Slavery was a choice
5/20/2017, 7:52 a.m.
Isaac Winston lived in the Greenwood section of Hanover County in the early part of the 18th century. After his parents died, he was willed a great deal of land and black people who were being forced to do slave work. He disagreed with the repugnant “institution” and decided to free his captured minions. He also gave them up to 160 acres of land each.
He then moved to West Virginia, a portion of which later became Illinois. He ran for governor and won. He died around 1750.
This completely throws out the excuse often used by Confederate apologists. People had choices to make and most white people, North and South, chose the concept of racial hatred and superiority.
After George Washington was elected president of the United States, he frequently corresponded with his best friend, Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette would constantly request that President Washington emancipate those held in forced servitude. President Washington would reply, “If we were to set them free, who would we get to do the work?”
He should have listened to the Funkadelics — “Free Your Mind and Your … Will Follow!” That would have done him a whole lot of good.
BERNARD A. GORDON
Glen Allen
