..Counters the common quote of "everyone held slaves!" with a quote that explains why a fair amount of people did own them. "I lived in a time when it was not disgraceful, when the best men around me thought it not inconsistent with their character."
Not defending slave-holding, no. But it intrigues me that people referred to as the "best men around me" wouldn't have the awareness to consider slavery a bad thing - unless it was so deeplt ingrained in their minds that it isn't. Evidently this was not a universal thing so it's likely the work of generational hate, something we still see today even though slavery and civil rights are supposed to be a bygone issue. People are still born and raised into racist households and they live their entire lives thinking that is an undeniable truth of the world.
The Founding Fathers were absolutely not infalliable. It's important, though, to simultaneously remember that slavery is bad and many people can have distorted views on reality. We live in a world where MAGA exists after all, it's not so hard to believe that people can be fundamentally wrong about something and think it is the norm.
I can't say failing to predict modern struggles is a lack of creativity, however. It's difficult, impossible to predict what the future will hold, especially when they lived in a time of slow technological progress compared to today.
Private healthcare and a stock exchange? They likely never even knew either of these things could exist, let alone in the form they take today.
As for churches, I think they already lived in a time where churches did that. Separation of church and state was an important part of the Constitution for a reason.
As for guns? I do think they fully anticipated the power of firearms and their ability to take lives and gave the "right to bear arms" to the country anyway. I swing to the left on most issues, but not on this one. Jumping straight to "assault rifles" is just saying you parrot sensationalist news without telling me you parrot sensationalist news. "Assault Rifle" is incorrect terminology and they aren't even responsible for the most gun deaths, please at least research something before you take a swing at it.
In summary, people can be nuanced. We should scrutinize all historical figures equally and not put anyone on pedestals, nor should we be hasty in demonizing them.
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