this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
1251 points (98.8% liked)

Political Memes

5204 readers
2731 users here now

Welcome to politcal memes!

These are our rules:

Be civilJokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.

No misinformationDon’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.

Posts should be memesRandom pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.

No bots, spam or self-promotionFollow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Shit was so bigoted back then they said that unironically and everyone immediately understood it only applied to rich white men who owned land.

The entire reason the revolution happened was England finally cracked down on smugglers and the French kept saying"you won't do it pussy".

Which apparently has worked on Americans longernthan America has been a thing...

[–] Deceptichum 10 points 3 months ago

And you know the crown denying those rich land owners the opportunity to keep pressing west into indigenous lands. Which was imo the biggest factor in the revolution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Shit was so bigoted back then they said that unironically and everyone immediately understood it only applied to rich white men who owned land.

Its not quite that simple. You had a lot of discourse on and around the concept of liberty, particularly in the major urban centers and universities. But like a great deal of revolutionary sentiment, the theory of liberty was precluded by the reality of economic incentives.

The Continental Army was funded by the Virginia plantation class largely thanks to their response to the Dunmore Proclamation. Northern territories more predisposed to emancipation were crippled by the merchantalist system of England and could not assert themselves financially or militarily until some 80 years after the American Revolution. Southern territories, which had rapidly depleted their agricultural soils thanks to aggressive tobacco harvesting and poor crop rotation strategies, were cash rich but labor poor.

So you had a marriage of convenience between plantation states and industry states for the purpose of kicking out British colonial military. But it wasn't as simple as saying "Everyone quietly agreed on slavery". The abolitionist movement existed during the colonial era, it simply didn't exist in the states with the economic and military supremacy... yet.