For me the defining moment was when they backpedaled.
The clarification is small — just two words –but important. We add tht slavery was one of the primary motivations for “some of” the colonists to declare independence. As written, it appears that I am saying this was a universal motivation of ALL colonists. I wasn’t clear enough
The clarification changes the sentence from a powerful but erroneous one to a very weak but probably correct one – unworthy of being the core of this project. I wonder what would happen to all the evidence and arguments of the 1619 Project, if they gave the rest of it the same treatment? Would it all evaporate like morning dew?
“… probably correct one …”
I don’t know that I’d go even that far. It may be “correct” in the sense that there may have been a few nutbars among the rebelling Americans who harbored paranoid convictions that the British wanted nothing more than depriving them of their slaves. But I would be skeptical of anything more. The abolitionist movement in Britain at the time was at about the same stage as the abolitionist movement in the American colonies — a few private groups to which only a tiny minority of the population belonged. So, six of one, half a dozen of the other, and no real threat in either case.
For me the defining moment was when they backpedaled.
The clarification is small — just two words –but important. We add tht slavery was one of the primary motivations for “some of” the colonists to declare independence. As written, it appears that I am saying this was a universal motivation of ALL colonists. I wasn’t clear enough
The clarification changes the sentence from a powerful but erroneous one to a very weak but probably correct one – unworthy of being the core of this project. I wonder what would happen to all the evidence and arguments of the 1619 Project, if they gave the rest of it the same treatment? Would it all evaporate like morning dew?
“… probably correct one …”
I don’t know that I’d go even that far. It may be “correct” in the sense that there may have been a few nutbars among the rebelling Americans who harbored paranoid convictions that the British wanted nothing more than depriving them of their slaves. But I would be skeptical of anything more. The abolitionist movement in Britain at the time was at about the same stage as the abolitionist movement in the American colonies — a few private groups to which only a tiny minority of the population belonged. So, six of one, half a dozen of the other, and no real threat in either case.