[Vision2020] Aaaaaa! Slavery!
Jeremy Downey
dunadhaigh@hotmail.com
Mon, 13 Oct 2003 13:43:37 -0700
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<P>Melynda Huskey wrote:</P>
<P>"I am myself descended from slaveowners--Pennsylvania Quaker slaveowners, I say with sorrow and regret. I am married to a descendant of North Carolina slave owners. Using your argument, nothing I say can be construed as revealing a bias against slave owners, since I have a fondness for both myself and for Joan. Do you see the difficulty now?"<BR><BR>I'm afraid I don't. Since when is it unheard-of for children to hate their fathers? Your desire to distance yourself from them is evident from this very paragraph. All your letters seem to me to reveal a deep-seated prejudice against the past, and the typical Darwinist infatuation with the "modern" and "enlightened."</P></DIV>
<P>"It was Doug Wilson, in the Daily News, who asserted that the purpose of his tract was to defend slavery as a Biblical institution."</P>
<P>I thought it quite plain that he showed his purpose to be the defense of the Bible as an infallible institution, which is rather a different emphasis. Forgive me for paraphrasing, but he did reapeatedly say something to the effect of, "My primary purpose was to defend the Bible."<BR><BR>"If that's not true, and his purpose was to right an historical wrong, I have to ask again, what kind of person looks at the institution of slavery in the U.S. and says to himself, 'You know, those slave owners got a bad rap. Everybody feels sorry for the slaves, sure--but who's speaking up on behalf of those fine traffickers in human beings, the owners?'"</P>
<DIV>A person who loves and feels a connection to his forbears, whatever their warts and wrinkles. As a Christian, one is bound up in a mystical Body that transcends not only boundaries of race and language, but also of time. The southern Christian slaveowners (and their Christian slaves) are as much a modern Christian's kindred as those he worships with in the present. And as such they should be treated with the sort of fairness and loyalty that brotherhood demands. This doesn't mean wholesale acceptance of everything they may have said or done, but that is not what Mr. Wilson is doing.</DIV>
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<DIV>"The modern historical establishment regularly re-engages the question of slavery--witness the brouhaha over *Time on the Cross.*"</DIV>
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<DIV>Which only makes it all the more curious that you find Wilson and Wilkins' investigation into the subject so insufferable.</DIV>
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<DIV>"Don't fool yourself that the Wilson/Wilkins tract is part of any serious research on the subject, though."</DIV>
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<DIV>That hurt. That hurt bad.</DIV>
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<DIV>Jeremy Downey</DIV>
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<P> </P>
<P>>From: "Melynda Huskey" <MGHUSKEY@HOTMAIL.COM></P>
<DIV></DIV>>To: "Jeremy Downey" <DUNADHAIGH@HOTMAIL.COM>,"vision2020" <VISION2020@MOSCOW.COM>
<DIV></DIV>>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Aaaaaa! Slavery!
<DIV></DIV>>Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:09:49 -0700
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<DIV></DIV>>Dear Jeremy:
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>I am myself descended from slaveowners--Pennsylvania Quaker slaveowners, I say with sorrow and regret. I am married to a descendant of North Carolina slave owners. Using your argument, nothing I say can be construed as revealing a bias against slave owners, since I have a fondness for both myself and for Joan. Do you see the difficulty now?
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>It was Doug Wilson, in the Daily News, who asserted that the purpose of his tract was to defend slavery as a Biblical institution. If that's not true, and his purpose was to right an historical wrong, I have to ask again, what kind of person looks at the institution of slavery in the U.S. and says to himself, "You know, those slave owners got a bad rap. Everybody feels sorry for the slaves, sure--but who's speaking up on behalf of those fine traffickers in human beings, the owners?"
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>The modern historical establishment regularly re-engages the question of slavery--witness the brouhaha over *Time on the Cross.* Don't fool yourself that the Wilson/Wilkins tract is part of any serious research on the subject, though. It's on a par with the work of David Irving.
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