Product Description
The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution For many years in the United States there has been a gradual drifting away from the Founding Fathers original success formula. This has resulted in some of their most unique contributions for a free and prosperous society becoming lost or misunderstood. Therefore, there has been a need to review the history and development of the making of America in order to recapture the brilliant precepts… More >>
The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution
From the notion that slaveholders “were the worst victims of slavery” to the far-right myth that Carter’s ending our LEASE on the Panama Canal was unconstituional and immoral, this book is right-wing babble passing off as mainstream history. Any distortion you could think of is here – I guarantee it!
Rating: 1 / 5
A few nuggets of scholarly wisdom from this steaming pile:
“White schoolchildren would `envy the freedom’ of `colored playmates.’ Slave food, even if monotonous, was plentiful. Corn bread and bacon were the mainstays, with plenty of fruit and vegetables in season. In hog-killing time, countenances were unusually greasy.”
Newly sold slaves “usually a cheerful lot.” “The tendency was to sell families as units, if for no other reason [than] to keep the slaves contented. The gangs in transit were usually a cheerful lot, though the presence of a number of the more vicious type sometimes made it necessary for them all to go in chains. At the other extreme, when the Central of Georgia railroad company in 1858 equipped a Negro sleeping car to assist in the slave trade it set a standard not always maintained in a later generation. When on the block, the slave was as likely to hinder as to help in his sale. Some, out of a vain conceit in bringing a high price, would boast of their physical prowess, in which case an unwary purchaser would likely be cheated. Others would malinger, because of a grudge against owners or traders or in order to bring a low price and be put at less tiring labor. Dealers, also, adopted the tricks of horse traders to make their merchants more attractive–the greasiest Negro was generally considered the healthiest.” [The Making of America, pages 731-732]
Slaves hampered efficiency of white labor. “In the management of slave labor the gang system predominated. The great majority of owners, having at the most only one or two families of Negroes, had to work alongside their slaves and set the pace for them. Slavery did not make white labor unrespectable, but merely inefficient. The slave had a deliberateness of motion which no amount of supervision could quicken. If the owner got ahead of the gang they all would shirk behind his back.” [The Making of America, page 732]
Cruelty rare, slave owners “the worst victims.” “Excessive toil occurred only where the masters or overseers were feeble witted as well as brutal. A persistent rumor among abolitionists was that sugar planters followed a policy of working slaves to death in seven years as a matter of economy. The persons spreading such reports were as ignorant of Negro nature as they were of conditions in the sugar mills. Furthermore, they overrated the ability of the masters to know how to kill a slave in the given time instead of leaving him a broken-down burden to the plantation. When they set out to prove the accusation they returned with no evidence, but convinced that the practice existed in some obscure region which they had not succeeded in ferreting out. Harriet Martineau, after watching slaves go through the motions of work without tiring themselves, considered the planters as models of patience and observed that new slave owners from Europe or the North were prone to be the most severe. Numerous observers, of various shades of opinion on slavery, agreed that brutality was no more common in the black belt than among free labor elsewhere, and that the slave owners were the worst victims of the system.” [The Making of America, pages 733-734]
Southern life a “nightmare” of fear–for white people. “The constant fear of slave rebellion made life in the South a nightmare, especially in regions where conspiracies were of frequent occurrence. The extermination of white civilization in Santo Domingo was followed in the nineteenth century by several other bloody outbursts in the West Indies, which never failed to cause ominous forebodings in America. [...]
Of course, there is no reason given for why, if the slaves were such a happy, greasy, contented lot, there was such danger of a slave rebellion.
That this book is even for sale through Amazon ought to make each and every Amazon customer feel the need to take a shower.
Rating: 1 / 5
Slavery is an ugly portion of human history. In many civilizations throughout history, one group has enslaved another. America is not unique in having such a blight on its history. One need only look at Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, etc clear back to Roman times. America is unique, however, in abolishing the institution. Europe, with a much longer history of slave ownership, began moving to abolish the practice in the 18th C. William Wilberforce, in England, fired up the movement. By 1814, France had abolished slavery (after its return by Napoleon). The US had a much shorter history of human bondage. It banned the importation of slaves in 1808, but was stymied on how to create a gov’t, run by democracy and some majority rule, that could legally get rid of slavery. The Founding Fathers truly believed that slavery was on the way out, and they would have been proved right, had it not been for the cotton gin. Slavery was given no moral support in the Constitution, slaves were considered people and the hope was that this whole mess would disappear as an economically unsustainable practice. These practices worked for a time; slavery was legal in every state in 1776, but by 1804, it was abolished north of Maryland and strangled by importation prohibitions in the South. But it took the Civil War to finally destroy it. Our leaders were attempting to drive slavery out of business and still maintain democratic practices. If the South views the Civil War as the War of Northern Aggression, they are partially right. Our gov’t could not get the South to agree to vote slavery out of existence, so they used force. The Civil War was the bloodiest our young country had ever fought. Only a true America hater would sniff at the massive numbers who died to free the slaves. Where have you seen that type of sacrifice in other countries? You don’t. America sacrifices; the world dithers and complains.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book reminds us how inspired the Founding Fathers were in writing our Constitution and in establishing our republic.
Rating: 5 / 5
You will know what the founding father’s intended when they drafted our nation’s constitution. Learn about the participants in the constitutional convention. Study over 270 principles that the founders systematiclly included in the constition, illustrated by quotes and anecdotes from the constitutional convention in the participants own words. A must read.
Rating: 5 / 5