Letter to an Atheist by Michael Patrick Leahy

False Statement # 19

Anyone who spoke with confidence about eradicating slavery in the United States in the year 1775 surely appeared to be wasting his time, and wasting it dangerously. (Page 87) The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was formed in Philadelphia in 1775, mainly by Quakers. Five years later, the state of Pennsylvania abolished slavery. Granted, there were 500,000 slaves in the United States in 1775, and only 4,000 were in Pennsylvania. And the view from 1775 of the possibility of abolition throughout the United States would have been much more optimistic than it would have been in 1845, for instance. 1775, after all, was prior to the invention of the cotton gin, which was one of the technological advances that helped increase the demand for labor in the cotton fields. It was also the era in which most Southerners considered slavery as a “necessary evil” that would eventually end, not as a “positive good” that should last forever. That latter view would not surface until 1835.

To comment, please go to the LETTER TO AN ATHEIST BLOG. Comments are welcome.

If you wish to contact us: email@michaelpatrickleahy.com