How many of our founding fathers owned slaves?

Question

How many of them were friends with people who owned slaves? Were any of them really against slavery? Give me any information you have about the correlation between our founding fathers and slavery.

Answer 1

here's some more info for you:

excerpt see full article on link below)
The Founding Fathers and Slavery

by David Barton

...While Jefferson himself had introduced a bill designed to end slavery, 6 not all of the southern Founders were opposed to slavery. According to the testimony of Virginians James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Rutledge, it was the Founders from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia who most strongly favored slavery. 7
Yet, despite the support for slavery in those States, the clear majority of the Founders opposed this evil. For instance, when some of the southern pro-slavery advocates invoked the Bible in support of slavery, Elias Boudinot, President of the Continental Congress, responded:


http://www.wallbuilders.com/resources/search/detail.php?ResourceID=10

Answer 2

I do not know a percentage, but many of them did own slaves (Thomas Jefferson, James Madison) and some where outspoken against slavery (Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush) and thought that while we were establishing a new, "free" country, we should do away with slavery at the same time.

You have to understand that the 1700s were a different time. Slavery had been around for millennia and was an accepted part of life in the world. America was one of the first places where human rights emerged as a true motivator of political action. "Societies" were formed in the 1700s and 1800s in England and the US to try to right all kinds of social ills. But the process of recognizing this change was slow.

I would not be too hard on the founding fathers who did own slaves because their thinking and their influence have been a major motivating factor in how human rights have progressed in the past 230 years.

I found one site that appears to have a fairly balanced approach to the topic.

Answer 3

Most of them...that's just the way things were back then. One fact that people get hung up on is Lincoln's "freeing" the slaves. The only reason he freed the slaves in the middle of the war was so England and France wouldnt get involved. Both countries were going to support the South because they wanted to establish commerce and such,. However, both countries refused to aid in a war that involved a battle of slavery.

Answer 4

Many of our founding fathers owned slaves. It was a commonly accepted practice at that time. Fortunately we have moved past that terrible practice of theirs while maintaining their other good traditions and beliefs.
Unfortunately slavery still exists in many parts of the world and is an acceptable practice according to the koran which 1 billion people follow in their religion.
There is still a lot of work to do before the world is free from slavery.

Answer 5

Whats up with this question that is story is so old, and it means nothing in today's world in America. We are past that and yet let me inform you that Black people were not the only ones that were slaves. All women were and children as well! So it is nothing to hold on to for the condemning of our society or an excuse for anything else either. look it up www.history.com and then get over it. We are at war with a people that enslave their own in All the Arab countries, and Africa, and the African sold their own people to the Arabs and then sold them to the Hispanics and the hispanics sold them to America. Get it? And now they are here and full blooded Americans and thank God or they would still be being sold by their own and murdered! So God works in strange ways and embrace it from the positive side.

Answer 6

John Adams- "No. JA’s cousin Samuel Adams curiously gained a slave named Surry as a present in 1765. some supplies say she remained a slave; others say Samuel freed her at the instant. after all she stayed on as Samuel's family members prepare dinner for quite a few an prolonged time - even after slavery became outlawed in Massachusetts by using a bill Samuel presented. " A quote from Adams- "I shudder while i think of of the calamities which slavery is probable to offer in this usa. you're able to think of me mad if I have been to describe my anticipations. If the gangrene isn't stopped i can be certain no longer something yet revolt of the blacks against the whites.”

Answer 7

Many of them did, notably Thomas Jefferson who not only owned them but also impregnated at least one of them. However, if you were to read his writings and his letters paradoxically he did not believe in it. Yet the economy at the time more or less dictated the use of slave labor as it was pretty much based on it much like the economy of the industrial period was based on machines. The role that Blacks played in the development of the USA, even as slaves cannot be overstated as they were actually the driving force of the economy at the time.

Answer 8

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both owned slaves. John Adams did not.

Answer 9

A number of them owned slaves, but a few of the "slaves" were paid wages just like a nanny would be today.

Answer 10

Slavery was perfectly legal at the time, so probably a good number of them did.