James Madison's Lessons in Racism

[SummerMadness]

James Madison's Lessons in Racism

When we think about the framers of the Constitution and how they handled the issue of race, we conjure up the extremes: the hypocrites and the heroes. At one end is Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that "all men are created equal" but believed Africans were inferior and fathered children with an enslaved woman. At the other end is Alexander Hamilton, who, at least as depicted by admirers like the biographer Ron Chernow and the playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, was an ardent abolitionist.

This framing, however, is simplistic and misleading. It is simplistic because it overlooks harder-to-categorize positions like that of James Madison, the lead drafter of the Constitution, who genuinely rejected the idea of racial inferiority yet still failed to put his beliefs in equality and liberty into practice. And it is misleading because it implies that as long as we avoid having racist attitudes, we can succeed in avoiding racist policies. We think that if we're not Jefferson, we must be Hamilton. But this is not the case.

An interesting read.

 

[Dave-W]

John Adams was also an ardent abolitionist; and was part of the Constitutional Convention as well.
Too bad the article did not mention him at all.

Not sure if you ever saw the musical stage play or movie version of 1776 (about the Declaration of Independence) but Adams (played here by William Daniels) was outspoken against slavery.

Here is a clip:

 

[SummerMadness]

John Adams was also an ardent abolitionist; and was part of the Constitutional Convention as well.
Too bad the article did not mention him at all.

Not sure if you ever saw the musical stage play or movie version of 1776 (about the Declaration of Independence) but Adams (played here by William Daniels) was outspoken against slavery.

Here is a clip:

I believe their point is that Madison was full of contradictions and people should give further study to those filled with contradiction as opposed to those that represent specific extremes or ideals. Madison thought slavery was wrong, but still held slaves, that's the point.

 

[Dave-W]

Madison thought slavery was wrong, but still held slaves, that's the point.

Apparently Jefferson was in that same contradiction.

 

[SummerMadness]

Apparently Jefferson was in that same contradiction.

For Jefferson, he is simply labeled a hypocrite. He wrote all men are created equal while believe Africans to be inferior. Madison thought slavery was wrong, but still had slaves. He went for the half-measure: he converted a slave to indentured servitude so he could be free later on. The article speaks of him wrestling with the contradiction of slavery and equality. This is different from Jefferson, it's somewhere in the middle.

 

[ViaCrucis]

As is usually the case, most human beings are messy and complicated--such can be the inherent danger in trying to classify everyone in history as either "hero" or "villain"--most people simply dwell in the grey area of human messiness.

-CryptoLutheran