72 thoughts on “Blog #42 – Slavery disqualifier?”

1. Carolyn Dimitry October 30, 2012 at 4:02 pm

   1) The Founding Fathers are being shown in a hypocritical light. People are beginning to wonder how men who proclaimed freedom for all could still own slaves, keeping people in bondage. Some people are quick to attack them because they try to expose moral flaws in the Founding Fathers, flaws which can be taken advantage of when other decisions made by these men are called into question. Others keep the Founding Fathers on the high pedestal we keep them at. They are so central to our history we are taught at an early age that these men were a force of capitol G Good. They were every bit the heroes we want them to have been. People today fight to keep them as high on their pedestal as possible, while other try to prove these men were simple humans, and still others try to push the definition somewhere in the middle.
   2) The Founding Fathers are being judged by today’s standards, rather than the standards of their time period. In their time it was not an uncommon opinion that blacks were a substandard race. They had grown up in a time where the practice was common place; while there may have been some guilt over it, the benefits outweighed the moral costs. The economic benefits alone could outweigh the moral cost. Just look at modern use of sweatshops and child labour. The companies that do it know it’s not the most morally ideal situation, but the profit to be gained from taking cost cutting measures such as these override the moral downside. Politicians use the Founding Fathers a political ‘football’ of sorts as they exemplify the highest ideal of a politician to the majority of the population. They started everything, changed the course of history irrevocably, and politicians today wish to follow in their footsteps.
2. Cooper Peters-Wood October 30, 2012 at 4:03 pm

   Our founding fathers are the victims of criticism and anger today over the belief that they are hypocritical jerks that are “against slavery”, but still own slaves. The way I see it, they were simply abiding by the customs and social normality of their time. The vast majority of our founding fathers worked and made their living through agriculture. They were mostly successful and owned a lot of land. And realistically the only way to obtain enough labor to farm this land was through slavery. Thomas Jefferson was also against the use of industry and believed in agricultural based economy. He owned slaves to allow for him to keep up his farming ideals, even though he may have believed it morally wrong, it was his only realistic option. I’m not saying slavery was right, but it was the only option for these men. What is happening today is that people see these slave owning me as evil Hippocrates, while some people who simply adore the founding fathers and whom were raised to believe they were always right (George Washington could not lie and all of that) come to their defense. I personally do not believe these men were Hippocrates seeing as the customs of their time was to use slave labor. And just because they owned slaves didn’t mean they were evil. Several years ago I visited Mount Vernon and learned about Washington’s slaves. He was about the best owner any slave could have; he practically treated them as family. In his will, he instructed that they be freed upon his death, and when that they came and Martha told them the news, every single freed slave decided to stay on the Mount Vernon Plantation. The Founding Fathers are being unfairly judged by today’s standards. They were simply abiding by the ideals of their era, and slavery was the only probable means of large amounts of labor. The founding fathers probably were against slavery, in fact they said so themselves, and were doing their best to be good to their slaves (as in the case of Mount Vernon). They were doing their best to keep all of their ideals strait, and are being unfairly used and judged by the people of today.
3. Marie Suehrer October 30, 2012 at 6:42 pm

   “Betrayer” a heavy accusation. People will call someone a betrayer, if their plans promise “a”, but in their actions they show something totally contradictory that might even be against the person accusing. The Founding Fathers of the United States are considered, for many people, betrayers. In the Declaration Of Independence they supposedly said all men were created equal, but they on their own kept numerous slaves. Often they are accused of having caused slavery. But is that right? For sure they are not innocent over slavery, but in my opinion they did not cause it. Slavery has been a major issue for thousands of years. We as people like, even today, if we can have someone who we can easily accuse of something so we don’t have to find the actual cause. In this case the people had the Founding Fathers. They had created our country, they drafted the Declaration Of Independence, they are in charge, it would only make sense that they are the ones guilty of slavery in our country. They even had their own slaves. Pretty obvious right?! Not so much. Would we accuse the greeks, the first to produce alcohol that would spread widely, of hangovers today? Not so much. I think the people then who accused, for say especially Thomas Jefferson, might have been jealous that they were not as wealthy as him and that they couldn’t own slaves. Often it is still like that today. For example at maybe a fashion competition, when there is a group of people that do not really know what they are doing have bad results. Then there is one or two people , who turn out very well and they successfully completed everything they were supposed to. Well, the ‘bad’ people might purposely give the ‘good’ people a poor rating, because they are jealous and wish they could have done something as good. The people who had defended Thomas Jefferson, might have either been motivated by the fact that they owned slaves themselves or they knew, something can not be stopped without a reason, and you can not find a good reason unless you have experienced it or worked with the issues. Alike can you not really clean up a room, unless you “take everything apart”,sort it into proper categories, and out it away neatly in groups. It could have been like that with Jefferson and slavery. He thought that he can’t solve the issue unless he knows what the problem really is. In some ways I very much agree with this idea, but maybe he could have just met with former slaves(owners) and resolved the issue with their help
4. Sarah Fried October 30, 2012 at 7:50 pm

   1. The founding fathers are being accused of the hypocrisy they demonstrated on the topic of slavery. Some people are accusing them of this because they just don’t understand how such powerful political leaders could practice the exact opposite of what they preached. Some people defended the founding fathers with every ounce of their being because they truly understood what the FFs were trying to accomplish and how they couldn’t just release all their slaves without getting just as much ridicule. The process of abolishing slavery was not something to be taken lightly and careful measures were required to lead the slaves to freedom.
   2. The founding fathers are definitely being judged by today’s standards. In the world that they lived in, there just wasn’t any better way to prove yourself a wealthy and prosperous man than the ownership of slaves. The practice of owning slaves was something that these men were born and raised on. The founding fathers became some kind of political football that candidates use for their own purpose because they demonstrate the top notch politician that everyone wishes to be.
5. Meredith Hawkins October 30, 2012 at 8:09 pm

   Our founding fathers are under harsh criticisms such as being called “hypocrites” and “racist” for working so hard toward establishing freedom in the United States while in their own homes they have slaves working their fields and managing their households. Some people are quick to attack the founding fathers for taking someone else’s freedom while they were trying to start up a freedom-loving nation because it doesn’t make sense that someone could have such contradictory thoughts on an issue so important. One of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, one talked of how slaves didn’t produce any literature, they smelled bad, and that they were constantly engaged in sexual activity. That was one opinion of his but also Jefferson defended his case when he talked about how the slave master attitude is passed down from father to son. According to the words of Thomas Jefferson, the child of the slave owner watches and learns how to treat his slaves then when he acquires his own slaves the cycle is perpetuated. This argument could be the reason why people so whole heartily back up the Founding Fathers and defend their case. I definitely believe that our slave owning founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and James Madison are being judged by today’s standards rather than the standards of their own time period. In the late 16th and 17th century it was normal for wealthy Southern families to own slaves. They needed slaves to do labor intensive work such as harvesting crops and managing the fields but also woman slaves to take care of the home. In today’s society we would be flabbergasted to discover any form of common slavery like this within the United States. I do not consent with the idea that these men are rightly being called “hypocrites” because owning slaves was just as common for people back than as it is for people to own iPhones today. The Founding Fathers have not become a kind of political “football” that candidates use for their own purposes because issues from back then were more about how to establish a good foundation for the United States where as problems today are mostly about our economy and foreign affairs.
6. Kayla Sara Kapen October 30, 2012 at 8:29 pm

   1.)In the article, the founding fathers are being criticized. People are thinking why these courageous men who people looked up to could be so cruel by not letting a large portion of the population not have equal rights. People are quick to attack the founding fathers because they want to find their flaws to prove that they aren’t the perfect gentlemen as people would like to think. In today’s society, people like to pinpoint the big and little mistakes that people make to make them feel good about themselves to know that no one in the world is perfect. It isn’t fair that people judge the founding fathers because everybody makes mistakes and since they are big figures in American history, it just makes it worse because everyone knows who they were. Other people defend the founding fathers because they look up to them for creating our independent nation. If they hadn’t taken a stand, then we might not have been here. Other people feel that isn’t fair to judge them because of all the hard work that they had to do.
   2.) I think that the founding fathers are being judged by today’s standards instead of the standards in that time period because back in that time, it was very common for people to be slave owners. The founding fathers had grown up to their parents being slave owners. Some slave owners felt bad about it but the pros outweighed the cons. The slave companies thought that this was economic gold even when they thought about moral costs. I think that the founding fathers have become some kind of political football that politicians have used because in the game of politics, the politicians look up to the founding fathers as a guide to how they should play and how they should win because the founding fathers were the blueprints in how history was made.
7. Gabe Mann October 30, 2012 at 8:56 pm

   The founding fathers are being put down because they fought so hard for the liberties of men but not black men specifically slaves. In today’s world a lot of people ask themselves the same question when it comes to the founding fathers why support equal rights of man but at the same time own several slaves? It’s easy to see why people attack them so vigorously, slavery was a big issue back then and when people realize that the founding fathers knew the torment that those slaves were suffering wouldn’t you attack them just as much? The fact of the matter is that it doesn’t matter whether or not the Founding Fathers were judged by today’s standards our their own times standards what really matters is that the founding fathers knew that slavery was going they knew all the atrocities and horrors plantation owners were doing too their slaves so they could make money. Maybe the founding fathers didn’t torture their slaves but they certainly did own them and thats what really counts they treated them as their property not as a human beings. In today’s political landscape the founding fathers are always being quoted and being mentioned in speeches, Politicians, journalists, most everyone in the media uses the founding fathers beliefs as sort of the bases of the their principles which helps paint these candidates as solid honest americans who can help keep America on track or wherever their running. The founding fathers set the benchmark for democracy and keeping it on track, as long as America is a country people will continue to use the founding fathers in whatever way possible to make the public see them in a better light. In the end we can only go after the founding the fathers with what we already know and one of the things we do know for sure is that they owned slaves but then again why did they own slaves and still fight for equal rights? the answer might never be.
8. Julia Berthel October 30, 2012 at 8:56 pm

   Question 1:
   The Founding Fathers are being criticized for their seemingly hypocritical views on slavery. People are quick to attack the Founding Fathers because the Founding Fathers owned slaves while they petitioned for abolishing slavery or ending the slave trade. The Founding Fathers were supposed to set the example for how Americans should act, but they only stated how Americans should live. They did not seem to live the ideas that they preached, which led to many criticisms. Some people criticize, but others defend the Founding Fathers. These defenders seem to worship the Founding Fathers in the sense that they believe that the Founding Fathers were almost above human standards. The politicians need to make the Founding Fathers seem perfect in order to justify certain points that they use in forming the basis of politics today. Politicians defend the Founding Fathers so that they can be used as a “political football”, being thrown around to justify people’s points.

   Question 2:
   The Founding Fathers are definitely being judged by today’s standards, but they were also judged in their time period as well. As mentioned in the blog, Englishman Samuel Johnson stated that it was those most opposed to slavery that were the slave holders. It is difficult to judge people that lived in a world that is so different from our world, but then people like Samuel Johnson have similar criticisms to ours. This shows a universal understanding of hypocrites that is unchanging no matter what time period it is. The Founding Fathers are being judged against today’s standards, but they are also being judged against universal standards that stay consent over time.
   The Founding Fathers have been used to create a sense of patriotism when politicians are speaking. The names of the Founding Fathers are tossed around in multiple different conversations about multiple different issues. Specific characteristics of the Founding Fathers are used by politicians to prove the point they are trying to make, while they leave out the other characteristics that would contradict their point. As mentioned earlier, the “political football”, or the Founding Fathers, goes hand in hand with politicians defending the Founding Fathers. Politicians defend in order to be able to efficiently use the Founding Fathers for their own purposes.
9. Jenna Weed October 30, 2012 at 9:42 pm

   The Founding Fathers are quick to blame for allowing slavery to exist when building the foundations of our government. They did not believe that bondage was a just practice and acknowledged that is was against American beliefs and principles to own slaves. However, the law did permit owning slaves and many of the Founding Fathers and some later presidents, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and many others held slaves on their plantations because of its benefits to the mostly Southern economy. As a result, many people have criticized the Founding Fathers because of their participation in acts of slavery. They are easy to blame because they are held so highly in our minds as beginners of our great nation. It is human nature to tear down these figures of honorable stature and to pointedly blame them for wrongdoings. People accuse them of forming the United States for the interests of those better off, like the ability and right to own slaves, and that this posed as an obstacle for quick emancipation. However, some people defend the Founding Fathers because they built the foundations of our country knowing that it would be flawed and realized that future generations would be flawed too. The Founding Fathers’ thinking was smart because the way they framed the Constitution allowed it to be easy to modify the Constitution. Supporters believe that they should be remembered for how they set up our country, not what was happening home on their plantations.
   The Founding Fathers are being judged by today’s standards and views on slavery because of principles of racism and liberty. Today, we see slavery as a cruel and immoral act of injustice because every person has rights and is free in America. Back then, slavery was part of the Southern economy and relied on as the way of labor to produce goods to trade. Today’s standards might not have occurred to them, and they are being reprimanded based on today’s principles and not on those of their time period. The Founding Fathers are being tossed around like a political football because they are of high importance in United State’s history. Figures with so much power are so easy to reproach and today are being used by candidates to bolster a weak argument. Our Founding Fathers are unfairly judged by cynical people and deserve more respect.
10. Jalen October 30, 2012 at 10:04 pm

    What is happening here to the Founding Fathers?
    There were some founding fathers that wanted to abolish slavery, but the majority of the public wanted to keep it alive so because their jobs depended on it. After the war with Britain, the nation could have easily crumbled if the subject of slavery divided the nation. If the nation had crumbled, then Britain could have come back and defeated the colonists.
    Why are some people quick to attack and blame them for allowing slavery to exist at the foundation of a freedom-loving nation?
    Because they could have written it into the constitution and their might not have been a civil war. Also, they allowed slave importation for another 20 years. This was critical because hundreds of thousands of slaves poured into the country. Without this clause, the total number of slaves in the new nation would be significantly less.
    And why do some people defend the FFs with every ounce of their being?
    Because there are strict readers of the constitution that don’t want to admit that not everything in the there is applicable to modern times. Also, they try to enforce what the founding fathers might believe even though it’s not relevant to today.
    Do you think the FFs are being judged by today’s standards or by the standards of the day in which they lived?
    Not saying that slavery was any way acceptable, but it was commonplace for people in the 1700’s to own slaves. Many southern Founding Fathers believed that slavery was essential to the growing economy and that the new and somewhat prospering nation needed them. Obviously slavery is strongly condemned by everyone, but the Founding Fathers saw the subject of slavery as something that the next generation would take care. (They already won our independence, isn’t that enough???) The idea that the states would handle the subject of slavery was preposterous. If they had simply stopped the importation of Africans, then the topic of slavery could have been solved much easier.
    Have the FFs become some kind of political football that candidates use for their own purposes? Why?
    Some politicians say that what their opponents are doing would not be “what the Founding Fathers would have wanted”. I find it really fascinating that the politicians can go back in time and ask the Founding Fathers questions on modern day problems that they never faced. Oh wait, they can’t do that. So how can they assume that that was what they wanted? Our Founding Fathers never imagined a world with technology as advanced as it currently is. Health Care didn’t even exist, so how could they have made a decision on it when they didn’t even know what it was?
11. Laine Boitos October 30, 2012 at 11:05 pm

    1) The Founding Fathers are being shown here as hypocrites. Many people could not understand how these men were putting all of their energy into the abolition movement, and then returning home to find slaves working their fields. They are most certainly not practicing what they preach, because if they were than all of their slaves would be freed. I believe people were so quick to judge our Founding Fathers because America was supposed to be a land of freedom. All men were supposed to be created equal here, and it said so in our Declaration of Independence. If these men were to be in charge of our nation, but still practice slavery, then it was setting a bad example to the rest of the citizens. These core individuals should be the ones to fight for equality, because our nation was largely based upon that principle. However, people have great reason to stand behind our Founding Fathers. They had to maintain their aristocratical reputations, and provide for the people at the same time; and these were often two very differing views. On one hand, these families had been slave owners for a very long time, and if a person were to break that line it wouldn’t have gone over very well. Slave-owning was also a sign of wealth and power, and they wouldn’t have wanted to lose that. But, they had to oblige by what the common population wanted; abolition. Although these actions may seem hypocritical, I believe that it was merely an attempt at the balance of classes to prevent further disagreement within the nation. Ultimately, these men did create this country out of hardly anything at all. So, despite their differing opinions on slavery, it is vital to stand behind them regardless of the circumstance.
    2) I definitely believe that our Founding Fathers are being judged by the standards of today’s society. The world that we live in today is a completely different place than it was two hundred years ago. I feel that the individuals that are criticizing these men, have no real idea of what it was like to be in that position. Back then, slave-owning was a way to show wealth and prosperity. These men all had powerful positions in the government, and would probably feel less powerful if they were to sell all of their slaves. Today, if anyone to find out about slavery in the U.S. there would be some major issues. However, times have changed and the people that criticize should first take a look back to the early 1800’s before judging such important men in such a harsh way. Yes, I do believe that the Founding Fathers have become some type of “Political Football” that candidates feel that they can throw around. Often, there are accusations thrown at the candidates about how they were being hypocritical; promising one thing and then giving another. In situations like these, it would be extremely easy to use the Founding Fathers as a support. They would be able to say,”These guys were hypocrites, but they made a great country.” It is always easy to twist the words and intentions around in something, so in that sense I do think that the Founding Fathers are thrown around sometimes as a “Political Football”.
12. Amanda Burcroff October 30, 2012 at 11:20 pm

    It’s easy to criticize the founding fathers of hypocrisy because they owned slaves, and thought it is not wrong to blame them there is no way you could expect anything better of them. People today recognize the wrongs of slavery, but such a notion can’t be abolished overnight. If the founding fathers had tried to abolish slavery in the constitution, I’m almost positive that there would have been a conflict and the fragile alliance between the North and South would have been shattered. Having founding fathers who had slaves was almost a good strategy, for we had to take baby steps into abolition or we would have failed miserably. That said, those who defend the slave-owning founding fathers without recognizing any fault of theirs is ignoring that there were other options. It’s true that most of them who owned slaves had been born and raised in slave-owning areas, but they eventually had all been exposed to the abolitionist ideas and reasoning of many in the North. Each of them chose to ignore the contradictions between their words and actions that surely had been pointed out more than once. So although it would have been extremely impressive if any slave-owning founding fathers had acted otherwise, we still need to recognize that they were exposed to the views we have now but they chose to ignore what we believe to be “sound” reasoning. When we decide to judge these men on their actions, we have to make sure to judge them in the context of their time and whether the alternatives would have caused a different/better outcome.
    The Founding Fathers are definitely judged more by today’s standards, for people tend to have a hard time imaging a world with a different morality. It seems so self-evident that the Founding Fathers were not acting as they preached, but it clearly wasn’t as obvious in their time. It’s not fair that we hold them to standards that they hadn’t even given much consideration to, but I’m sure in the future we will get our fair share of unfair criticism. About the “football” statement, I suppose that the words of the Founding Fathers are tossed around today to either attack an opponent or bolster an argument, but most of these statements are broad and probably don’t apply in the context they are used. We have to be more careful to keep our time periods somewhat separated or the results can end up very twisted.
13. Darab Khan October 30, 2012 at 11:43 pm

    1. The Founding Fathers are being criticized for being hypocritical about slavery. They are asking how could someone who stands up for human freedom keep slaves? They are also accusing some the Founding Fathers of being cowards and not even courageous enough to be for or against slavery (Especially Virginians). People are quick to attack them because they are the best known people of their time, they are who the people looked up to. If they couldn’t make up their minds how could “normal” people. Some people will protect the Founding Fathers no matter what because they understand how difficult it was to rationalize the idea of slavery back in a time period where it was socially acceptable everywhere else. It was something that required more time and a more understanding people to make abolishing slavery a real thing.
    2. I think that the Founding Fathers are being judged by today’s standards. No one back then would have criticized them. Now that slavery is known to be an unacceptable thing people see that the Founding Fathers may have been a little double minded about what to do. I don’t think that the Founding Fathers have become a football for candidates. I’ve never heard any candidate refer to them other then in the text above. If they were to become a sort of football, I think it would be because they are well renowned and people want to be able to relate to them. They think that comparing themselves to people who did good and comparing their opponents with wrongdoers will get the people’s attention.
14. Jeremy Ellis October 31, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    1) Most people are so quick to judge the founding fathers because slavery went on for almost 75 years after the signing of the Declaration which states “all men are created equal.” I hate slavery and wished it never want on but we were in country in need, the founding fathers are at no fault for everything that happened with slavery. Some people are quick to judge the fathers because they wanted everyone equal and did not put in an end to slavery but if they did the Civil War would have been weeks after the signing of the Declaration and are country would have crumbled. I defend our founding fathers because they all had an image of America to this day and its not what they tried to create because everyone dies. If they lived forever than I believe we would be a perfect union but you cannot blame a few men who created the country we live in because of slavery when it was the whole countries fault.
    2) I believe the Founding Fathers are being judged in todays life because back then after and during the revolution, the founding fathers walked as gods. Most of the people back then had a low education and did not know whats right or wrong, but us today, everyone has access to a computer, most of us are educated so we know what was going on back then. Racism still goes on today because some people can not except others but its not okay now and it was not then. We know better, they did not. Every politician throws the founding fathers names around to try and prove that their better but i highly doubt that a politician today could have done nearly half as good as a job that OUR founding fathers have done. They created a nation through the better and worse, I think its desrespectful when a politician uses Founding Fathers and saying what they did wrong because no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes, thats what makes this world what it is. We do not know what it is like to live in their time as they do for us but they did a pretty damn good job about making a country from nothing.
15. Sarah Fried October 31, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    1. The founding fathers are being accused of the hypocrisy they demonstrated on the topic of slavery. While they were battling the country on the abolishment of slavery, there were slaves working in their own backyards. This created strife throughout the country through the years because of the contradicting circumstances of the founding fathers. Some people accused them of this because they just don’t understand how such powerful political leaders could practice the exact opposite of what they preached. “Some of Founding Fathers, especially the Virginians, are racist because they neither had the courage to free their slaves or that they profited from their slaves’ labor.” These were the opinions held by people on the founding fathers actions. Some people defended the founding fathers with every ounce of their being because they truly understood what the FFs were trying to accomplish and how they couldn’t just release all their slaves without getting just as much ridicule. The process of abolishing slavery was not something to be taken lightly and careful measures were required to lead the slaves to freedom.
    2. The founding fathers are definitely being judged by today’s standards. In the world that they lived in, there just wasn’t any better way to prove yourself a wealthy and prosperous man than the ownership of slaves. The practice of owning slaves was something that these men were born and raised on. The founding fathers became some kind of political football that candidates use for their own purpose because they demonstrate the top notch politician that everyone wishes to be and issues from back then were more about how to establish a good foundation for the United States where as problems today are mostly about our economy and foreign affairs.
16. connor P. October 31, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    I believe that what people are saying about the founding fathers is that they were apart of slavery just like everyone else and they are trying to say they didn’t fight for all peoples freedom’s because they held slaves. I believe that some people are quick to attack our founding fathers about this because they ARE our founders. People might believe that they had so much power and respect by the people that they could have ended slavery right there and then end the conflict. They are also saying the founding fathers are Hippocrates because they swore to create a nation filled with freedom among the people yet thy owned slaves and gave slaves no rights. I believe that some people are supporting and fighting against this with all their cause because they respect what the fathers did and feel they did a lot for their time. They look up to the founding fathers and have developed a kind of defensive stance where they don’t want anything bad said about their idols. They can’t imagine a world where the creators of the country are wrong and so defend it to the end. I believe that the founding fathers today are being judged by today’s standards and not the correct time periods standards. I believe that this is true because during the time slavery was popular and many liked it. I feel the founding fathers knew that they could not stop slavery because it was so popular. I believe that they felt it was wrong but at the time they didn’t have the right tools to stop it because stopping something popular isn’t easy and I don’t think many would be in favor of it. Nowadays many are already against it and I believe that the people who support it are thinking that they could have easily stopped slavery. I do not think that they understand that it was popular and impossible to stop. That is what I think about this topic.
17. Maggie Hammond October 31, 2012 at 4:40 pm

    1. The founding fathers are the epitome of American Nationalism. Just like views on strong nationalism, people have positive and negative opinions. The founding fathers are found as hypocrites for having slaves but still wanting liberty for all, and people have taken sides on whether they should be praised or not. The founding fathers were very helpful in the making of this country with their strong leadership, but their views on slavery can be found confusing. Some people are quick to blame the founding fathers for allowing slavery to exist at time of liberty, and find that they should not deserve as much love and fame. Although the fathers did pursue for a new government, they were cautious to avoid slavery at the time, to avoid conflicts in the fragile country. Other people protect the founding fathers with every fiber of their being, to show their nationalistic pride in America. These people show their support in America by protecting the love of the founding fathers, and their extreme leadership in such hard times, but avoiding the fact of the hypocrisy values.
    2. The founding fathers are being judged by the expectations of this time period, and none other. Just as this era shames the thought of slavery and injustice in America in past eras, we disregard other important prejudices around us, like gay rights. If the people who judged the founding fathers so harshly were to compare their actions in the time frame of the 1700 and 1800’s, they would find that these men were amazing leaders and had great values. These values have been diluted to lower ranks in our time, because of our ignorant views and our incompetence to be able to judge them in the era they lived in. The founding fathers have been thrown around like a football to make the candidates appear both heroic in the sense that the founding fathers were evil and in the thought of wicked because of the founding fathers greatness and impressive leadership. Politicians have learned to manipulate the image of the founding fathers for their personal benefit.
18. Shelby Clay October 31, 2012 at 5:00 pm

    1) The founding fathers came to the new land (America) because they wanted freedom from the monarchy. They are being very hypocritical for the fact of leaving for the freedom yet they have slaves do all their “dirty work”. The founding fathers are then blamed for allowing slavery, this is true they did allow slavery they owned slaves and they allowed slavery. People also fight for the founding father’s rights because without them being the brave men that they were there wouldn’t be an America in existence. The founding fathers like everyone else weren’t perfect so they of course had problems. So we can’t be so quick to judge them and point fingers.
    2) The founding fathers are being judged in today’s standards. When they were living the only way the could prove themselves as being wealthy was to own slaves. Black slaves males or females were considered as property. This doesn’t make our founding fathers racist nor hypocrites at the time this was just the “right“ thing to do. It’s very difficult to judge people who lived in a totally different time period. Criticizing these men, but never living in the time period and haven’t been in that position.
19. Zach Van Faussien October 31, 2012 at 5:08 pm

    Well, I think that when the Founding Father’s owned slaves, they owned them because they had to. It was something that at the time you almost had to do it. I also feel like some Founding Fathers knew that at the time, our weak economy needed slavery for it to grow and prosper. Now when people attack the Founding Fathers for owning slaves I can’t argue and say that they’re wrong, because they were technically being hypocrites. I think people attack them and call them hypocrites because they like to argue and they don’t know what it was like back then. And especially what it was like to be living in Virginia, with almost everyone owning slaves. And other people defend the Founding Fathers because they are patriots and understand what they did for our country and that everyone is a human being and has flaws. I think they are being judged by today’s standards because we live in a country where no one has ever experienced slavery. And by experiencing slavery I mean like the slave industry. If the Founding Fathers have become “political footballs” or not I think that our candidates today are doing the same thing the Founding Fathers did. Presidential candidates say that they will stop the war in Iraq but do you really think they have completely taken all of the US soldiers out of Iraq. It’s is just like slavery in the aspect that it is unavoidable. And I think the Founding Fathers knew that people would look back at them owning slaves and call them hypocrites, but they just did what was best for the future of our country.
20. Nick Berry October 31, 2012 at 5:19 pm

    The Founding Fathers are being portrayed as hypocritical. People are so quick to attack and blame them for allowing slavery to exist at the foundation of a freedom-loving nation because they think that one cannot be opposed to slavery and own slaves. People believed that if the nation was to be truly a freedom-loving one then the people running it should not be owners of slaves. Thomas Jefferson attempts to justify his position on the matter of slavery and how he can oppose it while still owning slaves. He states that the proper treatment of slaves is passed down from the master to their children and so the children are simply treating them how they have been taught to. Some people try to defend to Founding Fathers because they feel that all of them were constantly trying to do things to abolish slavery and that if they had succeeded earlier they would have gladly freed their slaves.
    I think that the Founding Fathers are being judged by judged by both today’s standards and those of their own time, but that they are being judged much more by today’s standards. The Founding Fathers have become a kind of political football that the candidates use for their own purposes because many of them will refer to things they did or how they did things and then go on to say how they themselves are like some of the Founding Fathers. Politicians are using the Founding Fathers to make the people of America to think they have some greatness about them, that because they are vaguely like one or multiple of the Founding Fathers, that they are somehow better for the position they are running for.
21. William Schwartz October 31, 2012 at 5:29 pm

    1)The Founding Fathers are being scrutinized for their actions, but not their morals. Many people are quick to attack them because the Founding Fathers saw all the evils being done and didn’t do anything about it. People defending them say that they were morally sound, because they didn’t agree with the harms being done, such as Thomas Jefferson in his letters. I think we just need to look at the facts, the country was shaky at best in its early years, if one of these great men were to go against slavery, then it could potentially destroy the infant democracy before it matured. The issue of slavery was not only a moral one, but an economic one as well. The people of the south relied on slavery to keep their economy running, without it their agrarian system would falter. Even George Washington wanted slavery to be abolished, but he knew that it would split the country in two because he was the glue holding it together. I think that no men are perfect and the Founding Fathers were no different, they had their flaws, but they still created something great, but at an expense.
    2)I think the Founding Fathers are definitely being judged by today’s standards because back in their time slavery was still controversial, but overall it was widely accepted as a necessary practice. Today we see it as so bad because we are more enlightened than people back then. I think that candidates are using the Founding Fathers for their own purpose because candidates sometimes take a quote from a Founding Father and twist it to support their policies even if the Founding Father meant it in a completely different way. Like when people say stuff about the right to bear arms, which the Founding Fathers supported. I don’t see how what they thought could be relevant because they lived in a different era, they couldn’t have foreseen assault rifles and .50 cal snipers.
22. Eleni Kondak October 31, 2012 at 5:43 pm

    1. Because the founding fathers seem to contradict their own ideas of freedom, people are accusing them of hypocrisy. I think that people who feel very strongly about the wrongness and inhumanity of slavery are more likely to disregard the Founding Fathers’ better contributions to the nation because they owned and profited from slaves. They can also use these accusations to their advantage when trying to discredit other ideas that the Founding Fathers had. Others protect the ideas that we’ve been taught since elementary school; the righteousness of the Founding Fathers, and the illusion of flawlessness in their character. What the attackers do is magnify the flaws that are sometimes glossed over by the die-hard defenders.
    2. I think that the Founding Fathers are definitely being judged by the standards and morals of today, rather than the ones that they had been taught to live by. Slavery was a societal norm by the time any of the Founding Fathers were born; they had all grown up with slaves, so it seemed normal to them. People then rationalized slavery by claiming that God had created Africans for the purpose of slave labor, and they were not viewed as humans; in fact, thanks to the three-fifths compromise, they were barely considered half that. Also, the Founding Fathers had considered emancipating the nation along with the revolution, so they knew that it was not as ideal as it seemed. But they also knew that outlawing slavery would shatter the already fragile idea of unity they needed from the WHOLE nation to achieve their freedom. The Civil War is proof enough that shutting down slavery would have split the nation. Politicians nowadays will manipulate the ideas and beliefs of the Founding Fathers – seen by most all Americans as the heroes of our nation and unlikely to be challenged – to support their own message; maybe relevant, maybe not. It’s not the kind of position the Founding Fathers – although flawed – deserve to be burdened by.
23. Melissa Hall October 31, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    Our Founding Fathers are being placed under the title, “hypocrites” and also “racist”. This is because men like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and James Madison owned some slaves of their own yet tried to fight for freedom. Some believe that the Founding Fathers are racist because they didn’t have the courage to free their own slaves. Many people are quick to blame and attack these men for allowing slavery to exist while trying to maintain freedom. The reason why people blame them is because they don’t understand how somebody so determined to find freedom could still be a slave owner. Many find it very confusing and for example, Jefferson states in his book that slaves didn’t make real literature, smelled bad, and engaged in sex often. People are so quick to blame them because of the high standards they had for them for helping create our country. On the other hand, some people defend the Founding Fathers with every ounce of their being. This is because they built the structure of our country, and believe what they are doing is okay. For example Jefferson wrote a passage in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence that opposed slavery, and he signed a bill that outlawed international slave trade.
    I strongly believe that the Founding Fathers are being judged by today’s standards rather than the standards from their own time period. This is because back in the time period when the Founding Fathers existed it was normal for Southern whites to be slave owners, and this also showed a form of wealth back then. The Southerners needed slaves to help with their farming and labor work. On the other hand, in the United States today, it would be completely abnormal to see slaves helping or anyone to be owning slaves. It is not exactly fair to judge them when the society they lived in was so immensely different from ours. I do believe that the Founding Fathers are becoming some kind of “political football” that candidates use and look up to. They are being talked about and used in today’s society. The Founding Fathers were very important in the development of the United State’s and created history. Essentially, they were the ones that “tested out” what worked and what didn’t work for our country. It is very easy for candidates to throw around the words “Founding Fathers” and use their ideas for support. The Father’s ideas from their time period can be used to help support candidates in today’s society.
24. Matt Gallo October 31, 2012 at 5:50 pm

    Question 1)
    The founding fathers are being bombarded with insults and being called hypocrites. They aren’t looking at the situation in the right light. People are looking through their 21st century goggles. In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s slavery was a trend pretty much. People did it without question, especially in the south. If they didn’t have slaves, they would be really different from the norm. That would be the equivalent of if you walked into school tomorrow dressed in all 80’s stuff. People are quick to attack the Founding Fathers because they don’t know the whole story. They think that the people of that era should have known better. Think about it, Washington freed all of his slaves. But, he was the only of the nine slaveholding presidents to free all his slaves. On the other hand, all the presidents contradicted themselves so many times in the fight for liberty.
    Question 2)
    The Founding Fathers are being judged in the modern ways, and not the way they should, which is in their time period. All the things that our presidents did back then pertaining to slavery and stuff that was more prominent in that era, they most likely would not, or could not do. They were raised in a slave accustomed society, which means that slavery was the norm. If they were not raised with slavery I highly doubt they would be purchasing African slaves off eBay. I believe they have because I have a strong hunch that the people writing the constitution would not want the US of A to having a standing army, at least not the kind that is stationed in over 50 countries all over the world. The US military can be anywhere in less than 18 hours. And I highly doubt Washington would have wanted us in Iraq. He would have said let them settle it on their own. We would have saved over 4,000 American lives if we did not invade Iraq saved over 4,000 American lives if we did not invade Iraq.
25. Anne Kozak October 31, 2012 at 6:00 pm

    1. The Founding Fathers, being so important in the history of the United States, have been analyzed extensively through the centuries since they lived. We have learned, then, that even though more and more time has passed since people knew them, they had done things that showed that they were, as the saying goes, only human. The Founding Fathers had made their own mistakes throughout their lives; however, the less the general population know them, the greater they seem, and the more astonishing it is that they could do things wrong. The Founding Fathers had to naturally weigh the benefits of their choices, and the atmosphere concerning slavery at the time prevented them from making revolutionary changes—between their reputations and the usefulness of owning slaves versus another revolution for freedom, it was certainly much easier to choose slaves in practice while in words they could say what they truly thought should happen. In the end, the Founding Fathers had to make a difficult choice between their beliefs and the tradition of slavery lasting since the beginning of the seventeenth century. The controversy of their choice at the time made this difficult, and no matter their decision they would have been attacked and analyzed, as well as defended.
    2. The Founding Fathers are being judged by a confusion of both today’s standards and the standards of the day in which they lived. It is generally understood that, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, slavery was considered to be a good thing—slaves could help one get rich, for example, and were a long tradition since the first settlers of the Americas. However, we now consider slavery to be an awful thing, because we know that the idea that some people are worth less than others is wrong. They are judged more on our standards today—the hypocrisy is more appalling now that the values were then. The Founding Fathers are, I think, used as ideas more than actual people, and candidates generally do toss their actions and words around at times. They do this because of the popularity of these figures, and in using them for their own purposes candidates can win votes purely through the familiarity of the Founding Fathers.
26. NOAH M. TURNER October 31, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    1.What is happening to the Founding Fathers is they are being called hypocrites because they supposedly fought for freedom and believed in liberty, however many of them owned slaves themselves. And modern people are quick to blame them for not abolishing slavery, when some even speak out about how it should be abolished. But still a lot of people defend founding fathers. They know the FFs did not agree with slavery and knew it was wrong, so they think the only reason they did not get rid of it was for political reasons, that they had to unite the country and getting rid of slavery completely would make everything fall apart. Some people today may have a hard time seeing this because we are looking from a different perspective, from a modern one. But many of us today do want to believe that our Founding Fathers were against slavery and morally right but we can’t say they shared the exactly same views as we do today because they were all raised in a different time when things were very different.
    2.I think the founding fathers are judged both ways, by modern standard and by the standards of the day in which they lived. Those who believed that the founding fathers were racist because of not ending slavery probably are looking at it from a modern standard. And the other argument that they were not racist is probably goes more with the standard from back in there day because slavery was around at that time and we just can’t relate to it and how important it was to the country at the time. The founding fathers have become somewhat of political football but there is no sure agreement on their opinions, necessary. Therefore it is up for grabs for candidates to use for their own purpose since there is really no agreed answer.
27. Antonio Delgado October 31, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    Question 1

    The founding fathers are being persecuted for ideas that at their time in history seemed right to many people. The people persecuting them so quickly fail to remember that at this point in history, slaves were not considered people, but property. The people who defend the founding fathers take note of this fact, and the fact that the founding fathers did eventually form their lives to their slaves’ best interests. For instance, George Washington freed his slaves, who before their emancipation, he had treated with respect and kindness. There is currently a memorial to them at Washington’s estate, Mount Vernon. Another example is the anti-slavery society of Philadelphia that was formed by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush. Rush stated himself that “Domestic slavery is repugnant to the principles of Christianity…” and was a “…rebellion against the authority of a common Father.” The common father Rush is writing about is the same god who put slaves and people on this earth.

    Question 2

    The Founding Fathers, as stated in Question 1, are being judged in today’s standards and country-wide morals. In modern America, the majority of the population, especially in the Northern states, believes slavery is a terrible, immoral act. However, during the time of the founding fathers, slavery was a common part of life, even being taken for granted by some people. To 18th Century Americans, having a slave was the same as having a cow or a horse. These types of morals have been used time and time again by modern day politicians to prove their point or disprove an opponent’s point. However, many of these usages of history are irrelevant to the point the speaker is trying to make. For instance, Michelle Bachman’s statement that John Quincy Adams was one of the key fighters in the theoretical war on slavery is simply irrelevant considering that Adams had biased opinions due to the fact that he never owned slaves. Had Bachman used examples such as Washington, Rush, or Franklin, her point would have been much more significant and moving to her followers and those who were undecided at that point in the primary race.
28. Tamia Waller October 31, 2012 at 6:06 pm

    The average definition of a hypocrite would be the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform. The Founding Fathers, who are in this case slave owners during a time where freedom is being proclaimed, are portraying themselves as dissemblers. They are big phonies! But is it really fair to call all Founding Fathers hypocrites? Jefferson, for example, was a slave owner in Virginia. He expressed serious uncertainties about the cruel institution. He inherited slaves from his father and father-in-law. In a typical year, he owned about 200 slaves. In his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, however, he added slavery to the list of grievances. Much like Jefferson, there was Washington who owned 50 slaves who had been brought in chains from Africa. In 1772, however, Washington switched from tobacco-planting to grain-farming and stopped buying slaves. The population of slaves on his plantation continued to grow. Later in life, he was troubled by slavery and wrote that it should be abolished. In my opinion, these men were not hypocrites. Slavery was one of few incomes they had. Without it, instead of their pockets being full of money, it would be full of lint. Slavery was the only option, but once they figured out ways to survive without it, they did so. Not all Founding Fathers owned slaves, however. But those who did angered numerous individuals. After all, The Declaration of Independence states that “ALL men are created EQUAL.” Time after time, the Founding Fathers argued that they were completely against slavery and were fighting for freedom, but they than ignored the plight of the thousands of slaves living among them. Some people feel that isn’t reasonable to judge them because of all the hard work that they did. They defended the founding fathers because they understood what they were desperately trying to accomplish. So believed the Fathers couldn’t simply free all of their slaves without getting such derision. The founding fathers were mostly being judged by today’s society. What most don’t understand is that they were raised around slave owners. A slave owner, in their time period, was a symbol of not only wealth, but of respect, and affected your social ranking. The FFs have not become a political football that candidates use for their own purposes I believe. Times have changed massively. Problems back than revolved around mostly freedom, and what was best for the US (government and leadership) and today, problems revolve more around the economy.
29. Seth "Optimus Prime" Rosen October 31, 2012 at 6:08 pm

    The article is making the Founding Fathers seem like major hypocrites, which they are to some extent. All of the Founding Fathers fought for “freedom”, while all of them (except for Adams and Franklin) had slaves. Some of the Founding Fathers claim they wanted to end slavery, but they felt it was not the right time to do it. In today’s world we look at the Founding Fathers and say they’re a bunch of hypocrites. Having slaves back then was a symbol of wealth, which is why the Founding Fathers had slaves in the first place. Some people believe that it was a pop culture type move for the Founding Fathers to have slaves. It showed they held power and were not a force to reckon with. Kids from every generation in the United States have been raised to believe that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Seth Rosen, and other Founding Fathers were the most perfect people to ever walk the face of the Earth. It’s difficult to tell someone their political hero enslaved people to harsh labor under their power and think they’ll be okay with it. Other people are just not well educated.
    Slavery was, and still is, a horrible thing. Some Founding Fathers, however, treated their slaves like family. George Washington gave his slaves their own little grave yard, along with a decent size house for that time period. In George Washington’s will, he granted all of his slaves their freedom. The slaves did take their freedom, but stayed at Mount Vernon (George Washington’s house). Historians believe they stayed because they had no idea where to go, or they felt as if they were a part of the Washing family. I believe it’s the beautiful view from Washington’s house looking over the Potomac River. The Founding Fathers were trying to keep the majority and the wealthy people happy right after the Revolutionary War. Abolishing slavery at the very end of the war would make a very upset upper class.
30. Daniel Oleynik October 31, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    The Founding Fathers have been praised as our nation’s heroes. Many people today are quick to judge them. The Founding Fathers today are being manipulated, for politicians own motives. People are quick to attack the Founders because they see that if they can bring down the FF’s, they might be able to show how much more “saintly” they are than the FF’s. People defend them because they see that the without the FF’s, we would not have America as it is today, without the constitution and also. I also feel the FF’s are idolized as our nation’s heroes, close to gods, but in the end, they come down to normal human beings with a sense of morality, liberty and justice.
    The Founders are also judged by today’s standards. People see them only with laws in place today, because slavery is only “immoral,” per se, in our times. In the FF’s times, it was normal and highly debated upon. Another point to show that they are being judged by today’s standards is the gun control agenda. Many people now are against gun control, but mention that one is against gun control, and the first argument pulled up is the 2nd amendment. The Founders have become a mascot for each politician and political party, and not surprisingly, they only highlight everything that deals with their issues. Each politician has their own separate agenda, and if someone disagrees, they start to hide become a Founder and ask questions that make the critic feel guilty.
    When the FF’s made the constitution and America, they didn’t expect to be used like puppets. Now, their name is being thrown left and right by each political party. They are also being judged unfairly by our standards, not by theirs. I’m sure that after being judged so harshly, the Founding Fathers are turning over in their graves.
31. Katherine Voigt October 31, 2012 at 6:35 pm

    The founding fathers are no longer being portrayed as the fine upstanding, patriotic, pure American men that we idolize them as. As members of that time period, they flaunted their wealth at others by owning slaves. The more slaves a man had on his plantation, the wealthier they were. These people considered their workers as nothing more that property, treating them like livestock. In the public eye, these men were honorable and fair, preaching of things like “equality” and “justice”, both of which were used very delicately, for slavery was not truly abolished until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, who is not considered a founding father. The “Fathers” were the white men who put quill to paper and signed our country to its framework. They only counted slaves as 3/5 of a person. Some people are so quick to make statements such as this because they empathize with the slaves, wanting them to be part of the “equality” that the constitution so describes. People will defend their founders with all of their beings because they are so blinded by nationalism that they cannot see the hidden hypocrites that those men were. Of course, the founding fathers are being judged by today’s standards, for if they were judged for the standards of their pre-1900s time period, which was full of racism and injustice, they would be considered normal, and speak to the upper class and common man. Our politicians, who are more scared about their own hides then the skins of those slaves, broken and scarred, by the men who we base our country off of have ignored the slave-driven history. We push that away in our minds that this ever happened, that the stuffing that our elementary teachers fed us about idolizing them is logical, and that we should place them on the pedestal they so deserve. Why do this? The public. The people don’t want to know or need to know that these men, who sit on high thrones, ever treated people like animals. Especially if these people who were treated as such were black. These founding fathers have shown us the truth about America, we hide things from the public eye, especially if it shatters the image that we have been fed over and over. So I thank you Framers. Thank you for showing us that politicians have more to hide than their tax information. They hide their way of life outside of the public eye.
32. Safia Sayed October 31, 2012 at 6:57 pm

    1. The Founding Fathers are being are being accused of hypocrisy for having owned slaves, yet preaching the values of freedom and liberty for everyone, as “all men are created equal,” according to Thomas Jefferson. People are quick to blame the founding fathers for owning slaves, and they have a good reason to. When the founding fathers promoted equality and democracy, they might not have intended for slaves to be considered in such equality, given the time period. However, certain founding fathers specifically criticized slavery, yet owned slaves themselves. Thomas Jefferson for example condemned slavery in the Constitution, but owned several slaves himself. It doesn’t matter that Jefferson owned slaves in a time when nearly every successful Virginian planter, if not every successful Virginian planter owned slaves. The fact is, Jefferson both condemned and practiced slavery, and should be accused of hypocrisy. On the other hand, some people like to defend the founding fathers to an enormous degree. These people are usually trying to portray the founding fathers as perfect human beings. They then try to apply the founding fathers’ political principles, while continuing to assert the founding fathers’ perfection.
    2. The Founding Fathers are being judged both by today’s standards and the standards of the day in which they lived. Obviously, the average person’s views on slavery today are dramatically different from the views of an average American citizen from the founding fathers’ time period. Therefore, people today use today’s morals and standards to judge the behaviors of people that lived centuries ago. However, it’s not just our time that is critical of the founding fathers. As mentioned above, Samuel Johnson, a member of the founding fathers’ time period, was very critical of the founding fathers’ hypocrisy in their “yelps for liberty”. Based on the fact that abolitionist movements were existent in this time period, it is evident that there was a significant amount of anti-slavery support. The founding fathers may have thought that they were doing all they could to end slavery, but clearly, they could have done more. Whether or not they acted for the greater good with intentions of preserving the Union is impossible to tell. Finally, I do believe that today’s candidates use the founding fathers for their own purposes, which is why we have differing views on the founding fathers’ hypocrisy.
33. Becca Wegner October 31, 2012 at 7:14 pm

    1. The Founding Fathers, in my opinion, are being wrongfully accused of slavery. It wasn’t their fault slavery existed, it was already a problem. If they would have just come right out and said all men are created equal and ended slavery right then in the Constitution, the country would have rebelled against the government. I think some people are so quick to judge them and blame them, but, in my opinion, they were simply trying to please the majority of people even though they knew they were contradicting themselves. I think they were well aware of the contradiction they were making when they said all men are created equal. The people that are so quick to judge them do not realize that they could not have just said slavery is going to cease to exist. It would not please a majority of the country. Some people defend the Founding Fathers because they can see both sides of the story. They see the fathers in a difficult position; they realize that slavery was not an issue to be solved with the Constitution.
    2. I think that the Founding Fathers are being judged based on today’s standards. Back then, slavery was not frowned upon, today it obviously is. Back then, people did not give slavery a second thought. It was just something that everybody did. Just like today, everybody has iPhones. Nobody gives pulling out their phone to text somebody or Google something a second thought, it just comes naturally. The founding fathers were not frowned upon for not abolishing slavery. Today we obviously judge them in a negative way and back then they were praised for being so bold and daring and creating a country. Now we judge them for not actually making a completely fair, equal country. People say things now about what they said back then and try to analyze every word and try to figure out exactly what they meant by everything. It is impossible to know exactly what they said and how they meant it because there are so many contradicting opinions and analyses.
34. Cameron_S. October 31, 2012 at 7:38 pm

    1) The founding fathers are getting accused of being hypocrites because of their neglect to bring attention to the situation of slavery, in which they thought was terrible. Also many of the founding fathers had slaves themselves. Which I believe can be largely upsetting; we were all taught about how great these men were. On the other hand the founding fathers might of needed slaves or even paid servants, due to their business. I think the Founding Fathers knew how fragile the nation was and didn’t want to damage it with talks of anti-slavery, we now see the horrors of slavery but we cannot see the possible repercussions if slavery was banned, I think the founders realized the importance of slavery even though it was terrible.
    2) The founding fathers are being judged by the current standards. During the early years of the United States, slavery was not seen as it is today, there wasn’t a civil war or as large of a tense relationship between the north and south. The founders would have had no slaves if it was bad during their time period, these were the cultural leaders, they knew the standards and they followed them. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place with the topic of slavery, ban slavery and suffer the economic consequences or keep slavery until the country no longer is dependent of slave labor. Both of them would end negatively and the founding fathers tried avoiding the topic towards extremes, none of them really took a strong side, some were gingerly saying slavery was bad, whilst others stayed out of it. In my opinion the founding fathers aren’t a political football but more of the star player, everyone wants to be them, you brag if they are on your team(agreeing with). Everyone wants to be seen on the same caliber as them and they are loved by the public.
35. Chris Coburn October 31, 2012 at 7:41 pm

    1. The Founding Fathers of America are being portrayed with conflicting images. On one hand many of them own slaves themselves, but they also condemn slavery. For the Founding Fathers, it is the social norm to own slaves, especially in the southern states. Slavery itself is starting to be thought of differently however, and this leads some Founding Fathers to denounce it. People are quick to judge the Founding Fathers and blame them for slavery because people today generally focus on the fight against slavery that lasted through the civil war, almost a 100 year time period. People look at this and see only the struggle that plagued our country. They don’t look at the period before the revolution in the 1 mid 1600’s to early 1700’s. The Founding Fathers didn’t have control over slavery then and they could do nothing to prevent it. During this time period slavery wasn’t very popular but wasn’t abolished. People are quick to defend the Founding Fathers because they want to know that the people who lead and established America were good, honest people. It is hard to think of the people who established a great democracy could’ve been greedy and corrupt people.

    2. The Founding Fathers are usually judged in today’s standards. When people think of the dishonest practice of owning slaves, they think of this in terms of today. If someone were to own a slave today in America, it would be thought of as inhumane and demonstrative, but if someone owned a slave in America in the late 1700’s, the most the might get was a frown from society. Slavery is a social norm for people in the Founding Fathers time. The problem is, this social concept is being hit by a moral earthquake and is resting on unsteady ground. People are starting to denounce slavery and some of the Founding Fathers start to do this too. These anti-slavery hypocritical ideas may have been a political tool. They could frown upon slavery but not do anything to stop it, thus pleasing both sides. The Founding Fathers are being used as a “political football” tossed around by politicians. They can be thought of as the leaders and creators of our great democracy or as inhumane hypocritical slave owners. Conservative arguments might use the first choice , while liberal arguments the latter.
36. Alayna Brasch October 31, 2012 at 7:51 pm

    The founding fathers were all excellent leaders and did what they knew was right for the country. But for some of them, their view on slavery can be kind of confusing. They said that they were all for no slavery, yet they didn’t really do anything to abolish it. Thomas Jefferson is a prime example of this. He wrote in the Declaration of Independence that he did not condone slavery. But there were some instances in his book where he described slaves as a group who hasn’t produced any real literature and smells bad. Some people defend the founding fathers because some of them did show their support of not condoning slavery. George Washington, being one of these types of founding fathers, even released all of his slaves.
    The founding fathers are definitely being judged by today’s standards because the issues and problems we have today are nothing like the ones they had during their time period, so we can’t exactly really relate to them and what they were going through during their time. I think the founding fathers are being used for today’s purposes. People are looking at what they believed in then and are assuming that they would believe is similar situations that are being formed today. For example, some people might make assumptions that because Thomas Jefferson was a democrat-republican during his time, he would take the democrat or republican beliefs today. Therefore, those people will look up to the founding fathers to try to be the best politician that they can possibly be.
37. Sofia Capito October 31, 2012 at 8:02 pm

    It is very easy to criticize the founding fathers of hypocrisy. Many people today and during their time questioned their true thoughts about slavery because they were against it one day and for it the next. They began to wonder how someone could be against slavery and say that no one wants the slaves to be free more than them, and yet still own slaves. Most people today notice how slavery was wrong and are quick to attack them, but in reality the notion that slavery is needed could not be abolished overnight. People are often quick to attack the founding fathers about this matter if another decision from them becomes questionable. Many also try to point out their flaws to show that they aren’t always true to their word. Other people back up their decision. There is proof that many of the founding fathers were born into slave owning families, and therefore were used to that kind of lifestyle and already had slaves to begin with. They began to become accustomed to the abolitionist views later on, and realized that what the abolitionists said was true. Overtime, they may have come to believe that slavery was wrong, but they still could not have just outlawed slavery since the nation would have crumbled beneath them. They knew both the importance of slavery to the southern states, and that it was wrong, and so they began to take small steps towards the freedom of slaves. People also back them up, because without them we would not be living the way we are today. There may not be a constitution, and North America may consist of many small independent countries rather than just one large country.
    The founding fathers are most definitely being judged by today’s standards over the standards of their time. Today people believe that slavery is unacceptable, and that there is a very big difference between saying that you are against slavery and owning slaves. During their time however, this was not such a big difference. Also, back then African Americans were not looked upon as actual people. They were considered property. The morals have changed since then, and now African Americans are considered equal. The people during the time of the founding fathers may have known that what they were doing wasn’t right, but the profit of the slaves was so good that they could not live without it. Today if someone owned a slave it would just be wrong, nothing good would come out of it and so why would someone even consider this option. There will be people in the future that will look back at our way of life and wonder how we could think something right. Candidates today use the founding fathers for their own purpose. They do this thinking that since people liked the founding fathers, if they can relate to them good things can happen. This however may not always be good. The founding fathers lived a long time ago, and the world has changed.
38. Sherami Fernando October 31, 2012 at 8:10 pm

    1. It is common to hear people criticizing the Founding Father’s decisions and life styles, calling them hypocrites for fighting against something, to abolish something, yet to be doing the exact opposite of what they were trying to abolish. Yes the Founding Fathers were trying to abolish slavery while a the same time contributing to slavery, owning quite a number of them in the process. This is, in fact hypocrisy. But they did manage to end the cold-blooded string of slavery did they not> So was it so bad in the end? Honestly, in their time, it was almost necessary to own slaves. We can’t take our beliefs that were set in the past and replace them with our modern beliefs and ideologies, two different time periods require two different views of perspective. To be able to criticize their actions, we first need to think about what their actions would mean in their society and time, not ours The Founding Father’s efforts paid off, for slavery was abolished due to their un-wavering dislike and the efforts of many others as well. Many people protect and defend the Founding Fathers with “every ounce of their being” because the Founding Fathers weren’t the ones directly being affected by slavery. They were not the ones being whipped, sold off, abused and treated as cattle. They were the high and mighty, the people that you tried to model after, the people that practically sat on a pile of gold and you were lucky to even set eyes on them. So for them to be fighting for something that shouldn’t affect them in the least, tat shouldn’t even be visible on their radar, yes that is a big deal. To base some of their political views around ending slavery and fighting to change the country over slavery is enough to earn the people’s highest respect.
    2. The Founding Fathers are being judged by the standards of today and not by the standards set in the past. Slaves were seen as an essential almost, they were seen as a social status and as an extra pair of hands that would help you with labor ad chores. In the Founding father’s time and age, many people owned slaves. Of course there were many who didn’t own slaves for the lack of money or for the soul reason of disagreeing with it, but to be blunt, they had little or no voice at all to speak up and voice their opinions. The Founding Fathers were their voice. They were the ones to be heard over the rumble of the ones with less of a status. Though others may have the same ones to be heard over the rumble of the ones with less of a status. Though others may have the same righteous and just views, they may not have been to easy to hear and the Founding Fathers helped get their voice heard as well as their own. The Founding Fathers have been thrown around in a sort of “political football” that candidates use for their own purposes only because they wish to be as strong, as respected and as controversial as the Founding Fathers. They wish to leave an impact as large, and as well remembered as they had, so for many years after, people will still be whispering about them with awe and admiration.
39. Ethan Carrick October 31, 2012 at 8:16 pm

    1. The founding fathers are getting blamed for keeping slavery in the United States and not doing much to stop or get someone to stop it. Some people are quick to attack and blame them for allowing slavery to exist at the foundation of a freedom-loving nation because many of the presidents owned slaves without freeing them, or paying them to work (then they wouldn’t be slaves they would be servants)and because in the Declaration of Independence it condemns slavery which the presidents didn’t act upon. Some people defend the founding fathers with every ounce of their being because some of them started some of the first anti-slavery societies.
    2. I think that the founding fathers are being judged by the standards of today because in many of the elections today there are many rumors about candidates being bias toward one race or gender. This is kind of like what was happening in the 1800’s where the candidates were judged by whether they were pro-slavery or anti-slavery people. I think that the founding fathers have not been a political football that candidates use for their own purposes because in many of the election speeches I haven’t heard them talk much about the past presidents and what they did wrong. They talk more about what they’re going to do to make the future better. Not that I disagree with that way of campaigning, but I think that maybe if they were to talk about what they could fix that hadn’t been fixed or hadn’t been stopped or what had been incorrectly started, they would maybe get a little bit more support. I haven’t really been interested in politics but sometimes I will see campaign ads or sometimes watch an electoral debate with my family. In many of those campaign videos I will see many of the candidates judging one another and criticizing one another with many false but also true accusations. I have never understood why they are able to do this but I am positive that its wrong and that they should not judge each other or lie about each other.
40. Elizabeth Lohr October 31, 2012 at 8:22 pm

    1. What it happening to the Founding Fathers is they are being criticized on their hypocritical views on slavery. For example, Thomas Jefferson condemned slavery in the earlier draft of the Declaration of Independence, but later had to take it out. However, he still owned slaves. Some people might be quick to blame Our Founding Fathers for allowing slavery to exist in our freedom-loving nation because they influenced colonial peoples’ ideas, almost like celebrities influence our decisions today. They could be promoting their perfume and since they are one of your favorite celebrities, you go out and buy it. Slavery was the perfume of their time. Of course, there was a lot more at stake than going out and buying a bottle of sweet-smelling liquid. You were actually buying human beings. The Founding Fathers were looked up to by many so when people saw them with slaves, they would believe slave ownership to almost be a status symbol or believe slave owners to have a prestigious role in society. Had the FF’s done a better job in condemning slavery and actually freed their slaves or not had slaves at all; the rest very well may have followed. Some people defend the Founding Fathers because despite the fact that they did appear hypocritical, they were still the founders of our nation. Thomas Jefferson wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence along with all of the other FF’s. Without them, we could still be talking in English accents in 2012 and could be under the monarchical rule of Queen Elizabeth II. Our Founding Fathers ensured our nation, our government, our way of living under the Constitution. The fact that they were even able to create such a document that lasts and is used to this day puts them in the kind of light as people we should look up to and admire. When we think of our Founding Fathers, we think of the people who made our great democratic nation the way it is today.
    2. I think the Founding Fathers are being judged by today’s standards. When most people try to relate to things such as this, they don’t try to think about how it would be thought of back then. We were brought up to compare everything to today’s standards so that’s how we judge the Founding Fathers. Back then, it was normal to own a few slaves but now we wonder how they could have done such things. We are influenced by our society and if just about everyone has slaves to do their work for them, then that is desirable. People use the Founding Fathers as a ‘political football’ in politics; people like to refer back to the Founding Fathers to make themselves sound like the best candidate.
41. Becky Simonov October 31, 2012 at 8:23 pm

    It is very common for nations to idolize the great figures of their histories, and the Founding Fathers are no exception to this. People want to have pride in their country and the people who helped create it, so when the people who have been idolized throughout history are accused of hypocrisy, there are understandable qualms with this statement. The people who are quick to attack and blame the Founding Fathers for allowing slavery to exist at the foundation of a freedom-loving nation are those who value the present (end product) more so than the past. They are those who believe that being brought up in a society with modern-day values automatically make the people of that generation better than those of a time long passed. On the other hand, the people who fiercely defend the Founding Father’s reputation are those who value not where their nation is now, but what it took to get there. Even if said history is, for instance, bloody and violent, these people are the ones who view these events as necessary to the success of their country. While neither argument is necessarily right or wrong, one needs to understand the history in which they came from to make their own set of beliefs and values.
    Though by today’s standards, the owning of slaves by a significant portion of Founding Fathers is a significant detractor to their idolized images, this is not to say that they did not get their fair share of criticism and accusations of hypocrisy in their own time. Samuel Johnson argued that it was hypocritical for some to cry for freedom and be the proprietor of slaves. Despite critics from both their time period and modern times, the Founding Fathers continue to represent the morality of the United States. Because of this, politicians seek to justify their ideas through the ideals of the Founding Fathers. It is believed by some that if their ideals coincided with that of the Founding Fathers, that they are automatically correct. However, this is the consequence of adapting a almost inhuman portrayal of a very human part of American history. It is when people are blind to the realities of history and only view their own idealistic images that blind patriotism occurs.
42. Bridget LePine October 31, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    1) People are calling the Founding Fathers hypocritical. The Founding Fathers said they were for freedom/equality for all people, but they still decided to own slaves. Some people were quick to attack these men for owning slaves, because they wanted to shine a bad light on the Founding Fathers. Some people, like we do today, didn’t mind that the Founding Fathers owned slaves and continued to praise them. Today people have different opinions on these men, the Founding Fathers. Most people still keep them on a high pedestal, but others see the Founding Fathers as everyday simple people and don’t praise them. Then we have the people that kind of settle in the middle of both opinions, and don’t really know what to think of the Founding Fathers.
    2) Nowadays when we talk/discuss about the Founding Fathers we forget about how different their way of living was back then. We are often found thinking of them as like the men today. Although today racism is a big deal, back then it wasn’t. Almost everyone back then was racist, and owned slaves (if they had the money to do so). Racism was a normal thing and there was usually little to no guilt from the salve owners. Any of the guilt people did have was outweighed by the benefits of owning slaves. The economic benefits were great, more money/profit for dirt cheap labor. I think that politicians today do use the Founding Fathers as somewhat of a political “football”. Because to many people nowadays the FF’s displayed the best kind of politicians, and we’re men that politicians looked up too and idealized
43. Sara Keebler October 31, 2012 at 8:47 pm

    Here the Founding Fathers were being criticized for being hypocrites. They were all slave owners yet they were against slavery. This made many people mad because the FF’s of their country were being hypocrites. They were supposed to support freedom and equality in all people yet they were taking away people’s lives. The people criticizing them were also hypocritical though. They were mad that their founding fathers owned slaves but they may have had slaves too. People shouldn’t have been too quick to attack them. Some people defended the FFs though because they saw that they may have needed to own the slaves to gain voters or to help them with their many tasks. Owning slaves was normal so a lot of people were most likely not mad that their FFs owned the slaves. People now are more mad about it than anyone else.

    I think the FFs are being judged by the standards of today. This is what I think because back in the day having slaves was the norm, nowadays we look at slavery as inhumane and horrible. Thinking about your FFs having slaves makes you rethink things they said about equality and freedom. Was everything they said about all humans being equal meant sincerely? Probably in the view of those days that sounded right and fair but now it’s seen as something horrible and non-true. The slaves in those days were not viewed as humans and nobody believed that they should have equal rights or representation in anything. The FFs becoming some kind of political football that candidates use for their own purposes is something that doesn’t seem true to me. This only seems like it would be true if the candidates were people from that time period. The candidates from that time period could have definitely used the fact that the FFs owned slaves as evidence for why they would be good presidents because they don’t own slaves or something like that. If the candidates were people from this time period this wouldn’t matter as much because slavery is abolished and nobody would care that someone didn’t have slaves considering they shouldn’t.
44. Carley Salerno October 31, 2012 at 8:47 pm

    1) I think the Founding Fathers had become victims of the people that dissect every single sentence and phrase that they hear. They also had unfortunately been criticized by people who don’t see the big picture. The people who defend the Founding Fathers see the big picture: if the slavery had suddenly been removed at the start of the nation, the economy and colonies would have collapsed like the British thought they would. But the people who attack the Founding Fathers are quick to see the hypocrisy of the Founding Father’s words and actions. Jefferson may have said that “All men are created equal,” words that, at the time, weren’t considered entirely true. But he also made a valid point when he said that “…we have the wolf by ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go…” The people who support him would say that he recognized the dangers of removing slavery, as well as the wrongness of keeping it.
    2) Based on the arguments made, I think that the Founding Fathers are being judged by today’s standards. Back then, slaves were considered property of the slaveholder. Even when censuses were taken, slaves only counted as 3/5 of a person. If someone said “Liberty for all,” the average person in the South would probably automatically exclude the slaves just because of the society values. Also, by today’s standards, if a president or any political figure makes a statement like “I am against slavery,” that would automatically translate into our minds as “I’m going to do something about/stop slavery.” When it comes to candidates using the Founding Fathers as a “football,” I have seen modern candidates make references to the Founding Fathers. I honestly think that when candidates make those references, it gives the image of them trying to be like that Founding Father. I don’t know if that is what they’re going for, but in my opinion it just seems cliché.
45. Sam W. October 31, 2012 at 8:55 pm

    1. Since America has evolved as a country we have discovered that the practice of holding any person without their will is wrong and unjust. Therefore, when we go back and look at many of our founding fathers, many Americans feel betrayed and distant because of the practice of slavery. While many of these men fought against slavery in government, they held slaves of their own. I feel that that fact itself makes many people uncomfortable because the men who were trying to abolish slavery were the same ones keeping it alive. However, in order to judge these men fairly we have to consider the time period. Starting with the mid 1700’s slavery really picked in popularity, and can was seen as a respectable ideal to up hold, such as recycling. It was a practice that your neighbor, brother, and cousin upheld, and naturally followed with yourself. Although, it did take a very strong men in character and conviction to stray from the path, such as George Washington. On the subject of whether or not a person is quick to defend or judge the founding fathers, is based upon whether they take into account the time period and that normality of owning slaves.
    2. I believe that when the founding fathers are judged on the practice of slavery many people insert these colonial men into the twenty first century. It is very easy to “mentally” put yourself in their position and say “I would have done the right thing, and not had slaves.” But, in reality if we were placed in position I believe that most if not all of us would have succumbed to societal pressures. In respect to the founding fathers being used as “political footballs”, I believe that it is once again related to the point above. These modern day politicians are using today’s standards and ideals and placing them in the 1700. It is much easier to say a statement such as “ I would have the like George Washington”, all the while knowing that you will never be out in the position the prove it. Once again, modern Americans, including politicians, regard the founding fathers as hypocrites because of lack of perspective (Americans) as well as placing these men in modern day situations.
46. Gideon Bush October 31, 2012 at 9:00 pm

    1. The Founding Fathers are being called hypocrites for opposing slavery yet benefiting from it as well. While they simply being politically and socially correct of the time period, they are still being slandered for this. Some people use this to say maybe they weren’t right all the time, and that they were wrong and so may other things they have done and their morality is being called into question. Others are quick to defend them because of the pride in their founding fathers and the fact that without them we would not be who we are today, although they may have owned slaves at the time, and they were simply keeping up socially and politically. While some attack our founding fathers, others feel a sense of nation pride in them. Either way people are quick to judge the founding fathers in their sense of morality or how their actions seem to contradict what they said at the time. But people believe they were just trying to keep their image and maintain power which was more important at the time.
    2. The founding fathers are being judged by today’s standards of course, back than it wasn’t just socially acceptable to own slaves, it was virtually a needed sign of wealth and power. This wealth helped many of the founding fathers succeed in what they did for our nation and allowed it to prosper to what it is today. People use the founding fathers as a sort of “football” topic because every one aspires to be like them, they are after all the people who created our nation and set it on the track to be where it is today. So every politician would like to be compared to a founding father in their fame and success, so they have become some sort of goal.
47. Oliver Hartzell October 31, 2012 at 9:21 pm

    1. In this instance, the Founding Fathers are being attacked by modern politicians. This is because they are being looked at through today’s standards. Some people are quick to attack them because in today’s standards, slavery is wrong and illegal. Slavery was abolished 148 years ago, and peoples opinions of it have drastically changed in that time. The Founding Father’s let it happen and a few of them even owned slaves. This nation was built on the notion of freedom and Independence, yet the this problem with the Founding Father’s contradicts that. There are some people out there who defend the Founding Father’s, for they created the base of this country. They did attempt to abolish slavery but, to create a working government they had to make so everyone agreed with it. That includes Southern Slave owners. Majority of the economy in the south was based on slave labor. Now, give this a thought, to a majority of the population in America, slavery was okay. It was the way the people of the time were taught and grew up with. There were slaves in the northern states though not nearly as many as in the south. So are the Founding Father’s really hypocrites? I think not for in order to keep this country together, they had to include slavery and let it run it’s course a bit.
    2. I believe that The Founding Father’s are being judged by today’s standards and not by the standards of their time. Today, we believe that slavery is a terrible sin and is wrong, while back then, slavery was a way to run the economy in the south. It wasn’t thought of so harshly by everyone in that time. To say they wanted to abolish slavery, yet do nothing about it is hypocritical, but you have to look at it by their standards and situation. The Founding Father’s are being used as a political football because they can be shown in two different ways, as the creators of our democracy, or as racist slave owners. Conservatives would argue that the Founding Fathers are awesome and totally not racist, while Liberals may argue the latter.
48. Michael Shi October 31, 2012 at 9:39 pm

    1. The founding fathers are being criticized for their actions, which might be seen as hypocritical today. People are quick to attack the founding fathers because at first glance, the Founding Fathers’ actions did seem to contradict their words. However, I believe that the Founding Fathers should not be criticized for being hypocritical because the Founding Fathers lived in a time period where slavery was not only acceptable, but almost necessary in order to become successful. The country where the Founding Fathers lived was a different country than it is today. America was an agricultural nation, where labor was necessary in order to make a living. Labor from just family members would have resulted in a very small income, where it would be impossible for one to obtain enough wealth to be able to spend time anywhere other than their farm. Therefore, the majority of the founding fathers would not have able to take part in the creation of a new nation if they did not have slaves. Although I do not believe that slavery was morally correct, it was in the Founding Fathers’ best interest financially to have slaves. Some people defend the Founding Fathers with every ounce of their being because they see the Founding Fathers as the people who symbolize the ideals of America.
    2. I believe that the Founding Fathers are clearly being judged by today’s standards rather than the standards of the day in which they lived. In the day of the Founding Fathers, slavery was acceptable and although many may have hesitated to embrace slavery due to morals, the general consensus was that the benefits of slavery far outweighed the disadvantages of slavery. Because slavery was so essential to the American economy, almost every American politician at the time avoided the topic because if one were to oppose slavery at that time, they would receive no support from the public. I think the Founding Fathers have become some kind of a political “football” that candidates use for their own purposes because many candidates reference the Founding Fathers as examples for their points because they reference them as people who embody the American ideals.
49. Monique Hakam October 31, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    What’s happening to the Founding Fathers is that they want to stop slavery, but they don’t know how, or they don’t want to be the first ones to start the “revolution” for fear of political attack. People are quick to attack the F.F.s because they see them as perhaps cowards, afraid to do anything to upset the peace of the nation. They want everything to be fair, but many of these people attacking the F. F.s for not doing anything probably wouldn’t do anything, either.
    Some people defend the F. F.s with every ounce of their being because maybe they knew that in the F. F.s’ place, they probably would have done the same thing. It’s hard to be the first person to start something as big as a potential war. It puts a lot of pressure on that person, and they may not be ready for that kind of leadership. This would lead people to defend them, although everybody has their own ideas and opinions. The F. F.s’ decisions can be interpreted in many different ways.
    I think that for the people attacking the F. F.s, they are judging them by today’s standards. Today, slavery is horrible and people and shocked when they hear of people mentioning slavery in everyday life. Nowadays, slavery is far from most people’s minds, even though there are more slaves now than there were in the old days when slavery was allowed. So if you give the F. F.s today’s standards, they are terrible people for not doing anything about slavery, and for not standing up.
    However, if they were being judged by their old standards, then what they did isn’t that bad. It depends on how they treated their slaves and if they bought any new ones. Buying new slaves would contribute to the economy, and keep slave traders trading. The F. F.s might have gone against slavery, but in little ways such as not buying new slaves, or freeing their slaves, like George Washington did.
    The F. F.s have become a political “football” that people can use for their own needs because everybody interprets the reasons behind the F. F.s’ actions differently. Some may think they had slaves, so they’re all bad people and they should’ve done something. Others may think that since it was okay for other people to have slaves back then, then it was okay for the F. F.s to do it as well. Everybody can use things the F. F.s did/said against or for them. Every action the F. F.s did is cause to political debate, although this is useless because most likely no one will agree on the subject anytime soon, and they can’t go back in time to ask the F. F.s about their motives.
50. Will Briggs October 31, 2012 at 9:51 pm

    1. In these articles and in your own writing, the founding fathers are being quoted as hypocrites. People such as Samuel Johnson found it easy to look at the Founding Fathers and call them out as hypocrites and liars, because on the surface this looks very true. But history and its decisions are never simple, so we must dig deeper to find the truth, maybe some reason, and a little bit about ourselves. First, we must look at the time period, its culture, its economy, and the general mood of the people. For example, at this point in time, most people, including T. Jefferson, believed that blacks were born as uncivilized brutes, and were meant to stay that way. Racism was not looked down upon and was just part of culture, and how people were brought up. People will also defend our Founding Fathers almost blindly, just because. Bachman didn’t even know who our they were apparently, because John Quincy Adams was still a child when our Constitution was written. They follow because of the sense of pride we have as Americans, and we tend to look past the facts, so the Founding Fathers have been raised to the status of “Almost Demigod”.
    2. The Founding Fathers have been put in either our time, or theirs, just depending on how we want to spin our argument. We call them evil for being slave owners and then turn around and say they would find some tax law unconstitutional. They are used as political props when people say they would find this or that unconstitutional when we wouldn’t know what they think as many of them were Federalists for a loose interpretation of the constitution.