How Good People Do Evil 0
Every day, persons who consider themselves–and are considered by others–to be decent folks, rationalize the acceptance and perpetuation of evil. Nowhere in our history has this been more common than in the creation and perpetuation of the South’s institution of chattel slavery. Southerners who considered slavery to be evil found all kinds of reasons to not only do nothing about it, but to profit from the theft of labor.
In the Roanoke Times, Halford Ryan explores the self-serving rationales of one slaveholder, the one who is most often, after Thomas Jefferson, held up as a paragon of honor. Just read it.
While we are on the subject, I also recommend listening to this scholarly exploration of the history of the concept of race in America.
