In class learning

Enich's Amcon Thoughts: Slave Justification:

I'm sure that every now and then students do learn something in the midst of class.  In fact I have treasured memories of times I've watched the proverbial light-bulb click on as I have watched.  It is an awesome sight.  (I use the term in its original sense: that is, inspiring awe.)   Moreover, this is a joy rare enough that I'm always grateful for it.  So too, I'm grateful to Enich for this post to his blog which includes the news that he made a discovery in class.  Thank you, Enich.

I'm also gratified that our efforts to think about slavery produced this specific learning: that American slavery did not appear full blown one afternoon in 1619 or even in the mid-1700s or the early 1800s.  My hunch is that most Americans, regardless of our personal biological relationships to either slaves or slave owners, find our national history of slavery and its continued aftermath shameful, painful, and frightening enough that merely acknowledging the existence of slavery in "the land of the free" is hard enough.  The topic sets us quivering with emotion and politics. To also take a careful, honest look at the large decisions and small compromises made by individuals, legislators, and institutions along the way to racialized, hereditary, life-time slavery is harder still.

Nonetheless, doing so is important not only for what we learn about the past, but also for what we learn about ourselves and our own potential for dramatic and banal evil.  We need to be reminded of our ""perilous liberty."  That is, our liberty is both"full of danger" and "exposed to imminent risk of disaster."  The term is Jefferson's.  Who better to serve as a warning to us about dangers of not paying attention to our scruples and about the importance of giving freedom a firm foundation in equality and justice.

see also post on The Grace of Silence

Definition of perilous from dictionary.com