Flaws of the Founding Fathers of the United States

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The Founding Fathers of the United States were wise, intellectual, and brave men. They did much, and saw much. They were not afraid to be at the head of a great revolution, or to be responsible for the creation and stability of this free nation. However, as deific as they may seem, they were still human, and were susceptible to the same sin nature as everybody else. Perhaps the most obvious example of this flaw is slavery, which had been slowly introduced into the New World by European slave traders since the early 1600s. However, it was not until Bacon’s rebellion in 1675 that racism really began to take hold of the hearts of the white settlers and fuel the idea that they were superior to the black slaves. By the time the Founders were forced to confront the issue of chattel slavery in America in the late 1700’s, many people—including themselves—had become comfortable with the use of free labor, and so worked to stifle the abolition movement as quickly as possible. Though they successfully created a free nation, our country’s Founders seemed at a loss for words when it came to answering the question of slavery; they wanted the pride that came with a free and happy nation without the consequences that must follow.
American settlers were by far not the first people to own slaves, but they may have been the first to give racism as an excuse for doing so. Slavery had existed in Africa for centuries before European slave traders arrived. However, most slaves were either prisoners of war, paying for a debt, or being punished for a crime. Also, a slave’s children were not automatically enslaved, and sometimes they could work to buy their own freedom. When Europeans arrived to take Africans to sell as slaves, they paid no hee...

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...ell. And even though the Constitution forbade any abolishment of the slave trade until 1808, this was simply a ploy to avoid the slavery question a little while longer; this lead to the 1790 debate on one of the most important but clandestine issues the United States had ever faced. And after the House had decided to end all federal plans for emancipation by a vote of 29 to 25, even George Washington, who was considered the greatest of all the founders, wrote to a friend that “the slave business has at last [been] put to rest and will scarce awake” (118). Slavery was the thorn of the American foot, and the Founders were doing their very best to make sure that the country did not notice the pain which was threatening to infect the whole body.

Works Cited

Ellis, Joseph J. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. New York: Vintage Books.
2000. Print.

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