On When Michele Bachmann Claimed that the Founding Fathers Tirelessly Tried to Get Rid of Slavery and Everybody (Including Me) Made Fun of Her for it

    She was actually more right than wrong. a) George Washington spent a large portion of his adult life trying to come up with a plan in which slavery "may be abolished by slow, sure, and imperceptible degrees" (for to do so rapidly would have caused mass starvation, social unrest, etc.).   b) Later in his life, Washington stated this - "Not only do I pray for it on the score of human dignity, but I can clearly foresee that nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our union by consolidating it in a common bond of principle."   c) James Monroe was for the eventual abolition of slavery and once stated this - "We have found this evil has preyed upon the very vitals of the Union; and has been prejudicial to all the States in which it has existed."   d) In 1782, Virginia and other Southern states passed manumission laws and within a decade 10,000 black servants had been voluntarily freed by the white owners.   e) President Jefferson in 1807 signed legislation to totally halt the slave trade (which the Yankee slavers largely ignored but I digress).   f) As a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769, Jefferson asked the British crown for permission to emancipate all of the slaves in the colonies but was shot down.............There are other examples but I think that you get the message........................................................................................................Sources - "The Rise of American Civilization" by Charles and Mary Beard, "American Negro Slavery" by U.B. Phillips, "The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade" by William O. Blake, The Evils of Slavery, and the Cure of Slavery" by Lydia Maria Child, "Chronicle of the World" by Jerome Burne, "Everything You Were Taught About American Slavery Is Wrong" by Lochlainn Seabrook, and "Division and Reunion" by Woodrow Wilson.