e. They grand-fathered slavery by outlawing the purchase of any future slaves BUT making slaves owned prior to the law legal to keep. Barbaric I know but this is how laws are sometimes made.
As the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire once said: Don't let the perfect get in the way of the necessary.
Hmmm, where'd you read that the Upper Canadian reinstated slavery? I don't recall reading that (doesn't mean it didn't happen though).
And slaves weren't kept because people were lazy exactly. You didn't have to pay slaves to do work. All you had to do was feed, cloth and shelter them. And if you had many slaves you had the ability to do a lot of work, i.e. They could take a lot more crops out of the ground than say you could by yourself AND you didn't have to pay them (unlike hired hands or even your relatives). Slaves were kept for profit. In the American South, slavery was tremendously important to the success of the economy (plantations, etc.).
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