Slavery to Describe the Condition Essay

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Foner suggests that the juxtaposition between abject slavery and its counterpart of physical, social, and political freedom is what made liberty an impassioned appeal for Southerners. In other words, liberty was a sign of social status in the South more so than it was elsewhere in the colonies. Because of the way Southern whites encountered their freedom in relation to their chattel, southern whites championed American independence with particular strength.

Furthermore, slavery became an eerily ironic sign of liberty for the white colonists. Foner notes that Americans worshipped liberty "while profiting from slavery" (p. 31). Slaves were what gave the Americans the ability to be self-sufficient and to reasonably separate from the motherland. Similarly, the imagined "freedom to enslave others" was a Christian myth but one that perpetuated the peculiar institution (p. 31). Interestingly, European observers of pre-Revolutionary America were aware and critical of the hypocrisy inherent in proclaiming "liberty for all" while championing the right to own slaves.

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In an age during which property ownership was the hallmark of independence, self-rule, and freedom, "The sanctity of property rights impeded emancipation" (Foner p. 35).

Ultimately the rhetoric of freedom and liberty did trickle down into slave subculture and inspired abolition movements. By the time the Declaration of Independence was signed, the terms "slavery" and "freedom" were free to take on new meanings. Those meanings included mainly the relationship between whites and blacks in America, and between Northerners and Southerners. The framers of the Constitution were blind and ignorant by allowing the perpetuation of the slave trade to continue and also by mandating runaway slave laws that….....

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